“And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen” – Mark 16:20 NKJV
This week, we have been examining the concept of spiritual gifts and their relevance in the life of a believer. Today, we will be looking at the importance of spiritual gifts in evangelism and why we must earnestly desire them.
There aren’t many believers who know the main purpose of spiritual gifts. If you think that God gave us the power to heal the sick, only so that we and our family members would never fall ill, you might have to reconsider that notion. The fact is that every healed person would fall ill again and every dead person who is raised to life on this Earth would someday die again.
Spiritual gifts do much more than simply meet our temporary needs, they exist to point men to Christ and to confirm the truth of the Gospel before unbelievers.
In Mark 16:16-18, Jesus commissioned His disciples to preach the good news and He told them of the signs that they would witness amongst those who would believe and receive the gospel. Much later, in Mark 16:20, we see that exactly what Jesus said, came to pass. To this day, we find that the preaching of the gospel and the manifestations of the Spirit, go hand in glove.
As the gospel is proclaimed, the demonstration of God’s power through miracles ought to follow suit because it points men to the risen and glorified Christ. For instance, in Acts 2 when the believers received the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost, it reaffirmed the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:33). because the same men who walked with Jesus while He was on Earth, were seen doing the same miraculous works that He did. In the same vein, when the world sees believers today demonstrating the power of God, it convinces them further of the truth of the Gospel.
As you preach the gospel to men, it’s important to stay aware of God’s power within you to walk in the miraculous, just as Jesus promised.
Dear believer, the demonstration of signs and wonders during evangelism is intended to point men to Christ. As you go out, trust God to confirm His word through you, expect the miraculous and walk in it boldly.
Bible Reading Plan: Joshua 4-6; Acts 23:12-35