It's Convincing Power

The Ministry of Signs and Wonders:
Its Convincing Power

    The apostle Paul was very effective in his witness to both Jews and Gentiles.  He credited the secret to his effectiveness not only to the preaching of the Word, but also to the mighty signs and wonders that accompanied the Word he preached:

    “... to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.... I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:18-19)

    I am personally fully persuaded that one of the most convincing methods to convince the multitudes of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and that He is Who He said He was, is when the message is accompanied by The Ministry of Signs and Wonders.  The Message and the miracles should go hand in hand.
    Even though Paul stated that it was the mighty signs and wonders that made the Gentiles obedient, He also included the fact that it also happened the Word and that he fully preached the gospel of Christ. 

    “... it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21.)
   
    Multitudes can also be convinced that the Gospel is true by the bare preaching of the easy-to-understand Gospel of Jesus Christ, validated by the voice of Holy Spirit that affirms the Word.  This truth is evidenced by the ministries of many great preachers today as well as those of the evangelistic pioneers of previous generations such as Billy Sunday and Billy Graham.  However, God’s full plan is that the preaching of the Word be followed up and confirmed by signs and wonders.  Such supernatural manifestations are powerful weapons that may convince both multitudes and individuals of the truth of the Gospel.
    There is also a place for straight forward reason and debate, which also bring people into the Kingdom of God, yet the greatest reasoner and debater of the early church—the apostle Paul, also employed the power of signs and wonders to convince people about the Gospel.
    Many people can reason and debate today, but can they also operate in the power of God.  We should be able to do both. 

    “And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, Opening and alleging  that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.  And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few” (Acts 17:2-4.)

    Here we have an example where Paul used the power of intellectual reasoning, focused on the death and resurrection of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, to bring Jews, Greeks and woman to faith.  Yet, when we read the book of Acts we find that the supernatural power of God and The Ministry of Signs and Wonders was prevalent in his ministry an extraordinary way.
     I am reminded of something that happened in a small meeting while I was preaching and ministering in the open air in Malawi.  An intoxicated man came up to me.  Even though he was intoxicated, I could still sense that he was sincere.  (I have been around intoxicated people enough to know the difference.)  He asked me to pray for his son, because he knew that God was with us.  How did he know that God was with us?  By The Ministry of Signs and Wonders.
    This is his story:  he was just passing by our meeting and he did not pay much attention to us.  However, when he passed by, something supernatural happened.  He had had a very big boil on his leg, but when he came close to us the boil disappeared!  He felt compelled to tell me about it, so we checked it, and, yes—he was healed!
    It was the sign and wonder of his healed leg that convinced him.  He accepted Jesus as his Savior, and we prayed for his son.  I received a letter about four years or so later from this man.  No only was he still serving the Lord, but he had also become a preacher of the Gospel!
    Another example is when I held a three-week “revival” (series of extended meetings) in Baltimore, MD.  Initially, I was only scheduled to preach there on the Sunday morning and evening.  But God was so powerfully at work among us that the pastor and I felt that we should continue the meetings.  In spite of some of the worst snowstorms, the people kept coming and God did great things among us.
    One night a lady walked into the church asking to be delivered from the devil inside her.  Two pastors agreed with me in prayer for her, and she was radically transformed.  I mean really transformed!  The word transform also means “to change in outward shape or semblance” in addition to “change in nature, disposition, heart, or the like.”
    Not only did God change her on the inside—He transformed her on the outside also.  Two nights later I was approached by that lady at the altar of that church.  I was completely unaware that she was the very same lady.  I could not believe the difference in her face, her clothing and her eyes.  A complete transformation had taken place in her!
    We asked her how she wound up coming to the revival.  Here’s her story:  She was walking by this church, which it was like a storefront and did not resemble a church.  She was on her way to buy “another bottle,” because she was an alcoholic.  Suddenly, she literally felt something tug her on her coat and draw her into the building.  Once she was inside she realized that she had just walked into a revival service, and that we were praying for people for deliverance.  That was the night that we prayed for her, and saw God totally transform her life.
    Was it the Holy Spirit or perhaps some angel of God that drew her into the church that night?  Either way, it was this sign and wonder that convinced her that the Gospel was real and that it was able to deliver her.
    I have seen how signs and wonders in South Africa served to lead people to Christ a couple of times.  A dear brother came up to me and told me his story.  He was in his right mind, but I could tell by the grave look on his face that he was serious.  He said a man wearing a baseball cap walked right into his room that at about 4 am and told him to go to our outreach that night, for he would be healed there.  He had no idea who this man was.  Could it have been an angel?  It was this sign and wonder that brought him to the outreach.
    At another open air evangelistic outreach I held, some intercessor-ladies were blowing the shofar a number of times.  At another location a man heard an audible voice tell him to “go to where the trumpets were blowing,” for he would find God there.  Again, a sign and wonder convinced him.
    God utilized miracle signs and wonders for the sole purpose of convincing the children of Israel Who their God was, that His Name was Yahweh—I am that I am, and that He had spoken to His prophet Moses about their deliverance:

    “And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign” (Exodus 4:8.)

    If we are to successfully represent God, then the Church at large will have to operate in at least the same kind of supernatural power in which Moses did.  Yet He wishes for us to operate in even a greater power—that of Jesus Christ.
    I am not insinuating that the convincing power of signs and wonders will go something like this:  “Okay, watch this miracle… Wow, viola! Okay now accept Jesus...”  The Ministry of Signs and Wonders is not like a magic show. 
    If people don’t truly open their heart to Jesus by faith, I don’t think that any miracle would convince them.  I think those with faith will believe even if they don’t see a miracle, and those without faith won’t believe even if they see a miracle.  Some say that they would believe when they see, but it’s the other way around—you see when you believe.
     It was a sign and wonder that convinced King Nebuchadnezzar that God was with the three Hebrew men in the fiery furnace.  They did not burn nor smell like smoke, and a fourth man walked in the fire with them, and his likeness was as a son of God.  Later on in his life he made this proclamation:

    “Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied to you.  I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me.  How great are his signs!  And how mighty are his wonders!  His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation” (Daniel 4:2-3.)

    Many of the political, entertainment and financial powers that be remain untouched and unimpressed by the Gospel.  But God will invade their comfort zone by mighty signs and wonders that will break down the walls false and arrogant human reasoning.  The “political correctness” myth will be swept away, and truth will prevail.  Nebuchadnezzar even said:

    “Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill:  because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort” (Daniel 3:29.)

    That sounds so much different than the God-mocking powers that be in our generation.  Signs and wonders will bring fearful conviction with them.    When God miraculously saved Daniel’s life in the lion’s den, King Darius wrote:

    “...Unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.  I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and steadfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end.  He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions” (Daniel 6:25-28.)

    The signs served clearly to convince the readers that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God, and that by faith they may have life through His Name.

    “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:  But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:30-31.)

"Miracles for the Multitudes" is a combination of two focal points of Joel Hitchcock's Ministry, namely:

(a) Miracles, Signs and Wonders and (b) Massive Miracle Campaigns

This Blog is based on Dr. Joel Hitchcock's book "Miracles for the Multitudes".  

 
Copyright since 1999:
All rights reserved under international copyright law. 
Permission to duplicate is hereby granted as long as the complete quote does not exceed more than 1,000 words and that due credit is given to the source.

For the website of the church led by Pastor Joel and Heidi Hitchcock in Georgetown DE, which is an exciting Pentecostal, Charismatic, Word of Faith, Cross-of-Christ preaching church in Sussex County, Delaware, go to www.rivercity.co.

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