Galatians 3:2-5 “This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? -- (3) Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? (4) Have you suffered so many things in vain--if indeed it was in vain? (5) Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”
The Lord’s apostles and prophets in the early church understood the doctrine of faith toward God, and were therefore constantly teaching the disciples how to exercise their faith in God’s power. For example we have the detailed teaching that the apostle Paul gave to the churches on the gifts of the Spirit and how the saints were to operate in them (1 Corinthians 12 & 14). As a result of their teaching we have numerous examples in the New Testament of ordinary church members being filled with the Spirit, operating in the various gifts of the Spirit and experiencing the power of God. To name just a few, the book of Acts records several examples of the saints being baptised with the Holy Spirit and in each example given, the scriptures describe the saints encountering the tangible power of God and responding by speaking supernaturally with other tongues. There are also numerous accounts of ordinary saints operating in various gifts of the Spirit, such as the account of Phillip’s four daughters prophesying in the church (Acts 21:8-9). We also have the account of numerous churches operating in words of knowledge, as the saints warned Paul by the Holy Spirit about what would happen to him when he reached Jerusalem (Acts 20:22-23). And we have the account of Stephen the deacon performing great signs and wonders among the people (Acts 6:8). And so we see that because the Lord’s apostles and prophets taught the churches how to operate in the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit, it became common practice for the saints to experience God’s power in the early church. The above quoted passage of scripture highlights that truth to us as Paul reminded the churches in Galatia how they were initially filled with the Spirit through the exercising of their faith, and how that same faith activated the gifts of the Spirit and the working of miracles among them. But as we can also see from this passage, even then Satan had begun to influence the church to abandon their faith in God’s power and substitute it for following the ordinances of men and works of the law, rather than living by faith in the tangible and transformative power of God.
Michael E.B. Maher
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