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One of the questions that come to the minds of many believers in Christ is about the signs that follow them that believe. Is God still doing these things in the believer today the same as he did then? The answer to this is found in our daily lives as we live and walk with Jesus in obedience to his will.

Today we have a variety of ideas and views about divine healing, snake handling and casting out devils, etc. We will also find that the view of this and that of the early Apostles is very different indeed. Abiding in Christ is the key to the mysteries of seeing his mighty hand in our lives, rather than the demonstrations and theaters of awe and entertainment that we have created in order to see a show of God’s power. Christianity has become a joke across America and people are becoming more and more convinced of that as they watch the performance of Christians in their attempts to demonstrate the reality of God.

One such attempt to demonstrate God’s power happens in the mountains of Georgia and other states where poor, uneducated people gather to worship God in an unusual manner. This unusual worship is called snake handling. This has been going on for decades as people gather in little churches and bring out the rattlesnakes. As the congregations begin to worship and try to build their faith they begin to hold rattlesnakes in their hands sometimes wrapping them around their arms and necks. If the rattlesnake doesn’t bite the person that is handling the snake everyone is amazed at God’s power and that person is attributed to having great faith.

This practice of snake handling is based on Mark 16: 18 that says, "they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it will not hurt them". Even though some go for years sometimes without being bitten or even as others are bitten often and do not die, is this the will of God? God is very merciful to our ignorance of his Word but in many cases in these meetings people have died because of their so-called lack of faith. Over the years, many have died in this practice. Is this what Christianity is about? Is it a contest to see who has or demonstrates the greatest faith? Many in this same group also drink strychnine or other poisons and if they die they didn’t have enough faith, but if they live they have great faith. If they died the people still thought that the person that took the poison or handled the snakes were doing what the scriptures said to do and that they went to heaven. It is believed that by at least attempting to walk in this interpretation of scripture that we are pleasing God and being obedient to his Word.

If we believe this we are very deceived because our focus should be on God and him being glorified rather than on us and who has great faith among us. God is glorified through our good works not our demonstrations (Matthew 5:16). Most of us realize how ridiculous it would be to take up a serpent or drink poison intentionally because we realize that God has a different meaning behind this than the surface value of the scripture. In fact to do this on our own as a test of faith is as bad as Satan tempting Christ to jump off of the pinnacle of the temple to see if God would really prevent him from being hurt. Jesus rebuked the devil for this and ignored his request. God doesn’t want us to run foolish test to test our faith. If we feel the desire to do something to test our faith, we should reject it, there are enough tests in real life that will be sufficient for such a test without us having to create one of our own. We realize of course that this open display of snake handling and drinking poison is supposed to be a show or demonstration of God’s power to supposedly win the lost and lead others to Christ. Not surprisingly I do not think that very many people want to visit a church such as this for fear that there might be an unnoticed rattlesnake under their seat. It is possible for God to keep us from dying from snakebite or from being poisoned under certain conditions that would be according to his will. But to purposely set up a show to do this is totally out of God’s will.

Is Christianity and taking the Gospel to the World about a show? Millions believe that it is. We are living in a sad time because of this. Sometimes it makes me wish that I had lived a couple of hundred years ago in the days of John Wesley or Matthew Henry. There were many great men of God during their generation and they had a much better understanding of the principles of Christianity than most of us today. I am sure that there are many good Christians today but our understanding has been darkened by what we see demonstrated all around us, especially on television. The mistaken belief about snakes and poison being an open show should tell us how easy it is to misinterpret the rest of the things that are given in the same scripture. Mark 16: 18: They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. It is easy to see an understand how that snake handling and taking poison was not to be used as a show, yet many have fallen into the same trap with healing the sick. The compassion that Jesus has for the sick has been removed from the intimate loving relationship that God has to the individual and taken to the circus arena. We highly misunderstand what took place in the Bible because of the greatness and the fascination of the miracles that occurred there.

Do I believe that healing is still possible for us today? Absolutely, but the destructive misuse and misunderstanding of his will and purpose for us is destroying Christianity in the eyes of the World. We appear to be nothing but fools and we have it coming. Why, because we don’t use good sense.

If we are to learn anything concerning God’s plan for healing we will not be able to do it by watching the TV preachers. We will learn from the examples that the Jesus and the Apostles set forth in scripture. Read the Bible and find out how Jesus and the apostles did it. They did not set up revival signs and advertise healing services. They didn’t sell books and pamphlets on promises that were supposed to be used to bring about healing. But, they relied on something else beside themselves to work in their lives to bring healing and deliverance to those around them. They relied on God to work his will in them.

