14. The Gifts of Emotional and Spiritual Healing and Miracles

Continuing our consideration of the gifts of the Spirit, I remind you that last week, we talked about the gifts of healings and we only had the chance to deal with the physical aspect of the gifts of healings and I need to touch, before I leave that subject of that particular gift, on two other aspects of the gifts of healings.  The first case we need to recognize that not only does God heal in miraculous ways and is the gift of Healing given for physical healings not as frequently today as in the New Testament times (and we'll touch on that when we get to the gift of Miracles, because I think there are some similarities), but certainly in our day and age with our world as filled with fear, as our chairman has referred to, with as much real anxiety that is taking place in every facet of our society.  There is an enormous need for emotional healing, which is every bit as miraculous, and as of God, as physical healing.  Early in Christ's ministry, He demonstrates His recognition of this need when, in His hometown synagogue, He was invited to take up the scroll and read and He read from the book of Isaiah, and this is what He read (identifying Himself): "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captors and recovery of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised."  And the phrase that is translated "broken-hearted" refers to the emotionally and the mentally shattered people of Christ's day.  And He said, "I have come to heal the broken-hearted."  He's not referring to physical healing here.  It's clearly an emotional healing that is referring to: them that are bruised.  Later on in the same scripture, in Luke 4:18, He says, "Them that are bruised" (which also refers to the emotional healing) "that God has come" to give, in the Person of Jesus Christ, and is therefore legitimately a part of the gifts of healing that the Holy Spirit gifts us with as part of His church.

And how desperately needed today are the gifts of emotional healing.  When we are told that one of the most conservative estimates is that at least 50% of the hospital beds in America are filled with people who's illness is emotionally related.  And when one out of every ten people born today will be confined to a mental institution at some period of their life.  Now that is frightening.  That's anxiety-producing except for the fact that I belive very clearly that the gifts of healing - operative not only in the Person of Jesus Christ, but operative today as well - includes the gifts of emotional healing.  How I praise God for those in our family with those gifts to be useful to God in touching the broken with healing - not just with compassion, but with healing.  Touching them and having their hearts just knit together within them as God, through that person with the gifts of healing, brings healing.  Frequently given an exercise gift of Healing today is the gift of emotional healing in contrast with the rather rare experience of physical healing.  Now parenthetically I can say that I believe one of the reasons why physical healing is rather rare today is because it is not as necessary as it was in the day of Christ.  Not that people aren't sick, but that God has allowed men to understand some of the workings of His will and His creative powers in order to discover medicine, procedures, and surgical procedures, etc.

Well, moving on.  There is also the aspect of Spiritual healing and I believe that worse than any body sickness is soul sickness.  To live with an ill body must be hard and lonely and heavy and difficult.  But to enter eternity with a sin laden soul unforgiven - that's tragic!  To see a person who has been crippled standing straight with crutches discarded must be a thrilling sight.  How much more exciting is it to see someone who has been crippled and distorted by sin standing freely before God because they have been spiritually healed and knit together and made whole.  Don't get so excited about discarded crutches when, in front of you, you see men and women whose lives have been set free, who have been healed spiritually.  I think that's much more exciting and is certainly included in Jesus' reference to the gift of healing.  For in that passage in Isaiah, as recorded in Matthew 13, Jesus said, "For this people's heart is become gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed.  Lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them."  You see how He ties together spiritual healing, conversion, "lest they be converted and I should heal them".  What else can you use to describe man sick with sin set free.  As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.  That's a healing.  That's a miraculous healing.  And some of you, God has gifted with the special gifts to minister the gift of healings, spiritually, to men and women.  I've seen that happen.  I've seen it happen in many people's lives.  I've seen you touch those who are spiritually dead, and seen them come to new life in Christ.  To call "come forth" and see the dead really come forth.  To stand and recognize that when you called the wandering and disobedient and unfaithful disciple, that they respond and come back to that life in Christ, and you must recognize that is an exercise of the gift of healing, as certainly as Peter and John saying to the man who was crippled by the Beautiful gate, "get up and walk".

