What Is the Spiritual Gift of the Working of Miracles?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12, Acts 8

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--what-is-the-spiritual-gift-of-the-working-of-miracles
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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for a full discussion you can see my book spiritual gifts but the working of miracles is listed as one of the nine supernatural spiritual gifts of first Corinthians 12 with the indication not everybody is going to exercise every gift. I would say every spiritfilled believer could potentially exercise any of these gifts as the need arises and as the Lord's will Lord wills.

But it's not likely that any one person would be used in all nine, at least not on a regular basis. Um, and it's very likely that when someone is used in certain gifts, they become familiar with that. They yield to that. Uh, they have faith for that, and so they're likely to be used again and again in those same gifts as opposed to different ones. Um, so the the fact that not everyone will exercise this. I think as I've mentioned in other uh other podcasts about other gifts of the spirit, there seems to be a a basic um operation of the spirit that's common to every spiritfilled person.

But then there seems to be a special uh gifting or special gift uh that not everybody shares. So for example, there's the gift of faith. Well, every Christian is saved by faith and every Christian lives by faith. Uh so that is common to everyone. But there is also a gift of faith that is not continuous or not everyone has. And that as I that's a different gift, but uh to be very brief about it, I think there there can come a time of special need where you need extraordinary faith for an extraordinary crisis and God will give you a gift of faith. So that's not going to happen to everybody, but it's going to happen to some.

So I think every Christian prays and expects answers to prayer. So if you define a miracle in that sense, well, every Christian will have a miracle. But yet according to the the context of 1 Corinthians 12, there are some miracles that rise above the ordinary answers to prayer. They're extraordinary occurrences when the need arises that are not going to happen to everybody. So, for example, Philip was miraculously caught up um in Acts chapter 8 and transported. That's a miracle that's not going to happen to everybody. Um the young man named Uticus fell uh and broke his neck and Paul prayed for him and this is more than a healing.

This is a resurrection from the dead. Well, that's a miracle. That's not going to happen to everybody. So in that sense there are certain extraordinary events and let me just read a definition just a basic definition of a miracle. It's an event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God. Uh and so I commented it's an extraordinary unusual occurrence that suspends or transcends the laws of nature as we know them. It involves the direct intervention of God. Of course to God all things are possible. And what is a miracle to us is standard procedure for him.

So we say a miracle or supernatural. Well, that's from our perspective. Nothing is supernatural to God. So maybe we should say nothing is supernatural for a Christian. It's all part of the package. Um God is the creator and as such he can work in ways that are impossible for us. So he's not violating any laws. He's the creator of the laws. So if he wants to move in ways that uh that seem to transcend as a better way the laws as we understand them because actually the laws are what we have written as our understanding of the way things work. But if God decides to work another way well that's not a violation of anything.

That's just what he does. Um so I've defined the working of miracles in this context. The working of miracles is the supernatural intervention of God that transcends the laws of nature in a situation and operates through or with a human vessel. So I think it is a more direct occurrence. I've had some examples that I believe are miraculous. Uh I think maybe I've shared in another podcast some of these things, but we had when I was a pastor, we had a man in our church fall over uh seemingly dead. and as later confirmed by um well the doctor couldn't verify that he died because we prayed for him and by the time the medical personnel came back um he came back to life but this man wasn't breathing.

He didn't have a pulse, didn't have a heartbeat. All the color left his face. He slumped down. His jaw hung open. His eyes rolled back. So, he was dying or dead. And we prayed the first time, nothing happened. We called 911 to get an ambulance. But while we're waiting, we prayed again. When we prayed the second time, suddenly the color came back to his face. He sat up. He opened his eyes. He asked, "What's the problem? I'm fine." And when the medical personnel came, they couldn't find anything wrong. But we they took him to the hospital. The doctor found that the corateed artery in his neck was 99% blocked.

