Our church had a interesting Facebook chat yesterday instead of a church service, due to illness and cold. It was helpful to hear people's perspectives and thoughts on some verses. We were sharing our thoughts on John 14:6-14 which has been one of my favorite verses for a long time. For me, the verses that always resonated the most with me are verses 11 & 12, which I have copied here - [11] "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. [12] Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:11-12 NIV).
I am so aware of the way the Lord ties belief and faith to His signs and works (healings, miracles, etc). The Father's intent was that these signs would convince people that Jesus was His son, and represented Him here on earth, which is essentially what Jesus says in verse 11. Then Jesus issues the stunning prophecy, that those who believe in Him will do these same works, and even greater things! He is talking about His followers and the future Church! He fully intended that the Church would be built on the foundation of His words and works. He also intended that those who continued His ministry would follow the exact same pattern of ministry, including His works.
One of the things that is astounding to me, is that Father entrusted the Church to us, that He expects us to do the same things that Jesus did! I am amazed at His faith in us! His faith was clearly rewarded in the lives of the Apostles and early Church, one wonders how He feels about our efforts today? I would say that He has the same faith in us, for His plan has never faltered, never failed and never been delayed! When the Lord spoke of the days to come, of people who believed in Him, but had never seen Him (John 20:29), He was seeing all of us, from Paul all the way down to the most recent converts, and everyone in between and to come. He knows our weakness, our human frailty and sinfulness, our struggle to maintain our faith, and yet He knows that we will prevail and successfully complete His commission.
There are many times that I look at my life and think, I don't see these works, these signs coming from my ministry, and I think that somehow I am either lacking or not who He meant when He said, "Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing". However, I am encouraged this morning that this line of thinking is a lie from the bowels of hell. While the Lord clearly does impart gifts, and the Holy Spirit does recognize individual gifting, the prophesy is for all who believe. The Greek word used here is pisteuon, and it is defined as follows:
From pistis; to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e. Credit; by implication, to entrust (especially one's spiritual well-being to Christ) -- believe(-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with.
In other words, anyone who puts their faith in Jesus, who believe that it is He who is working through you, who gives credit to Jesus for the things that are accomplished, these will do these works. This is really what it means to pray, "In Jesus' Name", it is a clear recognition that He is the one doing the work, He is the one that is receiving the credit.
I am reminded on one of the first miracles that followed after Jesus' Ascension, the healing of the man at the Gate Beautiful, as recoded by Luke in Acts 3:1-26. I am just going to quote two of the verses - Acts 3:6,16 NIV:
[6] "Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
And when Peter was asked to explain this miracle, this is what part of what he said:
[16] "By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see."
Peter was giving all the credit to Jesus, it was in His name that Peter commanded the man to walk, and it was Jesus name and faith in Him that healed the cripple. Oh, that we would once again see the Name of Jesus lifted high, given credit for the healings, signs, wonders and works, as He demonstrates through us that YES, HE IS THE SON OF GOD!
Lord, I pray that faith in You, in Your Name would rise up in each of us! You have faith in us, help us to have faith in You!
Amen and Amen!
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