WHO WILL DO THE WORKS JESUS DID?

John 14:12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”

The Lord Jesus Christ gave power to His followers in order that the new Life they had received by grace through faith could be lived out. As recorded by Luke in the Acts chapter one, Jesus states that His disciples, those in whom He was reproducing His Life by the Power of the Holy Spirit, would receive Power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. They would be anointed with Power, clothed with Power from On High even as Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and began His mission and ministry as Messiah after His baptism. THEN , thus empowered to live New Life, they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

The ministry and work of the Kingdom of God is either done in the power of the Holy Spirit or it is not done at all as the Lord intended. St. Paul repeatedly stated that when he proclaimed the Gospel in its fullness it was both by word and the demonstration of the Holt Spirit in power by signs and wonders. (1Corinthians 2:4-5, 1 Thessalonians 1:5) It was not just the Apostles who ministered in the Holy spirit’s Power. Stephen and Philip were Deacons and signs and wonders attested to the fact that the word they were preaching, testifying to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, was eternally true.

No where does Jesus put a time limitation on His work to be done through His disciples then and now. There was no God-imposed “shelf-life” bringing to an end the necessity of being anointed with, baptized in the Holy Spirit. Followers of Jesus Christ are meant to be soaked, indelibly “dyed” in the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not say, “I tell you the truth, as long as the Apostles are alive, the church, those who believe in Me, will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to the Father.” Jesus declared, and His Word cannot be brokered, adjusted, altered or laid aside, “ANYONE WHO BELIEVES IN ME WILL DO THE SAME WORKS I HAVE DONE.” Anyone who believes means anyone who believes. Wherever the disciple of Jesus goes, there goes the Kingdom of God for the Holy Spirit dwells in them to live through them in both Word and deed.

You can be the inheritor of billions of dollars but live in poverty if no one tells you that your name is on the sign-card at the bank. In so many places, especially in the West, the church lives as if Jesus Christ is NOT the same yesterday, today and forever. It is the Holy Spirit that anoints the Word of God preached. He is the one Who brings conviction, repentance and faith. People in our age are just as philosophically jaded and sensually corrupted as were the Greeks, Romans and the rest of mankind in the first century. “Yeah, we’ve heard it all before…yada, yada, yada.” The Jews of Jesus’ day had heard the Law and Prophets expounded and pounded into them for centuries, but they had never seen such authority demonstrated following the proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom of God by Jesus Christ and His followers.

I can tell you unequivocally, that IF the church did not need to minister the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit would not have been poured out on the Day of Pentecost. Gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit would not have been given if they were unnecessary to the building up of the Body of Christ and to affirm and confirm that what was being preached and taught was eternally true. God gave gifts by the Holy Spirit because the proclamation of Jesus’ Life, death and resurrection was to be validated by the signs and wonders of the Holy Spirit, the same signs and wonder people had seen done by Jesus. He HAD TO BE risen from the dead and was alive in His followers because they were proclaiming and doing just what Jesus had done. They looked like Him!

Denying the Holy Spirit still is active in the church as He was through Jesus is very close to attributing works of the Holy Spirit today as being manifestation of “someone” other than Jesus. That is very troubling for me as it comes close to blaspheming the Holy Spirit as did the Pharisees when they claimed that Jesus did His miracles by the power of Satan and not God.

Listen, I know that disciples of Jesus can behave immaturely, walk in the flesh and bring dishonor to the Name of Jesus by being without decency and order. That’s why St. Paul wrote as he did to the church at Corinth. He CORRECTED their abuse of spiritual things and worship, but he did not deny nor did he forbid the ministry of the Holy Spirit in power. In fact, he stated clearly , “Do not forbid speaking in tongues.”

So, believe the Lord Jesus for He said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”