John 14 (Seven) Faith For Miracles

Good morning

For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of John chapters fourteen to seventeen. Some of it will be what I have already written and some will be new. Therefore it may sometimes appear that I leave off in the middle of a topic to be continued, since I have reached my daily word count limit. We will also return to placing a blog posting daily for the time being.

In order to follow this you ought to have read from the first posting in the series – John 14 (One).

 

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father" (John 14:12). Every time I read this verse I ask myself why we then see so few miracles today. We have touched on it previously. We have mentioned that Jesus was completely sold out to the Father and we also mentioned that there are a few individual groups doing great things. If I, however, read this passage, two facts come to my attention. Firstly Jesus stated "anyone" (the KJV says he), which indicates an individual. Today we see great things being done by churches or organisations that lean quite heavily on money, marketing and numbers. Yes, the power of God does convince and convict people, but is this what Jesus had in mind here – great crusades, healing services, large churches and so on? Maybe partly, but He is talking about individuals having faith.

Having faith is the second aspect we notice in this passage. Jesus said if an individual believes in Him he will do the same things He has been doing and even greater things. What has Jesus done? Just read the Gospels - John 21:25: "Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." What did Jesus truly and actually expect when He spoke these words. I believe He expected His individual followers to spend their life healing, preaching and doing miracles – doing greater things than He has done. This is what the Disciples and the Apostles have done (Mark 6:8-13, Luke 10:1-24). Imagine the different place the world would have been if that had been the situation. Doctors, other health workers and undertakers would have had a hard living and the church would have grown mightily because Christians would have been everywhere healing and raising people from the dead and preaching the Gospel. Why would it be that we do not see these kinds of miracles regularly among all the followers of Jesus today? We see and hear about miracles by such as TB Joshua and Mel Tari (a few years back), but it is not general. Jesus said in Matthew 17:20, when the disciples asked Him why they were unable to drive the demon out: "'Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you'".

We seem not to even have faith as big as a mustard seed. We think too easily: What if it does not work? Except for our faith, our focus is also wrong. Why are we concerned that it will not work? Is it because the Lord would then be embarrassed? No, it is because we might be embarrassed – what would people think of me? We also rely too easily on material things such as doctors and medicine and the power of money. All this modern technology destroy our faith. It is easy to think for example: If the Lord does not heal him, there is always medicine. Why do you think healing ministry in Africa is so powerful? It is because the people in the poor third world countries have nowhere else to turn to. Medicine in those countries is not what the developed countries are used to. Apart from that the people are too poor to afford good, expensive doctors. What are the options left - sickness, suffering and death? When one man therefore thinks he has faith like a mustard seed, enough not to wonder whether it will work or not, the Lord sees a golden opportunity to show off His power and the people benefit from the greater-things-than-Jesus-did opportunity.

Materialism destroys our faith because faith is the "substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Faith that cannot be seen is the voucher, which is the evidence that God will act. Money can be seen as well as manipulated and can accomplish many of the things God wants to do for us, so why would we rely on faith if we can rely on money? Therefore what happens? Those who can afford to create their own miracles do so and sell it also to others who can afford to buy it. Those who cannot afford either, suffer in silence because they envy those who have money. Everybody is so busy being concerned about money that very few Christians even consider faith. Have you wondered why the Lord so much hate Mammon (Mat. 6:24, Luke 16:13)?

Lord, I choose faith.

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

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