CE 1 YEAR: 40 Miraculous Gifts I: Prophesying & Miracles

Week 40

Miraculous Gifts I

Clarifying a complex, confusing, and controversial topic

The first Christians experienced the Apostles performing miraculous signs and wonders (Acts 2:43). These included healing people even of death (Acts 3:6-10; 5:12, 15-16; 9:36-41; 14:8-10; 19:11-12; 20:9-12). Later in the Corinthian church, Paul listed some of these miraculous gifts including: 1) prophecy; 2) knowledge and wisdom; 3) miracle faith; 4) healing; 5) miracle working; and 6) speaking in tongues (1 Cor 12:8-10).

We have discussed several practices of the first Christians that we are to imitate today. Are the miraculous gifts among them? Answering this requires a careful Bible interpretation. Therefore, this and the next chapter will be the longest and most complex in the Essentials. Paul wrote a lot on this topic to the Corinthians because he did not want them to be ignorant about it pure devotion to Christ to be corrupted (1 Cor 12:3). We hope these chapters help you in the same way.

Many Christians around the world are claiming there has been a miraculous outpouring of the Holy Spirit that has bypassed the rest of us. Is this true? Have millions of Christians missed a wonderful work of God because of their ignorance, unbelief, or sin? Or have millions of Christians been deceived about their experiences and perhaps supported a great fraud in the Church?

Where should we begin? First, we must be careful to claim that everything that happened in the Acts of the Apostles is supposed to be happening today. The Acts of the Apostles is just that, a record of the abilities of a very special group of men at a very special time. It describes the unique power by which the Church came into existence.

Therefore, there are several unique experiences in Acts. We do not normally cast lots to choose leaders (Acts 1:26). Has the Spirit ever again caused the sound of a rushing wind loud enough to draw thousands of people (2:2-6)? We do not worship today in Jewish temples (2:46; 3:1), or share all of our possessions (2:44; 4:32-35). Most Christians agree that Apostles of Jesus Christ no longer exist today. Therefore, there are some experiences in the Acts of the Apostles that have no place in Christianity today.

However, God is still doing amazing miracles today! He is healing people. And sometimes He is healing people to facilitate the even greater miracle of saving people. Christians being born again and made a new creation is the greatest miracle happening on Earth today (John 3:5-8; 2 Cor 5:17; Tit 3:5).

It is suggested that the converting work of the Gospel was the “greater works” that Jesus promised we would do after He left (John 14:12; cf. John 16:7-11). What miracle could be done by anyone with faith in Jesus, that would be greater than giving life to dead people as Jesus did (Mark 5:42; Luke 7:15; John 11:44)? The answer: giving eternal life to spiritually dead people through the preaching of the Gospel. The power of the Gospel is working the greatest miracle of spiritual rebirth today (Rom 1:16)!

Finally, a great deal of caution and discernment must be exercised in evaluating claims to miraculous gifts. Unfortunately, a common and dangerous error in the Church is to assume that anything miraculous, comes from God. On the contrary, Scripture warns that there will be many fake Christians doing miraculous things by the power of the Devil in order to deceive God’s people. God repeatedly warns Christians there will be:

• False christs (2 Thess 2:9; Matt 24:5, 24; 1 John 2:18)
• False angels (2 Cor 11:14; Gal 1:8)
• False apostles (2 Cor 11:13; Rev 2:2)
• False prophets (Deut 13:1-3; 18:20-22; Jer 23:11-40; 29:8-9; Matt 7:15; 24:11, 24; 1 Thess 5:21; 2 Pet 2:1; 1 John 4:1)
• False teachers (Acts 20:29-31; Rom 16:17-18; Gal 1:6-8; Eph 4:14; Col 2:8, 18-19; 1 Tim 1:3; 6:3-4; 2 Tim 2:17-18; 3:13; Tit 1:9-11; 2 Pet 2:1-22; 2 John 1:7; Jude; Rev 2:14-15,20)
• Deceptive miracles and miracle workers (Deut 13:1-4; Matt 7:22; Acts 8:9-12; 2 Thess 2:9; Rev 13:12-14; 16:13-14)
• False visions (Deut 13:1-3; Jer 14:14; 23:16, 25-26)
• False spirits (1 Tim 4:1; 1 John 4:1, 6)

Do you still want to simply believe someone who claims they have a miraculous ability or revelation from God? It is hard to believe that there will be many false ministers in the Church. But that is what Scripture says.

In fact, Jesus specifically warned that “many” of those who perform miracles, prophesy, and cast out demons in His name, will be fake Christians who never knew Christ and are actually wicked people (Matt 7:21-23)! That word “many” should cause those claiming miraculous gifts today to shudder.

