What We Should Really Be Praying for

Admit it or not, our Western World is now a secular, humanistic society -- meaning that man is supreme in all things. Anything that is of a spiritual or supernatural nature is relegated to movies ("the force") and books, etc. -- and well out of the sphere of public reality and acceptance. It took about a hundred years for this shift to take place, but it has happened. We are now in it.

This philosophy has also invaded territory that is well into the realm of the Christian Church, so that the majority of Christians in the West now look for nothing to ever happen that cannot be explained by natural means. Any experience that is "spiritual" can amount to no more than a nice, warm feeling on one's insides that may come and go from time to time.

And yes, we are attentive to be always praying for the physical healing for our people (making our long prayer lists), but we seem never to realistically expect healing to actually happen unless by natural means. If it does happen we seem surprised.

Even most "fundamental" churches are of this secular bent of mind today, although they would never admit it. The old days of thunderous revivals when tears of sorrow and joy flowed and people were physically shattered before a holy God are long forgotten. The best we can hope for anymore is for our numbers to increase. And so we concentrate on church growth. The churches that do manage to grow a little in number become the success stories, while those that do not (the vast majority) are ignored and carefully not to be mentioned.

Now, I say that this has happened in the Western World. This scripture letter that you are reading is also being sent into countries in Africa, as well as Pakistan, India, and some other places where the spiritual outlook is far different and God is still recognized as being a God of miracles. May God grant that faith may stay strong and innocent in those places, and not slide to our point of low degree. There are also exceptions here in America among the churches that allow for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And that is growing, thank the Lord.

SIGNS AND WONDERS

Most all Christians do still express belief in the Bible, but often it is only in those parts of it that they deem to be still applicable. So we can ask, are signs and wonders still applicable? Let's investigate that question biblically.

We all know that God called Moses at the burning bush. But that was actually the second time that God had called him. The first time was when he was forty years old, and God gave him his commission to deliver Israel from bondage (Acts 7:25). At that time Moses tried to do it his own way by killing an Egyptian -- which was the only means he knew at the time, and he failed.

God knew he would fail, of course, and that is why he gave him his com-mission forty years early. It took that long for Moses to give up on himself and be willing (after forceful per-suasion) to be used by God alone to accomplish the task. Moses had come to know that a man could never accomplish such a work by his own means. He had already tried it that way, and the Hebrews would not believe him nor receive him. So he said to the Lord on that second occasion, "...they will not believe me nor hearken to my voice, for they will say the Lord has not sent you. And the Lord said, what is that is your hand? And he said, a rod. And He said, cast it upon the ground. And he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent..." (Exodus 4:1-3).

The rod -- that miraculous rod. This began a long series of experiences for Moses in which God did miracles through him and his walking stick -- the "rod of God." He even used the rod to part the Red Sea. God knew, and Moses had learned, that people some-times need more than to just hear a word from a preacher in order for a message from God to get through. They need to know that God is truly working, and they need to see it manifested in some tangible way. And people haven't changed. It is still that way today.

Also, the signs that God gave through Moses were not just for the benefit of Israelites, but were for the Egyptians too. "And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them" (Exodus 7:5). Does our Western World know that the Lord is God today? No, not much. Doubtless we need to see some wonders.

NEW TESTAMENT

Many good Christians today have only the bare minimum of evidences from God in their lives, and they will sometimes say that the day of signs and wonders was just for Old Testament times. That's simple enough. One can understand why they say that. Of course, that view has to be modified when one reads the Book of Acts and finds that there are ample wonders that are described in the New Testament.

So other means have to be invented to deny miraculous evidences (signs and wonders) in our time. One popular way is to assume that the wonders were a substitute for the Word of God, and that they all disappeared when the writing of the Bible was finished about the year 90 A. D. That idea at first may sound reasonable too, except that the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in signs and wonders is not presented in scripture as a substitute for the Word of God. The work of the Spirit is in addition to that Word, not in place of it.

