Greater

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father” (John 14:12).

Greater works will he do. As I look around the broad scope of Christianity in America, there is one thing I do not see happening: great works. Jesus raised people from the dead; Jesus healed the sick; Jesus wasn’t on this earth more than twenty minutes and there were already a bunch of rich guys looking for Him. Yet, I see sick, broken, angry, unhappy Christians. Or, I see an abundance of very happy men and women of God who are, well… Useless. Religion has taught us to accept mediocrity as a sign of Christian piety. In spite of the promise of Jeremiah 29:11, where God promises “plans for welfare and not calamity,” we have accepted pain as a form of God’s correction in our lives. Jesus said we would do greater works than He, so when pain or sickness comes along we should be casting it down and walking away victorious. Why don’t we?

We have not been trained to think that way. 

It is easy for us to believe that God came down to earth in the form of a man; that this Man lived a perfect life; this Man healed sick people, brought dead people to life, fed over 20,000 people with the meager lunch of a twelve-year-old boy, and had leftovers for a week. This Man died at the hands of the Roman government, descended into Hell, broke the power of sin and death, came back to life, ascended into heaven and now sits at the right Hand of God Almighty. Through simply believing in this Man, we can be assured that our sins are forgiven, and that one day this Man will return in the sky and capture us all into His Presence to live for eternity. This is easy for us to believe! (I hold to all these confessions, but when you read them out loud your mind will play some tricks on you and make you think you are crazy)  

How can we so easily uphold all of these confessions, yet it is so hard for us to believe Jesus’ promise that we will do greater things than He in these last days? Why are churches holding garage sales to meet the financial needs of their outreach programs? Scripture tells us that God shall supply all of our needs (Phil 4:13). Jesus said that if we place Him and His Kingdom at the forefront of all that we do, everything else in our life will fall into place (Matt 6:33). God promises us that if we follow all His commands that Blessings shall surely come upon us and overtake us (Deut 28:1-13); and for any of those who think that that is Old Testament only, Galatians 3 explains that all these promises belong to us as the seed of Abraham through faith in Jesus.  Yet, many churches are struggling to meet their financial needs.

Why do elders pray for God to bless the physicians, rather than letting Him be the Great Physician? Please do not misunderstand; God gave us wonderful doctors so that we may know how to treat and care for our bodies. However, the Word says, “with His stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:5). It also instructs church leaders to “pray for him [the one who is sick], anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up” (Jas 5:14b-15a). Yet, whenever most Christians see a healing ministry in action, they are quick to attack. They assume it is fraudulent; they think it looks creepy; others will claim that going to the Bible, rather than conventional medicine, is foolishness. These are Christian people saying these things – yet Jesus said we would do these things, and more. I know, occasionally some scumball comes along and dupes a bunch of people out of money with false services on healing, prosperity and revival. Those guys are making the rest of us look really bad. Yet, just become some slimy individual twists the Word of God for personal advantage does not mean we should all abandon what the Lord said. If I based my understanding and relationship with God on my experiences in church I would no longer be a Christian! You must do what the Word says, not what others say. Jesus said we would do greater things than He did. Why aren’t we?

Jesus said the traditions of men have made the Word of God of no effect (Mk 7:1-13). Paul gives us a clear warning against the vanity of religious traditions (Col 2:6-9), that we should not be led by the philosophy and rudiments of the world, instead of being led by Christ. We must be led by what Jesus said, not by what our pre-conceived notions about Him are. Jesus said we would do even greater things than He did while He was on this earth. The traditions of men shut down the effectiveness of God’s Word. Just because someone (maybe even you) tried it and it didn’t work does not mean it is not God’s Will that we do bigger and better things than Jesus did. It means we must continue to grow in our faith so that we will come to a place where anything will be possible. Nobody said anything was going to happen over-night. Jesus compares the Word of God to “seed” (Matt 13:1-23; Mk 4:1-32; Lk 8:4-15). Seeds need time to grow! Just because it didn’t work one time does not mean it will never work. 

We must train our thinking. We can make all these earlier confessions about Jesus, which in the natural mind sound absolutely ludicrous, because we have been taught and trained to do so. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing comes by the Word of God (Rom 10:17). We know how to believe Jesus for salvation because we have been consistently taught, from the Word of God, to do so. That’s what it will take for everything else! More time in the Word. Find the promises of God for healing and meditate on them to the same degree you have for salvation and eternal life. Find the promises in Scripture for provision and confess them with the same ferocity that you do His promises for heaven. In the natural mind, everything in the Bible sounds far-fetched! How is it so easy to believe in Heaven (which we have never seen), but it is so difficult to believe God wants us healthy, prosperous, and victorious in every aspect of our lives (when we have seen that in lives of Christian people in the world today)?! We must re-train our thinking. Romans 12:2 tells us to retrain our thinking so that it lines up with God’s way of thinking. We do that through daily time in God’s Word.  2Timothy 3:16 tells us that all of Scripture is applicable to our lives. God wanted every word in that Bible to be seen by you. God is not a man that He should lie (Num 23:19); so if He said we will do greater things than Jesus, He meant it! 

Jesus did some really big stuff. He promised that we would do even greater. Yet, today we find a bulk of Christianity hanging on for dear life until Jesus comes. We are struggling with finances the same way the world is; we are dying of the same diseases the world is; our marriages are just as bad (sometimes worse) than the world’s are. And every time a Christian finds the promises of God for healing, prosperity, and “the good life” (Eph 2:10, Amplified), the traditional church world blasts them for heresy. Jesus said we would do these things. Either He is lying, or religion is lying. I pick religion.