Acts 6:8 “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.”
Even though there are very few accounts in scripture, the records that we do have give us some insight into the signs and wonders performed by ordinary saints in the early church. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit tells us that Stephen did great wonders and signs among the people. If we look at the other accounts of the signs done by the apostles, we can see that the signs and wonders done through Stephen would have been signs of healings and the casting out of demons. The fact that the Holy Spirit refers to Stephen doing “great” wonders and signs, implies very strongly that these would have been miraculous healings of note. The point that I want to make here however, is that Stephen was just an ordinary disciple who served at the tables, and yet he cast out demons and he laid hands on the sick and the sick were healed.
Acts 8:4-7 “Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. (5) Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. (6) And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. (7) For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture we see an account of Philip, who was one of the seven, fleeing to the city of Samaria to escape the persecution that broke out against the church in Jerusalem. This passage tells us that Philip not only preached the gospel there, but he also healed the sick and cast out demons through the laying on of hands. Although this is an account of what Philip did in the city of Samaria, he had already learnt to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit while he was still a disciple in Jerusalem. In other words, Philip would have performed the exact same signs when he was in Jerusalem, just as Stephen had. Someone said, but I though Philip was an evangelist. When Philip went down to Samaria he was still just an ordinary disciple who served at the tables, and it was only much later that the Holy Spirit promoted him into the ministry of the evangelist. And so we that these are just two accounts in scripture of the Lord’s ordinary saints healing the sick and casting out demons. Nevertheless, just as the numerous miracles performed through Paul and Barnabas where not recorded in scripture, there would have been myriads of other signs performed through the ordinary disciples in the early church which have also not been recorded in scripture. These have been recorded however, to give us examples that we can follow. And so we see that all believers are well able to lay their hands on the unsaved in these two areas and expect results, i.e. laying hands on the sick so that they may recover and casting out demons.
Michael E.B. Maher
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