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The Gifts of Miracles and Healings
“And God has appointed in the church... third teachers, then miracles, thengifts of healings ,...” (1 Cor 12:28).THE POWER OF GOD Miracles and healings are ranked forth and fifth, just after all of the speaking gifts (1 Cor 12:28). This shows their importance in the sense of benefits to the body of Christ. But it also reveals that they are not as great or as beneficial to the body of believers as the spoken word of God. To illustrate this point, consider the answer that Abraham gave to the rich man who went to the place of torment after he died. The rich man said, “ ‘I beg you, father [Abraham], that you send him [Lazarus] to my father’s house-- for I have five brothers--in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ “But Abraham said, `They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said, `No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead’ ” (Lk 16:27-31).And so we see that if certain people do not have or cannot receive a reverent respect for the covenant word of God, they will not heed the warnings in the word of God even if a miracle or healing happens in their midst. Now miracles and healings are alike in one very important, powerful way [this is why I have grouped them both together under one heading]. For example, in the Greek, “miracles” (1 Cor 12:28) here primarily means power [Transliterated: Dunamis], specifically the power of God. For example, a miracle happened to cause Mary to be with Child: “The angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power [Dunamis] of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God’ ” (Lk 1:35).So, it was a miracle that caused Mary to be with child. Likewise, the power [Dunamis] of God had to be present for Jesus to perform a healing. For example, “One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing” (Lk 5:17). In the Greek, healing means to cure.They Authenticated Those Who Established the Christian Religion Evidently, God gave gifts of miracles and healings to those who started Christianity for the purpose of authenticating them and their message as from God Himself [God authenticated Moses and his message with miracles]. For example, Peter said that God gave gifts of miracles and healings to Jesus to authenticate Him and His message: .... more about this in the Bible Study on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit |