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Satan cannot do miracles Too many say this unbiblical statement ‘Satan can’t perform miracles’. The Bible says he can, he also counterfeits and invents doctrine to support what he does. “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” (Rev.13:11-14). He deceives people by his miracles which he does have power to do. There are miracles take place in the cults, the Occult and other religions (also by shamans, witchdoctors, gurus and spiritualists,) To take the position that miracles are from God 100 percent of the time opens one to deception. The message of Christianity is not miracles but the gospel, Believing Christ crucified is the way to life. Satan cannot give the accurate gospel so he instead performs signs wonders, miracles. In many churches and the present movement of the day miracles (which include signs and wonders) are preached and looked to for validation that god is moving. They have nothing to do with Christ crucified. Paul preached the cross, Christ crucified was his main focus (1 Corinthians 1:18). When Jesus performed signs, it was among people who knew the sick and afflicted, The religious Pharisees could not deny they took place; instead, they attributed His power to another source, Satan (Matthew 12:24). So they certainly understood God’s enemy can supernaturally produce a type of miracle. The Bible teaches are true miracles and there are false ones. Satan can’t have right doctrine, but he certainly can counterfeit signs and wonders. Thus if false teaching accompanies a miracle it cannot be of God. Jesus had signs accompany His teaching; the miraculous was to prove what He said of himself and God was the truth. Therein lies a tremendous difference. John 12:37 says, “But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him.” Why? Because of what He said that accompanied the miracles, His words cut to the heart and they could not deal with the truth. Does the Bible teach that signs and wonders will be commonplace in the end as many teach today? Indeed it does, but the greater numbers in the end are found as a warning from Jesus. Matthew 24:24: “For false Christ’s and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders.” This does not mean that authentic miracles from God will no longer occur. But it does tell us that the majority of them at the end will be to deceive. Jesus says in the end “lawlessness will abound.” John writes, “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” This occurs as sin reaches it zenith in the culture, we are certainly watching this take place. Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 2:9: “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.” There is coming a time where the energy, power of Satan will no longer be restrained, having full strength, much more than today. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 states “Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” To do this we must discern and judge. The word test means to “prove,” (Greek- doldmazo) to discern or examine in order to prove whether or not a thing is of god or not. Test all things means to test teachings, practices, prophecy AND miracles. God can and does miracles for his namesake. But we cannot command or control God to do what we would like by our request. That would as divination. Neither should one be called a prophet because they did a miracle. John did no miracles yet he was called the greatest prophet. Jesus warned “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord HAVE WE NOT PROPHESIED in your Name, CAST OUT DEMONS in your name, and DONE MANY WONDERS in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me” (Matthew 7:22-23). Jesus is addressing those who demonstrated power to the people. They certainly did miracles and claimed to be doing His work by using His name (obviously operating by a different Jesus who was their source of power). They claimed all the works they accomplished were for him, using his name. The Lord makes it clear that they were never His sheep (John 10:27). Those who do not have their ministry focused on miracles are not the ones who need to be concerned over this. It is a warning for those who have huge ministries whose promotion is on their miracles. There are two other times in the Bible where people are said to address Jesus Christ as “Lord, Lord.” “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But He answered and said, assuredly, I say to you, I DON’T KNOW YOU” (Matthew 25:11-12). “And why do you call Me, LORD, LORD, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46) Each time the Lord said he did not know them. It doesn’t matter how miracles were produced or how many times his name was called upon, nor the works that were done, God did not produce the miracles. Just because someone does a miracle inside the church does not necessarily mean God is working. We need to be more on guard inside the church than we would like to think. we need to know what the person really believes on the core teachings of Scripture. We need to confirm that the person is orthodox and that it is God who has used the human vessel. The apostles’ instructions were in practice and words put to paper for the benefit of all succeeding generations, that tell us how to live in obedience to the faith. In 1 Corinthians 4:6, we are told not to think beyond what in written. If one goes beyond the written Word claiming God is directly giving them new revelation, they are puffed up and are self-deceived (2 Corinthians 11:14) and deceiving others, that would be you. Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:29-30 asks the church “Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings?” He answers his own question as a NO. Jesus said to those who are of a wicked generation that seek signs, that only the sign of Jonah would be given (Christ’s death and resurrection John 2:18, which is the gospel). Miracles can at times accompany the teaching of God’s Word, but it is the Word of God that is a necessity for salvation (1 Peter 1:23; Romans 10:13-15).
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