God’s will is something that is ignored by many evangelists today because God’s will contradicts their view on scripture. So the will of God doesn’t have any place in their teachings. Jesus told us that if we would abide in him and he in us and that his word abode in us that we could ask anything and that he would do it. I believe this to be true, but what most of us have a tendency to do is to ignore the "if" word at the beginning of this scripture. Abiding in Christ and he in us, and his word abiding in us is a lot deeper than we realize. It consists of walking with Jesus and allowing him to direct us by the Spirit. It also means for us to follow his teachings that he has given to us to follow. It is interesting to see how we handle this concept. It is so interesting to watch a generation that is so used to getting everything right now. There is a very small amount of patience or understanding in our generation when it comes to a divine walk with God.

We do not teach on God’s Providence anymore so it is hard to understand that God is at work in his people. We are not getting the message that he wants us to receive. God wants to perform his will in us but are we willing to let him do this?

God has been healing ever since the Gospel message first went out and we don’t realize it. Not until around the turn of the twentieth century did Christians begin to try to make a show or demonstration of his healing power. Before that the early church operated a lot differently concerning the healing of the sick. But, to most of us who are unlearned we sit in the dark about it. John Wesley the preacher that was accredited to starting the Methodist Church was in a service where the speaker was preaching on Mark 16 about the signs that follow the Gospel. While he was preaching a man that was crippled that sit in that meeting was instantly healed by the power of God. John was very blessed by this and knew that it was God that did it. God just simply did it, he didn’t do it to put on a show or to draw thousands of sinners in, but just did it because he loved that crippled man that was sitting there in that meeting. Sometimes God does use this type of thing to bring others to him to be healed and to be saved but it is not something that we ourselves sit down and plan out. It is not up to us. We just don’t get it and most of us don’t have the patience for it.

We must understand that Jesus did not do anything unless the Father told him to do it. He said that he had come to do the will of his Father and not his own. Every word he spoke, every act that he did was exactly what the Father wanted him to do. Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead but all of these actions were not according to his own will but according to the will of the Father. I am sure that the feelings of Jesus were moved by many of these things because we can see his compassion for those that were suffering and his anger for those that opposed him for healing the sick. But there was not anything that Jesus did apart from the Father’s will.

Jesus did not try to use healing as a sideshow in fact he often told the people that he healed not to tell anyone that he had done it. He did this for the basic reason that he did not want them to try and make him a king or something before his time but there is a humbling side to this. What if this were the way we did it today? What if we tried to keep it a secret as well? Jesus never called the sick to him like we do today. Today we put up healing service signs and advertise our healing services on TV. We teach that everyone should be healed and that it is already done and all sorts of things that are unscriptural to pull people into the type of healing ministry we seem to have. He didn’t call the people to him but the people came to him just the same. Why did they come? It was because God the Father sent them to him. No man can come to Jesus unless the Father sends him and in this case they were sent by the Father to be healed. Jesus just simply went about his day prepared to do anything that the Father wanted him to do. If he felt the need to do something he did it and God would work out the rest of the details. It is hard for us to trust God in this same manner.

The healing and miracles that Jesus performed were all providential. This means that God worked according to his foreknowledge and caused things to happen that led to the healing of the people that were healed in Israel. Jesus was the vehicle that God used for this to happen. It was already predestined for Jesus to heal the people that were healed in Israel. We find this by looking at the true meaning of the scripture in Isaiah 53: 4 that says this concerning those that were healed in Israel. " Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." Matthew told us concerning this scripture that Jesus fulfilled it when he went about healing the sick in Israel.

When Jesus was healing the sick in Israel he was fulfilling scripture about this. It was God’s predestinated plan for Jesus to heal as many in Israel that would come to him and believe. Multitudes came to Jesus to be healed but only because the word got out that he could do it. God was working through Jesus to fulfill his word. He would remove sickness and sorrow from Israel yet after he had done all of this, they would still reject Jesus and crucify him. It was the spirit of God that brought people to Jesus to be healed he didn’t go out and try to gather them up. God did it. This is the way that a Spirit led person will conduct himself with God. We go about doing good making ourselves available to do anything that God asks and then God works with us to perform his will in us. This is exactly what he did with Jesus.

This is also what he did with the Apostles. Even though they received the commission to go into the entire world and preach the Gospel there were still things that God wanted them to do before they left. They didn’t just jump up and take off for India or some other place. They waited on God’s direction and leading by the Holy Ghost. They were given direction by the Holy Ghost as the time came for them to do the things that God had called them to do. This works in the area of healing as well. It is important for us to recognize this for ourselves in our walk with God. God is still working through the Church the same as he did then. It is the teachers and leaders that are teaching in the arena of healing that is leading the Church away from the simplicity of Christian living and God working his divine will through individuals in the Church. We must get our direction from the Holy Ghost in order to be effective in doing God’s will.

