“Saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.” Acts 4:16.
By Michael Adekoya – Dear Reader, glory be to God for another week to learn at His feet, the Holy Spirit our divine Teacher shall continue to teach us His Word in Jesus’ name. Amen. Last week the Holy Spirit inspired us to know the importance of undeniable miracles in our current godless, seeing is believing, nonchalant and atheistic generation. Jesus Himself, “Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.”” John 4:48. Therefore, our desire in this current world is to desire to operate in undeniable miracles.
My friend, for us to operate in undeniable miracles, we all need to desire and believe that God is willing to back up our lives and ministries with undeniable miracles. When He sent out the Disciples, Jesus commissioned them to walk in the miraculous. The Bible says, “And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.” Matt. 10:1. But most of us are missing the first important key to operate in the miraculous. When He called them, He first of all expected them to be with Him. Mark 3:13-14 stated this more clearly, “And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach,”. The first key to operate in undeniable miracles is for us to first of all spend quality time in the presence of God. Most of us only pray during the congregational prayer, we have no private time to pray, to study the Word of God on our own, quality time to fellowship with the Holy Spirit the “Enabler” of undeniable miracles. We are currently in the season of prayer and fasting, let’s seize this opportunity to spend quality time with God in prayer and studying His Word. As we do so, we shall be transformed from glory to glory, the “Treasure” that is already in our earthen vessels (2Cor. 4:7) shall broke out and we shall be able to operate our of the Spirit rather than out of the flesh that profits nothing. My friend, how is your prayer and Bible study life? If it’s nothing to write home about, it’ll be extremely difficult if not impossible to operate in the miraculous. Even Jesus, God in the flesh Himself, always spend quality time in prayer and to fellowship with His Father, no wonder He was able to operate in the miraculous.
Coming back to the Apostles in our text of today. The two instances that brought 8,000 people into the Kingdom took place after they have tarried at the Upper Room for quite a number of days in prayer and the other one, the healing of the crippled man by the Beautiful Gate took place when they were going for prayer meeting. Which shows the importance of prayer in operating in undeniable miracles. Thank God for corporate and congressional prayers, but your personal one matters a lot where you can open up to God as you are without fear of intimidation. The Bible says, “as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,” 2Peter 1:3. All that pertains to life and godliness including our lives and ministries to be characterised by undeniable miracles have been given to us, as we spend quality time with Him in prayer and in His Word, this divine nature that manifests undeniable miracles will then be working through us on regular basis. To operate in the miraculous, my friend, I can’t emphasise this too much, your prayer life, your fellowship with the Holy Spirt and Bible study life must be a priority and it shouldn’t be when we have scanty time here and there or only when you want to minister that you only choose to pray and read the Word of God. No, prayer and personal regular Bible study should be our usual lifestyles.
Furthermore, the two undeniable miracles at the beginning of the Book of Acts of Apostles took place among the like minded people. The first one on the Day of Pentecost, there were about 120 people at the Upper Room praying, then the Holy Spirit fell on them. Also the other one, the healing of the crippled man took place when Peter and John were going into the Temple to pray. Until we all came to the unity of this truth, we would not see much miracles happening in our generation. Even God understood the power of unity of purpose. The Bible says, And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.” Gen. 11:6. It took God to scatter the language of His people to prevent them from doing what they purposed to do. Among the Believers including many Ministers today, a lot of us doing believe it’s a normal thing to operate in the miraculous. Until we all believe this, until we all accept it, until we all desire it and until we all expect it as part of our assignments, nothing much will be happening. When Jesus sent out the Disciples, He commanded them, ““Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Matt. 10:8. It was a command to operate in the miraculous not a debatable or a negotiable issue at all. But nowadays, we do not all believe this, we do not all take this command seriously and we do not all live in obedience to this particular command. We give various religious excuses to explain away our disobedience, ignorance, negligence and ineffectiveness. The people you move with determine sometimes what manifest in your life and ministry. As the Disciples who believe this truth walk and work together, no wonder, they were able to operate in the miraculous. There’s what we call “manifestation by association”. For instance, King Saul was able to prophesied in the Old Testament when he was in the midst of the Prophets. “And it happened, when all who knew him formerly saw that he indeed prophesied among the prophets, that the people said to one another, “What is this that has come upon the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”” 2Sam. 10:11. Despite the fact that he was not anointed to operate in the office of a prophet, he prophesied by association. When you walk and work with the people who really deep down believe the Bible as you do, it’ll be difficult sometimes to manifest what the Bible says. Are you a like minded person? Do you genuinely believe that God has commanded, equipped, resourced and expects you to manifest undeniable miracles? Well, let your words, preaching and actions confirm your belief! Until then, it’s just a mental assent not a belief.