Now let me move on to the next gift that is listed in I Corinthians 12.  He says, "...to one the gifts of healings, to another the workings of miracles"  Now that's a spectacular gift too and this is another one that we sometimes get either dogmatic or close-minded about.  And I want to avoid both of those, but you know the words that are translated here "working of miracles" are really two Greek words: energama and duetamea.  Now energamaton, that's the same root word we get "energy" from, and duetameas is the same word that duetamas or "dynamite" comes from.  So if you put them together, it's the exercising of dynamite.  Now that's a pretty explosive kind of a phrase it's talking about.  When it says "the workings of miracles" it's not talking about a parking place suddenly appearing when you need one.  That's not nearly enough.  It's got to be explosive and awe-inspiring!  And so we have to find a definition that's a little bit better than just "causual convenience" or the exercise of God's general providence.  Now let me say again: inadequate positions such as dogmatism or closed-mindedness are inadequate because they lose sight of the fact that we serve a God Who is not limited by the laws of His own creation.  There is no Biblically clear teaching that the gift of Miracles has ceased.  And if there were, there's no clear teaching that says it couldn't be renewed.  But it is a gift that is terribly trafficked in and we've got to be careful that we are not guided in our understanding of any of the spiritual gifts, especially the more spectacular kind, guided in those experiences and our understanding by our exposure or our experience with those gifts, whether positive of negative.

I had an experience with the gift of healing when I was a young fellow and for years anybody talked about the gift of healing and I said, "that is really freaky and only freaky people are involved" because I shaped my whole theology and understanding of the gift of healing on the basis of my experience, which happened to be a very negative, dumb experience.  But let's not base our theology on experience - it is Biblically-oriented or it is not solidly built.  And that's why it's important for us to recognize that there's an awful lot of nonsense going around about the working of miracles.  Not too long ago, our newspapers reported (I'm sure you remember) the rather terrible illustration of this: a small hilltop church in the state of Tennessee, at the close of the evening service, two of the men of the church - the assistant pastor and one of the laymen (it was a snake-handling group of people, you know the snake handlers in Tennessee) - and they got up in front of the congregation and drank a potent mixture of strychnine and water.  After the service was over they walked outside and collapsed in convulsive agony and though the entire congregation prayed over them all night long, by dawn they were both dead - a horrible, agonizing death.  And they were buried with the coffins open and Bibles laying on their chests with the scriptures open to Mark 16 where it says, "they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them".  Now if you, as an unbeliever, walked into that funeral and saw these two bodies laying there - knowing what had happened to cause their death - and then saw the scripture laying on their saying that it wouldn't happen, what would you think?  You'd think either it is not true and the Bible is a fraud, or these people were absolute fools.

Now we have to deal with some hard questions when we talk about the working of miracles.  We have to ask, "Do people really work miracles today under the power of the Holy Spirit as in New Testament times" and "if not, why not".  "What are miracles anyway?" and "Are there any kind of miracles that are happening today?" Well, let me deal with some of these anyway.

Number 1.  What are Miracles?
Let me try to define miracles Biblically.  Pat Boone has a book out called, I think, something like "A Miracle a Day Keeps the Devil Away" or something like that.  And we had that on our table and we read it - at least part of it - and that was a fun book.  It's interesting and kind of faith building, and you say "Man, ain't that neat!"  But Pat's got a pretty liberal and loose definition of "miracle", because included in that book are events that come about simply as a result of a greater understanding of the use of the laws that God has built into His creation.  Like, the man on the moon.  I remember, we were on our way to California when the first moon landing took place, and you'd pull into a gas station, you couldn't get gas.  You could rob the whole station, because everybody's sitting there looking at the TV at these guys getting ready to land on the moon.  And everybody was saying, "That's a miracle.  That's a miracle!"  Well not by the Biblical definition I want to use.  I want to use a little bit more strict miracle.  That's not a miracle.  That is simply men applying a greater understanding of the laws that God has built into His creation.  It's not a miracle.

