Acts 1:8 says, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” Jesus spoke these words to the eleven disciples (Judas had already killed himself, and Matthias had not yet been chosen. Notice that the first thing Jesus said about the Holy Spirit is that He would give the disciples power. It is ridiculous for any of us to suppose that we can be God’s witnesses concerning Who Jesus is and what He did, unless we have the power of the Holy Spirit working within us. It might be worth noting that the power of the Spirit of God was being given to the eleven disciples that they could be witnesses to Who Jesus is. Even though the Spirit of God did miracles through the apostles and others in the early church, the primary purpose of the Spirit’s presence in all believers is that we should be witnesses concerning Jesus as the Savior of all who will believe. I never cease to be amazed at the people who seem to have the idea that if the Spirit of God is upon a believer that that person should be able to do whatever the disciples did. If one will pay close attention to the Bible, he will find that the miracles that the apostles did became less and less as time went on, because they were not sent primarily to do miracles, but to preach salvation through Christ. I know that God can do any miracle at any time He pleases, but it seems that He chose to do more miracles through the disciples and during His earthly ministry. Even the apostle Paul did not always heal people, because he told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach’s sake and his often infirmity (I Timothy 5:23). Paul also said, “Trophimus have I left on the island of Miletum sick” (I Timothy 4:20b).
So, the power of the Holy Spirit may not necessarily be for the purpose of healing the sick, or raising the dead, but for the proclamation of the gospel. After all, if one were to be healed of all his physical ailments, yet die in his sins without having received Jesus for salvation, he would be the loser! No doubt most of us who are believers do understand that God can do anything that He desires to do, but miracles are shown in the Bible to be sort of “scattered like salt”. II Kings 8:5 says, “And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead man to life…..” This is Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, who is telling the King of Israel about Elisha’s having raised a dead man to life. My point is that Gehazi did not say that Elisha had raised hundreds, or even dozens, of people from the dead, for he told of only one, even though others were raised from the dead by different prophets. My point is that the matter of raising the dead was not a common thing, not then, not now and not any time, except during Jesus’ earthly ministry. It seems that the primary purpose of Jesus and the disciples raising of the dead was to show Who Jesus was and what it will be like when He actually reigns on earth as the King. At His first coming He would have been the King over Israel, but they rejected Him, thus His works, and those of His disciples, did not continue in the same way, or at the same rate, that they had been done when He was offering to be Israel’s King. It might be worth noting throughout the entire Bible that miracles were rather scarce in most eras of time. They were done when God had a special purpose for them. I know many good Christians, some who believe that God will do miracles for anyone who believes Him, Who are sick themselves, while propagating a message of healing for all who have enough faith. Although God can, and does, heal whenever He desires, miracles are not nearly as plentiful as they were when Jesus ministered on earth. Actually, many who saw great miracles, such as Israel in the wilderness, were not people of great faith, for Israel was not a nation of great faith, as can be seen by reading Exodus through Deuteronomy, even if one uninformed woman did say that Israel was so blessed, because they were so godly. She needs to read more carefully!
By J. Briggs King, Rainsville, AL (678) 451-0921