Jesus did not warn that many people in general will be false Christians. He warned us specifically of those who would claim to be working miracles, prophesying, and casting out demons. Jesus said “many” of those people will be fake Christians and doing evil. Notice He will not deny that their miracle working was real. He will deny that it came from God.

Jesus commanded us to watch out for these things. But many Christians today ignore these biblical warnings and suffer from being deceived. Why is this? Because it is natural for us to crave supernatural revelations and experiences. In our desire for them, we set aside discernment and disobey Jesus in the process.

In what follows we will briefly describe the biblical attributes of some of the miraculous gifts so that you can discern their true or fake versions today.

The gift of prophecy

There are two biblical attributes of a God-sent Prophet: 1) “Forthtelling” direct divine revelation to be believed and obeyed as the word of God Himself, and 2) “Foretelling” events in order to authenticate the divine revelation (Deut 18:18-22).

Unfortunately, many people claim the gift of prophecy, but do not claim divine authority or the ability to predict the future. They might just say something you can read in the Bible, but no new divine revelation that must be obeyed. They certainly cannot predict the future. Therefore, they do not have the biblical gift of prophecy.

Some claim that there is a difference between the OT Prophets who predicted the future, and the NT gift of prophecy. But the NT Christian Prophet Agabus accurately predicted the future twice to prove he had the gift of prophecy (Acts 11:27-29; 21:10-11, 27-33; 28:17). Why would the NT call it the gift of “prophecy” (which means predicting the future), if it did not include this ability?

According to Scripture, if someone wants to “prophesy” something that is not a quote from Scripture, and preface it with “the Holy Spirit says” like Agabus did (Acts 21:11), then they must prove such divine authority with the divine ability to predict the future.

The NT describes Christian Prophets with the ability to encourage and comfort Christians (1 Cor 14:3) and even expose people’s secrets (vs. 24-25). But this does not limit or change the fact that the gift of prophecy enabled people to speak for God and prove it with the unique power of God to predict the future.

Unfortunately, the Devil has invaded the Church by giving some people the ability to know a person’s past. This is the same ability that demonic “fortune tellers” have. It is supernatural, but it is not holy. It does not meet the biblical requirement of predicting the future (which only God can do), but is only revealing the past (which demons can do).

Those who falsely claim the gift of prophesy ignore the seriousness of what they are doing. First, they are habitually lying about their gift, which is a sin that exposes them as a false Christian (Rev 21:8). Secondly, they forget that God said anyone who presumes to speak in His name, something He has not commanded them to say, must be put to death (Deut 18:20). No one is advocating this today, but it illustrates what God thinks of people who falsely claim the gift of prophecy.

The gift of divine knowledge and wisdom

In Paul’s list of miraculous gifts, he describes the ability to provide a message of wisdom or knowledge through the Spirit (1 Cor 12:8). These gifts are widely misunderstood. Some think they are not miraculous at all and refer to being intelligent or skilled in counseling or studying. But they are in a list of miraculous gifts and the messages they produce are from the Spirit. This is different from the gift of Teachers, for example, who get their messages from Scripture.

Some of those who believe the gifts of wisdom and knowledge are supernatural, understand them to be the ability to receive direct revelation from God. This would result in a message through the Spirit that would give more specific direction from God than Scripture provides. The problem with this view will be made clear in this chapter. God always authenticates messengers of divine revelation with divine powers. Those claiming divine revelation through the gifts of knowledge and wisdom today, do not seem to have miracle working powers to prove it.

We suggest the gifts of divine knowledge and wisdom were what made an Apostle of Christ a messenger of new divine revelation. The gift of prophecy made you a Prophet. The gifts of divine wisdom and knowledge made you an Apostle.

This is why Paul defended his apostleship by saying “I do have knowledge” (2 Cor 11:5-6). He was clearly speaking of supernatural knowledge which he describes elsewhere (1 Cor 2:6-16; 14:6; Eph 3:2-10). The early Church believed these gifts gave the Apostles the ability to write Scripture (2 Pet 3:15-16).

The gift of miracle faith

In the list of miraculous gifts, Paul mentions “faith” (1 Cor 12:9). This is not saving faith. It is the faith to receive or perform a miracle through the gifts of healing and miracle working mentioned in the same verse.

Christ referred to miracle working faith when He said: “I tell you the truth, if you have [miracle] faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matt 17:20; cf. 1 Cor 13:2). This is not an empty or exaggerated promise. With a very small amount of miracle faith, a human could command anything. A biblical attribute of miracle faith is that it believes and commands miraculous things with absolute certainty it will happen (Matt 21:21). This same miracle faith applies to miraculous prayers that are granted (Matt 21:22; James 5:15).

