Doing the Works of Jesus

God is right now challenging you to a higher level of faith.  That is why you are reading this article.  God wants you to believe that you can and you will do the same healings and the same miracles that Jesus did when he was on earth.  As per Philippians 3.13-14, God is challenging you to forget the past and press on to the high calling that He has for you in Jesus’ name.

But do not take my word for it that God want you to do the same works Jesus did.   Read the words of Jesus himself.  Read them carefully, without religious glasses on.  Read them like you are reading them for the first time:

Anyone who has faith in me will do the works I have been doing. (John 14.12)

Read it again and again.  Realise that this is the Word of God – if you believe in Jesus you can do the same works He does.  Religion might try and talk you out of that, but don’t allow someone to tell you it cannot be done when the Word of God says it can be done!

If the church believed John 14.12 and preached John 14.12 as confidently as it preached John 3.16, then there would be miracles all over this country.  Instead, preachers tell people that healing passed away hundreds of years ago, and that the gifts of the Holy Spirit have all stopped and dried up.  It is not true – the reason we are not seeing the works of Jesus in the church is simple: we have not believed that Jesus is telling the truth when He said that we would do those works.

All we have to do is believe that Jesus is telling the truth and do the works that He did.

The Works Jesus Did

In Acts 10.38 we find out that Jesus was anointed to heal the sick and do good.  In Luke 4.18 and the following verses we find out that Jesus’ mission was to heal the blind, preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to captives and bind up the broken hearted.  If you read through Luke, these are the works that Jesus did in his life.  Acts 1.1 says that Luke was only the beginning of what Jesus did and taught.  How can Luke only be the beginning of Jesus’ teaching and ministry if at the end of the book of Luke Jesus returns to heaven?  Because the ministry and teaching of Jesus is supposed to continue – through you and through me believing in Jesus and doing the works He did.

1 John 4.17 says “As He is, so are we in the world”.  You and I are supposed to be like Jesus in the world.  We are supposed to be going around healing the sick and doing good.  We are supposed to be healing the blind, preaching good news to the poor, proclaiming release to captives and binding up the broken hearted.  That is our mission from God.  If you read Mark 16.17-20 you will find the mission that Jesus has sent you on.

The Works Peter Did

The book of Acts continues to show the teaching and works of Jesus.  But it is not Jesus doing them directly, but the church.  Peter is a great example of someone believing in Jesus and doing the works of Jesus.  In Acts 3.12-13 Peter tells a crippled man to get up and walk then grabs him and helps him up.  Peter is doing the works of Jesus.  Now some people will tell you that Peter only did this because he was an apostle.  They are wrong or Peter is wrong, because Peter says he did nothing to make this happen, but that it was done in the name of Jesus (Acts 4.7-12).  If you cannot heal the sick and do good today, Christian, then it must be true that the name of Jesus has run out of power.

Now we know that is nonsense, so it is equally nonsense that we cannot heal the sick and do good.   Peter healed the sick and did good and he was a man just like you and just like me.

I know some people insist that Peter is vastly different to us, and I guess on some level they are right - look at the differences:

1.       We have a revelation from Paul about how the gifts of the Holy Spirit work in 1 Corinthians 12-14.  Paul wasn’t even a Christian when Peter healed the crippled man and did not have the revelation of the gifts of the Spirit.  You should therefore be healing more cripples than Peter!

2.       We have revelations about the end times in the book of Revelation that Peter had never read.  We have access to more Word than Peter did.  Therefore, we should be healing more cripples than Peter!

3.       Peter found Paul’s writings hard to follow (2 Pet. 3.16).  We have unprecedented access to commentaries and study notes on Paul’s letters.  Therefore, we should be healing more cripples than Peter!

4.       Peter had no teaching tapes, no videos, no preachers, no conferences, no testimony leaflets, no Christian radio or Christian TV.  Therefore, we should be healing more cripples than Peter!

All Peter had was the fact that Jesus said “if you believe in me, you will do the works I do”.  And Peter believed it and Peter acted on it, and a crippled man was healed.

Why Are Our Results and Peter’s Different?

Acts 1.1 says that Jesus did and Jesus taught.  We are not teaching right, and that is why our results are different.  This might be a controversial thing to say, but have a good listen as you go to many churches in this country.  The sermons often bare more resemblance to the Reader’s Digest than the Word of God.  If they last too long, we get offended.  If they challenge our traditions, we have tantrums.  If they provoke us to faith, we feel belittled.  If they convict us of being lukewarm we try to vomit out the preacher.

