Miraculous Signs

The Christian congregation was founded at Pentecost 33 C.E.

Miracles are witnessing from God.

It was among such unbelieving people that God's Messiah began his work.
So God needed to build people's faith through the undoubted work of the Holy Spirit.

John the Baptist had been told by God that the one upon whom the Holy Spirit would descend would be the Messiah, who would baptize in the Spirit. And at Jesus' baptism, he confirmed that sign and introduced God's Messiah to the world.

Joh 1:33-34
33 Even I did not know him, but the very One who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'Whoever it is upon whom you see the spirit coming down and remaining, this is the one that baptizes in holy spirit.' 34 And I have seen [it], and I have borne witness that this one is the Son of God."

Jesus performed many miracles and people had faith in him.

Joh 7:31
31 Still, many of the crowd put faith in him; and they commenced saying: "When the Christ arrives, he will not perform more signs than this man has performed, will he?"

The same is true of the birth of the Christian congregation.

Jesus' disciples were told by the resurrected Jesus to wait for the baptism wih Holy Spirit.

It happened during the Jewish festival of Pentecost.
Gathering in an upper room in Jerusalem, 120 disciples were filled with the Spirit and began speaking in foreign languages about God and the resurrection of Jesus.

As a result of this miraculous event, 3,000 foreign-speaking Jews who had gathered in Jerusalem from all over the world for the festival became believers that day.

God himself joined the testimony with many miraculous works of the Spirit.
Therefore, Christianity (the Christian congregation) can be said to have been established by God.

Ac 1:4-5
4 And while he was meeting with them he gave them the orders: "Do not withdraw from Jerusalem, but keep waiting for what the Father has promised, about which YOU heard from me; 5 because John, indeed, baptized with water, but YOU will be baptized in holy spirit not many days after this."

Ac 2:4-7, 11-12, 22, 41
4 and they all became filled with holy spirit and started to speak with different tongues, just as the spirit was granting them to make utterance.
5 As it was, there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, reverent men, from every nation of those under heaven. 6 So, when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Indeed, they were astonished and began to wonder and say: "See here, all these who are speaking are Gal‧i‧le′ans, are they not?
11 Cre′tans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in our tongues about the magnificent things of God." 12 Yes, they were all astonished and were in perplexity, saying one to another: "What does this thing purport to be?"
22 "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus the Naz‧a‧rene′, a man publicly shown by God to YOU through powerful works and portents and signs that God did through him in YOUR midst, just as YOU yourselves know,
41 Therefore those who embraced his word heartily were baptized, and on that day about three thousand souls were added.

Ac 5:12-16
12 Moreover, through the hands of the apostles many signs and portents continued to occur among the people; and they were all with one accord in Sol′o‧mon's colonnade. 13 True, not a one of the others had the courage to join himself to them; nevertheless, the people were extolling them. 14 More than that, believers in the Lord kept on being added, multitudes both of men and of women; 15 so that they brought the sick out even into the broad ways and laid them there upon little beds and cots, in order that, as Peter would go by, at least his shadow might fall upon some one of them. 16 Also, the multitude from the cities around Jerusalem kept coming together, bearing sick people and those troubled with unclean spirits, and they would one and all be cured.

Ac 14:3
3 Therefore they spent considerable time speaking with boldness by the authority of Lord, who bore witness to the word of his undeserved kindness by granting signs and portents to occur through their hands.

Ac 19:11-12
11 And God kept performing extraordinary works of power through the hands of Paul, 12 so that even cloths and aprons were borne from his body to the ailing people, and the diseases left them, and the wicked spirits came out.

Heb 2:4
4 while God joined in bearing witness with signs as well as portents and various powerful works and with distributions of holy spirit according to his will?

So, we see that the extraordinary miraculous works of God's Spirit is a testimony from God to the world.

The Changes brought about by the Completion of the Christian Greek Scriptures

During this time, the Christian Greek Scriptures were prepared by the work of God's Spirit to serve as the ground of faith for the future sons of the Kingdom.

