John 14:12-13 “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.” Today's episode examines this verse and why we feel it is not a true statement in today's world. I talk about why it is true and how we can do signs and wonders just like Jesus did. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Could You Perform Miracles?
John 14:12-13 “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”
This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. it is one that I read and when I heard it I believed it right away. Some verses are like this in the Bible. When you read the Bible some things are easy to take in and others are difficult. These easy and difficult things are different for everyone. We all have a different experience when we read the Bible because we have all had different experiences throughout our lives. There is a quote by Steven R. Covey that I really like. Steven R. Covey said, “We see the world, not as it is, but as we are.” This is true for the Bible as well. We look at and interpret the things we read in the Bible with our own unique lens. For instance, if we had people letting us down our whole lives, we may read the parts of the Bible that talk about trust and struggle to believe we can trust God because we haven’t been able to trust anyone on earth. If we have grown up in a very unloving environment, we may struggle with the parts of the Bible that talk about unconditional love. Other things may come easier to us.
For me, I instantly loved this verse. I know the Bible is God’s Word and that God chose His words very carefully. Sometimes when we are reading the Bible there may be a question in our minds about why they used this word vs. that word. One thing I have learned from doing Bible studies is that there is always a reason why certain words were chosen. Also, if you have done Bible studies you have had the benefit of hearing all about the original Greek or Hebrew words that were used in the original translation and what those words meant. Sometimes, when translated, we don’t have an exact word to mean what they were saying. I find Bible studies fascinating because you gain so much more insight into what the verses are really saying. Anyway, back to the verse. I heard this verse, or read this verse and I believed Jesus’ word to us. I have never really been one to struggle with trust. I grew up in a loving family, I had great friends growing up, I am blessed to be able to say I was not let down by those I know and cared about often growing up. Therefore, I trust pretty easily.
But, what if you don’t trust easily? What if you look at that verse and say there is no way we could preform the works Jesus did, Jesus was God, of course He performed miracles. Also, the apostles were right there with Him for 3 years during His ministry, of course they could do miracles too. We can all usually agree that Jesus did miracles when He walked the earth, and we can also usually agree that the apostles were sent out and they performed miracles too. Where we run into trouble is trying to believe we could do signs and wonders in the world today. Who are we? We are not holy enough, we are not worthy of that power and authority. I agree with both of those statements, and yet Jesus still says we will do the works that He did and even greater works than He did. How is this possible?
It is possible through the Holy Spirit. Did you ever realize or notice that there is not a single miracle recorded in the Gospels before Jesus was baptized? Jesus was fully human and fully God the entire time He walked the earth. There was nothing stopping Jesus from performing miracles during the first 30 years of His life. However, He chose to wait until after He was baptized and received the Holy Spirit to start performing miracles. This is something I recently found out and found fascinating. It was not a surprise to me that Jesus did miracles in the Bible, He is God after all. What I didn’t know is that Jesus didn’t use his divinity to perform miracles. He used the Holy Spirit, working through Him to perform the miracles. He chose to put his divinity aside and act from his human nature, with the help from the Holy Spirit because it would be greater glory for God.
St. Lawrence of Brindisi explains it like this:
"Christ came into the world to do battle against Satan, to do away with idolatry, and to turn the world to faith and piety and the worship of the true God. He could have accomplished this by using the weapons of his might and coming as he will come to judge, in glory and majesty… But in order that his victory might be the more glorious, he willed to fight Satan in our weak flesh. It is as if an unarmed man, right hand bound, where to fight with his left hand alone against a powerful enemy; if he emerged victorious, his victory would be regarded as all the more glorious. So Christ conquered Satan with the right hand of his divinity bound, and using against him only the left hand of his weak humanity.”
Is this new to you too? Did you know that God performed these miracles and defeated satan without using his divinity? He relied on the power of the Holy Spirit working through Him. Do you know why this changes everything? It changes everything because Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us as well. If you are baptized then you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. If you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you then you have the power to defeat Satan and to perform works like Jesus did. Another one of my favorite verses is Romans 8:11 “ The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you…” I wish we all knew how much power we actually have inside our frail human bodies.
This verse can be scary to many people. Wait, if I can perform works like Jesus did, does that mean I have to travel all over the world and be a missionary like the disciples were? No, you don’t have to travel anywhere if you don’t feel called to do that. What they talked about in my class is ministering to your sphere of influence. You can start small. Be an example to your family, your friends, your co workers. Let’s read the verse again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”
If you were able to believe and adopt this verse as your own personal truth, how much greater would your life be? How great would it be to do works like Jesus did? How great would it be to be able to heal a loved one? Did you know there are people doing this everyday? Did you know there are lots of people that have read this verse, decided to believe it and are now living out a supernatural lifestyle with the power of the Holy Spirit? The last line of the verse says, “If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.” How awesome of a promise is that? God has so much more for us and we aren’t asking for it. We aren’t going to God to ask Him what He has for us. Why are we choosing to live a normal life when God is offering us a supernatural one of signs and wonders?
You might be thinking, that is great for you Catherine. I am glad you believe this verse and you want that life, but I am happy with mine as is. If this is what you are thinking I challenge you over this next week or so to bring this to prayer. I challenge you to be brave enough to just talk to God about it. Tell Him how you are feeling about this verse and ask Him if He has anything to say to you about it. When we do sign and wonders, we build up people’s faith. Don’t you think this world needs some faith building right now? Look at the day of Pentecost, 3,000 were baptized on that day. I know this verse can be scary. I know the thought of us healing or performing miracles is strange to most of us. I know it is way outside of our comfort zone. I also know God is calling us all to it. I also know that this world really needs people who are willing to step outside their comfort zone. God needs people who will step out in faith knowing they have the Holy Spirit living inside of them and that He will guide them.
If this verse is something that you struggle with, write it down and look at it often over the next month. Bring it to God and ask Him to show you how this applies to your life. Ask God what He wants you to do with this verse? Be brave, be bold, if you ask the Holy Spirit for help, He will help you. Just start small. Step out in faith and ask a loved one if they want you to pray for them. If you spend time with God He will guide this journey for you. He will lead you to where you need to go. We just have to be brave enough to say three small words, “Use me Lord.” Can you be brave enough to say those words? Can we be Christ’s hands and feet here on earth? Remember, we have a good good Father. He is going to ease you into this lifestyle. He is going to meet you where you are at and build your faith along the way. Trust Him and give Him permission to work in your life, give Him permission to use you and He will.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we ask you send your angels to prepare the way for everyone listening to hear this message today. We pray you give us the courage to believe this verse and to step out in faith knowing you have given us the power of the Holy Spirit to help us do your work here on earth. Lord, the world needs you more than ever and if we can bring you to others, please show us how. Show us what you want each of us to do. Reveal to us what this verse means for each one of us in our individual lives. We love you Lord, you are incredible. We are so grateful you gave us the Holy Spirit. Lord you are the almighty one, you are the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. You are the light of the world. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you on Monday. Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I. Have a blessed weekend!