While driving a while back I passed a sticker on a car that asked the apparently simple question, “Do you believe?” It was a brown sticker with white letters and I am not sure what it was asking me to believe, but it really didn’t matter anyway because years ago over about a three day period I was forced to answer this question.
I was finishing up reading through the Gospel of Mark when the words in red at the end of chapter 16 made me stop. I stopped because they were words that claimed there would substance that should accompany belief. It was substance I was not familiar with. It was more than being good and living a cleaned up life. The result of believing the Gospel was supposed to be a life of miracles.
Mark 16:17-18 (NASB Strong’s)
17 These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
These two verses became a tense conversation between the Lord and I as this scripture clearly states specific things that would happen IF I believed. I thought I believed. I thought that my intellectual/heart agreement with the Gospel was all that was required to qualify me as a believer, right? Certainly, having one’s sin forgiven changes things and cleans up our lives but what about these signs that are to accompany those who believe?
This commissioning is no different than other times Jesus commissioned people to go and do kingdom things. The sending of the 12 (Matthew 10:5-8) and the 70 (Luke 10:1-20) both have similar words in the commission and results in the mission. Indeed, a few days after these words in Mark 16 were spoken the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and the early church was alive with “signs and wonders.”
The conversation I had with God went something like this. He asked, “Do you believe that every word in the Bible is true?” I said, “Yes.” He asked, “Do you believe that I am the Almighty God, that I have not changed, and that I can still do these things?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Do you see these things happening as a result of your life?” I said, “No.” He said, “Then what part of the Gospel do you not believe?” I could not answer for several days but in the end I found that I had a very narrow belief in what the Gospel was all about and what God’s full intentions were for His people to live in.
This could get very lengthy so I am going to cut it short and say that whatever we believe in will eventually manifest itself in our lives. Are these signs in your life? Do you believe the Gospel? Do you have a regular encounter with the power of the Gospel?
His Kid, Your Brother
Ken
His Kid, Your Brother 