MIRACLES STILL HAPPEN TODAY

God has never stopped doing miracles. In Hebrews 13:8 we read that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” This is also true of God the Father and the Holy Spirit. If we don't see any miracles happening in our lives, the problem is on our end, not on God's. Those who does not believe in miracles, they do not recognize them as ones and they will always find some logical explanations. Our lack of faith is limiting God to do the miracles we need when things are tough in our lives.

Father God is the one who does the miracles, He is the source of all we ask in Jesus' name and the Holy Spirit brings them into fruition in our natural world, from the heavenly places.

There is so much proof of the power and the ministry of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in both, Old and New Testament. In 2 Kings chapter four, God is using Elisha to multiply the oil for the prophet's widow so she could pay her debt; then God gave the long desired son to the Shunammite woman and her old husband, and when the child dies, God answers Elisha's prayer and brings him back to life. Then we read how Elisha turned the poisonous stew into good, nourishing food; the next miracle that we read about in the same chapter was the multiplication of the “twenty loaves of barley bread, and newly ripened grain in a knapsack” that fed one hundred hungry men, as the Lord spoke that “‘They shall eat and have some left over.’” Then in 2 Kings 5:8-15, we read about the unusual way that God used Elisha to heal the commander of the Syrian army, Naaman, of leprosy.

God has always shown His love for His elect and did miracles for them. In the Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit descended only upon the prophets when the Lord chose to speak or do miracles through them. So, the rest of the believers had to go to the men of God or to the Tabernacle and later the Temple of God, when they needed God's help.

We are so blessed to have access to God's presence, at any time, once we receive the Holy Spirit (you may read more about it here: The Baptism of the Holy Spirit).

Jesus Christ came to be a human, as one of us to show us how to live a perfect, sinless life for God's glory and pleasure. He set the perfect example for us, as we see it written in the Bible and only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we follow it. The life that we may have through Jesus is the most abundant life and it cannot compared to any other way of living (John 10:10). To live in a human body, Jesus chose to give up to His godly power and attributes; He came sent by Father God, with His authority. With the Help of the Holy Spirit, Jesus performed signs and miracles, healed the sick, cleansed the lepers and resurrected the dead. Then, after Jesus sacrificed His life for us, paying for our sins on the cross, Father God resurrected Him, through the work and power of the same Holy Spirit. All that Jesus did was perfect and we are shown how to follow His example in the following verses.

John 14:12-18 ““Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son... If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper,that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.””

Jesus is saying that there are some very specific requirements that we must meet in order to receive the Holy Spirit; first we have to believe that Jesus is the Christ and then to love Him by obeying His commandments. By doing so we will accomplish His work and even greater works than Jesus did. We see that happening, as we read throughout the book of Acts what the Holy Spirit did through the apostles Peter and Paul.

The gifts and ministry of the Holy Spirit did not cease working through God's children once the lives of the early apostles ended. I believe we have all heard about the marvelous miracles that God has done all throughout church history and He continues to do even today.

Acts 5: 12, 15 “And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people.... so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them.”

Acts 19:11-12 “Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.”

To get to where we may do greater miracles than Jesus did, we need to receive the gifts that the Holy Spirit decides to give us, and then use them for the benefit of those around us, or sometimes even for our own.

You may read more about this in the article “The Gifts and Ministry of the Holy Spirit”​

Carmen Pușcaș