Other people say, "Well, you know, just when I need it, I tried and I tried and I tried and it didn't work and just when I tried the last time, it started."  Well, that may be nothing but the exercise of the law of averages.  That may not necessarily be a miracle.  Or other people - I referred to this before and I don't want to denigrate it because God knows He has provided me, in His gracious goodness, a parking place when I desperately needed a parking place.  Not for some selfish purpose, but because there was someone in great need, and the only way I could see them is if I could get a parking place."  But that's not a miracle.  That's just God's providence and the fact that I went around the block ten times.

Alright, now let me try to define it a little bit more tightly then - a little more restrictive definition of miracle.  Ray Stedman says in one of his books that a miracle is the ability to short-circuit the processes of nature by supernatural activity.  The ability to short-circuit the processes of nature by supernatural activity.  And then he goes on to say two more things.  Number 1, he says, "I have never met anyone with that gift".  And the second thing Ray Stedman says is "But I don't have any doubts that the Holy Spirit can give it any time He wants to."  And I say, "Amen" to both of those.  Now Leslie Flynn in his book says that a miracle is (and I like this definition because it it Biblical) an event of supernatural power, palpable to the senses, which accompanies the servant of the Lord to authenticate the Divine commission.  Three phases of that: 1) it is an event of supernatural power, 2) it is palpable to the senses, and 3) it is accompanying the servant of the Lord to authenticate the Divine commission.

Now let me illustrate.  When Peter, on the day of Pentecost, in Acts 2, is preaching to the people who gathered around by the sound of the mighty rushing wind and the tongues of fire and the people speaking in tongues, Peter spoke to them about Jesus Christ, and this is what he said: "Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by Him in the midst of you, as you yourselves know."  And he uses all three of the definitions that Les Flynn does in his definition of miracles.  He says that Jesus was testified - or approved - authenticated - by God in their midst by miracles (one translation says "power", but its the same word) - that's an event of supernatural power.  And by wonders - that is palpable to the senses.  Miracles, you see, are designed to be seen.  You're supposed to say "Wow!" when a miracle happens.  I mean, somebody says, "Did you see that?  It was a miracle!"  Nobody has to tell you that.  If you saw it, man, you know!  And so Jesus of Nazareth was authenticated by God by miracles and wonders and signs.  The sign means that His ministry was authenticated.  His credentials were given that He was a man of God, from God, indeed was God.  And the connections seen all over the pages of the New Testament.  Paul in Romans 15, for instance, says, "You Romans doubt whether I'm really an apostle?  Let me tell you about some of the things God's done through me."  And he refers to miracles to authenticate his apostleship.  Now, men in orbit, and unexpected and needed funds arriving in the last minute, and the parking place - these are not miracles by that kind of a restrictive definition.  They're neat.  They're wonderful.  Praise God for them all.  But, they're not miracles.

Now, take a look at miracles in the Bible, in the second place.  The Old Testament is full of miracles.  Just three people I want to refer to that God frequently used for miracles.  One of them was Moses.  Moses, you recall, one day is out with God in the wilderness and God says, "What do you have in your hand?"

And he says, "Why I've got a staff."

And God said to Moses, "Throw it down on the ground."  And Moses threw it down on the ground.  It became a snake.  Sacred the wits out of the poor guy.  Then God said, "Pick it up!"

And Moses said, "You're kidding".  Well, it doesn't say that, but I know that's what he said.  Because you've got such a clear glimpse of Moses' personality throughout all of scripture that that's entirely consistent with his personality.  He's, "Wait a minute!"  And then he finally did and picked it up by the tail and it became a staff again.  Now I bet you Moses held onto the staff night and day after that - scared to lay that thing down.  But we are told that was only the first of at least ten miracles he performed in Pharaoh's court.  And when our group was traveling, just not too long ago, we came way down in the southeast of the Dead Sea, down in the wilderness area toward Petra and we stopped and drank from a rock that's got a split in it and water's just pouring out and everybody says that's the rock that Moses struck, and I don't know if it is, but its good water.  But Moses was a man with many miracles.