We must preach the Word and we must preach it in such a way that it stimulates people’s faith in the power and goodness of the living God.  Romans 10.17 says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Matthew 19.16 says “With God, all things are possible”.  Most Christians will accept this statement at face value and they will tell you that they believe that God can do anything.  But Mark 9.23 says “All things are possible, to the one who believes.”  If Christians would realize that Mark 9.23 is as true as Matthew 19.16 then they would know that with faith they can do what God can do.  They can heal the sick, they can cast out demons, and they can bind up the broken hearted.  They can do the works Jesus did.

Why do we not accept this?  Why don’t we believe that we can do all these things?  I want to join Romans 10.17 and Mark 9.23 together to present a Bible truth.  Romans 10.17 says that faith comes by hearing the Word of God.  Mark 9.23 tells us that all things are possible to the one who believes.  It would not be unfair to say that all things are possible to the one who has faith.  Now, because of the verse in Romans we know that faith comes by hearing the Word of God.  So, if you put these two verses together you can say:

All things are possible to the one who hears God’s Word.

This would be a legitimate statement to make, based on the clear teachings of Scripture.  As a church, and as a nation, we are not seeing the power and miracles that we should be seeing according to John 14.12 because we are not hearing the Word.

We are hearing a lot of religious hype.  A lot of religious dogmas and traditions of men.  In some places we are even hearing doctrines of devils.  Many churches are now aiming for seeker friendly sermonettes.   But we are not hearing the Word of God as it should be preached – we are not hearing what Christ preached.

Jesus told us that if we believe we can do the works He did.  If you are not hearing that, then you need to preach it to yourself.  The Bible says the same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you – if you are not hearing that, then you need to preach it to yourself!  People are in error because they do not know the Scripture or the power of God (Matt. 22.29), but if you learn the truth then the truth will set you free.

How To Do The Works

If you look at Luke 5.17 it tells us that as Jesus was teaching, the power of the Lord was present to heal the sick.  Jesus was teaching and explaining the Word of God, and the power of the Lord was there to heal.  Charismatics will try anything to bring the power of the Lord into a place: binding demons, yelling, worshipping, pleading, begging, praying and fasting.  Anything rather than teach the Word of God that the power of God is available to every Christian.  If we taught it, people would believe it, and when people believe all things are possible and we will do the works Jesus did.

Some people bring a paralysed man for Jesus to heal, and in Luke 5.20 it says “when he saw their faith”.  You could say it like this: “when he saw their hearing of His teaching”.  If you hear what Jesus actually taught, rather than manmade traditions, you will be healed and your friends will be healed.  It is that simple. 

In 1996 I was in hospital with eczema.  Now a lot of people have seen eczema as a little patch on the skin that is rather annoying but not in any many serious.  I was covered head to toe, excepting my face.  If I brushed my teeth I would bleed so bad from my hand and elbow as I moved my arm I was in danger of passing out.  At one stage I had to be covered in oil every hour.  I was a Christian, but I did not know my Bible well at all.  In fact, I was of the opinion that God had made me sick to punish me for certain areas of my life where I was not living right at all.

Fortunately, one of the things you have in hospital is time.  And I decided to read through the New Testament.  As I did, I discovered that God is a God of love and that Jesus healed the sick and had compassion and mercy on people.  I learned that my sickness was not from God and that God wanted me well.  In fact, Jesus had paid the complete price for my healing on the cross (Matt. 8.16-17).

When I reached James 5, I had been in hospital about six weeks.  The doctors told me I would be in hospital for possibly eight months.  They told me that I would be in hospital for six months out of every year of my life and that I better get used to it.  As I read James 5 about calling the elders to anoint the sick with oil, I decided to obey the Word of God.  I heard the teaching and I had faith because I heard the Word of God.

I called the elders of my church, who came and anointed me with oil.  Now if oil had any medicinal properties I would have been healed by now – I had been “anointed” with oil more times than I could count while in hospital.  As the elders anointed me with oil and prayed, nothing happened.  But I knew I was healed.  I could not prove it – I still looked the same.  If I had asked someone if I was better, they would have looked at me and said know.  But I knew I was well.

I went to sleep that night and slept right through the night.  That was a miracle in itself – I used to wake up several times in the night with unbearable itching.  When I awoke, my skin was perfectly healed. 

Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word and all things are possible to the person that has faith.  Let’s start preaching the Word and let’s start testing what we hear against the New Testament.

God wants you to do the works Jesus has been doing.  He promised it in His Word. 

 
If you have seen miracles while believing God’s Word, or if there is something affecting your life and you want someone to pray with you who believes in miracles, please email us on [email protected] and someone will help you and pray with you and rejoice with you when and as the answer arrives.

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