The final points I’ll like to mention for us to manifest undeniable miracles as the Apostles of old is evangelism and message. When Jesus sent them out, He gave them a certain message to preach. He said, “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matt. 10:7. Until we all decide to take evangelism seriously as well as examine our messages, we won’t see many miracles manifesting in our lives and ministries. The Holy Spirit is willing to back up our lives and ministries with miracles when we choose to go out and evangelise and preach the message of the supremacy of the Kingdom of God. In acknowledgement of their obedience to go out and to preach the recommended message of the Kingdom, the Bible says, “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.” Mark 16:20. God can only back up obedience and not our disobedience. A lot of us expect people to come into our Churches on Sundays without going out to evangelise, we expect miracles to be happening in our lives and ministries without going out to evangelise. My friend, it doesn’t work that way according to the Scriptures. Also when Jesus was here on earth physically, His message was about the Kingdom, undeniable miracles are God’s opportunity to confirm the supremacy of His Kingdom by healing, deliverance, raising the death and casting out devils to show the devil, all his followers, his demons and unbelievers that the Kingdom of God is supreme, more powerful, better and to be desired than Satan’s power of darkness and domain. But our messages these days are how to make more money, how to exercise authority over fellow human beings, how to show that our denominations are the best and to show off of our own eloquence, wisdom, knowledge and “revelations”. No wonder, it’s been difficult for the Holy Spirit to back those messages up with undeniable miracles as it’ll ascribe glory to ourselves if that’s happening on regular basis. My friend, we need to take evangelism more seriously and the preaching of the Kingdom if we want to be witnessing undeniable miracles frequently in our lives and ministries.
In conclusion, I’m well aware that I have killed some “sacred cows” in these two articles, but the truth have to be said. God have equipped and resourced us to manifest undeniable miracles in our lives and ministries as He equipped the Apostles of old, but we need to spend quality time to know Him more, we need to spend quality time to rob shoulders with the Divinity so that we can be partakers of His divine nature. We all need to believe and be convinced that it is part of our earthly assignments to operate in the miraculous to the extent that we’ll see it as a sin if at any gathering there’s no undeniable miracles to back up and attests to our gathering. Let’s take evangelism more seriously as well as aligning our messages to that which Jesus asked us to preach and see if He’ll not back up our lives and ministries with undeniable miracles. Due to the affluent lifestyles in the Western Worlds, a lot of immigrant Believers have forgotten the purpose why God brought us here. A lot of us see the Western Worlds as a get away opportunities from poverty, economic, religious, political and human right crises and not for evangelism purposes. On getting here, we forget that God has brought us here to evangelise these people as God have used their forefathers to bring the Gospel to us in the past and the major way for this to happen and to be effectively is through undeniable miracles. Are you ready to take up this assignment? Are you ready to obey God? Are you ready to fulfil the purpose of being in this Western Country today? If yes, please yield to this clarion call and we shall all see the Holy Spirit confirming our obedience and conviction with undeniable miracles. Remain blessed!
Kindly follow us on twitter:@AfricanVoice2
