A miracle can be defined as a supernatural intervention by God in the ordinary course of nature. Miracles are described as ‘signs,’ ‘wonders’ and ‘works’ in Holy Scripture. Miracles are a manifestation of God’ supernatural power and perfect timing. The Old Testament is replete with miracles, yet God still does miracles today! Even today there are ministers who’ve raised people from the dead, and we should never discount God’s desire to perform the miraculous in our lives. Are you ready to join Carl as he awakens your desire for God’s miraculous power in your life?…
Here is a complete transcript of the podcast (below)…
Let’s continue our study of the nine spiritual gifts and today we will discuss the gift of the working of miracles. Let’s read our key passage once more… 1 Cor 12:7-
“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”
Friend, I want to reiterate today how important the gifts of the Holy Spirit are. They work through our lives as God wills them, however we must make ourselves available and have the courage to be utilized by the Lord in order for them to operate scripturally. Also, if we’re ignorant of the spiritual gifts then we’ll have no knowledge of their working, and inevitably their manifestation will become greatly restricted in our lives. Remember what the Apostle Paul said, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.” 1 Cor 12:1.Friend, we should not be ignorant of these wonderful gifts, or their administration, that’s why I’ve given you examples in the Bible of their specific operation and examples in my own life, where the Lord has used me in them too.
In another instance Paul said 1 Cor 12:31, “But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.” and again in (1 Cor 14:1), “Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts.” We are supposed to desire the spiritual gifts. Covet is a strong word friend. To covet something is to be passionate about it, to earnestly desire it, to be enthusiastic about them. Friend are you coveting the spiritual gifts? You should, it’s one of the very few places in scripture where we are told to covet! Usually covet is a bad word, but not in this case. Friend it’s obvious from what Paul said here that some gifts could be considered better than others, because Paul says so in 1 Cor 12:31, why else would he say, for us to covet the best gifts? As I stated before there are three kinds of gifts, the revelation gifts, the power gifts and the utterance or inspirational gifts. In each case some gifts are better than others within these three categories. For example in the case of the utterance gifts, prophecy is equivalent to tongues and interpretation so this would be a better gift because it has the same net impact of tongues and interpretation combined and you don’t need another person to manifest the gift. In the case of the revelation gifts, the word of wisdom reveals the future plans and purposes of God, so one could argue this is a better gift as the word of knowledge reveals the present or past plans of God’s will. To know a part of the future plans of God means we can make Godly decisions in accordance with His will for us. Regardless of which one we think is better, Paul claims there are better gifts and we should desire all of them, whether some are better or not. When we strongly desire something we become as tenacious as a bulldog and we’re not going to let it go until we have what we desire.
Friend as ministers, and as Pastor especially, we need to be a ‘jack of all trades’ in many ways because we have to preach the whole counsel of God, not just some parts of it. There are specialist ministers out there that just focus on Grace or faith or whatever the topic. But as a Pastor I won’t do that, because I’m trying to preach the whole counsel of God so my congregation is fed. But what I would say to you is, find out what you’re passionate about yourself and find your natural and spiritual gifts in this life. Natural gifts are an ability to paint or sculpt or play music or build or do math etc. Find out the natural gifts God has given you, and then in addition, covet the spiritual gifts that God will utilize them through you also. Down the years, I’ve noticed some offices of ministry move in types of different gifts. In the case of evangelists for example, they will operate through the gifts of healing and the working of miracles especially, but they may not operate much in the utterance or revelation gifts for example. This is how God wills it, not you. Very few ministers will operate in all of the gifts of the Spirit in his lifetime on a regular basis but it is possible to move in all the gifts over one’s entire lifetime. Yet it’s more common for God to use you more in one or two spiritual gifts especially. Remember what I said previously about Jesus having the Spirit of God without measure, but we as the Body of Christ share that same spirit as the Body of Christ in totality. Of all the people I’ve personally witnessed down the years, I would say Pastor John Osteen and Brother Kenneth E. Hagin operated in all the gifts of the Spirit but that’s just my personal opinion and I know there are many other wonderful ministers who’ve done so as well.
Now let’s define the working of miracles as a gift. A miracle can be defined as a supernatural intervention by God in the ordinary course of nature. Now to some, the birth of a new baby and or a sunset over the Rocky Mountains, is a miracle, but these are natural miracles set in motion by God’s word and part of His creative order. In society, we also use the word miracle as a figure of speech because we call some things ‘miracle whip’ or ‘miracle drugs’, ‘miracle fabric cleaner’ etc. But what I am talking about today my friend is a supernatural intervention in the ordinary course of nature. It cannot be explained by the scientific community. Some people would also contend that the miracle can be in God’s perfect timing. In other words, the miraculous can be evident in His timing of the perfect promise, and I certainly won’t argue with that. We should also note there are four words used in the Bible for miracles, each emphasizing a distinctive nature or type. The first word is “wonder.” When a miracle is called a wonder, it emphasizes what a miracle will do: it causes or awakens wonder in the observer. The second keyword for miracle is “power.” When the word “power” is used, it emphasizes that a miracle is done by divine power. Paul describes one of the manifestations of the presence of the Spirit in a believer as “workings of powers” or simply “powers”. In fact, Paul uses the word dunamis, in 1 Cor 12:9, when he describes the gift of the working of miracles because they do powerful things in the natural realm.
