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Part 7 - Faith, Healing And Miracles Series
Contributed by Pastor Bruce A. Shields on Jun 4, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: Part seven of our Spiritual Gifts Series focuses on the Faith, healing and miracles.
Spiritual Gifts Series
Part 7 – Faith, Healing and Miracles
Rev. Bruce A. Shields
First Baptist Church of Tawas City Michigan
www.TawasBaptist.org
WELCOME
We’re continuing our series on the Spiritual Gifts this week.
Today we are going to take a look at Faith, Healing and Miracles. Three similar Spiritual Gifts.
PRAYER
FAITH
This is the ability to trust God for what can not be seen and to act on God’s promises.
We are all, as believers, to have faith in God and His Holy Word.
But the spiritual gift of faith goes BEYOND human faith.
This is because spiritual gifts come from God’s spirit within us.
So if we have this gift and we exercise it, our faith will be beyond understanding.
Romans 4:18-21 - Abraham Believed God’s Word
“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."[d] 19Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
This is the spiritual gift of faith.
Abraham knew that what God had promised was unbelievable. He and his wife were old and it says that Abraham faced the fact that he was as good as dead because he was about 100.
But even though he knew these things he could see, he believed God’s word for what he couldn’t see.
This is the spiritual gift of faith, Believing God’s Word and Promises over what we know and can see.
“If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
And we do everything in love, because without love we are nothing.
We must remember that God gives us these gifts to edify the body of Christ.
We work together using our gifts and do everything in love.
Because, this is what God wants from us, to share God’s love for us and our love for each other.
This is how we show God’s love to others.
“When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15"Lord, have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him."
17"O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." 18Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
19Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn’t we drive it out?"
20He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ’Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
Why don’t we see as many healings and miracles today as in the time of Jesus?
Why aren’t we, His disciples, able to do some of the things Jesus promised we could in the scriptures?
We see here that even the disciples who walked with Jesus had trouble performing some of the healings and miracles.
Why?
Jesus said because they had so little faith.
Have we as a generation fell into the same trap as the disciples then?
We should be seeing the power of God today and we’re not.
We should be seeing healings and miracles, but they are rare.
It’s time we prayed for the spiritual gift of faith to fill us and the churches f the world so that we can start experiencing God’s power on earth.
How can we say “Thy will be done on earth” if we do not heal the sick?
Is it God’s will that we be sick?
In some cases yes, such as Paul and his thorn in his side which kept him humble. He did not receive a healing when he asked 3 times for one, but God responded that His grace was sufficient.
But this is not always the case.
The man who was blind in John 9:1-3, Jesus said he was blind so that the work of God might be displayed in his life!
Healings and miracles are for God’s glory. Healings and miracles are for bringing people to Christ either directly or those who see or hear the stories.