Acts 20:9-12 “And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. (10) But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, "Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him." (11) Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed. (12) And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted.”
The fourth example of the working of miracles that we will look at is the miracle of raising the dead. There is one main ministry gift which the Lord uses to operate in the working of miracles in this area, i.e. apostles. In the above quoted account in scripture we see this gift operating through Paul’s ministry as he raised Eutychus from the dead. And we have another account in scripture of the apostle Peter raising Tabitha from the dead (Acts 9:39-41). And so we see that although this type of miracle is very powerful it is none the less not manifested very frequently, i.e. we only have two examples given to us in the book of Acts. There are a number of reasons why this miracle is performed very infrequently in the church. One of the reasons is because this miracle can only be performed on children and the Lord’s saints, for it is only those individuals that God allows to be raised from the dead, because their spirits ascend into heaven when they die. Whereas unbelievers who die are cast into hell and God does not allow them out, which means that they cannot be raised from the dead.
2 Corinthians 12:12 “Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.”
The most common working of miracles in the church age, are getting people born-again, casting out demons and baptising the saints with the Holy Spirit. The reason that these miracles are the most common is because they have the greatest impact on the church. And so although those who are anointed with this gift are also used by the Lord to perform other miracles, i.e. raising the dead, etc, nevertheless scripture shows us that these other miracles are the exception rather than the norm. The main reason for that is because of the limited impact that other miracles have on the church as a whole. Because this particular gift is so powerful, it seems that it is only given to a few, and then only to those who are called to one of the ministry gifts. As revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture this particular gift definitely forms part of the Apostle’s ministry. Nevertheless we have also seen that this gift forms part of the evangelists ministry, and I’m sure that it can form part of the prophet’s ministry as well.
As with the other gifts of the Spirit, I will close this section with an account of this gift operating through my ministry. I attended a men’s prayer meeting a little while ago and during the meeting a strong spirit of prayer came upon me and I began to pray with great boldness. As I prayed the anointing came into my hands and I recognized it immediately as the anointing for the filling of the Holy Spirit (I have had this anointing upon me many times and it feels like electricity flowing through my hands. Sometimes it is stronger than at other times.) On this occasion I knew that the anointing would not last very long, so I called out to all who wanted to be filled with a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit to come up so that I could lay hands on them. Everyone that came up fell instantly under the power of the Holy Spirit and received a fresh anointing from Him.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comentarios