Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. (John 14:12)
I always find it interesting to find passages where Jesus says “verily, verily”. It is almost like He knew people would not believe what was to follow and so He would make sure to emphasize His point at the start.
People tend to respond automatically to John 14:12 by trying to explain away the “greater works”.
“Well I believe that means we will reach greater numbers of people because of the Internet and television!”
“We’re able to reach the masses through technology He didn’t have!”
I personally believe we spend too much time focusing on the “greater works” that Jesus talked about. We are not even doing the works that Jesus did so why are we expecting to do even greater?
There are people who will not agree with me. I accept that but when was the last time you saw someone raised from the dead as a result of prayer you offered up to God? I’ve heard of this happening in meetings but personally have never seen a dead person raised but Jesus did.
We believe that Jesus can do the greater works. Do we believe that they can manifest through us?
We can believe that God will move through a preacher but can we believe He will move through us?
Jesus said that we would do the works He did if we believed on Him. I’ve heard people give theological reasons for why miracles are not needed today but always come back to this verse.
He said we would do the works that He did and miracles were a common part of the works that He did!
I spent some time wrestling with this subject because I was not seeing the works of Jesus manifesting in my life. As I meditated on these things the Holy Spirit led me to Romans 8:6.
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
The Holy Spirit showed me that I was not seeing the works of Jesus manifesting was because I was not being spiritually minded.
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)
There are all kinds of goofy ideas about what it means to be spiritually minded. Jesus told His disciples that His words were spirit and life. I believe that we can agree then that a person who is spiritually minded is Word minded.
What does it mean to be Word minded? It means that we have taken the time to fill our minds with God’s Words and have given them a much higher place in our lives than anything else.
If we were minded to what Jesus said in John 14:12 we believe that we could see the lepers cleansed, heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out devils because He said that we would do the works that He did.
The problem today is that the majority of Christians are carnally minded. This does not mean that they are sinners or even a bad person. There are kind and gentle people who are carnal.
A statement picked up several years ago that we should remember:
All sin is carnal but not all carnality is sin.
Let’s think about what this means for us. The word carnal references the five physical senses. To be carnally minded then is to live a life controlled by the five physical senses!
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