New Testament Faith Part Two
When Jesus walked this earth He performed many signs, wonders, healings, and deliverances to prove His identity; it was necessary to give evidence to people that He was truly God. The disciples were used to that, it was His MO, yet were rebuked for not believing in His resurrection until they saw it. You have to wonder about God; is He inconsistent or unpredictable? How are we to know when to see and believe and when to believe without seeing?
Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord. Acts 5:12a, 14a
See what I mean? We’re back to seeing and believing: so which is it?
Philip entered the scene in Acts 8:4-8 preaching, proclaiming, and performing healings and deliverances; know what happened? The crowds paid attention and there was much joy in the city! See and believing.
Even Simon the sorcerer turned from his magic when he saw the signs, heard the gospel of the Kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ declared (vs. 13); he believed and was baptized.
As a new believer Saul (Paul) increased in strength or empowerment from God and proved that Jesus was the Messiah (Acts 9:22). That proof built up the church, they walked in the fear of the Lord, and comfort of the Spirit and it multiplied (vs. 31)! Yet it was Paul who commanded us to ‘walk by faith and NOT by sight’! See my dilemma?
Peter healed Aeneas from complete paralysis and rose Tabitha from the dead (9:34-41); guess what happened. Many believed in the Lord.
This seems to be an issue of spiritual maturity. Supernatural signs from God get people’s attention, prove His power and authority, but they’re lower stories. New Testament faith isn’t grounded in signs but in divine persuasion and certainty (upper story) that God is real even when you don’t see Him. When we grow up into Him in every way (Eph. 4:15) not being like children (Heb. 5:11-15) but grow in grace, knowledge, and understanding (Col. 1:9-10; 2 Peter 3:16-18) we experience New Testament faith.
As we minister to people who are sick, oppressed, or need a miracle we rest in faith to believe without seeing and just obey. What if God doesn’t heal or come through with the miracle? It’s not up to us to prove God’s power: it’s His. We obey and trust in His ability to minister to people through us at His discretion.
Signs and wonders are gifts of the Spirit that are needed today in all forms, even those we don’t understand or haven’t experienced.
A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.
1 Corinthians 12:7, 11 NLT
Comments are closed.