And so he recommended immediate surgery. He said he could die of a stroke literally at any moment. And so I told the doctor, "Well, I think he did die of a stroke uh because look look what happened." And he said, "No, it can't be because if he had died of a if he had had a stroke, we could see the area of his brain that was damaged and also we could see how it has affected you know his movement or hear his speech or something." But he says, "There are no symptoms and there are no signs of the scan." So, no, he couldn't have had a stroke.

So, I said, "What happened?" He said, "Well, he must have just fainted. It's just a coincidence." And you're really lucky that he fainted because you brought him to the hospital and we found this lifethreatening condition and we're able to do immediate surgery and correct it before he dies. Well, that's the only thing the doctor could say because there was no sign. But I'm firmly convinced that yes, he did have the stroke and he was dying or dead and when we pray the second time, God raised him back up. So I would say more than just a healing, that's a miracle. Another example which perhaps I've shared is u years ago when I was traveling in Bulgaria.

It was a tightly controlled communist country and I had the opportunity to be the first uh United Pentecostal preacher to conduct any kind of a service or seminar in that country. So we begin teaching on the oneness of God. But the first time I came in the country and I'll be very brief. I brought the manuscript of the oneness of God hidden uh in it was actually put in the back of the car. Um and so when we crossed the border, they searched our car for 30 minutes and there was the manuscript laying in the back. The guard's hand brushed across it. Uh and we could see it standing outside the car trying not to be too obvious.

We were watching the whole process, but after 30 minutes of searching, he never saw the manuscript. Uh and he waved us on. I believe that was divine intervention. I believe that was miraculous. Second time I went to Bulgaria, I went by myself and I flew by air and I brought the manuscript, the new birth. Of course, we're bringing these manuscripts. We couldn't publish them in the country, but they were translated into Bulgarian and so I was distributing them through a network of house churches and they would make illegal Xerox copies and distribute them to their various house churches. So, um, I was bringing in the manuscript, the New Birth, in Bulgarian.

I put it in the third pocket of my uh briefcase and I was carrying it on or went through security customs and they wanted to search my briefcase. So they put the the guard put his hand in the first pocket, pulled everything out. Of course, I'm mentally thinking, what am I going to say when he pulls out the manuscript? You know, I don't want to really say I'm in contact with illegal house churches, but I don't want to lie. So, what am I going to tell him? I was praying. So, um, he took everything out of the first pocket. The second pocket, he just felt around to see what was in there.

And then when it came time to go to the third pocket, he just closed the briefcase and sent me on my way. I believe that was divine intervention. So, I think we could regard that as the working of miracles. Um, I had another example that could perhaps be miraculous. When I was a very young minister teaching at Jackson College of Ministries, we were in an urgent situation, a financial crisis. And I knew we had a crisis. I didn't know how bad it was. The president was in entertaining offer to sell the campus and close down the school immediately. And a man walked in my office uh where I was working as the assistant vice president.

He said, "I've got a house in the neighborhood I'm trying to sell. I haven't been able to sell. I wonder if you'd be interested. So maybe for one of your faculty members." And I thought, I I don't have time for this. I said, 'Well, I don't know if we could use it. He said, 'Well, I'm just thinking about giving it to the school. So, I I thought, okay. And long story short, uh he gave us the house with the equity, uh which was a huge financial blessing. It I think we netted $60,000, which would be several times that amount today. It was enough to bail us out of our immediate crisis.

But we were at closing and the president was trying to make comment with him and the pre so the man and his wife had to sign the papers too. And uh he said, "What denomination?" He said, "Well, I'm Methodist." And so our president said, "Well, you know, the Pentecostals are a lot like the oldtime Methodists. You know, we have a lot in common." He says, "I'm a modern Methodist." So he thought, "We better not talk any more religion." He he said and you know and so his wife said I don't know why he's giving this to you. You know we we have no connection and there here they are signing the papers.

We kept our mouth shut but I feel like it was God because he had no interest in us. No connection to us. I guess he was wanting a t tax write off but you know I feel like God just led him to that. So um more than just an answer to prayer it seemed to be divine intervention. So, I do believe God works in miraculous lives, miraculous ways in our lives today. We can expect the working of miracles as the need arises and as God wills and as we're led of the spirit.