In other words, you could state it this way, the gift of the working of Power. Also, the word dynameis was used the most commonly used Greek word for miracles in the Bible and they were understood as demonstrations of God’s divine power. Remember, the gift of miracles is separate and distinct from the gifts of healing (1 Cor 12:9) as we discussed previously. The Apostle Paul in his writings, did not think that everyone would be given the ability to perform miracles (1 Cor 12:19) because it’s as the Spirit wills it, not as we will it. We’re not to tempt God to produce miracles on any occasion. The third word for a miracle is “work.” When the word “work” is used for a miracle, it emphasizes what a miracle accomplishes: i.e. it can have both a practical and beneficial work. The fourth term for a miracle is “sign.” When this word is used, it means the miracle is authenticating the message and the messenger as being from God. Although the Pharisees were looking for a sign, Jesus was the sign himself, and they missed their time of visitation.
Now I’ll say right out of the gate there are far more examples of this gift of the working of miracles in OT than the NT. In the OT, God seemingly moved more in the miraculous than He does today. I could spend days listing all the miracles that occurred in the OT, so I don’t need to say much more about that but would ask you to look them up for yourself, in your private devotional time. Now in some cases in the New Testament dispensation, the gift of the working of miracles is used to avoid danger as is the gift of faith. In the case of Jesus when his disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee, a storm raged and the disciples were very scared obviously, whilst Jesus was asleep. Anyway he was awoken and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace, be still,” and the wind ceased and there was great calm. You can read about this is in (Mk 4:38-39). Jesus rebuked the wind because it wasn’t from God; it was a storm that was opposing their crossing to the other side of the sea. Incidentally, not all storms in life are from the devil and not all storms are from God, there are natural weather patterns set in motion in the earth as part of God’s creation, but in this specific instance this storm was satanic in origin otherwise Jesus wouldn’t have rebuked it as He did.
A modern-day example of this is when a family I knew; was driving up Pikes Peak several decades ago now actually, in the early the early summer timeframe. There was mum and dad of course and two small children. The father lost control of the vehicle making a sharp turn and they were going off the side of the road down a cliff. If you’ve ever driven up Mt. Evans or Pike’s Peak, then friend, you know what I’m talking about. Anyways back to the story, just as the father was about to go off the side of the cliff, the youngest daughter cried out “JESUS!” and the car moved abruptly in a lateral direction, back onto the road. It was if an angel picked it up and shunted it back on the road. They didn’t see an angel but that’s what it felt like. This was the working of a miracle because when the child called on the named of the Lord, the family was saved and it defied the natural order of things because gravity was about to take effect and they were bound for the bottom of the mountain. It was active also in the sense that the child demonstrated her belief in the savior
Friend, I have heard many testimonies like this down the years and here is another. When I was at Bible school I befriended a man who was a long distance truck driver. Quite often his route would take him through the Rocky Mountains on I-70 toward Utah. Anyway my eyebrows were raised when he told me this story one afternoon. He was driving down a very steep hill with a full load and his brakes failed. He started to freak out understandably and considered going into the bailout lane but at that very moment, the Lord rose up in his Spirit and said in a still small voice, “Don’t do it, just keep driving in the slow lane”. Friend, it’s at times like this when you need to know the still small voice of the Holy Spirit! anyway, he continued down the road which was fortunately fairly straight and he felt the truck getting pushed back physically which he could not explain. He stopped just by a turn off near a garage and was able to call for help. In a twist to the story, several weeks later, he talked to a colleague at his company and came to find out that only few weeks prior, another driver had gone into the bailout lane as their brakes failed also. This man actually broke his back because of the forces put on his body as he hit the gravel at 80 mph! Friend, God has your back. If you have a testimony you’d like to share about God doing something miraculous in your life, I’d love to hear from you, shoot me an email.
Another obvious example of the gift of the working of miracles in operation is when Jesus turned the water into wine (Jn 2:7-11). This was an example of a supernatural intervention in the ordinary course of nature, a temporary suspension of the accustomed order, or an interruption in the system of nature as we know it, by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he worked a miracle and this was not the only example as he raised several people from the dead. In the case of Smith Wigglesworth that famous preacher from Lancashire, in England, it’s recorded that he raised at least 13 people from the dead during his ministry. Friend whether you believe it or not there are people being raised from the dead today. I heard of the testimony of Brother Andrew Wommack’s son being raised from the dead and that really blessed me. It occurred while he was praising and thanking God on the way to the hospital, yet God intervened miraculously. What an awesome God we serve friend!
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