Signs and Wonders

Many people realize that neither Catholicism nor the State Church1 are what they ought to be. Therefore we have many assemblies which, taken as a whole, could be called “free churches.” They have left the official, state-supported system and are financially independent. And yet most of these churches have essentially retained the same system as the State Church. They have a paid “pastor” who is in charge of everything. Then there are deacons and elders, who are occasionally permitted to open and close the worship service. Their primary responsibility, however, is the church finances—the business side of things. The pastor and guest preachers take almost complete charge of the spiritual side of things. Their organization “according to the biblical pattern” does not remind us of true liberty or the Spirit’s leading!

It is no easy task, however, to be the “pastor” of such an assembly. They have to speak in such a way that they attract many people and large collections. It is also their task to stir up revival and life. In recent years this routine has become harder and harder to keep up. What they term revival and spiritual life is on the decline. To help make up for this, they have begun to preach about that Great Revival which is to come before Jesus comes again. To keep their assemblies from realizing how dead things are, they have filled their minds with great expectations of glorious times to come, a time of signs and wonders, revival, and finally, the rapture.

One of the best known preachers recently stated to an audience of several thousand people: “I want to prepare this assembly for a period of signs and wonders.” This is unsettling to those who are familiar with what the apostles wrote about the end times—the time just before the lawless one is revealed. Just such a time is coming, but it is the deception of Satan; and God shall send them strong delusion, so that they will believe a lie. Read 2 Thess. 2:9-13. This is the result of a misguided emphasis on signs and wonders instead of on sanctification.

Among the so-called independent assemblies many souls have earnestly sought the fullness of the Spirit in order to live a life of victory, but the spirit of lawlessness has drawn them away from this noble longing to side issues. For the majority of such people, signs and wonders and the baptism of the Spirit have become the main thing, and a life in Jesus’ steps has been utterly displaced. Healing, in particular, through the laying on of hands, has become the big attraction. For them it is the gifts, and not the fruit, that determines whether the tree is good or bad. For many, that which was to confirm the gospel has itself become the gospel. The reason for this is human vanity, the lust for prominence and the spectacular—not a love for the sick!

Satan tried to deceive Jesus in exactly this way, when he tempted Him at the beginning of His public ministry. He tried to get Him to perform signs and wonders. Jesus possessed the gift to do that, and He could have won all the glory of this world—but He was not deceived. He had not come to perform signs and wonders, but to save people from their sins. Therefore Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matt. 4:17. You may ask, “Aren’t the gifts part of the kingdom of heaven?” Yes, but most of the gifts—for example the gifts of healing and prophecy—were also part of the Law in the first covenant. When they kept the law, God promised to remove all sickness from their midst. These spiritual gifts belong to the earthly glory they received in advance, and they are also valuable to us now in our earthly pilgrimage. 1 Cor. 1:7. However, when God creates a new heaven and a new earth, the gifts will pass away.

Jesus sent out the twelve disciples, and also the seventy, giving them power to heal and drive out evil spirits, and He told them to proclaim, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” Luke 10. It had not yet come, but they had received a foretaste of it and were able to perform signs and wonders which, for the seventy, was the source of their joy. They had already gone astray, and Jesus reproved them; but they eventually forsook Him, anyway.

When did the kingdom of God come, then? On the day of Pentecost. That is how near it was. Jesus had it within Him, and in this sense it had come right to them. But only when the Spirit was poured out could the gospel concerning this great salvation be preached by which we can be blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. Eph. 1:3. Signs and wonders are not the gospel, but they confirm the gospel.

Paul was “called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” Rom. 1:1-4.

The gospel is the good news that death has been abolished and that, in its place, life and immortality have been brought to light. 2 Tim. 1:10. If Jesus had come to earth as an angel—or like Adam before the Fall—died and was resurrected, this would not have given me any hope. But since, according to the flesh, He was descended from David and could still rise from the dead, then this is a gospel for me. His was the same flesh as mine and so I too have hope, if I follow Him. Heb. 2:14-18.

“Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel.” 2 Tim. 2:8. The gospel about Jesus! When Paul received the knowledge of Jesus, he counted everything else as rubbish. Then he had the hope of attaining to the resurrection from the dead by being conformed to His death. Phil. 3:8-11.

We need powerful revival to expose the mystery of lawlessness, which deceives people to rejoice in signs and wonders instead of rejoicing in the gospel, which is able to transform us so that we cease to live as mere men, and rather become partakers of divine nature. 1 Cor. 3:3. Therefore, read the message of the apostles which is sanctification; they almost never mention signs and wonders.

Let us take an example: Supposing your wife is paralyzed, this would naturally bring you and your family into great need. If somebody came to visit you who had the gift of raising her up through faith, we all realize what a great glory this would be. But this is only an earthly glory. If your wife were healed yet did not have victory over vanity, being offended, or getting angry, there wouldn’t be much of the kingdom of heaven in her home. There are many marriages that testify to this.

But the new and living way that Jesus consecrated goes through the veil, that is, His flesh—the flesh of David. Heb. 10:19-20. On this way sin in the flesh is put to death, and divine nature takes its place. 2 Pet. 1:4. Then the kingdom of heaven will reign in your home, even if there is sickness in the family. And if you should be sick when Jesus comes again, you will not be left behind on account of that. However, if you were healed and continued to get offended and be vain, you can be certain that you will be left behind.

This shows us how the mystery of lawlessness uses any and every means to try and turn people’s attention from what really counts: sanctification—the new covenant in Jesus’ blood—and to focus on nonessentials.

Even before the day of Pentecost there was much healing and casting out of evil spirits, but they could not be transformed from being carnal, or human, to being spiritual, or partaking of divine nature before the Spirit had been poured out. That could only take place after the day of Pentecost.

Yet even before the day of Pentecost there was such power in the name of Jesus that one who believed in Jesus’ name cast out evil spirits in that name, even though he was not one of the disciples. Mark. 9:38. How much more then would one be able to do this after Jesus was glorified! Many such believers will come on that day and say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” Then Jesus will say to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” Matt. 7:22-23. These have not followed Jesus on the narrow way that leads to life, so Jesus did not know them as His brothers. Yet they had faith in His name, and had been interested in the signs and wonders that were to confirm the gospel, but they didn’t want to have anything to do with the gospel itself—the new covenant.

When the subject of doing God’s will comes up, harlot preachers cry out in alarm: “We can do nothing in our own strength!” Yet these same preachers are not afraid of using their own strength to work up the emotions of their hearers, to appeal for money, and to perform signs and wonders.

May God in His mercy expose this hypocrisy so that those who are upright can be rescued before it is too late.