The Importance of Signs & Wonders

This morning I am reading from John 4:46-53 NIV:

[46] "Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. [47] When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

[48] “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

[49] The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

[50] “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. [51] While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. [52] When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” [53] Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed."

I have been thinking much about the role of the Holy Spirit and how His power affects us, and is so essential to growing in faith and belief. He is a great example of how healing affected the beliefs of an entire family. When one gets healed by the Lord, the whole family is affected.

Secondly, in the past I have read Jesus' response to the man in verse 48, as a mild rebuke. Today I didn't get that impression, rather it seemed to me that Jesus was stating a simple fact. That which differentiated Jesus was exactly the fact that He worked signs and miracles, healings and deliverances. He was not a speaker of the word only, but demonstrated His authority and the reality of the Kingdom through signs and wonders.

He was speaking to a people who knew about God, they were Jews who had a familiarity with the Old Testament prophets and books. They knew about God, but they needed to be convinced that Jesus was who He said He was, and that was generally accomplished through the working of signs, wonders and miracles. Earlier in this chapter Jesus met the Samaritan women at the well and told her everything she had ever done (her words - In 4:39). This prophetic insight into her life was every bit as much of a sign as healing or deliverance. Again, many people believed in Jesus just on the strength of her testimony.

Jesus is simply stating the fact that they, as a people needed signs and wonders to be convinced that His words were true. In much the same way, I believe we all have this same need. Many of us have never seen God work in power and might. Many have not seen a healing or a miracle, and this is partly due to the fact that the church has for many years deemphasized this whole area, because it wasn't something they saw with regularity. Rather than pursuing the Lord for breakthrough in this area, they came up with theology to explain away the lack of signs and wonders. In america we are seeing a significant decline in the church and belief in general, and this is partly due to the fact that people are not convinced by words only approach.

I believe we must see again the signs and wonders, healing and miracles that the Lord desires to do. We must be able to show the world the truth of our beliefs, and that is best demonstrated by these types of actions, things that can not be accomplished in any other way. I have been blessed to see several miracles ad healings first hand, and because of them, I can never doubt the reality of God. So my encouragement this day is to continue to press into the Lord, a asking for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to open the way for healing, signs and wonders. Come Lord Jesus and demonstrate Your Sovereignty and Authority over all disease, sickness and deformity.

Amen Lord!