Intimacy With GodSample

Miracles, healing, signs, and wonders as found in Scripture have not ceased. I say this with confidence based on personal experience from fifty years of ministry, ten years of biblical and theological education, many years of studying church history, and the recorded experience of the mission field since the beginning of the twentieth century and continuing today in the twenty-first century.

In Acts 1:8, before Jesus’ ascension, He told his disciples the means by which they were to fulfill their commission of spreading the gospel and teaching the new believers all that He had taught them. Jesus said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (NKJV).

The church has often focused on fulfilling the great commission to make disciples as given by Christ in Matthew 28:19–20 but does not connect the need for the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill it.

One of the primary purposes of the miracles of Jesus (also referred to as His works) is to bring people to faith in Jesus, resulting in the new believers being filled with the Holy Spirit so that they, too, can advance the kingdom of God on the earth through the power and authority given to them. Jesus has come from God to reveal God. Jesus is the incarnation of God—the second person of the Trinity. He is the pioneer of our faith. In 1 Corinthians 4:16–17, Paul told new believers: “I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy...to remind you of my ways in Christ” (ESV). Again, in 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul wrote, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” This is the biblical understanding of discipleship. It is not limited to knowing what the Master taught, but it also includes following the Master’s example of how to live and what to do. With this in mind, discipleship must include doing what He commands. 

Prayer:

Father, please help me to be Your disciple. I want to follow You fully and obediently so that I can glorify You. Amen.