Many people, both Christians and skeptics, ask
why we don’t see more miracles today.
Throughout the Bible we read about signs and
wonders. In the ministry of Jesus and the apostles signs and wonders occurred
frequently. Why don’t we see the same thing happening today? Should we expect
more signs and wonders? Should we seek them?
In this post I’m using the word “miracle” interchangeably
with the phrase “signs and wonders.” Let me explain what I mean by “signs and
wonders”. I am talking about God working miracles which are obviously
supernatural so that even a skeptic, if they personally experience or observe
one of these, will be moved to admit that something
supernatural has happened. They might not admit that it was God, and they might
not accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, but they will be forced to admit that
there has been a miracle. This happened in the book of Acts. In chapter 3, a
lame man is healed in the name of Jesus.
In chapter 4 the religious leaders have arrested Peter and John and are
questioning them. They cannot deny a miracle has happened:
Acts 4:13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and
realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they
took note that these men had been with Jesus.
14 But since they
could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was
nothing they could say.
15 So they ordered
them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together.
16 "What are
we going to do with these men?" they asked. "Everyone living in
Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it.
17 But to stop
this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to
speak no longer to anyone in this name."
While in a very real sense every newborn baby,
every sunrise, and every person who is saved is a wonderful miracle from God,
these types of miracles are not what I mean by “signs and wonders”. I say this
not because these types of miracles are less real or less important, but
because many people (wrongly) find it easy to deny that these things are caused
by God or any supernatural force.
Expectations
Different Christians have different beliefs
and expectations regarding miracles today. Cessationists are Christians who
believe that some of the spiritual gifts, which are often called the sign
gifts, ceased around the time the apostles died. Cessationists tend to think
that we should expect God to work relatively few miracles today. Not all cessationists
have the same expectation. Many cessationists believe that God still
occasionally heals supernaturally in response to prayer. Charismatics tend to expect
miracles to occur more often. Again, I’m painting with a broad brush, and not
all charismatics have the same level of expectation for signs and wonders. Charismatics
do believe that the sign gifts are still functioning today, including gifts of
healings and working miracles. While genuine speaking in tongues is also a
sign, because it is so easy to fake (I’m not saying all charismatics are faking
it, just that some people could) I do not count it as a miracle in the sense I’m
using the word in this blog post. Many Christians are neither charismatic nor
cessationist. Like me, they are in between. But I’m not in between because I
haven’t thought about it. I’ve thought about it quite a bit and while I don’t
know exactly how often we should expect God to work miracles today, I think
there are good biblical reasons to expect Him to still work miracles, but not
as many as He worked through the apostles.
Why I don’t think we should expect an
apostolic level of miracles today
One of the reasons for signs and wonders (not
the only reason!) was to provide evidence that Jesus really was the Son of God
and that His apostles really did receive divine revelation and were authorized
to teach and explain the new gospel message.
Concerning Jesus, we read:
ESV Acts 2:22 "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—
Concerning the Apostles,
we read:
ESV 2
Corinthians 12:12 The signs of a true apostle were performed among you
with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.
A major factor (perhaps
THE major factor) in the early church recognizing which writings should be
included in the New Testament was apostolic authority. The books of the New
Testament were either written by an apostle or by someone who was working
closely with an apostle who approved of their writing. But why did the early
church have confidence that the apostles really were receiving new revelation from
God and that their writings were, in fact, the Word of God? One major reason
was that God worked many signs and wonders through the Apostles. These signs
and wonders were not the only important factor, but they were certainly
important.
None of us today are
called to write new books of the Bible, so it is not surprising that we see
less signs and wonders today than we see in the ministry of the apostles. This
is also consistent with the fact that Moses also was empowered to work many
signs and wonders and he also wrote books of the Bible.
BUT,
the Bible still leads us to expect some miracles today
Jesus and the Apostles were not the only ones
God used to work signs and wonders in the New Testament. Authenticating these
men was not the only purpose that signs and wonders served.
Since the New Testament does not include a lot
of information about the lives and ministries of people other than Jesus and
the Apostles, we really don’t know how commonly God worked signs and wonders
through others. But we do have some examples. Stephen was chosen by the church
to help oversee the distribution of food to widows (Acts 6:1-5). He was not an apostle.
But God worked signs and wonders through Stephen:
ESV Acts
6:8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and
signs among the people.
There was an apostle named Philip, but it was
another man named Philip who was chosen along with Stephen and who was also an
evangelist through whom God worked miraculous signs:
NIV Acts
8:5-7 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah
there. When the crowds heard Philip and
saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of
many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.
