Well I’ve been part of churches that taught that all the supernatural gifts stopped after the first century and didn’t believe in the baptism of the holy Spirit. It all kind of goes together.
Many Christians are comfortable with that, but I’m not. I know he’s that same miracle-working God today as he ever was. I’ve seen his miracles many times including miraculous healings, words of knowledge, and prophecies.
The greatest miracle of all is salvation. Those discounting the power of the Holy Spirit usually don’t deny God’s continuing work in saving people. That is the greatest miracle of all. Why would he deny His child the lesser miracles of healing and abundant blessings after giving His on Son for us? It doesn’t make sense. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32
It’s OK. You are a beloved child of God through Jesus Christ and Heaven is your home. Praise the Lord. God wants to give us as much as we let him. The battle of life is letting God give us all that he has for us. The flesh ALWAYS says “No” to God (Gal 5:17). That is why we need the baptism of the Holy Spirit so by his grace and power, we are able to say “Yes” to Jesus.
I’m not interested in a theological discussion like I said. I copied you becasue I thought you were interested and might prayerfully consider this stuff. But there are basically two camps in the Christian world: those who have not or will not let Jesus baptize them in the Holy Spirit and those that have. Both camps are loved by God and all will go to heaven. But I believe one camp has a greater chance of walking into their divine destiny and victory now than the other. There were about 2 million or so Israelites who were delivered from Egypt but only two made it into their God-given destiny here on earth. I think that may be an indicative ratio of the Christian world today. Salvation is wonderful and thank God all believers will be in Heaven. But there is so much more God has for those who will receive it. I’m talking to myself as much as anyone.
“Lord, may I receive all that you have for me and may my brother also, in Jesus name, Amen.”
We often use the word “miracle” rather loosely - even speaking of “the miracle of birth” when it’s a completely natural process, and not supernatural at all. That’s not to say that God has nothing to do with it, of course. Because He most certainly does. He makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall. He does all these natural-world things by natural means.
Miracles in the Bible, by contrast, are things done in nature by supernatural means. This is what makes them “signs and wonders”, because they demonstrate God’s power and thereby authenticate the one performing them.
This is one of the main topics of Acts 1. The apostles were to be equipped not only with the knowledge of heavenly things in order to preach, but also with power to perform signs and wonders to authenticate their preaching. The fulfillment of this is seen throughout the story of the early church in the remainder of the book. So if we want to let the Bible interpret Jesus’ promise, all we have to do is keep reading.
In Acts 8, for instance, we find some people who had been utterly fooled by a fellow pretending to work miracles. If we could go back and talk to those folks, they might be embarrassed to admit they ever believed in that Simon fellow. And we wouldn’t want to rub it in.
I guess when they saw Philip doing real miracles, the difference was so great that Simon’s sham show was obvious. Even Simon himself obeyed the gospel preached by Philip, being amazed by the miracles.
I’ve talked to people who want to pit their own experiences against what the Bible says. They’ll hold up their experiences as proof that the Bible is wrong. If the Samaritans in Acts 8 had done that...if they had said to Philip, “Look, we already have a miracle-worker here, we’ve seen his miracles and you’ll never convince us that he isn’t the great power of God,” they would’ve really missed the boat.
If we hold to the Bible, and always return to it to “test all things”, then God will correct our errors. And if we do get fooled, it won’t be for long. It might be humbling to acknowledge our mistakes - just as it must have been for the Samaritans who had been duped by Simon. But being corrected by God will exalt us.