Whenever we mention the Holy Spirit, the discussion always works its way around to MIRACLES. Undeniably, the Holy Spirit gave men in the first-century church the power to do signs, wonders, and miracles. I believe every miracle recorded in the sacred text! However, in the 21^st century, one simple question begs to be answered -- Does the Holy Spirit still give men the power to do signs, wonders, and miracles? If so, who receives such power, and why is it given.

The Holy Spirit, in providing man's salvation, acted as a Person, as part of the Godhead, to perfectly reveal and confirm the message of truth. That revelation and its confirmation called for signs, wonders, and miracles. When those entrusted with revealing God's word performed miracles, they who witnessed and heard the accompanying teaching were assured that the message originated from a divine source.

People today are fascinated by the subject of divine healing. There is much confusion, and false hope is often given to those who are suffering physically. So-called "faith healers" (fake healers) make many bold claims, and the unsuspecting person, whose needs and problems are very real, comes away with a false sense of hope. God is still the source of every good thing (James 1:17). This includes the restoration of health. He stills heals today, but not in the same miraculous way He did in the past. This study as a two-fold purpose:

• To show the reason for miracles, how men received the power to perform miracles, and why only a select group received that power.
• To answer the question: do men still need, and are they still given, these same powers. If so, who gives them, and where do they come from. Are they true or fictitious, fact or hoax?

"A miracle may be defined as a plain and manifest exercise ... of those powers which only belong to the Creator and Lord of nature; and this for the declared object of attesting that a divine mission is given to the person performing the miracle." A Bible miracle is a work, apart from God's natural law, that produces "an event or effect in the physical world, deviating from the known laws of nature." The laws that enable God to perform miracles are laws unknown to man. A miracle is that "which can only be done by the direct enabling power of God." In summary, a miracle occurs when God exhibits power over nature, or when He circumvents natural law.

What is the issue? Where are our differences?

The Issue IS NOT:

• Does God have enough power to effect miracles today? He has all power.
• Did Jesus, and others, perform miracles during Bible times? They certainly did.
• Are the recorded Bible miracles genuine and true? Of course.
• Should we pray for the sick and thank God when they recover? Yes.
• Do I believe in God's promises? Every one of them.

The Issue IS:

• Does God promise to use His power to perform miracles today? (The scriptures contain no such promise.)
• Are people today performing the same kinds of miracles we read about in the Bible? (Absolutely not!)
• Are the true, genuine, and undeniable miracles in the Bible being duplicated by men today? (No -- they are frauds, cheap imitations, and counterfeit copies.)
• Does the Bible instruct us to pray for miracles and the power to do them? (It does not.)

While Jesus was on earth, He claimed to be:

• Divine -- "Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God." {John 5:18}
• The Son of God -- "If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?" {John 10:35,36}
• The Messiah -- "The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming (who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her: I who speak to you am He." (John 4:25,26)
• Savior of the world -- "Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6)

A claim is invalid unless the one who makes the claim can substantiate it with proof. Jesus performed signs, wonders, and miracles that caused people to believe. "Then Jesus said to him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe." {John 4:48}

• By stilling a storm, He exhibited power over nature -- "But He said to them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" (Matthew 8:26,27)
• By feeding the 5,000, He exercised power over material things -- "For there were about five thousand men ... Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them." (Luke 9:14,16,17)
• By raising Lazarus, He demonstrated power over death -- "Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth!' And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, 'Loose him, and let him go.' " {John 11:43,44}
• By changing water to wine, He manifested His glory -- "This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him." {John 2:11}
• God used signs, wonders, and miracles to attest to Christ -- "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know." {Acts 2:22}

Jesus told His disciples that when the Holy Spirit came, He would confirm the heavenly message and bring all things to their remembrance. Certain types of signs would follow them as they went everywhere preaching the word. (Mark 16:17-20) They would:

1. Cast out demons.
2. Speak with new tongues.
3. Pick up deadly serpents -- and not be bitten.
4. Drink deadly poison -- and not die.
5. Lay hands on the sick and heal them.

Can today's so-called healers -- Oral Roberts, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, and others -- perform any of the miracles on this list? Why can't they perform all five? More importantly, why would we need such miracles today? We now have the revealed word. When the apostles performed miracles, they gave the praise to God -- not to themselves. "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!' And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, 'Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them.' " {Acts 14:11-15}

There was a relationship between the Holy Spirit and the first-century church. Prior to His death, Jesus promised His disciples that, after He ascended back to the Father, they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (John 13:31-16:33). He instructed His apostles to wait in Jerusalem. "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." {Acts 1:8}

On the Day of Pentecost, the twelve were gathered together in Jerusalem. When the Holy Spirit fell on them: "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." {Acts 2:2-4} The Spirit enabled them to speak in other tongues so that those who were gathered, from all nations of Jews, to hear the gospel preached heard in their native tongues. (Acts 2:6-13)

Only by the laying on of the apostles' hands could other disciples receive the gifts. "Who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit." {Acts 8:15-17}

The "gifts of the Spirit" received by the early church are listed in 1 Corinthians 12:1-10. In 1 Corinthians, chapters 13 and 14, Paul instructed the Corinthian Christians regarding use of the gifts, and the temporal nature of their existence.

1. Word of Wisdom -- "Knowledge of the divine, previously hidden plan for providing, by the death of Christ, salvation for men ... the ability to discourse eloquently on this wisdom." {Thayer's} (Gk. "Sophias")
2. Word of Knowledge -- "A gift of inspiration that is a deeper, more perfect, and enlarged knowledge of this wisdom, such as belonged to the more advanced." (Thayer's} The Word of Knowledge is the knowledge itself; while the Word of Wisdom refers to knowledge in action. The truth needed to be accurately presented, as revealed by the Spirit.
3. Faith -- Conviction received by inspiration; something held in good faith without necessary reference to its proof. This is miraculous faith -- not the faith spoken of in Romans 10:17.
4. Gifts of Healing -- (Working of Miracles) -- These gifts provided proof that those who performed the miracles were sent by God, with His Divine message.
5. Gifts of Prophecy -- Akin to wisdom and knowledge. The exception being that in addition to speaking by inspiration, the one who possessed this gift spoke on a sudden impulse. Prophecy had to do with teaching and foretelling (Acts 13:1).
6. Discerning the Spirits -- Ability to separate and discriminate among the spirits, so as to determine which were true and which were false. This gift enabled one to try the spirits (1 Jno. 4:1). Remember, there was no New Testament with which to "try and test the spirits." It was, therefore, necessary to distinguish between those who were false and those who were true!
7. Tongues and Interpretation of tongues. The tongues refer to languages -- not unintelligible utterances (Acts 2:4-8; Acts 10:44-47). They came by two methods -- Holy-Spirit baptism and the laying on of the apostles' hands.
8. Working of Miracles -- The ability to work miracles; Jesus said it was one of the signs that would follow those who believe. (Mk.16:19,20)

These spiritual gifts were for the purpose of teaching the lost and edifying those who were converted to Christ. Remember, in the first century, they had no Bibles as we do today. In the absence of the revealed word, God's word resided in inspired men (2 Corinthians 4:7). Now we have God's mind revealed in the written word (1 Corinthians 2:9-13). These gifts confirmed the message, allowed the church to reach the lost, and edified the members of the body by providing knowledge about what God wanted them to do. In summary: "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." {Ephesians 4:11-13}

When the last apostle died, the gifts ceased. Today, we have the Bible and need no confirmation of the word. Yes, the first-century church did have spiritual gifts, but they are no longer needed. Spiritual gifts serve no purpose today; therefore, there are no gifts!