Charismatics are often criticized as those who seek signs and wonders and experiences rather than God. Let the charismatics answer for themselves, but I will speak from the perspective of what a follower of Jesus Christ ought to be. Jesus taught his disciples to work miracles, to heal the sick and cast out demons, and to pray in faith and expect God to answer by miracles. As a disciple I am told to have faith that God will perform miracles to benefit me, and I am also told to follow his example and command to perform miracles by his power. This is part of what it means to follow Jesus as the Master.

People often neglect the fact that when Jesus is called master, it often does not refer to the master-servant relationship, but the master-apprentice relationship. Jesus is not only our Lord and our God, but he is our Master, or Sifu. By definition, the relationship is intended to train us to follow his philosophy and his character, and also to develop his abilities and skills. The apprentice lives with his master to learn his craft, and with our Sifu, this means the craft of worship, the craft of doctrine, the craft of character, the craft of prayer, and no less essentially, the craft of miracles. All of these would constitute one craft of faith, or what it means to be “Christian.” We learn to become what he is and to do what he does. This is the meaning of any apprenticeship. In the Bible, this is what we see in the disciples of Jesus. They were instructed to perform miracles as an integral and pervasive part of their training. For the apprenticeship program to change, the master himself has to change. It is more reasonable to say that those who refuse to follow Jesus in his miracles are not his disciples rather than to say that Sifu himself has changed.

In any case, the apprentice of Jesus maintains that signs and wonders and supernatural experiences ought to be part of the ordinary life of the individual and of the church. He is just following Sifu’s teachings when he says this. If someone like this is criticized as a person who seeks signs and wonders, in the sense that he is unspiritual and immature, or some such thing, then the criticism must first apply to Jesus himself. When I am merely repeating Sifu’s teachings, any criticism directed at me goes straight to him first. Out of all the characters in the Bible, he talked the most about receiving and performing miracles on purpose by faith and by the power of the Spirit. He made special effort to teach it and demand it in the people. He would become irritable not only when people fail to have faith in him for miracles, but also when they fail to have faith to perform the miracles by themselves.

He spoke about the power to perform miracles in the most extreme and unrestrained manner, such as to say that anyone who has faith can command a tree to be replanted in the sea or command a mountain to throw itself into the ocean. Referring to miracles, he said that nothing – nothing – is impossible to someone who has faith. And he performed the most miracles, thousands and thousands of them. When he answered John the Baptist, he mentioned healing the sick five times before he mentioned preaching one time. Likewise, when he sent out disciples, he emphasized healing the sick and casting out demons even more than preaching the gospel. And we know how important it is to preach. His final recorded instruction before his ascension was for the disciples to wait for even more power to perform miracles.

Therefore, if anyone seems to be obsessed with signs, miracles, and spiritual experiences, it was Jesus. The criticism reflects the true opinion about Jesus among those who oppose the ministry of miracles. As Jesus said, if the people truly believed Moses, they would have believed in Jesus as well, because Moses talked about Jesus. And if the critics truly follow Jesus, they would support those who follow the teachings of Jesus on faith, prayer, and miracles. The criticism is self-damning. As Jesus said, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). He made this statement in a context similar to ours, concerning those who undermined his work in signs and wonders, in healing the sick and casting out demons (Matthew 12:24). The more a person complains about the ministry of miracles in the followers of Jesus, the more he attacks Jesus himself. He is an enemy of Christ, like those who blasphemed the Holy Spirit in Scripture (Matthew 12:31-32).