SIGNS AND WONDERS

SIGNS AND WONDERS

“These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name,    and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”  Mark 16:17-18 (NLT)

Not all churches agree that ‘signs and wonders’ exist in the church today.  Many believe they were only in use with the disciples and after they were gone nothing happened again.  However, nowhere in the Bible does it say it will end.  In fact we can read in many places where miracles took place and if everyone wrote down their healings, their deliverance and other spiritual things that have happened, there wouldn’t be enough books to hold it all.

The same people who deny signs and wonders, but believe with all their heart the first part of Jesus words.  Verse 15 says, “And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.  Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.”  All of these words are part of Jesus’ Great Commission and every ‘born again’ Christian believes that.

I have personally seen people who have had demons, or spirits, controlling their lives and when they have been prayed for, their entire life changed.  I also know the controversy over whether people can speak in other languages.  I also believe that Jesus said that for a reason and He knew it would be a choice for Christians to either want to or not.  The Holy Spirit works in many ways that you might not understand or agree with.

Others have trouble with the, “handling snakes with safety”. Right away some began to think about those people who have churches that handle snakes to prove their faith.  That is testing God too far and some of those people have died from snake bites.  What it really means is that if you accidentally get bitten by a poisonous snake, God can heal you.  Look at Acts 28:3-5 when Paul was shipwrecked and was on the island of Melita, he was bitten by a snake and suffered no effects from its deadly poison. 

If you are traveling in other countries and become ill from food or drink, God can and will raise you up.  Then the last of this verse tells us we can lay hands on people and pray that they will be healed.  Many are healed today, but some are not.  Perhaps they don’t have enough faith and yet there are those who have no faith and God heals them. Healing only comes from God and no person can heal another in the spiritual realm.

God will use certain people to administer the gift of healing. “Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, and those who speak in unknown languages.” 1 Corinthians 12:28 (NLT)  Our pastor has the ‘gift of healing’; God uses him many times, but it is God who does the healing and our pastor will tell you this himself.

When people get into big discussions or arguments about signs and wonders, or talking in tongues (other languages), they get side tracked from the real goal of the Great Commission.  The Gospel is to be spread for one reason only; to get others to become believers and be saved by asking Jesus into their hearts.  This should be the goal for every preacher, evangelist, missionaries, and every Believer.  If other gifts are used to help people believe, then ‘Praise the Lord’. 

Whatever it takes to save the lost – do it.  In Jude 1:23 the Bible goes so far as to say, “Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.”  Some may be on their death bed, but they can still accept Jesus as their Savior. 

Remember when Jesus hung on the cross, a thief hung on either side of him and one of them asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom.   And Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”  This man was saved at the last minute.  Jesus used this to show the importance of several things here:  1) The man was lost, 2) Jesus saved him, and 3) he could only enter the kingdom of God with Jesus, if he repented. 

Jesus died on that cross to save the whole world if the world received him as King of King and Lord of Lords!  It is up to us as Christians to continue the work that the Savior commanded us to do in Mark 16:15-16, “And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.”  Jesus said it and I believe it; if this part is true, the rest of this scripture must also be true.  If it takes signs and wonders to accomplish this, so be it.