"And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread" (Luke 4:3).
There it is — "If" — the biggest word in the Devil’s vocabulary.
The Devil is still saying the same thing to all of God’s sons and daughters. "If you are a son or daughter of God, prove it. Lets see some signs and wonders. If you truly are a minister of the Gospel, let’s see something supernatural."
The Church has fallen for this one. We have believed that Jesus came to prove His "deity" through powerful works. We’ve been convinced that Jesus performed signs and wonders in order to prove to people that He was the Son of God. This is where we have plunged into error.
Jesus didn’t come to promote Himself. He came to exalt and reveal His Father’s true character.
No, Jesus didn’t have to prove anything, because faith is not based on what you see. Faith is based on the reality of God and His Living Word! Since Jesus was the Living Word, He was seeking out those who had faith in Him or those who would hear and obey His words. He was not using signs and wonders to promote Himself. He was exalting God. Signs and wonders occurred in the New Testament as people believed in Jesus as the Living Word.
If faith was based on signs and wonders, then Jesus shouldn’t have walked away from Nazareth because of their unbelief. He should have wowed them with more signs and wonders, proving to them that He was the Messiah. He shouldn’t have wept over Jerusalem because they wouldn’t believe.
If the purpose of signs and wonders was to make them believe He should have marched right down there and showed them more miracles. Jesus shouldn’t have let people walk away in their unbelief.
Paul Shouldn’t Have Walked Away
If the goal was to convince people to believe by using miracles, then Paul shouldn’t have walked away from unbelieving towns and synagogues. He should have persevered against the resistance and confirmed what he was preaching with signs and wonders.
No, the faith in the good news had to come first. It always has and it always will.
When the Devil tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread, Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God" (Luke 4:4).
We should answer the Devil the same way Jesus did. "I am not going to live on outward signs and wonders. I’m going to live by the Living Word of God."
The Holy Spirit was sent to confirm the Word of God in those who believed in the Gospel, the power of His Word. He was not sent to dwell in us to put on a big show to prove to unbelieving people that we have the power of God.
"And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover" (Mark 16:17-18).
The Holy Spirit confirms the Word we preach only when people believe. Signs and wonders are not for the purpose of making people believe or proving God is real. This is where the Devil has been able to get the Church off course.
It seems the goal has become to get people healed, delivered or at least feeling better with whatever method is popular at the time. We appear to have little or no regard for the kind of method we use, even if it does bypass faith in Jesus.
Seeking Sensations
The Devil doesn’t care if you feel a sensation of healing or not. He doesn’t care if you end up feeling better. All he cares about is bypassing Jesus! If he can get people to bypass Jesus on their way to comfort or relief, he will do so. And after that, he will continue to keep them captive through soulish experiences. If he can convince Christians to seek these sensations, then the Devil will find it easier to replace God and exalt his own image in the Church.
We must remember that the Devil is not only anti-Jesus, but he is also pseudo-Jesus. This means he replaces Jesus whenever he can — usually by misleading people through false deeds done in Jesus’ name. In fact, the Devil is very interested in appearing benevolent, kind, and generous. Satan wants to use the name of Jesus as a covering to manifest his own brand of miracles. This shouldn’t shock us. Many false things are done in the Church under the covering of the name of Jesus.
"Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" (Matthew 7:22).
Jesus warned us about being signs-and-wonders-conscious.
"For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24).
The false prophet will have difficulty in deceiving Christians who are honestly seeking truth. But he will find it easier to deceive those who are carnally seeking experiences, signs, and wonders.
The carnal Christian won’t believe unless he sees with his physical eyes. That is why he is so easily deceived by what he sees.
The carnal Christian believes and follows signs and wonders, even if they are demonic, because he won’t read his Bible. On the other hand, the strong believer has faith because he sees the true character of God as he reads his Bible. True signs and wonders will only follow those who believe the Living Word.
True And False Prophets
"If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’--which you have not known--’and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams…" (Deuteronomy 13:1-3).
Signs and wonders are not the only test of a true prophet. With a little Bible study, it becomes obvious that both true and false prophets produce signs and wonders.
If a prophet points you to Jesus Christ as the true image of God and causes you to repent from following false concepts, then that prophet is probably from God. But, if a prophet leads you to a different image of God other than the one revealed in Jesus, then that prophet is probably influenced by anti-Christ doctrine.
Since most signs and wonders are attributed to the Holy Spirit, we must remember that the Holy Spirit has not come to do anything else but glorify Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has not come to bring attention to himself, nor has He come to the earth to establish His own ministry! He is here to help us glorify Jesus and lead us into truth!
false Anointing
If a preacher indicates to us that he carries a special anointing to set people free and if that anointing or spiritual experience, he is promoting, appears to bypass faith in the name of the true Jesus, then we need to be on guard. Not because freedom is bad, but because the experience he is trying to sell is probably anti-Jesus.
We must remember, the Devil isn’t anti-religion or anti-spiritual experience, he is anti-Jesus and hence his name is "ANTICHRIST."
Whenever he can help people feel a sensation of freedom in their soul and cause them to bypass true freedom in Christ, he will.
True Freedom Comes Via The Word
Good Bible teaching has taken a back seat to personal prophetic counseling because of our focus on feelings. Counseling satisfies the need for special attention — whereas teaching does not. Being a disciple in a group with the rest of the believers does not get individual attention so we have invented a new brand of counseling. However, this is not what Jesus meant when he taught us about making disciples. Today’s concept of helping people feel better about themselves is not the true path to freedom.
"Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed" (John 8:31).
We must understand — freedom isn’t a feeling. Freedom comes with the knowledge of the truth!
"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).
If the Devil can cause us to bypass truth on our way to freedom, then he will continue to keep us in bondage.
In some people, it’s almost as if the soulish sensation of freedom is their ultimate goal and it doesn’t matter how they get it. The problem is when they bypass Jesus on their way to freedom, they lose the true healing and receive a counterfeit. Of course, this is all done in the name of the "anointing."
Our Own Version of Freedom
We as Charismatics repeatedly made this blunder. The freedom we pursued was linked more to how we felt after a service than to what we learned. Even if we learned something new, we rated its importance by how "moving" the subject was. More importantly was how entertaining the talented preacher was as he made his presentation. If the preacher presented vital truth to us in a monotone or boring manner, we would have missed it.
The anointing of God will never make a believer do or experience anything which isn’t founded in the ministry of Jesus, because the Holy Spirit hasn’t come to do His own thing.
This misunderstanding is founded upon a major misnomer in Charismatic circles. The Holy Spirit is promoted as an independent individual within the Godhead. This, of course, is partially true. But this teaching goes a little further and says that the Holy Spirit works independently and manifests miracles which were never seen in Jesus’ ministry. Therefore they use the concept of the Holy Spirit as an independent member of the Godhead to substantiate extra-biblical miracles and experiences. The Holy Spirit is promoted as active in His own unique ministry by manifesting new extra-biblical phenomena. This is not a true picture of the Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit has come to help us understand and learn about the miracles that He helped Jesus do. What the Holy Spirit anointed Jesus to do, has to become the eternal standard for every single one of us. If we determine to make that revelation our never-changing-standard, then we will see through a lot of today’s spiritual foolishness.
"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him" (Acts 10:38).
The Holy Spirit has been sent to lead believers into truth. He will never bypass the truth He revealed in Christ.
"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me" (John 15:26).
"However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you" (John 16:13-14).