Obviously, this kind of faith is as miraculous and God-given as the miracle itself. It is not a type of faith that can be produced by humans through positive thinking or any other human exercise. It must be graciously and supernaturally given by God.

This is demonstrated in the example of miracle faith recorded in Acts 3:1-7. Notice this man was expecting “money,” not a healing. Therefore, the miracle faith to heal in this instance resided in Peter the healer, not the cripple. This fact exposes a common and hurtful error in “faith healing” ministries today. Normally, if a healing does not occur, it is the victim’s lack of faith that is blamed, instead of the so called “healers” lack of faith. In Acts 3, the healed had no faith because he wasn’t even expecting to be healed!

Later, Peter clearly explains the source of his miracle faith. It came through Jesus (Acts 3:16). How then does God grant a person miracle faith? Through a direct, divine revelation that He desires to perform a certain miracle at a certain time.

We see an example of this in the ability of Moses to open the Red Sea as he “stretched out his hand” (Exod 14:21). How did Moses know the miracle would happen when he did this? God had told him earlier it would (v. 16).

Likewise, we see the same pattern with Ananias. “The Lord called to him in a vision” (Acts 9:10), telling him to heal Paul of his blindness. Therefore, Ananias told Paul he would be healed (vs. 17-18). We know that God does miracles. But miracle faith possesses a revelation from God that He will do a particular miracle at a particular time.

Not only does miracle faith enable one to work miracles, but to receive them as well (Matt 9:28-29; Matt 15:28; Acts 14:9). But again, miracle faith from the recipient of a miracle is not necessary for someone with the gift of healing to perform a miracle. This is certainly illustrated in Christ raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:43-4). How much faith did Lazarus have? None. And yet the miracle occurred because of Jesus’ faith.

In fact, in most cases where the Scriptures record someone being healed, there is no mention of the faith of the recipient. More often, the faith of the miracle worker is evident. Again, it is wrong for modern “faith healers” to claim their ministries fail because others do not have enough faith. On the contrary, it is because the so called “healer” lacks faith.

One verse that is cited in favor of placing blame on the victims of modern “faith healing” is the description of Christ’s return to His hometown. We read: “He could not do any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was amazed at their lack of faith” (Mark 6:5-6; cf. Matt 13:58).

First, notice that all of those whom He did “lay His hands on” were healed. Jesus did not attempt to heal someone as modern “faith healers” will, and they were not healed. All those who came for healing were healed because Jesus had the gift of healing.

Secondly, it was not the people’s lack of faith in Jesus’ miraculous abilities that was the problem. They knew He had “miraculous powers” (Matt 13:54). Their lack of faith was much more serious. They did not believe Jesus was the Son of God and had tried to throw Him off a cliff (Luke 4:16-30). That is not the kind of unbelief that a desperate, willing child of God may come to a “faith healer” with. For all of these reasons, the people of Nazareth cannot be used as an example of why supposed “miracle workers” today are not more effective.

Many suggest that if we were more spiritual, we would be constantly experiencing more miracles. However, miracle faith is a gift, sovereignly given by the Spirit, and not for everyone (1 Cor 12:9). Because miracle faith involves miraculous revelations, gifts, and events, it is by nature also extremely rare. This may be demonstrated by the fact that no one has moved a mountain as Christ promised we could if someone had even a very little of this faith.

The gifts of healing and miracle working

Following the gift of miracle faith, Paul lists “gifts of healing and miraculous powers” (1 Cor 12:9-10). Those with such gifts commanded miracles without fail.

Unfortunately, many claim that the biblical gifts of healing and miracle working occur through effective prayer. The error of this is exposed by the fact that every recorded healing of Jesus and the Apostles was by command or touch, not merely prayer (Acts 3:6; cf. Matt chapters 8-9; Acts 3:6; 5:3-11; 8:6; 9:33-34, 40; 13:10-11). There are no exceptions.

Praying effectively in some cases for a healing or miracle is what all Christians can do. But those with the biblical gifts of healing and miracle working command miracles without fail. The reason they did was they possessed the miracle faith described above.

Therefore, God is still doing miraculous healings in response to prayer as He did for Hezekiah (Isa 38:1-5). But only those with the gift of healing and miracle working can command a dead person to “get up” and live like Peter did (Acts 9:40).

It is unbiblical and misleading to claim that effectively, but periodically, praying for the healing of someone is the spiritual gift of healing. Of course, God has answered some of our prayers to heal someone. But this is not the gift of healing. Let someone today command healing after healing without fail and then they can claim the biblical gift of healing.

