The Purpose of Miracles

Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds (2 Corinthians 12:12).

Back to the Beginning

In this epistle to the Corinthians, Paul found himself in a position where had to defend his apostleship. In so doing, he spoke of a vision of Heaven he received, and of his thorn in the flesh. He told the Corinthians that one of the proofs of his apostleship were the miracles that took place – also referred to as signs and wonders.

What was the purpose of these miracles?

To study miracles, we have to go back to the beginning, when God created all things in six days, then years later unleashed a flood upon the earth. Each was miraculous. Next, God chose Abraham, whose descendants would become slaves in Egypt. At the end of his people's many years of servitude, Moses – with the power of God – performed miracles with his staff, calling down the 10 plagues upon Egypt about 1445 B.C. and providing food and water in the wilderness.

Eventually, Israel was established as a nation, the monarch was created, and the Israelites repeatedly fell into sin. God sent prophets, beginning with Elijah and Elisha in 1 and 2 Kings. These two performed the miraculous, and the office of prophet was established around 550 B.C.

However, we don't see many more miracles from any other prophets. This tells us that miracles were not a continuous occurrence.

A New Era

The next time the miraculous occurred was during the time of Christ and the Apostles.

Why? What was the purpose for this? The purpose for miracles was to establish the Word of God by proving God sent His messengers to tell the people something important. Every time God did something new in the history of His people, He verified it by miracles, signs, and wonders.

When Moses gave the Law, miracles were performed. When God established the office of prophet, miracles were performed. More than 500 years later, when the Son of God arrived proclaiming to be God in flesh and the Messiah, miracles were done. When the Apostles were with Jesus, and during the establishment of the early assembly, miracles were performed.

In fact, as the verse says, one of the qualifications of an Apostle was to perform miracles. If one didn't do miracles, he wasn't an Apostle. In the future, there will be two witnesses in Revelation 11 who will perform miracles.

A Word of Caution

This biblical background on when miracles were performed is very important. So many Christians and those calling themselves Christian claim they have healed people, raised them from the dead, or cured diseases.

However, when you look at the evidence, there is none. Can God heal? Yes. But He does so at His discretion, and miracles were NEVER performed as a show or to appease our fleshly curiosity and selfish desires.

Beware those who claim to do the miraculous. Why? So many get caught up in the hype and psychological manipulation of these men and women, fall into a snare, and do not learn the truth. Rather, they are deceived into giving God's money to people who are liars.

I've seen it happen firsthand. It's also sad to see people who look for hope or something new or exciting when they don't realize how much treasure they have in Scripture and in Christ.

One day a man will do lying signs and wonders by the power of Satan (2 Thessalonians 2:9). Satan performs counterfeit miracles, just like the magicians did in Pharaoh's court. Most of them are magic tricks, but some cannot be physically explained.

Do you look for miracles? Ask God, but leave it to Him. Do you look for a miracle more than God? Don't be deceived and learn the purpose for miracles.

Michael Weis is a pastor, video operator, editor and social media manager at Zion's Hope.