Or you take a man like Elijah.  You think of Elijah and right away most of us think of Elijah standing on top of Mt. Carmel with 400 prophets of Baal and 450 prophets of the grove and the odds are 850 to 1.  And then, since that wasn't wide enough odds for Elijah, he dumps water over the whole business and then he stands back and what did he pray?  "God, in order that these people know You're God, You've got to do something big."  And the fire fell and what was the people's response?  "Yup, He's God!"  You see, it was an authenticating wonder and sign.  And then along comes Elisha, following Elijah.  In fact, at the end of Elijah's life he turns to his protege, Elisha, and he says, "Elisha, before I go to be with God, what would you like me to do?  I'll ask the Lord for a special blessing for you."

And Elisha said, "You know, I would like to have a double portion of your spirit."  Now, this is interesting.  If you go through the accounts of Elijah and Elisha, and count the miracles Elijah performed.  And then, count the miracles Elisha performed - and its double.  But then the Old Testament closes and for 400 years there is silence.  No more revelations, no more miracles, no more prophets.  No nothing.  And then, according to Paul in Galatians 4:4, "In the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, born of a virgin."  And Jesus comes in and once again revelation, miracles, power, the Word from God.  And it's flawless this time, because the Messenger is flawless.  It's the Son of God Himself.  You know what they said when Jesus spoke?  They said, "Man!  He speaks with authority!"  They did not say, "He quotes authority".  They said, "He speaks with authority."  He healed the sick and He cast out demons and He silenced the wind and He walked on the water and He gave sight to the blind and mobility to the paralyzed and raised the dead and everybody said, "Wow!"  And then along come His followers.  And they were authenticated by the same set of supernatural signs.  And, boy, did they need it.  I mean, why would anybody believe them otherwise?  Remember where Jesus got most of His disciples.  He did not go to the leading universities of the day.  He got guys from the sticks - Galilee - way up north, that little province of semi-literate and half-educated people.  And he called fisherman - not even the leaders of that society.  And then He is bringing His message to that sophisticated metropolitan area of Jerusalem.  Now, do you think when these guys - these hicks from Galilee - got down to Jerusalem and started talking about Jesus rising from the dead - you think they had any credibility?  No way.  They had no degrees behind their name, they had no prefaces written by famous people in their books.  They had nothing but the message that God had sent Christ into the world that men could be saved by relationship with Him and that God authenticated the whole thing by raising Jesus from the dead and you could know Him too!"

And everybody said, "Oh yeah?"

And then God said, "I'll authenticate it."  And so signs, wonders and miracles accompanied them.  And when the sign gifts were given, they authenticated the messengers of God.  And when the need for such credentials is not present, neither are the credentials given.  Now that's Biblical.  Now hear me carefully, since the New Testament, God has given His church no new revelation.  No new revelation.  It is full, it is complete.  All things are wrapped up - summed up - in the Person of Jesus Christ.  Read Colossians.  And so if people say, "I've got a new word."  If it's not in the Bible, it's not backed-up by the Bible, in fact its a little contradictory, but it's a "new word", I say that's false.  But God has directed men to translate and to get the revelation that has been given to men everywhere.  And whenever the gospel has gone out, breaking new ground, frequently we hear of the sign gift of Miracles accompanying it.  J. Oswald Sanders says, "If miraculous happenings sometimes occur in missionary work today, it is largely because - in those areas - conditions closely resemble those faced by the early church.  In countries long enlightened by the gospel, miracles are not so necessary," he goes on to say, "yet this is a realm in which we cannot dictate to the sovereignty of God."  And I say "Amen" to that.  You see, in regions freshly open to the gospel, God may suspend a law of nature to demonstrate His power over heathen idols, His miraculous answers to prayer to simple faith.  He may protect His servants in miraculous ways.  He may deal with scoffers in miraculous ways.  You've heard of that.  You've read of that as it relates to missionary experience around our globe.  And it reminds you of the apostolic period of history.  But do we need that today?  Does God need to accompany my life with signs and wonders and miracles?  Or is what God longs to see in my life and your life, to authenticate our message, a life that authenticates it?

