Signs, wonders, healings, speaking in tongues, and miracles…
There was a woman who wrote a letter to her pastor.
She was troubled, she told her pastor, because her friend prayed and saw family members miraculously healed. Her friend was doubting and then received extraordinary, miraculous manifestations of the Spirit that took away all her doubts.
She was troubled, she admitted to her pastor, “I have no reason to doubt my friend’s experience. But I have never had that kind of experience. And so I doubt my own faith.”
Well, her pastor wrote back.
I read his letter back to her last week and it blessed me.
Her pastor was named John Newton. And this is what he wrote to this woman who had never had miraculous manifestations like her friend did.
Such comfortable manifestation may be powerful, but they are not the scriptural evidences of genuine faith.
The object of faith is not such miracles. The object of faith is Jesus Christ, who lived and died and rose and is now reigning and interceding for sinners.
The best evidences that we believe with genuine saving faith are not such miraculous manifestations. The best evidences that we believe are a broken spirit, obedience to the Lord’s precepts, submission to his will, and love to his people.