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Greater Works Than These Shall Ye Do
Some say miracles have ceased. They need to wake up.
Jesus' foreknowledge and perception of the last days Church was very revealing.
I believe that it certainly specifies something more spectacular than the relatively small scale, regional impact He made in little more than three years in the region of Galilee. He turned water into wine. Will we be able to duplicate that? More than that - if we believe His words. I can remember the testimonies of at least two of our pioneer preachers from the first half of the 20th century testifying that the Lord turned water into gasoline, so they could get their automobiles to their next preaching point! Jesus miraculously retrieved gold coins from a fish's mouth. Can we do greater than that? If we believe! Many years ago, when my wife and I were young and traveling in the ministry, we faced a time of financial need. We were down to our last dime. My wife prayed and asked God for enough money to go to the grocery story for some much-needed groceries. Only a few minutes later, our nine year old boy came rushing into the house with several dollars he had just found lying in the grass in an open field! She had her groceries! The Early Church healed the sick, the blind, the deaf, the crippled. Will this modern Church do any greater than that? In a Church we formerly pastored, a member of our congregation went to pray for a bedfast relative who was in the final stages of cancer. The relative had been Spirit-baptized, but had never been water-baptized. At her request, the saint lifted her out of bed, and baptized her in a bathtub, in Jesus' name. A week later, a startled doctor examined her and informed her that the cancer had gone into complete remission, and she lived many more years. In one act of obedient faith, her sins and her disease were washed away! Which of Jesus' miracles will we fail to see? Blind eyes open? A ten-year-old girl visiting our Church was legally blind. She was managing an acute case of glaucoma (pressure in the eyeballs) with medication. Severe astigmatism caused her eyes to twitch constantly, and vision in her best eye was 20/80. She and her family had never been to a Pentecostal Church. The first time they visited, her aunt asked us to pray for her eyes. As she and her mother walked down the aisle to have the minister pray for her, one of the saints ministered in the gift of tongues. Another interpreted, by the gift of the interpretation of tongues. The Spirit of the Lord said," I am
Jehovah Rapha of the Old Testament - the Lord that Healeth. I am Jesus Christ of the New (Testament). I took thirty-nine stripes for your
healing, and tonight I will heal you." Instantly, the girl cried out, "I can see!"
But Jesus healed the lepers! Can such a miracle happen today? A young couple came visiting our Church. Their infant son was covered with a skin abnormality that appeared as festered splotches from head to toe. It looked like a severe case of chicken pox. The condition had persisted for months. Doctors in three hospitals had run extensive tests without identifying the cause. No treatment was helping.
On another occasion, I was called to the bedside of a woman who had suffered for three months with an acute case of shingles. From her waist to her feet, she was covered with scabs, and was suffering excruciating pain. Two of her sisters waited on her day and night as she suffered from those shingles. When I began to pray, the Holy Spirit came over me and I began to pray in unknown tongues. For several minutes, I could do nothing else but pray in the Spirit. When I finished, I briefly greeted the family members, then left. Very early the next morning, my telephone rang. It was one of the sisters. She was ecstatic! She said, "We have been up all night long watching these scabs fall off my sister's legs. She is completely healed of these shingles!" I was delighted! Are these greater works than what the ancient Church did? You'd better believe it! All around the world, the true Church is experiencing mighty manifestations of the power of Jesus Christ in greater numbers and with greater frequency than in ancient days. Their demons kept men from leading "normal" lives.
In Luke 10, the seventy disciples returned to Jesus with joy, saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." And He said unto them, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." Since Satan's fall, he has oppressed and taken men captive at his will (see 2 Timothy 2:26). Satan is a hostage-taker and a kidnapper. He only comes to steal, kill and destroy.
A lady member of our Church congregation had experienced mental anguish for years, due to recurrent frightening nightmares, and unexplained night terrors which would frequently awaken all of her children simultaneously. The entire family testified of hearing footsteps on the floor and voices from nowhere. When I inquired about her background, I learned that in her childhood, and prior to her conversion, several members of her family had consulted various kinds of spiritualists and soothsayers. The entire family had a history of dealing with familiar spirits. I began to speak to the unclean spirits, rebuking them in Jesus' name, and commanding them to leave this family and their home. Directly, the night terrors and torments ceased. The oppressing spirits were driven out. This lady's entire countenance and state of mind improved profoundly. Fasting and prayer brings victory. I was witness to a miracle that took place in a Sunday night service not long ago. A gentleman from out-of-town was visiting while en route to Houston, Texas for medical tests for his eyes. For an entire year, a debilitating eye infection had reduced his vision to 20/200 - almost completely blind. His wife had to drive, because he could no longer see to drive. The doctors had tried various treatments with no success.
In Churches far and wide, the Holy Ghost is doing miracles as men and women fast, and pray, and believe God to do greater works. As in no other religion on earth, Christian believers' reports abound of cripples walking away from wheelchairs, deaf ears unstopping, diseases disappearing, and miraculous occurrences of all kinds and categories. Whether it is a simple prayer for God to revive a group of young people, or for God to put conviction on a backslider, or to heal a friend's sickness, God still responds to the Church in signs and wonders and miracles as much today as He ever did. And more! Greater works! This is not only for a handful of specially gifted ministers. The power of God is the same for the pastor of a tiny home missions work as He is for the nationally recognized evangelist, or the seasoned foreign missionary. Even the least significant person in our midst can witness the miraculous power of God by simply believing. You can have a miracle today! Believe God!
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