So, what are miracles meant to accomplish?  Well, according to the Bible, they're meant to accomplish three things, primarily.  Number one: they are given to demonstrate not the power of the miracle worker, but the power of God.  Secondly, they are given to demonstrate the authority of the miracle worker.  Remember that late night interview Jesus had with Nicodemus in John 3?  Nicodemus comes to Him and this is what he says, "We know, rabbi, you are a teacher who came from God, because no one could do these miracles you did except God be with him."  In other words, the miracles authenticated Christ's own ministry.  And, we know in the third place, that miracles are given not only to demonstrate the power of God and the authority of the miracle worker, but they are also given to cause men to listen to God's message.  You see Acts 8, remember Philip is performing some miracles and it says, "the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did."  And God's power and message expanded explosively in the first century.  And apostles preached and men listened.  Why did they?  Hebrews 2 says, "God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will."  Now, that's what miracles are meant to accomplish.

Now we've got to deal with two more issues.  One is: what do miracles not accomplish?  According to the teaching of the Bible, miracles do not guarantee a response of faith.  Miracles do not guarantee a response of faith.  Sometimes we make the mistake.  We say, "God, if You would just perform this miracle, they would believe."  Not necessarily so.  Moses stands in Pharoah's court and produces one miracle more astounding than the next.  Ten times.  And what was the result?  Pharaoh hardened his heart.  Jesus Christ came into the world and performed miracles such as the world has never seen.  And what was the result?  They crucified Him for blasphemy.  Peter and John (we referred to this last week) in Acts 3 where they met the man at the Beautiful gate, and they said, "silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I unto you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk."  And they took him by the hand and raised him up and his ankle bones got strong and he became the first holy leaper.  Now let me tell you something, you'd say "that is going to be guaranteed to produce faith".  No necessarily.  Look on at Acts 4:16-17.  This is the response to that miracle.  "'What are we going to do with these men?' they asked.  'Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they've done an outstanding miracle and we cannot deny it, but to stop this thing from spreading any more, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this Name."  Miracles do not guarantee the growth of faith.

Secondly, miracles do not guarantee an increased faith.  You see, miracles are designed to appeal to the eyes, not to the will.  A miracle's to be seen, and what happens when you do some kind of a stunt for a child?  What's their response?  My mother used to do a trick where she put a little piece of paper on her fingernails and put that one finger visible on the table and then made some kind of a mumbo jumbo and put it back down and I didn't recognize she was switching fingers on me.  And I'd think, "Isn't that amazing!  The paper went away."  Then she'd go like this and come back down and there's the paper again.  And I couldn't figure it out.  You know what my response always was?  Not, "I believe my mother is a miracle worker."  My response was, "Do it again!  Do it again!  Do it again!"  And that's the same response people have in Biblical times and today.  If God performs some marvelous miracle, boy we would pass the word and next Sunday they would come here at 7:00 in the morning to get in.  Because they wanted to believe?  No!  They wanted to see you "do it again!"  That's the way we are.  And that's why miracles are not given nor are they promised nor are they used in scripture to increase faith.  They just don't always do so.  We're like children: "Do it again!  Do it again!"  Listen church, we are childish - not child like - we are childish if we chase after and thirst after miracles.  Because to do so means we are walking by sight and not by faith.  Remember Jesus' words to Thomas in John 20: "Because you've seen Me you believe.  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed."  The very act of seeking a sign contradicts what the Bible says pleases Him: faith.  Jesus said, "Oh man, this is an evil generation - they seek after a sign."  Because they kept saying "Do it again!  Do it again!"  So to depend on sign gifts for greater faith is walking by sight, not by faith.  Miracles don't guarantee the birth of faith or the increase of faith.

And the third thing I have to say about this is: not all miracles are from God.  Remember when Moses stood in Pharaoh's court again?  He stands there and thinks, "Boy this is going to zap them."  He's got that rod in his hands and he's seen it turn into a snake and he thinks God is going to do this again and boy are they going to freak out.  And he stands there and he says, "watch this Pharaoh!" and he throws it down and it becomes a snake.  And the other guys - the magicians in Pharaoh's court - they went like that and theirs turned into snakes.  And Moses went back to the drawing board again.  Every single miracle that God produces through man can be counterfeited - every one - except new life in Jesus Christ.  Jesus said in Matthew 24, speaking of the last days, "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and..."  Do what?  "perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect, if that were possible.  See, I've told you ahead of time," Jesus said.

