Prophetic Article - September 2004
Signs and Wonders
Signs and wonders followed Jesus everywhere He went. In fact John 21:25 tells us that if all the things Jesus did on earth were recorded the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. Jesus demonstrated that God is a God of action and that He loves to act on our behalf. If we are not seeing the reality of God's presence manifesting itself on the earth it is not because of His lack of desire.
That Jesus was a man of action is further illustrated in Acts 1:1 where Luke tells of all that Jesus began to do and teach. It is significant that Luke's summary of Jesus' ministry on earth emphasizes His actions by mentioning them first. This first verse of the book of Acts also links the lifestyle of Jesus with that of the early Christians. One of the prominent features of the early church was the signs and wonders that were performed in their midst. Signs and wonders are once again going to become common among those who serve the Lord. They reveal an aspect of His nature which is critical to His end-time purposes.
There is much the bible teaches us about the purpose of signs and wonders and how to walk in them.
Confidence to Act
God uses signs and wonders to give us the confidence to obey His instructions. Signs and wonders are often the result of desperate seeking after God. A good of example of this is found in the life of Gideon. The nation of Israel had been subject to the oppression of the Midianites for seven years. Because of this oppression the Israelites cried out to the Lord, desperate for deliverance. Unexpectedly the Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon while he was threshing wheat in a winepress for fear of the enemy. The Angel told Gideon to go and deliver his people from the oppression of the Midianites. Gideon responded;
"If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You." And He said, "I will wait until you come back." So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. The Angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so. Then the Angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the LORD departed out of his sight (Judges 6:17-21).
This was the first sign that was given to Gideon. It gave him enough confidence to obey the Lord's command to tear down his father's altar to Baal. Gideon, however, was still afraid of the people and tore the altar down in the night when no one could see him do it. After this the Midianites and their allies gathered for war against Israel. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon and he blew the trumpet to gather the men of Israel for war.
Gideon still lacking confidence asked God to show him another sign. He put a fleece out over night and asked God to confirm His word by making the fleece wet with dew but the ground dry. God performed the sign. Gideon then asked God to perform another sign, this time he asked that the fleece be dry but the ground covered with dew. Once again God performed the sign.
The number of Israelites gathered for battle numbered 32,000. At God's command this number was reduced first to 10,000 and then 300.
It happened on the same night that the LORD said to him, "Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant, and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp." Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude. And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, "I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed." Then his companion answered and said, "This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp." And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, "Arise, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand" (Judges 7:9-15).
The result: The Midianties were completely defeated.
Gideon received four supernatural signs before He obeyed God's original command. This was necessary because he was so fearful and the signs gave him confidence to act. Likewise God supernaturally caused the walls of Jericho to fall down when the Israelites marched into Canaan. This gave them confidence to go on and take the rest of the land. The question we must ask is this: Does God still want us to "put out fleeces" as Gideon did? Romans 8:14 makes it clear that we are to be led by the Spirit of God rather than "fleeces." The issue is this: We are not to stay fearful. As Proverbs 28:1 says, "The righteous are as bold as a lion."
God often gives signs and wonders to multiply faith and courage to His people. However, we must realize that ultimately we are not waiting for God to perform signs and wonders but rather He is waiting for us to act in simple obedience to His word. You see, signs follow men and women of action (see Mark 16:15-18, Matthew 10:7-8). Fear keeps us from action. The fear of man paralyses and nullifies our faith in God. The fear of God causes us to obey His commands without hesitation. As Leonard Ravenhill has said, "A man who is intimate with God is not intimidated by people." Signs confirm that we are on the right road, much like the small highway signs that let you know you are still on the same highway. If signs and wonders are not happening then we must question if we are in fact heading in the right direction.
Miracles of Provision
Another major purpose of signs and wonders is to release God's supernatural provision. Abraham serves as a good example of this when he was commanded by God to offer his only son Isaac as a living sacrifice. This was an incredibly hard thing for Abraham to do. Isaac was the child of promise that God had supernaturally given to Abraham when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah his wife was 90 years old. Isaac was Abraham's most precious possession. In obedience to God, Abraham took Isaac to the mountain of sacrifice.
Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" So he said, "Here I am." And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-WILL-PROVIDE; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of The LORD it shall be provided" (Genesis 22:9-14).
This miracle of provision happened for Abraham because of his obedient response to God. James says it this way, "Faith without works is dead. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?" (James 2:20-22). There are many signs and wonders that God willingly desires to perform on our behalf but we miss because what He is asking costs us too much.
A further miracle of provision is described in the book of 2 Kings. The city of Samaria was being besieged by the Syrians. Because of the siege no one was able to go in or out of the city. Things became so bad that women were even eating their children to survive. In the midst of this hopeless and desperate situation God used four lepers to turn things around for the whole city.
Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, "Why are we sitting here until we die? "If we say, 'We will enter the city,' the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die." And they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians; and when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise no one was there. For the LORD had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses-the noise of a great army; so they said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us!" Therefore they arose and fled at twilight, and left the camp intact-their tents, their horses, and their donkeys-and they fled for their lives. And when these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank, and carried from it silver and gold and clothing, and went and hid them; then they came back and entered another tent, and carried some from there also, and went and hid it. Then they said to one another, "We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore, come, let us go and tell the king's household" (2 Kings 7:3-9).
When things become tough it is so easy to become victimized and just sit around having a pity party. What changed this particular situation was the fact that four lepers received a simple revelation - if we approach the enemy we have nothing to lose? We are going to die just sitting around doing nothing so we might as well stand up and take some action. The most interesting aspect of this miracle is that God waited until the lepers made a move before He acted. We are all called to be God's change agents. So often we can cry out for God to intervene and change a situation when all the time He is shouting at us, "You change the situation."
Walking on Water
So what are some of the keys to walking in signs and wonders? One of the best examples we can learn from is Peter walking on water. The situation was as follows. Jesus made His disciples get into a boat and go before Him to the other side of the lake. The disciples continued to row late into the night as there was a strong wind against them. Some time between 3am and 6am Jesus appeared walking on the water. The disciples were terrified thinking He was a ghost. After Jesus told them it was He, Peter responded by saying;
"Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus (Matthew 14:28-29).
There were twelve disciples in total and yet only Peter walked on the water. Why? Peter demonstrated four qualities that are essential for anyone who desires to walk in the supernatural.
1. Desire. Peter would never have walked on water if he had no desire to do so. God has created us to do supernatural works. Many people confuse this desire with pride. It is not pride to desire to do the works that Jesus did. In fact Jesus commands us to do supernatural works. Jesus never rebuked Peter for his desire to walk on water. He did, however, rebuke him for his lack of faith when he looked at the waves around him and begun to sink.
2. Childlike Faith. Peter had childlike faith. Jesus trained His disciples by example. First He would demonstrate the supernatural act and then He would command His disciples to do likewise. Peter was a fast learner, "If He can do it, I can do it also." Child-like faith does not ask questions, it responds in simple faith.
3. Pro-active Response. Peter didn't wait to see if it was God's will or not. He asked knowing full well that if it really was Jesus He would command him to walk on the water. Many do not walk in signs and wonders because they hold back from immediate action, preferring the apparent safety of cautious and tentative response.
4. Risk-taking. By stepping out of the boat Peter took a risk. Such risk takers either sink or walk on water. There are always many critics when we step out of the boat and sink. But such critics never actually walk on water.
From www.heartofdavidministries.org
© 2004 by Nathan Shaw. All Rights Reserved.
This article may be reproduced in its entirety, for non-profit purposes only, and must include the copyright reference.