The Gift of Miracles

Question 4052.

The gift of miracles tends to be handled in one of two unhappy ways. Either it is inflated into something sensational, a kind of spiritual circus act, or it is quietly ignored in churches that feel awkward about anything they cannot tidily explain. Neither response does justice to what the New Testament plainly says.

So let me look carefully at the language Paul uses, at how this gift actually worked in the early church, and at how a believer who trusts Scripture should think about it today. As with the other gifts, I want to welcome what God gives while refusing the showmanship that so often surrounds it.

What the gift of miracles is

The gift of miracles is the Spirit-given ability through which God performs acts of power that go beyond the ordinary working of nature. Paul lists it in 1 Corinthians 12:10, and the Greek phrase is dynamis, literally “workings of powers.”

Both nouns are plural, just as they are with healings. Paul is not describing a permanent power that a believer carries about, but particular acts of power that the Spirit produces as He chooses. The gift of miracles, then, is not a possession a person controls but a series of God-given works displayed through a willing servant.

That word for power is the same one used of the mighty works of Jesus throughout the Gospels. When Luke records that “all the people sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all” in Luke 6:19, he uses this very term. The gift of miracles in the church is a lesser, derived echo of that same divine power, never a force that belongs to the worker rather than to God.

Miracles authenticate the message

In the New Testament the gift of miracles served above all to confirm the word being preached. The apostles’ ministry “was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles,” as Hebrews 2:3-4 explains. The miracle was never the point in itself. It pointed to the truth of the gospel and to the Lord who saves.

This is why I am uneasy whenever miracles are placed at the centre of a meeting, with the cross pushed to the edges. When the gift of miracles is genuine, it serves the message of Jesus. When it becomes the main attraction, something has gone badly wrong.

Jesus Himself gently warned against a hunger for the spectacular that does not lead to repentance. He rebuked the towns where most of his mighty works had been done because they “did not repent,” as Matthew 11:20 records. A miracle that dazzles but does not turn the heart to God has, in the deepest sense, failed of its purpose. Signs are servants of the gospel, never substitutes for it.

Does God still work miracles today?

Yes, I believe God still works miracles, and I see no warrant in Scripture for declaring that He stopped. The Spirit “apportions to each one individually as he wills,” and 1 Corinthians 12:11 sets no expiry date on the list. The same God who parted the sea and raised the dead is not weaker today than He was then.

At the same time I notice that even in Scripture miracles cluster around certain moments, the Exodus, the days of the prophets, the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. They were never the daily currency of ordinary believing life. So I expect God to act in power, I ask Him to, and I do not treat the absence of spectacular signs as a sign of His absence.

I would put it like this. God is always able, and He is sometimes pleased, to work a miracle, but He is under no obligation to perform on demand. The gift of miracles remains in His hand to give where and when He chooses, for His own purposes, and our part is to pray with faith and then to trust His wisdom about the answer. That keeps us hopeful without making us presumptuous.

Telling the true from the counterfeit

The Bible warns that not every wonder comes from God. The lawless one comes “with all power and false signs and wonders,” according to 2 Thessalonians 2:9, and Jesus warned that false prophets would perform great signs. The gift of miracles, therefore, must always be tested by the truth, never used to bypass it.

A genuine work of God will agree with Scripture, exalt Jesus and bear good fruit in those it touches. A wonder that draws people away from the gospel or towards a personality is suspect no matter how impressive it looks. You can see how I apply the same testing to related claims in my article on dreams, visions and prophecy today.

Notice too that Scripture never asks us to switch off our judgement just because something astonishing has happened. Moses warned Israel that even a prophet whose sign came true was to be rejected if he then said, “Let us go after other gods,” as Deuteronomy 13:1-3 makes plain. The content of the message tests the miracle, not the other way round. A spectacular event is never a blank cheque for whatever teaching comes attached to it.

Holding the gift rightly

Where God grants the gift of miracles, it belongs under the same rule of order and humility as every other gift. It exists to build up the church and to glorify the Lord, not to elevate the one through whom it comes. The whole sweep of 1 Corinthians 13 keeps these gifts tethered to love and to the good of the body.

I would far rather see a church marked by holiness, love and faithful teaching than one chasing signs. If God adds the gift of miracles to that, wonderful. But the fruit of the Spirit is the surer mark of His presence, as I explain in my piece on the fruit of the Spirit.

Why faith does not demand miracles on cue

There is a deep biblical principle that the life of the believer is to be one of trust rather than constant sight. “We walk by faith, not by sight,” Paul tells the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5:7, and a craving for endless visible proof can actually work against the faith God is forming in us. The gift of miracles is a servant of faith, not a replacement for it, and a Christian who can only believe when wonders are flowing has not yet learned to lean on the bare promise of God.

Jesus said something striking to Thomas along these lines. After inviting the doubting disciple to touch His wounds, He added, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,” in John 20:29. There is a particular blessing reserved for the trust that holds on to God without demanding a sign first. So while I welcome the gift of miracles wherever God grants it, I never want to train people to depend on the dramatic in order to keep believing.

This also protects us from a quiet error that creeps into churches eager for the supernatural, the assumption that the most spiritual gathering is the one with the most astonishing happenings. The truth is that the steady, unspectacular work of the Spirit, convicting of sin, comforting the grieving, and conforming us to Jesus, is every bit as much a work of God as any miracle. A heart changed is no less a wonder than a body healed, even though it draws no crowd and makes no headline.

It is worth remembering, finally, that the greatest wonder any of us will ever witness is the new birth, when a dead heart is made alive and a hardened rebel becomes a beloved child of God. Paul calls it being brought “from death to life,” and nothing in the whole realm of the spectacular surpasses it. If I have seen even one person pass from darkness into light, I have already seen the mighty power of God at work, and that alone should keep my hunger for outward signs in healthy proportion.

So, now what?

Ask God boldly to work in power, for He invites us to pray and He delights to answer. Expect Him to move, but do not measure your faith or His nearness by how many wonders you witness. He is just as present in the quiet, steady work of changing a heart as He is in anything dramatic.

And if God ever uses you in some act of power, hand Him the glory at once and keep preaching Jesus. When you long to see the gift of miracles, ask yourself honestly what you are really hungry for, the display, or the God behind it. Keep your hunger fixed on Him.

God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

ESV, Hebrews 2:4