Now there's a lot more that could be said about wonderful occurrences and remarkable answers to prayer and extra strength and abundant provision and timely protection and all that.  These are not defined as miracles in the narrow sense, because the laws of nature are not upset.  They are not interrupted.  But my definition in my heart gives room for a little broader sense of what we call "miracles" because the unusual and the timely providential entry of God into human affairs is always miraculous to me.  I think one of the greatest thrilling things in my life is the realization that that first hymn we sang this morning is actually true.  Jesus loves me!  Now that's miraculous.  That will match up with walking on the water any day.  Because I happen to know me.  And some of you who know me think, "Yeah that is miraculous Jesus loves him."  And that's true of all of us.  I think with joy of Jesus' promise to His disciples that they would do "greater works than these".  Now did that come true or did that not come true?  Is that valid today or is it not valid today?  If by that, He means "more spectacular miracles" in the terms of raising the dead and making the blind to see, then it's not come true.  But that's not what it means.  I don't want to seem to "spiritualize" this out of meaning, but I've got to tell you that I can't find any indication in scripture that, while calming the sea is a remarkable accomplishment, it comes anywhere near to calming the deeply stormed breast of the human friend.  Feeding 5,000 people - that's really an exciting kind of a thing.  But they got hungry again.  Just a few hours later they were hungry again.  How much more exciting to see multitudes fed the bread of life when they no longer hunger, and the sight to the blind.  Oh God, how I have prayed that could happen here!  But oh how exciting to see those blinded by sin for years, see.  Raising the dead - wow!  That's so amazing when Jesus stood in front of Lazarus' tomb and said, "Lazarus come forth!"  And everybody could hear him coming.  What do you think their reaction was?  Well, I love to speculate.  I wish I was an artist.  I'd paint a picture of it.  Some guys are standing there and they can't move.  They hear it, they don't believe it, and they're saying, "move feet" and the feet aren't moving.  They're just standing there.  And other people, their feet are moving.  They're on their way.  I don't think there are hardly anybody that's on their knees before Christ.  I mean they're just stunned by the whole thing.  In fact, when Lazarus stands there at the door of the grave - you know, he's all wrapped up.  And boy they did a heavy job of wrapping in those days and he can't move.  And everybody's standing there, "wow!"  And Jesus said, "Untie him.  Let him go."  And I think that's really exciting - when I see men and women, whose whole lives have been in bondage to sin, come to new life in Christ and then be touched and untied and let go, and they begin to grow in the freedom and the marvelous grace of God.  That's miraculous.  That's the gift of Miracles being fulfilled in our midst.  "Greater works than these shall you do!"  In the power of His Holy Spirit.  Well, these are bigger miracles, I think.  I think reordered lives are fifty times more exciting than reordered molecules.  God is still at work.

Is the gift of Miracles exercised in our congregation?  Yeah, you bet.  Absolutely.  I remember a few months ago, talking to a person who came to me, that had been sent to me, that had been referred to me.  I talked to them three times.  I laid on some of them the best theology that they're going to hear for a long time.  I got into hermenuetics and I really gave them top-grade information.  And you know what they said at the end of those three sessions?  "It's really been interesting, but I just can't see it."  Blind.  And then they met one of you (and I know who it was) and you touched them.  You touched them in a way that I couldn't touch them.  And you know what?  They see!  They see!  That's the gift of Miracles.  And I see young people touched by their counselors and by buddies in the youth program.  And they come to new life.  And the crippled and the halt and the lame, the purposeless become motivated to fulfill Christian living.  And the lame start to walk in the paths of Godliness.  And even those people that we have said so often concerning, "Oh it would be a miracle if they ever became a Christian", do.  And it is.  Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

Go into a world that really longs to see something spectacular.  And if it happens, are going to come from all over and say, "Do it again."  Go into that world that's skeptical, and has plenty of good reason to be, as men and women whose lives ring so true that it points to Him, Who by His Spirit has gifted you for your ministry and me for mine.  Let us then, to His praise, be faithful in that ministry until, by His good grace, we're together again.  Amen.