We have no record in Scripture of a person with these gifts who attempted a miracle that failed. Those with gifts of healing in Scripture healed perfectly, completely, instantly, and powerfully on command 100% of the time (Matt 12:15; Luke 6:6, 10, 17-19; Acts 3:16; 5:15-16; 10:38; 28:7-9). None of those claiming such gifts today can.

The lack of real power in modern “miracle” ministries is exposed by the conspicuous absence of miracles over nature (Matt 14:25-32; 17:27; 21:19). Perhaps this is best explained by the fact that “healings” of humans are much easier to fake, or produce through natural means such as the power of suggestion.

There is one more attribute of the biblical gift of healing and miracle working that modern claims ignore. Every God-sent miracle worker in the Bible was also a source of direct divine revelation from God. There are no exceptions. In Scripture, a divine “healing” ministry was always accompanied by a divine “revealing” ministry (Exod 4:5; John 2:11, 18, 23, 4:48, 54; 5:20-27, 30-47; 9:30-33; 10:25; 11:41-45; 14:10-11, 37-38; 15:24; 17:2-4, 21; 20:30-31; Acts 2:22, 8:4-8; 14:3; 15:12; 19:10-12; 2 Cor 12:11-12; Rom 15:18-19; Heb 2:3-4).

God has ordained that God-like deeds are the required proof of anyone claiming divine revelation. Which is why claims to gifts of healing and miracle-working are so serious. God intended the miracle-working of Prophets, Jesus, and Apostles to be the fundamental proof that their writings are the word of God. If others are claiming such gifts today, then what unique ability or authority do biblical writers have? None.

For example, the Apostle Paul defended his claim to speak revelation from God by pointing to his ability to perform “signs, wonders, and miracles” (2 Cor 12:12). If an abundance of people had gifts of healing in the early Church as many claim, then Paul’s defense was worthless. And if many really do have such gifts today, Paul’s claim to divine revelation is likewise worthless.

Those claiming to have the gift of healing will often admit they do not have the same gifts as the biblical Prophets, Jesus, and the Apostles. Then why do they claim any kind of healing gift from God at all?

Biblical miracle workers convinced their enemies of their divine power (Acts 4:5-7, 14, 16). Modern “miracle” workers cannot even convince many Christians. Such ministries claim that the rest of us need to be more “open-minded” and “believing.” But biblical miracle workers never did this. The reason so many godly people are suspicious of the claims of modern faith “healers” is not because we have a natural aversion to miracles. In fact, we like miracles just as much as anyone. But their “healings” are often through the faithful prayers of others, or do not heal instantly, completely, and convincingly like those who possessed these gifts in the Bible.

The Bible teaches that modern so-called “miracle workers” and “healers” must admit to one of the following: 1) They are a source of new divine revelation that has the authority of Scripture, or 2) They really do not perform miracles at all, or 3) Their miracles are demonically empowered and they are among the false prophets, apostles, teachers, and miracle-workers that God repeatedly warned would be operating in the Church.

Practical application: Perhaps this chapter reflects your own view of miraculous gifts. If so, you might be concerned about friends who believe differently. It is tempting to try to change their mind, but we would caution you about doing so.

It would probably be fine to offer them this chapter of the Essentials and get their response to it. But understand that beliefs surrounding the miraculous gifts can sometimes be related to a person’s identity and their sense of acceptance by God and especially by others. And they have probably interpreted some of their experiences through their understanding of Scripture. So be very patient and gracious in any attempt to convince others of your beliefs in this area.

In your small group meeting this week, share praises and prayer requests and then discuss these questions:

1) Why is the topic of miraculous gifts complex, confusing, and controversial?

2) Why would it be wrong to claim that everything that happened in the Acts of the Apostles is supposed to be happening today?

3) Why must a great deal of caution and discernment be exercised in evaluating claims to miraculous gifts (Matt 7:21-23)?

4) What are two biblical attributes of the gift of prophecy that make it miraculous? What NT Christian Prophet demonstrated these?

5) Why is claiming the gift of prophecy such a serious thing to God?

6) How are the gifts of wisdom and knowledge described in this chapter? What biblical support was given? What do you think?

7) What is “miracle faith” and what are its attributes? Why would it be a relief to some to know that it is a gift that must be given by God, instead of something we are supposed to do?

8) Those claiming the gift of healing often blame the person who fails to be healed for their lack of faith. What is biblically wrong with this?

9) What are the biblical attributes of the gifts of healing and working miracles?

10) Why is it important to distinguish between direct miracles God does in response to prayer, and those performed by a human miracle worker?

11) How do claims to miracle working today undermine the authority of Scripture?

12) What was especially meaningful to you in this chapter? Why?