It appears that the reason God worked signs
and wonders through ordinary people like Stephen and Philip was to help them
spread the gospel. I can’t find any verse in the Bible which gives a reason why
God would not provide the same type of help to us today. Paul writes to the
church in Galatia in a way that implies that God was continuing to work
miracles among them:
NIV Galatians
3:5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among
you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?
Even when Jesus and the Apostles were the ones
working the miracles, it seems like a major purpose for the miracles was
helping others believe the gospel:
Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover
Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.
(John 2:23 NIV)
This became known all over Joppa, and many
people believed in the Lord. (Acts 9:42 NIV)
When the proconsul saw what had happened, he
believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. (Acts 13:12 NIV)
There are many other
examples of miracles helping people to believe, including: Matthew
4:24-25; Matthew 20:34; Luke 5:9-11; John 1:50; John 4:53; John 6:2; John 7:31;
John 10:37-38; John 11:45; Acts 4:4; Acts 5:12-14.
I don’t expect the same level of signs and
wonders as occurred in the ministries of Jesus and His apostles. But I do feel
the Bible gives us reasons to expect that God will graciously work signs and
wonders today like He did through Stephen, Philip, and at the churches in
Galatia for the purpose of helping people believe and strengthening the faith
of some who already believe.
Now here’s the tough part.
My
experience is less than my expectations (see the graphic at the top of this post)
I don’t know exactly how many and what kind of
signs and wonders we should expect. But I know that when I read the Bible I
feel stirred to expect more than what I’ve experienced. I’ve never seen a sign and wonder miracle as
amazing as many of the ones recorded in the Bible. I’ve experienced what might
be called some “little signs and wonders”. I call them “little” only compared to what we
read about in the Bible. To me, they are a big deal! These were experiences
which, to me, were very obviously supernatural. Here are some examples
* God spoke basically
the same message to my wife and I when we were far apart because I was out to
sea in the Navy.
* I’ve had some
dreams that I’m convinced were supernatural dreams. In one, both the timing of
the dream and its contents point strongly to it being a dream sent from God.
* A number of
times I have seen people delivered from demonic oppression. Most of the time
there was nothing I saw or heard that would count as a sign and wonder in the
sense of being difficult for a skeptic to provide a non-supernatural
explanation for what was seen. But on one occasion my wife and I were in a
small group and we heard a demon speak from out of a person with a voice that
we are convinced could not have naturally come from that person.
note: I give a
few more details about the three stories above in a blog post here.
In addition to a handful of signs and wonders
I have personally experienced, I have heard testimonies from other Christians.
I don’t assume all these testimonies are true. However, in some cases I believe
there is evidence that should convince
a reasonable person that God was at work.
* While living in
a Muslim majority nation for fourteen years, I was blessed to meet quite a few
people from Muslim backgrounds who had become Christians. Some of these became
close friends whom I knew for years. Many of them reported a similar
experience. At some point before becoming a Christian they had a supernatural
dream in which they either saw Jesus or saw something that led them to believe
in Jesus. These dear brothers and sisters faced a great risk of persecution
when they became Christians. I don’t think they were all making up these dreams.
Besides hearing such testimonies from multiple Muslim converts myself, many
others have reported the same thing. The Gospel Coalition has a good, moving article on Muslims having dreams that led them to Jesus.
* Most reported
miracles do not happen in a public setting with lots of witnesses. But occasionally
one does. A good example is the miracle story told in the movie Breakthrough.
It is a true story about a boy who fell through the ice on a lake. He was underwater
for 15 minutes. Doctors tried valiantly to resuscitate him for about 45
minutes. They concluded he was dead and could not be resuscitated. His mom
showed up and prayed a desperate prayer and her son’s heart started to beat
again. Those present do not hesitate to proclaim that it was a true miracle.
You can see a short article on how the movie compares to the true story (it is
very accurate) here.
So, yes, I’ve experienced a few small
(compared to those in the Bible) miracles directly and I have heard credible
reports of others. I believe God is working miracles today. But these miracles don’t
happen as frequently as I would like or as often as I would hope for. There are
a lot of tough questions. I’ll share some thoughts about these honest questions
next.
Tough questions, biblical insights,
and pastoral advice
Why do we not see more miracles today? Here are a
few reasons we might see less miracles than we would like:
1. Sometimes we may lack faith in God. On the one
hand, it’s often wrong and cruel to accuse someone who is suffering from an
illness or who has a loved one suffering from an illness of not having enough faith
if they aren’t miraculously healed. On the other hand, sometimes a lack
of faith does limit the miracles God works:
Mark 6: 4 Jesus
said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown,
among his relatives, and in his household."
5 He was not able to do a miracle there,
except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.
6 And he was amazed at their
unbelief. He was going around the villages teaching.
