Give Me A Sign

"The Gospel is full of signs and wonders, testimonies, which we can take hold of and apply to our lives."

EVERYONE WANTS A SIGN. The Jews demanded a sign of Jesus, about His identity. The disciples wanted to know the signs of the end of the age. Moses was given signs to prove he’d spoke with the “I Am.” Jehovah gave him three signs to perform before the elders of Israel, all three of which point to Christ. Christ answered the disciples’ question, speaking at length about the end of the age, wars and rumors of wars and the spread of the gospel. Those being the signs. He answered the Jews with one single sentence that they didn’t get. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He was the sign, yet looking at Him, they couldn’t see Him.

We are the same. We either deny the signs right in front of us, or we seek the signs and not the Signer. There is a song I stumbled across which has the chorus, “All glory in the highest / a born-today Messiah / Let the signs and the wonders begin.” (*Signs & Wonders, by Lute & Lyre) His birth was a sign to the Jews of the fulfillment of the Law. The works He performed were signs of the presence of the Father. His Resurrection was a sign of the coming of the Spirit, who fell at Pentecost with the sign of tongues of fire. And the church was formed and the signs and the wonders which followed it became an everyday happening.

We are supposed to show signs of Him everywhere we go to everyone we meet. Signs and wonders are the evidence of the Gospel. The preaching of the Word brings salvation in its fullness. But it is not the signs we worship, nor well-spoken words. Our heart is changed upon salvation to be His heart. We seek to know Jesus, to know our loving Father, to be intimate with the Holy Spirit, and in seeking, we become like them. We desire to lay hands on the sick so that they recover, so that they are well and blessed and full of joy, and God gets the praise for it.

We read this in the 23rd Psalm where in verse 3, it says He leads us on the path of righteousness FOR HIS NAME’S SAKE. Jesus spoke in this regard as well when talking about prayer to the Father. He said whatever we ask in His name, He will do it, that the Father may be glorified. The Father should never be compared on the same level as human efforts. We reflect Him, both in our answered prayers and in the signs and wonders worked in us and through us to others. It is His righteousness people see, His Holy Spirit, His deliverance, His amazing Savior. What company hires representatives to work for the competition? That is, in effect, what we are doing when we deny God answered prayers.

Men preach salvation out of fear and guilt. This is not His way. He is love. He would have men know His love, experience His love in its fullness, and share it with others. In the beginning, man was commanded to multiply and replenish the earth. This was not just a physical command. But the populace of the earth, in Noah’s day, showed instead the incredible destruction of sin. They multiplied physically but decayed in their mind and were dead at heart. They no longer looked like the image of God. Take two cars, one fully functioning, one which has sat in the junkyard for several years. This car doesn’t run, is missing parts of its motor, and has become destroyed by the weather. We can see it is a car and can read what kind. We can even look up where it was manufactured and who owned it. But it no longer resembles the new car on the lot.

Men have locked God up behind a gate. He is God is name and in grandeur. He is God in power, but evidently, He retired after the book of Acts ends. Why is this, when Jesus came to earth to reveal who the Father was through His every action? Now that we know Him, the Father is in retreat? He is holy, yes, but holiness is not general cleanliness. Holiness is the purity of His power, and power of such absolute virtue never has an ending. What God spoke in Genesis continues to this day because His power which set it into motion will never cease. What God’s power touches must create because His power is eternal. To say He doesn’t heal today is to say His power has ceased when we know it continues to change the heart of men and women who accept the gospel. This same power which raised Christ from the dead lives in God’s children, and what draws people to the gospel and causes them to believe is that God’s power can fix where they are broken.

To tell a man, broken by sin, that God is no longer forgiving and send him away is the same as telling one consumed with disease that God no longer heals. When Jesus healed the man with the palsy who was let down through the roof. First, He spoke forgiveness. The Jewish religious scholars became upset, not believing He had the right to forgive sin, so He spoke to the man, altering His words. “Which is easier to say, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?’ Just so you know I can forgive sins,” He turned to the man sick of the palsy, “Rise, take up your bed, and walk.” The same power that forgave the man his sins also healed him. You can’t separate it. There is no God-strainer. Squeeze here and filter out the healing atoms.

Testimonies are proof of God’s heart for signs and wonders. What one has been healed of, another could also be healed of. Truth is, there is nothing God will not heal men and women of, and no sin He will not forgive, and no hurt He will not mend. That is His heart, and Jesus is the evidence of it. The Gospel is full of signs and wonders, testimonies, which we can take hold of an apply to our lives. Words which enrichen are faith, which cause us to fall in love with Him all over again. And truths which open our eyes to the commission He’s given us, not one part of which we can lay aside. Or else the rest of God’s Word is a lie.

“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (Mark 16:15-18)

Image by CharlVera on Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com