Acts 14:8-12 “And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb, who had never walked. (9) This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, (10) said with a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet!" And he leaped and walked. (11) Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!" (12) And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.”
When the apostle Paul preached the gospel, he did so in demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Corinthians 2:4). In other words, if you attended one of Paul’s meetings, more often than not, you would have witnessed the gifts of the Spirit being made manifest through his ministry at some point in the meeting. Nevertheless, even though Paul operated in the gifts of the Holy Spirit as an apostle, he could only do so if there was faith present among those who heard him preach. In the above quoted passage of scripture, we see the account of Paul performing a miracle by healing the man who had been lame from his mother’s womb. I have no doubt that Paul performed this miracle through the operation of the gifts of the Spirit, for each time in the book of Acts, when it describes a disciple “looking intently” at someone, it is because they have been anointed by the Holy Spirit to operate in one of the gifts of the Spirit (Acts 13:9). Nevertheless in order for Paul to be able to operate in the gifts, he also needed the man’s faith to be activated, which is exactly what Paul saw in him on that day. So where did the man get that faith? The scripture says that faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). And so, obviously Paul had been teaching on the healing power of our Lord Jesus Christ and as a result of the man listening to Paul, this man had faith to be healed. Very clearly, this supernatural manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit took place because faith was present.
Michael E.B. Maher
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