So, after the death of the last apostle, John, the extraordinary works of spirit ceased, and the Christian congregation was left to the finished inspired writings and to Christ in heaven.

And due to the foretold apostasy, the wheat has disappeared into the weeds. However, thanks to the inspired writings and the guidance of Christ, true Christians have existed in all ages, right up to the present day, wherever the Bible is available, and they end their lives with a heavenly hope preserved through the promise of a seed.

Ac 20:29-30, 32
29 I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among YOU and will not treat the flock with tenderness, 30 and from among YOU yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.

32 And now I commit YOU to God and to the word of his undeserved kindness, which [word] can build YOU up and give YOU the inheritance among all the sanctified ones.

This is something that actually happened in history.
So, from the beginning of the Christianity, God's people were held captive in Satan's trap, Babylon the Great (Christ's false kingdom), and remain so to this day.

On the spiritual gifts given to the early Christians

1Co 12:4-7
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but there is the same spirit; 5 and there are varieties of ministries, and yet there is the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of operations, and yet it is the same God who performs all the operations in all persons. 7 But the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for a beneficial purpose.

Ro 12:3, 6
3 For through the undeserved kindness given to me I tell everyone there among YOU not to think more of himself than it is necessary to think; but to think so as to have a sound mind, each one as God has distributed to him a measure of faith.
6 Since, then, we have gifts differing according to the undeserved kindness given to us, whether prophecy, [let us prophesy] according to the faith proportioned [to us];

These spiritual gifts from God were given to build up the Christian congregation just started, and were the testimonies from God as the signs to unbelievers to show His approval on His congregation. Those spiritual gifts are not the Spirit of adoption. It is a distinct gift from God given to Spirit-anointed, "born again" Christians.

Therefore, the Spirit of adoption should not be confused with various spiritual gifts beyond what is normal.

A Christian who is born again from spirit (anointed with spirit) does not necessarily have a miraculous or emotional experience.

Through the Bible, each Christian can become aware of who he is and what God has called him to be.
Because whether we have experienced a miracle or not, there is only one biblical hope.
It is a heavenly calling to the promised seed.

In this regard, no one can judge the validity of another Christian's "inner assurance as the promised seed."

Ro 14:4
4 Who are you to judge the house servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for lord can make him stand.

With the completion of the divinely inspired writings, and after the immediate disciples of Christ, endowed with the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, fell asleep in death, the extraordinary works of the Spirit (miracles), having accomplished their initial purpose, gradually ceased to be seen.

1Co 13:8
8 Love never fails. But whether there are [gifts of] prophesying, they will be done away with; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will be done away with.

Those who are convinced that they have been born from the spirit with extraordinary experiences (visions, dreams, voices, etc.) have no legitimate reason to look down on those who do not have such experiences or to expect or demand that others have the same miraculous experiences as they have.

Also, those who have not had such emotional experiences but who have gained confidence through their understanding of God's Word need not expect miraculous events, nor should they judge those who describe such experiences.

One never knows which way the wind will blow.

Joh 3:8
8 The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone that has been born from the spirit."

1Co 2:11, 14-15
11 For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of man that is in him?
14 But a physical man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot get to know [them], because they are examined spiritually. 15 However, the spiritual man examines indeed all things, but he himself is not examined by any man.

No one can see or understand where a person's confidence and hope come from.
The faith of people produced by the promise of a seed is not simply a product of their intellectual understanding.

The process that makes intellectual understanding possible and enables us to exercise faith in our hearts in that understanding cannot occur without the work of God's Spirit.

Therefore, faith is generally said to be the fruit of God's Spirit.
In other words, Christian faith is the product of the work of God's Spirit.

summary

• Miracles are signs that God shows to unbelievers.
• The spirit of adoption for the sons of the kingdom is not the same as the miraculous gifts for the early Christian congregation.
• Our fatih is a product of God's spirit that operates on our thinking process. Therefore, anyone can have faith without miraculous experiences through the words of God. And Christians are called to be sons of the Kingdom.