Mat 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Mar 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.
20 And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.
I wonder if we tend to preach Matt 28 as our mission passage instead of Mark 16 because it is more general and leaves out the various things that we say God does not do anymore. Jesus is speaking to the disciples in both places and we often say that the signs in Mark are only for the disciples, but what if we are wrong?
Verse 16 says those that believe are saved and 17 is describing all those who believe not the disciples. We see the first examples of these things in the disciples after Acts 2 when they became the Apostles. Of course, they would be the first to display the gifts since they were the first believers to receive the Holy Spirit. Doesn't mean they were to be the only ones.
Yes, there are crazy people and there are frauds, but frauds and crazy do not invalidate the Word. Not everyone has every gift and some will not believe that others have it because they do not have it.
No, you should not take up snakes and tempt the Lord, but if you look at the example Paul grabbed a piece of wood and a snake was under it. Because he was filled with the Spirit and not tempting God the snake bite did him no harm. if you go grab up a snake you will be in trouble. They thought Paul was a god when he did not die. You grabbing a snake will make people thing you are crazy and you will probably die if you do not get anti-venom in time.
The same thing with poison. Don't drink it, but God can nullify it if someone tries to kill you by poison. That was a fairly common mode of assassination back then and still practiced today.
We can do great things if we stay close to God by being filled with the Spirit. He will bring about the opportunities to use the gifts. He has all the power, not us. The power is in us, but it is not of us. Be open to His leading and do what He says and you will see things you never comprehended.
We believe God when He says that He does not change. We believe in Jesus, the same today, yesterday and forever. Since Jesus and the Father sent the Holy Spirit why do we believe that He changed or His ministry changed. Jesus fulfilled His ministry and went back to Glory to send the Holy Spirit on a mission to the Children of God as well as to convict the unbelievers.
We have not run out of unbelievers and we still have believers in every generation. So what did they need in the 1st Century that we do not need now? Have we run out of demons? Hardly! Do people still get sick? Absolutely and we will have death until the new Heaven and new Earth. So why do we need less than they needed?
Do not let Matt 7:21-25 scare you out of receiving the real just because there are false prophets who think they are OK. Be more concerned about the passage that says there will be those who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. (2 Tim 3:5)
The Word says that the Anti-Christ will do many miracles and signs that are so good that if it were possible he could deceive the very elect. It would reasonable to believe that they had experience with the real so they can spot the fake just like Treasury agents who study real money so much that the fakes stand out in a second.
Seek Him. Let Him empower you in the way He desires and if it looks different then you imagine then your imagination was stunted or you were taught incorrectly. God will not lead you astray so be sure you are seeking the God, Christ and Spirit of the Bible and you will not go wrong.
The Bible is the anchor to help you discern. The Spirit will never contradict anything in the Word because He helped write it and He is as immutable as the Father and the Son for He is the third person of the Trinity and God does not change.
All power is His and He wants to display it through His children to edify the Body and win people to Christ. Do you want to do His works and greater works as Jesus said His people would do? Then be open to Him. Let us change the world as He changes us.
