THE GENUINE GIFT OF MIRACLES

Pastor Art Watkins of Coden Bible Church (Coden, Alabama)

May 3, 2017

1 Corinthians 12:7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
1 Corinthians 12:10 To another the working of miracles.

The gift of miracles includes the gift of healing, but it goes beyond healing. A miracle is something obviously supernatural that defies the laws of nature and science. Miracles are not strange happenings or coincidences, sensational events or natural anomalies. Miracles are wrought by God through human agents and they are so extraordinary that they cannot be explained or duplicated.

Miracles in the Bible are also called signs and wonders. For example when God gave Moses and Aaron the gift of miracles they worked signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. When you see what they did you will understand what a real genuine miracle was.

----Moses and Aaron - The Book of Exodus Chapters:

7 Aaron cast his rod down and it became a serpent. When the sorcerers of Egypt did likewise with their rods, Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.

7 Moses smote the waters of Egypt the streams, rivers, ponds and pools of water became blood.

8 Aaron stretched out his rod over the waters of Egypt frogs came up and covered the land and houses of Egypt.

8 Aaron stretched out his rod and smote the dust of the earth in Egypt all the dust in Egypt became lice and covered man and beast.

8 God sent a swarm of flies to cover the land of Egypt and it says the land was corrupted by the swarm of flies.

9 God smote all the cattle in the land of Egypt.

9 Moses took ashes from a furnace and sprinkled it toward heaven and it became boils which covered the bodies of the Egyptians.

9 Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven and God sent fire and hail upon the land of Egypt which killed and destroyed both man and beast and brake every tree in the field.

10  Moses stretched his rod over the land of Egypt and locusts covered the land of Egypt so that the land was darkened and they ate every green thing in the trees and herbs in the field.

10  Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and a thick darkness covered the land of Egypt that could be felt. It was so dark that light could not penetrate it.

14  Moses stretched out his rod over the Red Sea and it opened up and nearly a million Israelites walked across on dry ground.

14  When the Egyptians followed after the Israelites Moses stretched out his hand over the sea the waters returned and drowned the Egyptians.

After the Israelites saw the signs and wonders in Egypt and the miracle at the Red Sea the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and his servant Moses.

15 After Israel traveled three days into the wilderness they came to the waters of Marah, but the water was too bitter to drink. Moses took a tree and cast it into the water and it became sweet.

16  When the Israelites became hungry God sent manna from heaven in the morning and quails to eat in the evening and did so for 40 years. They had bread and meat to eat every day.

17  When there was no water to drink Moses took his rod and smote a rock and water came out of the rock for the whole congregation to drink.

In Numbers 16 Moses spoke the word and the earth opened up and swallowed a group of people who had rebelled and conspired against him.

In Numbers 21 when the Jews were bitten by fiery serpents and died, Moses made a fiery serpent of brass, put it on a pole and all who looked upon it were healed.

In Joshua 10 Joshua asked the Lord to cause the sun and the moon to stand still in the heavens so that he would have enough light to defeat his enemies which came to pass.

They stood still for almost a whole day.

----Elijah and Elisha - 1 Kings Chapter:

17 Elijah prayed and it did not rain or even dew for 3 years in the land of Israel which caused a famine.

17 God sent Elijah bread and flesh in the morning and evening to eat with ravens during the famine.

17 Elijah caused a handful of flour and a very little oil to last for over a year for a widow woman and her son during the famine.

17 Elijah raised a boy from the dead.

18 In a contest with the prophets of Baal Elijah called down fire from heaven to consume an altar of sacrifice satuated with water he had built.

18 Elijah caused it to rain again after three years of famine.

19 Elijah fled from Jezebel and God fed and gave him water to drink by an angel from heaven.

----Elijah and Elisha - 2 Kings Chapter:

1 Elijah called down fire from heaven twice to destroy his enemies.

2 Elijah was caught up into heaven in a whirlwind without dying. After he left, Elisha took his place and he worked many more miracles than Elijah because he was given a double portion of his spirit.

2 He parted the waters of the Jordan River and walked across on dry ground.

2 He healed the waters in Jericho by casting salt into it.

2 He pronounced a curse on forty two children who mocked and blasphemed him and two she bears came out of the woods and killed them.

3 He filled the barren dry wilderness of Edom with water.

4 He caused a number of empty vessels to be filled with oil which a woman took and paid off a debt to keep her sons from becoming slaves.

4 He caused a woman who was barren to conceive and have a child.

4 When the child died Elisha raised him from the dead.

4 There was a famine in the land and the prophets were eating pottage out of a pot and it became contaminated and they could not eat it. Elisha sprinkled a little meal in the pot and it was cleansed and then a man came into the place where they were eating and brought them an abundance of food for them to eat.

5 He cleansed Naaman the leper by telling him to dip 7 times in the river Jordan.

5 He pronounced a curse of leprosy to come on Gehazi his servant for lying and being covetous.

6 One of the prophets dropped a borrowed ax head into the water and Elisha cast a stick into the water and the ax head swam to the shore.

6 Elisha smote the Syrians with blindness.

7 There was a great famine in Samaria so bad that people were turned into cannibals to survive. By the word of Elisha the famine ended in one night.

7 Elisha pronounced a curse of death on a man and he died because he mocked a prophecy that Elisha made.

9 Elisha pronounced a curse of death on Jezebel and described exactly how she would die and it came to pass.

----Christ and the Apostles:

Throughout his ministry Christ worked major miracles and so did the apostles. They healed multitudes of sick people, gave sight to many blind people, caused the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and raised people from the dead.

In John 2, Jesus turned water into wine.

In John 6, Jesus fed 5000 people with five loafs of bread and two small fishes.

In John 6, Jesus walked on water.

In Mark 4, He caused a storm of wind and waves to cease immediately.

In Mark 8, Jesus fed 4000 people with 7 loaves of bread and few small fishes.

In Mark 11, Jesus pronounced a curse on a fig tree and it died immediately.

In Acts 28, when bitten by a deadly viper Paul shook it off into a fire without being harmed.

In Acts 5, the apostles escaped prison without opening the prison doors.

Most of the miracles in the Bible happened in three relatively brief periods of Bible history. In the days of Moses and Joshua, during the ministries of Elijah and Elisha, and in the time of Christ and the apostles. None of these periods lasted more than a hundred years. All three periods of miracles were times when God gave his written revelation, the scriptures to men. They were given when Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible which contain the law. Elijah and Elisha introduced the prophets. And when the apostles wrote the New Testament.

The purpose of the miracles was to convince the people in these three periods of time to believe what God was saying through these men and to convince them to believe what was being written. The knowledge that God gave to Moses and the apostles and prophets by divine revelation has been committed to writing. Once they were committed to writing the revelations ended and so did the need for miracles to convince people to believe.

Today, everything God wants you to know is written in the Bible. Every mystery has been revealed and written down in the word of God. Every doctrine that God wants you to believe has been revealed and written down in the Bible. God is not revealing any new mysteries or doctrines by divine revelation today for the Bible is complete. God does not and will not give you a miracle to convince you to believe him. You must believe what he says by faith and not by sight.

In this article you have seen a sample of the miracles of the Bible. Comparing them with what you see and hear on charismatic TV and radio what do you think? What we see today is a scam and a joke compared to the real thing found in the Bible. Bank tellers are taught to spot counterfeit money by being educated in what true money looks and feels like. In the same way once you see what real miracles look like it is easy to spot the counterfeit. What we see and hear today are counterfeit miracles designed for one thing; to relive you of your hard earned cash.

Don’t let these religious con artists fool you!