Criticisms persist against the miracle ministry of Jesus Christ. They come from the Faithless such as cessationists and religious people who cling to their human heritages and traditions. They are threatened by the miracles and blessings of God, because there is no place for God in their religion. It is only a shell to make people believe that they are devout and holy. When the reality shows up — when God shows up in miracles and blessings — their phony piety is exposed. So they become angry against the truth of the gospel, and they are determined to crucify Jesus Christ over and over again until he disappears. People like these are the most wicked, hypocritical, and damnable individuals in the history of humanity.
Just as the word of God cannot be chained, no matter how hard the Faithless try, the power of God cannot be confined to a specific time and purpose in history. Scripture teaches that it takes only faith to see God’s miraculous works in our lives. Miracles are not just memories, now functioning as mere metaphors for our pretty sermons. They are not only proofs of new revelations or of the divinity of Christ. Rather, they are the inevitable effects of God’s very existence, and they are manifestations of God’s compassion and faithfulness.
The ministry of miracles depends largely on the faith of those who desire to benefit from it. When Jesus was in his hometown of Nazareth, he preached to the people, but they did not accept him. Then the Bible says, “And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.” If miracles were mainly intended to prove his divine identity and to authenticate revelation, then we would expect the opposite, that he would have performed even greater miracles in the face of unbelief to overcome their skepticism. Instead, he could do no mighty work there because of that unbelief.
Jesus never declared, “According to God’s will, according to my power, my divinity, and because of new revelations, let it be done to you.” Instead, he emphasized, “According to your faith, let it be done to you.” The miracle-working power of Jesus was never the issue, but it was whether people would believe. Faith was the determining factor, the gateway through which divine power flowed into human circumstances. When the woman with the bleeding disease touched the edge of his garment, she was healed not because Jesus decided in that moment to exercise his power, but because she believed. He was not even aware of her until she touched him and until she already received her healing. Jesus turned to her and said, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.” God’s power is always available, but it is faith that receives this power or brings it to manifestation.
Paul’s letter to the Galatians reinforces this. The Galatians were slipping away from the principle of faith, so Paul interrogated them. He wrote, “Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?” He reminded them that miracles were not something they attained by keeping the law or following rituals and traditions. We receive the Holy Spirit because we have faith in the word of God. We receive miracles because we believe the gospel. He used this to argue that we receive other things from God in the same way, such as our justification. Just as people are justified by faith in any period in history, miracles happen in any period in history because of faith. Just as we are justified by faith, and not by a special manifestation of spiritual gifts in the evangelists or in ourselves, we can receive miracles by faith regardless of whether there are any spiritual gifts. Miracles happen because of faith in the word of God. The more faith there is, and the more people who have faith, the more miracles there will be. If there are spiritual gifts, it just means that there will be even more miracles.
This principle is especially prominent in the ministry of healing. Most healing miracles occur because the individuals who seek healing place their faith in the word of God. This is why Jesus often took time to teach before he healed, and why he emphasized faith. There are indeed instances when people are healed through spiritual gifts or because God has anointed a Christian with the Spirit for the ministry of healing. These manifestations are sometimes effective independent of the recipient’s faith. Thousands of miracles might happen by special manifestations, but compared to healing through faith, such cases are still the exception rather than the rule.
Perhaps the most frequent mistake in healing ministry is to pray too soon. Many Christians, because they feel confident or because they are eager to help, would immediately pray for a person without first discerning whether he has the faith to receive. Jesus did not do this. He did not begin to heal individuals indiscriminately. He taught the people. Then he talked to those who came to him for healing. He asked them what they wanted. He asked them if they believed. This point may seem unexciting and, for that reason, is often underestimated. Yet it is the single most important insight for increasing effectiveness in every aspect of supernatural ministry. It confronts the one error that is by far the most destructive and self-defeating in the ministry of healing.
You might feel confident. You might have a lot of faith. This is good and relevant. But the sick person might not have faith, and that is often decisive. Never direct the person to depend on you or your gifts, but direct him to have faith in God. Do not lose your judgment due to arrogance. Slow down. Take time to talk to the person. Discern whether he has faith to receive healing. If he does not, it is not cruel to refrain from praying immediately. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. If a person lacks faith, the remedy is not immediate prayer, but the word of God. Speak to him. Teach him something. Give him something to believe. Tell him the promises of God concerning healing. Build his faith until he is ready to receive. Praying for a person who has no faith sets him up for disappointment, which often leads to deeper unbelief. If he does not receive healing, he might conclude that healing is not God’s will for him, or that miracles of healing do not happen at all, and his heart may become more hardened.
When ministering to a mass audience, it is more difficult to offer each person individual attention, so it is even more important to teach before praying for the sick. Jesus did not randomly move through crowds, healing without context or instruction. He was teaching and preaching all the time. He built up faith and understanding in the people, and this opened the door for miracles. When faced with individuals who exhibit unbelief, it is usually better to leave them be, as Jesus did when he left Nazareth. Alternatively, create opportunities for further teaching. Encourage them to attend more sessions to hear the word of God to strengthen their faith and correct their misconceptions. To proceed with prayer in the face of obvious unbelief is usually counterproductive. The person might not receive, and his unbelief will be reinforced by the apparent failure.
The ministry of Jesus was characterized by compassion and power, but also by an insistence on faith. He could have overwhelmed his opponents with miraculous displays, silencing their objections with sheer force. Indeed, the records show that certain miracles of judgment happened in the ministries of the early disciples, when God would strike some people blind and cause others to drop dead. When the presence of God is strong among his people and when his people are full of faith, we can expect these things to happen today. It is irrelevant what time in history we are living in. In any case, when it came to the miracles of healing, Jesus and the early disciples preached the word of God to build faith in the people. Some healing miracles happened because of spiritual gifts, but as Paul indicated, the standard way for miracles to happen was by the faith of the people who accepted the gospel.