But to many this would only complicate things for themselves, you see why should we be concerned with God’s will when all we have to do is hold a healing service and invite everyone out to it? You may feel that this is what God wants you to do but it is very unscriptural to do this. Our message is the Gospel of Jesus Christ not a healing service. If God chooses to heal during a service where the Gospel is being preached and I mean the faith once delivered to the saints, then it will be him doing it not ourselves. He didn’t send the apostles out to hold healing services, he sent them to preach the Gospel and while they were preaching different things happened by God’s providential hand that brought about signs and wonders in the form of healing and miracles. This does not mean that we cannot pray for the sick during a worship service. Any time God moves on us to be involved in praying for the sick or calling on the church to pray then he will also perform the healing. But we must be abiding in Christ in order for these things to happen in our lives. Outside of this it will be difficult for us to follow his leading.

A good example of how this works is Peter and John at the gate "Beautiful". They were on their way to worship God at the temple when they come upon a crippled man that sat there every day. It is interesting to note that he was probably there when Jesus was healing the sick in Israel. Jesus may have even walked right by this man. But, God had a different plan for this man that would glorify him in a different way. They didn’t go to the Temple to hold a street service and preach the Gospel; this was not their intent. They had gone to the Temple to pray. But as they entered through the gate a crippled beggar sat there that was carried daily to the Temple. Peter and John prayed for this man and he was instantly healed. This was not something that they had planned it just happened as God’s love worked in their hearts. The crowd gathered around as the crippled man rejoiced. In trying to explain what had happened so that people wouldn’t think that they had done this through their own righteousness or holiness. This evolved into preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to this curious crowd. This didn’t happen because Peter and John had planned it to happen, but because God had a different plan than theirs and this is the way God works with and through us if we are in tune with him. In fact this is the way God wants to reveal himself in us every day. It doesn’t have to be with miracles and healing but God manifests his love to us if we abide in him and seek him in prayer.

Seeking God in prayer seems to be as distant to the Church today as desiring God’s will to be done in their lives. People distance themselves from these two things because it requires something from them. It may interfere with their favorite TV programs or any number of things. But the Christians in our day need to return to reading the Bible, praying and seeking God for his will in their lives. It is as lost from the Church as a distant star that is sometimes brought to our attention by a faint twinkle in the heavens. We need to turn off the TV preachers and get into the Bible and prayer. God would be very pleased to see his people return to this intimate relationship with him.

Many Christians in America today are caught up in doctrines that are merely doctrines of men and not the doctrine of Christ. Broken cisterns that hold no water, vain promises being taught that are no more sound than quicksand that pulls men down into false hopes and broken dreams. They are often led to believe that all Christians have the gift of healing or miracles and that God only plays a small part with it. Paul asked, "1Cor: 12: 30: Have all the gifts of healing?" It is the Holy Spirit that gives gifts to the members of the body and he knows exactly which ones that we are able to use properly with his help. Why do we all think that we have the gift of healing? Are we wiser than God is?

It is also believed that healing has already been procured and that we don’t even have to pray for it. E. W. Kenyon said that a person that has to call for the elders of the Church to pray is a baby Christian and needs to grow up. Some preachers are saying that a person is accusing God of being a fool if we ask for his will when we pray. It is also taught that now that healing has already been given that all we have to do is speak those things that are not as though they were and with the creative power of the tongue this healing or miracle will take place. Some of these guys may be driving limousines, own condos, and ships and live in million dollar houses but they are hillbillies in the Spiritual intellect and are no different from snake handlers and poison drinkers. If we live through the poison that is being taught we have accomplished quite a feat in itself.

God is a providential God and does things according to his own good pleasure not according to our will. God is not subject to our will or our commands. We are subject to him. God does many wonderful things in and through us if we are willing to abide in him. It isn't always a healing ministry, but God will work through us just the same. I have seen him do many wonderful things and very unexpected because it was his plan and not mine. Those times have always been a great moment in life to remember, because I knew that it was God that did it, not me. I'm not basing God's word on my experience though and we cannot but we can certainly learn from the Apostles. If the Spirit is not leading us then all that is happening is something that we have created in our own imaginations and not the will of God. It is a broken cistern that will hold no water. I hope that somehow I have helped someone with this teaching we are living in perilous times. Faith is trusting in God and sometimes it means trusting him through difficulty and sickness as well. Sometimes we are healed, sometimes we are not healed but he loves us just the same. You can count on it.

Yours in Christ,
Tommie Spurgeon

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