We need to remember that
we are called to have faith in God, not faith in faith.
2. Experiencing the
supernatural work of God can cause us to become prideful. I honestly think this
is a major reason that there are less miracles than we want. Pride is so
terrible and so damaging that it may often be better for God to withhold
miracles than to give us miracles that tempt us to pride. How did God keep the
apostles from becoming proud when He empowered them to work lots of miracles?
It appears that God allowed them to suffer a lot and that kept them humble:
ESV 2 Corinthians 12:7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the
surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a
messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
3. Closely related to the reason mentioned
above, it may be that God works more miracles in places where Christians
experience more intense persecution. This may explain why so many Muslims are
having miraculous dreams about Jesus. When a Muslim chooses to follow Jesus they
risk expulsion from their families, loss of their jobs, physical harm, prison,
and death. It makes sense to me that God would give them extra help and courage
to believe in Jesus by giving them more miracles, including supernatural
dreams. The Bible does seem to link suffering for the gospel and experiencing the
power of God:
CSB17 Philippians 3:10 My goal is to know him and the power of his
resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his
death,
The same apostles who experienced so many
miracles also suffered tremendously for the gospel and for the Name of Jesus.
I am very skeptical (like super, extremely
skeptical) of pastors and evangelists who claim to work lots of miracles while getting
rich and flying around in private jets. Their lives and ministries look nothing
like the lives and ministries of the apostles. I suspect most (perhaps all) of
them are charlatans and false prophets working false miracles.
5. This brings up another possible explanation
of why we (referring to relatively wealthy Christians in nations like the US)
may not see as many miracles as we could. Perhaps we are too focused on material
things and wealth. Having extra money may be distracting us from the things of
God. Consider these words from Peter and John:
ESV Acts 3:6 But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do
have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and
walk!"
6. Perhaps sometimes we don’t experience as
many miracles as we could simply because we do not pray enough. After the apostles
were ordered not to speak any more about Jesus, they held a prayer meeting.
They prayed for courage to keep sharing the gospel. They also prayed that God
would work more miracles, and He did!
ESV Acts 4:29 And
now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to
speak your word with all boldness,
30 while you stretch out your hand
to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy
servant Jesus."
Here are a few more thoughts about miracles:
1. Seeing
miracles doesn’t guarantee people will believe in Jesus. While Jesus was
working many amazing public miracles, the Pharisees who knew about these miracles
were plotting to kill him.
2. While this
blog post has focused on the types of miracles that even an honest skeptic
would see as pointing to supernatural causes, God works in many other powerful
ways to speak to us and to win people to Christ. The Holy Spirit empowers the
simple sharing of the gospel message. The love shown by a Christian friend can
draw someone to Christ. Also, in a way nature is full of miracles. Elsewhere I
have written posts about how the following provide strong evidence of a great,
mighty, super-intelligent Creator:
3. We should not think that Christians who
experience signs and wonders are more blessed than those who do not:
Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:29 NIV)
4. While
miracles, signs, and wonders can be used by God to bring people to Christ and
to strengthen the faith of those who already believe, we should not put too
much emphasis on them. In the epistles of the New Testament there is far more
emphasis on Christian character, getting rid of sin in our lives, loving
others, forgiveness through faith in Christ, the grace of God, and the hope of
the return of Christ and the resurrection, than there is on signs and wonders
in this life.
Conclusion
God still works
miracles today. There seems to be good reasons that He does not work as many
signs and wonders now as He worked through the apostles. But that doesn’t mean
we should be satisfied with the number of miracles we see. It is right to follow
the example of the church in Acts and pray for both boldness to share the
gospel and for miracles and healings to confirm God’s truth. If we experience
more miracles, we should not expect this to make our lives more comfortable. In
fact, an increase in signs and wonders may very likely be accompanied by an
increase in suffering for the gospel, as it was with the apostles. It is not
wrong to want more miracles and to seek them in Christ, but we must not get out
of balance. We should focus on living for Jesus, getting rid of sin in our
lives, using our gifts and resources to build up the church, worshipping God,
and loving others.
Other Bible Questions I’ve Tried to Address on
My Blog:
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Just read your miracles blog. I am amazed at your thoughtfulness and insights. I have asked this same question and reached many of the same conclusions. I am a charismatic and attend a Pentecostal Foursquare church. Beginning this next Sunday evening service I will be teaching and leading in regard to the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit. My intent is to lead us into a deeper relationship with God and to lead a life that glorifies God. My hope is that as we study and focus on the gifts of the Spirit and spend time together in prayer we will see more miracles and power. We will spend time each Sunday evening in body ministry, praying for one another and practicing the gifts of the Spirit.
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