
(Taken from the August 2005 edition or our Present Truth magazine.)
By A. Wilson Phillips
I recently read an article
in Creation magazine where a humanist gave a scientific
explanation as to why the ten plagues in Egypt, according to God’s
prophet Moses, were impossible.
All of humanity is engaged
in a war of words. Words are thoughts in spoken or written form, and we
have become master wordsmiths in our highly sophisticated information
age. Too often, we try to speak or write the God of the Bible out of our
lives. However, in my humble opinion, this cannot and will not ever
happen. We will always have the miraculous works of God happening in our
world.
Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
whom the Bible declares to be the Son of God and Son of Man, was
supernaturally conceived in His mother’s womb by God’s Holy Spirit (Luke
1:26-38). Unbelief in Him, the Savior of the world, leaves one without
hope in this life and the one to come (Acts 4:12; John 14:6).
Jesus’ parents and rabbis
in the land of ancient Palestine (modern Israel) taught Him about His
miraculous heritage. Moses had spoken and written about these miracles,
and Jesus often quoted from Moses as well as the other prophets in
Israel (John 5:44-47). A master communicator and wordsmith, Jesus spoke
words that brought forth miracles. Unfortunately, His words also brought
a response of unbelief from some (Mark 6:5-6). Unbelief is still a
problem among Christians and non-Christians alike in our modern
scientific age. Many Christians have unbelief and fail to mature because
they do not allow their minds to be renewed by the Word of God and His
Spirit.
And do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God (Rom. 12:2).
Those who renew their
minds to know the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God will have
the mind of Christ concerning miracles. They will believe firstly that
the Creator exercised His faith and divine imagination in creating the
heavens and earth.
By the word of the Lord
the heavens were made,
And all the host of
them by the breath of His mouth (Ps. 33:6).
The Hebrew word ruach
(breath) and the Greek term pnuema (spirit) tells us that God,
who is spirit, created man from the dust of the earth (previously
created) and breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life. God
created man in His likeness and image to partner with Him in overseeing
and managing His creation (Gen. 2:7, 1:26, 28).
Secondly, those with the
renewed mind of Christ understand that because of Lucifer’s and Adam’s
pride and disobedience, the Creator had a controversy with Lucifer, and
Adam was caught in the middle (Ezek. 28; Is. 14:12-15; Rom. 5:12). As a
result of the fall of man, Lucifer (alias serpent, Satan, devil, dragon)
held mankind captive by sin/death in Sheol until the incarnate Son of
God/Man would come, in cooperation with Father God, to release both the
righteous and unrighteous to be judged by the righteous Judge (Heb.
2:14-15; John 5:24-30; 1 Pet. 1:3).
Thirdly, those with the
renewed mind of Christ believe that after the death, burial,
resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, the “enthroned Christ”
sovereignly appeared to one of the worst enemies of His followers—Saul
of Tarsus (Acts 9). God breathed His life into the soul of this
arrogant, religious Pharisee, and the miraculous power-encounter
supernaturally changed Saul into Paul, an apostle and zealous teacher
and preacher of the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ (Acts 22:5-21.
God worked the greatest
miracle of all by changing Saul’s life. Through the process of having
his mind renewed, Saul came to know the good, acceptable, and perfect
will of God.
Like Moses, Elijah,
Elisha, and other prophets in Israel, Apostle Paul experienced God
sovereignly working extraordinary miracles through him (Acts 19:11).
God’s purpose for these miracles was to reap the hearts and souls of men
and women, who would dwell with Him eternally in their glorified
spiritual bodies.
God sovereignly chose Paul
and renewed his mind so that he had the mind of Christ. Paul then wrote
the majority of the new creation covenant letters to God’s covenant
people. These letters express God’s love for His chosen children.
In summary, God came to me
in 1965 in an Apostle Paul-type experience. He changed me inside. People
I formerly hated, I began to love. Since that time, God has worked
unusual miracles in me and through me (1 Cor. 12:11). Like Paul,
...I will not dare
to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished
through me, in word and in deed (Rom. 15:18).
I too have the mind of
Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).
God who breathed the
breath of life into all the plants, trees, birds, and animals breathes
the breath of His life into men and woman today. This “new birth” is the
greatest miracle of all. 
Miracles will never cease.
Science says, “See and believe.” God says, “Believe My Word, and you
will see.”
Our
future is full of miracles—the best is yet to come.
A. Wilson
Phillips is the co-founding and senior pastor of Abundant Life Covenant
Church. |