Flying With Bluebird

There seems to be a distinct divide throughout the church where some are adamant believers of the more spiritual supernatural side of Christianity (spiritual gifts, miracles, etc…) and others firmly believe that the miraculous no longer occurs in today’s world but were reserved for Biblical times. I dare to say that yes, God still does speak to us through dreams, miracles and by providing us with spiritual gifts. What reason do I have for this? To best address the issue, let’s first look at why some believe that the spiritual supernatural is no longer for today.

1. We no longer see miracles or hear from God.

The lack of healing in the streets and God’s voice booming from a mountaintop are probably the biggest reasons some believers don’t believe the spiritual supernatural occurs anymore. There are a few things that are rarely acknowledged with this thought process. The first is that the Bible spans approximately 3,700 years. There are only 83 named miracles in the Old Testament and the OT takes up a significant portion of those 3,700 years. This would equate to 1 miracle every 40 years or so on average. Based on this, most people would only see 1 or 2 miracles in their lifetime.

The second is that people tend to focus on the experience of the early church. This was a time where there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. There was a huge influx of miracles happening in a short amount of time. Obviously this isn’t the trend we saw in the OT with 1 miracle every 40 years.

Lastly, people rarely acknowledge how many witnesses there were to the miracles in the Bible. Even with Jesus many of his miracles were isolated to only a handful of people. Even more so in the Old Testament. We know about these events because the few who saw them wrote it down or passed them on through storytelling. Even if you haven’t experienced a miracle doesn’t mean one hasn’t happened to those around you. The majority of people, even non-believers, when asked will say that they have had an unexplainable occurrence happen to them. Whether they had a strong hunch that saved their life or items reappearing right when they needed them. Many don’t share for fear of the reactions or that they won’t be believed. But I believe that these occurrences are God reaching out to people or, in some cases, may be the demonic trying to influence people.

2. The Bible is the complete and living word of God. There is no need for anything more.

Some people believe that the Bible is the complete word of God and its ‘living’ nature allows it to bring us revelation. The word is living but what they mean by complete is that everything we need to know to live our lives can be derived from reading the Bible.

The argument that the Bible is ‘complete’ comes from Hebrews 1:1-3:

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word….

At face value it seems reasonable, as the Bible is God’s word, to assume that nothing more is relevant. It is absolutely fair to say that God’s word is sustaining, but the problem with cherry picking this verse is that it was written before the Bible as we know it was fully written. Revelations was written approximately 16-47 later than the book of Hebrews. This doesn’t mean we need to start removing books from the Bible. Arguably, we would then have to remove everything past the gospels. Instead, we need to look at the phrase ‘the word of God’ more literally. ‘The word of God’ doesn’t necessarily translate literally to ‘the Bible’. It simply means ‘every time God has spoken’, whether directly or indirectly.

The fact that God spoke beyond what was ‘necessary’ (i.e. through and about Jesus Christ) it is fair to reason that God still wishes to speak further on these matters. And if He is not done speaking on these matters, it fairs to reason that He may have more He would like to say on other matters as well.

3. Miracles existed to confirm Jesus Christ as Lord. Since this has happened, there is no need to confirm it again.

One perspective is that miracles and spiritual gifts ended with the early church. Some believe that the only purpose for the spiritual supernatural was to establish God as the only true god and to confirm that Jesus Christ is Lord. The biggest issue here is that non-believers look at the Bible the same way we look at stories in mythology. Just because someone wrote it down, doesn’t make it true. Why would they choose to believe that Jesus heals people instead of the Greek god of healing, Asclepius? They have no reason.

God still confirms himself and Jesus today. He brings revelation to non-believers by speaking to them directly, through dreams, through other believers and through his word. We established in the last point that the word of God is living. That in itself implies that there is something special about it. There is something happening in this Book that isn’t happening in any other book. Does that not count as a miracle? And if God is still working through that, then why not in other ways?

As Christians we are taught to bring our troubles to God in prayer. We ask him for help- to change a situation or give guidance. Let me ask you: when you pray to God, are you asking him to do something big for you? Something that’s extremely difficult, maybe even impossible, for you to do yourself? If no, then why bother asking? If you can achieve this on your own then what is the point of asking him to do it? If yes, then aren’t you essentially asking him for a miracle? Which would then imply you believe, at least to some extent, that God is granting miracles even today. An answered prayer is only one form of the miraculous and only one way in which God speaks to us. He is still moving in many other ways today!

Ultimately, what it comes down to is that God cared about and interacted with people thousands of years ago. Why would He not continue to do so with us? The Bible is a tool to guide us but it doesn’t always address special circumstances happening in our lives. God wishes to know us and to tailor messages to us and what is going on with our personal lives. He guides us so that we may benefit and bring benefit to others. Our dreams are just one of the many ways in which He does this.