Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 148 - Miracles and Jesus Christ Received this from a friend? Why not join Eternity Daily Bible Study? Go to https://www.aibi.ph/articles/eternity.htm to subscribe. When we think of miracles the first person that comes to mind is of course, Jesus. Jesus is God incarnate, God in human flesh, and we generally attribute these miracles to his divinity. However Jesus was God incarnate from the moment of conception, but did no recorded miracles until His baptism by John the Baptist. Even for Jesus it was the Holy Spirit coming upon Him in power that unleashed the miraculous. (For more on the baptism of Jesus go to: http://www.aibi.ph/articles/baptj.htm ) Throughout Scripture there is a distinction between the Spirit "in" a person which produces the inward qualities such as wisdom, faith and godliness (Genesis 41:38, Exodus 31:1-5, Acts 6:3, Galatians 5:22-24) and the Spirit "upon" a person for prophecy and for mighty works of power. (Numbers 11:25-30, Judges 3:10, 6:34, 1 Samuel 10:6, Luke 3:22, 4:18 Acts 1:8). Jesus was full of wisdom and perfect in character from birth (Luke 2:40, Hebrews 4:15) but this sinlessness and wisdom worked no miracles. His miracle-working power only came with the Holy Spirit coming upon Him to carry out His ministry. (Luke 3:22, 4:18) This disconnection between personal perfection and ability to do miracles is enunciated by Peter after the healing of the lame man: (Acts 3:12 NKJV) So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?" Thus wisdom, personal power or personal piety have nothing to do with whether or not we can work miracles. Many wise people perform no miracles, many pious people such as John the Baptist perform no miracles, many powerful strong, wealthy people perform no miracles while the poor, the ignorant and not very pious (such as those hillbilly Galatians and the rowdy immoral Corinthians) seem to get an unfair share of God's power. The Holy Spirit even came upon very imperfect people such as Samson (Judges 15:14) enabling him to do mighty works and carry out the purposes of God. Thus the working of miracles is not accomplished (even for Jesus) by personal power and piety or as a result of some superior wisdom, but solely through the Holy Spirit coming upon a person in order to accomplish the purposes of God. In the New Testament we find the additional dynamic of the "name of Jesus" being the realm of delegated authority in which Christians empowered by the Holy Spirit can act to do the works of God, Importantly for us is Acts 1:8: (Acts 1:8 NKJV) "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." The Holy Spirit coming "upon" Christians is to endue them with power. This power is the power to "be" something. First and foremost it is experienced as courage. The ability to be a Christian in a non-Christian world, the ability to be different, the ability to be bold before the Sanhedrin and not run away as before. Witnessing is easy, being a witness is tough and makes you a target. Secondly being a witness means that the miraculous will flow from your life as Christ upon you meets the needs around you. As an empowered Peter and John meet a lame man the witness to Christ comes as the need is met and the lame man is healed. Thirdly we are never to limit our witness in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not to draw parish boundaries around how much God can do through us. The clear commands are "go into all the world" , "to all creation" , "make disciples of all nations" "to the ends of the earth" etc. What if the apostles had said "Small is beautiful I'll just be humble and witness to three people in my home town". They would have been disobedient! And the same goes for us! God has not given us Holy Spirit power to sit around and fiddle about here and there. We are to think big always. As William Carey said "Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God". While reading this you may have begun to think something like "I don't see much of this Holy Spirt power today and certainly not in my own life". Well it is around, but its often in 'unlikely quarters". Its where humble ordinary people have surrendered themselves to God's purposes and asked for His anointing. It vanishes as soon as people think they can draw it down from heaven through personal power, piety, good works, or superior wisdom. As Paul writes: (Galatians 3:2-5 NKJV) This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? {3} Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? .... {5} Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?; The pre-requisite for Jesus receiving power was humble identification with sinners in baptism. Peter's brokenness and Paul's blindness came before power came upon them. People who see themselves as "holy, holy" and superior will frequently lack true power. The Holy Spirit is firstly a Spirit of grace and supplication. To receive true Holy Spirit power in ministry consecrate yourself to the purposes of God, identify with Christ, with sinners and the gospel and ask for the power from on high to attempt great things for God by faith. Remember God is eager to empower you: (2 Chronicles 16:9 NKJV) "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him." Blessings in Him, John Edmiston Asian Internet Bible Institute http://www.aibi.ph/ Free Online Bible And Ministry Training Try our free ebooks on prayer: http://www.aibi.ph/ebooks/ Visit the Eternity home page at: http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ This devotional may be freely forwarded to others and used for non-profit ministry purposes as long as the following copyright notice is included. © Copyright John Edmiston 2003