If the miraculous gifts are meant for today, why can’t we empty all the hospitals ?

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This is a question commonly bandied about among Christians who feel the age of miracles is past. Its weakness lies in the implication that the miracle-working power of God is like magic, and that the signs and wonders of God’s power can be divorced from the gospel message. 

Let us recast the same question in terms of salvation: If Jesus is the Son of God with power to save, why isn’t the whole world Christian? The immediate answer is that salvation is dependent upon man’s response to the gospel message.

Potentially, what both questions ask is possible, for potentially, every human need has been met in the grace of God revealed through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Christ died for all men. The intent of God to establish a society on earth where every need is met through His love and grace is clearly revealed in New Testament teaching. It is called the kingdom of God. Jesus demonstrated it in His ministry, proclaimed its proximity, and we pray for its manifestation every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come…on earth.”


But we must also recognise that the promises of God are conditional. They require the surrender of man’s will to the will of God. Man’s full response in faith to the promises of God involves submission and obedience. In fact, it necessitates a kind of death; a crucifixion of the old nature that the divine life and nature of Jesus Christ may be formed in us.


We find no basis in Scripture for assuming that the blessings and miracles of God are automatic, or that they will be bestowed upon those who are unbelieving, indifferent, or unrepentant and who have neither sought God’s will nor surrendered their lives to Him. God’s blessings are contingent upon man’s repentance and surrender, and his turning to God in prayer and faith. As the Lord reminded Solomon,


If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.(2 Chronicles 7:14)


The time may soon be upon us when mass healing miracles will result in the emptying of entire hospitals. This has already been seen in vision and promised by the Lord in prophecy. It is an established fact that even today, where great revivals are in progress—such as the one in Indonesia—mass healing miracles have already taken place.

Miracles of healing and other supernatural evidences of the power of God are the “signs” that, from the age of the apostles, were meant to follow “those who believe” (Mark 16:17). Today, we find them occurring with ever-increasing frequency and believe they foreshadow the sinless and miraculous kingdom, which Jesus Christ will set up on earth when He returns.



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