Acts 1:1 “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.

Luke 5:17 “And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.” KJV)

Romans 15, “¹⁸For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, ¹⁹Through mighty SIGNS and WONDERS, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ”.

Solid miracles are needed if we must do it in the Jesus way. Why? This is what creates the conviction of the Gospel you preach in the hearts of your hearers. This is the primary reasons for the miracles. Paul said he got the attention of the people through the word and deed, the very same reasons God did signs and wonders in Egypt.

Now you follow what Jesus and Paul did, is preaching the word and the miracles followed. Then the people will become obedient to the word preached.

I remembered when I started the Church in Warri; we were using a secondary school classroom, because we had no money to rent a place, they were just about seven people that I was teaching the word every Wednesday. On a particular Wednesday I went to photocopy the outlines I was going to use and to give to the people. On my way back, I was told that they brought an insane woman to the house for me to pray for, and they told the relations I am a prophet of God ( I laughed). I got in, saw this lady, and the sisters began to narrate how they have being to several prayer houses even shrines but no avail. Truth is, while she was narrating all of these, I wasn’t even listening. My mind was on the Bible study and what I needed to teach. By the time she was done, I just laid hands on the woman, and she went flat on the floor for about 20 minutes. Then I was saying to myself ‘this woman is wasting my time’. Instantly she heaved a heavy sigh and said she is healed. I asked her how she knew. She said she saw something left her.

Friends, this is how the husband gave us a place to worship in for almost a year without paying a kobo. God did that just to give us a place to worship.

Second case was another woman who lay paralyzed in her house and one of the brethren who goes witnessing from door to door, called me to go and pray, and she got healed and started coming to church. One Sunday some brethren from a nearby church came along grabbed her, telling her not to come to my church because I am an antichrist, just because they heard me teach that the “Fathers House “ (John 14.1-3) is not a location up in Heaven. The woman told those who were sent “since I have been in the house, none of you came to visit me not to talk of praying for me but this man you called an anti Christ healed me. Please I want to fellowship in this antichrist Church” and she continued with us.

What am I saying? You need some miracles to validate your preaching sometimes but at the will of God. Jesus was teaching and “the power of God was present to heal them all”. This will create a conviction in the hearts of the Pharisees and the Doctors of the law that Jesus was a genuine man and His teachings were of God. But He taught them first then healed them, that’s the way of Jesus.

And we read of what happened to the Apostle of Jesus. Hebrews 2, “³How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; ⁴God also bearing them witness, both with SIGNS and WONDERS and with DIVERS MIRACLES, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, ACCORDING TO HIS WILL”

Notice, it is at the WILL OF GOD and He alone confirmed the word with the miracles. Not that they forced themselves to do it or at their own will.

Do we need miracles as we preach? Yes of course. But must we perform miracles all of the time when we preach? Not necessary so. Is it possible to preach without a miracle? Absolutely correct, John the Baptist that Jesus called the greatest of all prophets in his days performed no miracle.

John.10:41 “And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true”

Therefore, don’t be intimated if no miracles happen while preaching the word. Just be sure you know what you are teaching and God shall be glorified. Don’t miss this fact, one of the major reasons for miracles is to create conviction in the heart of the hearers.

Is it out of place to advertise miracles as a program?

What if you can preach and the people get convicted?

More on this in Part 2

To be continued…