And besides that, history contains many records of outbreaks of signs and wonders in times of revival throughout this New Testament age, in Europe, America and many other places. Of course, a way to get around that evidence is to just not read any history of the church, so one is not bothered by any of those facts.

Opposition within the church to signs and wonders has been around for a long time. I think the main reason for it is that the devil hates anything miraculous that comes from God. This tears up his house more than anything else that God and Christians can do. So he opposes it with the very greatest of his deceptive forces, and that's quite understandable.

WHAT BELIEVERS CAN DO

The last twelve verses of the Gospel of Mark contain some strong evidence for Christians to be used by the Holy Spirit of God to do wonders and signs. In fact, these several verses were apparently so hated that they were left out of some of the earliest manuscripts of the Bible. This has prompted some translators to leave them out of a few of the modern translations as well.

These verses in Mark speak of ordinary believers in Christ manifesting miraculous tongues (languages), casting out devils and healing the sick by laying on their hands. Then the last verse gives the reason for it all: "And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following."

SIGNS ARE CONFIRMATION

This tells us that the preached word needs to be sometimes confirmed by miraculous signs. Yes, that’s what it says. And that was exactly the reason why God caused Moses to perform his wonders -- to confirm God's Word to him and the people. Confirmation is important. People in general just do not necessarily believe God when they hear from Him. They need persuasion.

Reading through the Book of Acts one finds many occasions when God used miraculous signs to gain the attention of people. And, of course, the Lord Jesus did that as well. It was at the temple gate in Jerusalem that Peter and John healed a man, and it resulted in a strong sermon and conversion of many people. And that happened over and over again. Today in America we have other methods for drawing people and trying to persuade them to believe God. But these methods aren't working very well. However, in other places, such as Africa, signs and wonders are still evident, and it is resulting in the conversions of great masses of people. In one of our Waymarks crusades in Malawi we heard a number of testimonies from people about healings, and even one testimony from a man who had been dead two days before. Impossible? Well, tell that to Lazarus when you see him someday in the New Kingdom.

Some of the crowds that attend Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke’s crusades in Nigeria, Africa, are now numbering over a million people in one place, drawn there in part by the signs and wonders that they know they will be seeing and be receiving. The photographs of those huge gatherings are truly awesome to see. And this is happening as well in places in Latin America and elsewhere.

WHAT TO PRAY FOR

So what do we need -- and what should we pray for? (We do sometimes make long prayer lists, don't we?) Well actually, the Bible tells us what to pray for and what to seek. Let's look at Acts, chapter 4, and see if this item is on our list.

On that occasion Peter and John had been arrested and threatened with bodily harm if they did not stop ministering the gospel. They knew the threats were serious, so when they were released they went straight to the church for a prayer meeting. Now just listen to how they prayed: "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto your servants that with all boldness they may speak your Word by stretching forth your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of your holy child Jesus" (Acts 4:29-30).

This is an unusual prayer to us modern Christians. Now, what would we have prayed for on such an occasion? Divine protection, no doubt. But they didn't ask for that. Does this tell us anything about ourselves, and do we really know what God's agenda for us is? Is it for us to live and be well at all costs -- or is it to be used of God as His witnesses to the world? I think we know the answer to that.

So they prayed for healings, signs and wonders, because that is what had caused the flurry of activity and the conversions that had landed them in jail just a few hours before. (Read chapter 3.) They wanted more of it, even at the cost of their own safety and welfare, and they knew that the wonders coming from God would cause it to happen.

OK, how did God respond to that prayer? He actually shook the building and He filled them all with the Holy Spirit (4:31). But hadn't they already been filled with the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost? Yes, they had, but God wants us to be miraculously filled again and again (Ephesians 5:18, etc.). It gives us the power we need (Acts 1:8). Can that happen to us today? If we believe and seek, the answer is yes. If not, the answer is no. We can have it either way.

Loren Wilson