Does God Still Perform Miracles? (The Breakers Challenge)

OBJECTION 1: God performed more miracles in Bible times to establish Christ as the Messiah, but that’s not needed today.

Some would say that miracles were just proof that Jesus was the Messiah and that we don’t need to go around praying for people to get healed and delivered from demons. And since he already finished his ministry, we don’t need that.  Well, let me tell you why that objection is a terrible objection.  

Mark 16:17-18

And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.

Jesus, through discipleship, multiplied the number of miracles. So to say that miracles have decreased since the time of Jesus is foolish because Jesus himself did the work of increasing miracles in his own lifetime. And then it continued to happen, after the death and resurrection of Christ.

OBJECTION 2: People who are into miracles, prophecy, and deliverance are emotional and not biblical.

This is a problematic objection.  1 Corinthians 14:39, says, “So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But all things should be done decently and in order.”

The true response to emotionalism is training, not stopping prophecy, miracles, and deliverance.  Back in the first-century church, there was emotionalism.  There were people who only wanted prophetic words.  There were people seeking miracles and deliverance, but the response was not, “Let’s stop doing it because a few people got it wrong.” Actually, the biblical response was, “Be eager to prophesy.”

And so when people say we should just stop doing it because there’s emotionalism, or because people gave a wrong prophetic word, no! The apostles had the wisdom to actually say, “That’s not a reason why we stop doing it.  It’s a reason why we put structure and training to it.”

OBJECTION 3:   Most healings and miracles are the power of placebo, not the power of prayer.  

Coworkers, family members who are atheists, agnostics, and people who are deconstructing and left the church will say, “Well, you know most healings and miracles are the power of placebo, not the power of prayer.”  And people will attribute it to the power of positive thinking.  But just because some healings and deliverances have been faked doesn’t mean that they all aren’t real. So there were charlatans and false people in Jesus’ time, but that didn’t stop Jesus from healing or the work of deliverance. So just because some people do it the wrong way doesn’t mean that the ones who have the true living God on the inside of them shouldn’t do it at all.

A lot of people have messed up marriages but that doesn’t mean that we cancel the covenant of marriage. A lot of people have messed up churches, but that doesn’t cancel the body of Christ and covenant through the local church. Just because somebody did it wrong doesn’t mean we stop doing it.  

As a matter of fact, I would say the best argument against the false is the real. Don’t try to fight their false actions with words. Fight their false actions with true healing, true deliverance, and true salvation. When people say, “Well, it’s just the power of placebo,” you tell them it’s not mind over matter. There are medically verifiable miracles. There are things that God does that only he can do.

OBJECTION 4:  People who seek healing and deliverance don’t want Jesus, they just want freedom.

People will say, “Oh, I see all those deliverance and prophecy fanatics.  They don’t want Jesus,  they just want freedom.  They just want a word.”  People will say things like,”Don’t seek God’s hand and what he can do for you, seek his face.” But I’ll tell you, even if you selfishly come seeking his hand, you are so much closer to his face. I don’t have a problem with people getting healed who don’t even want Jesus. I don’t have a problem with people getting delivered who may not even want Jesus.  Why?  Because wanting freedom is the first step to coming closer to Jesus.

In Luke 17:11-19, Jesus heals ten men with leprosy. Accepting Christ as Savior was not a pre-condition for their healing. One of the ten got a revelation of Christ as Messiah because of the healing. Only one of them came back and literally bowed down to him. He cried out with a loud voice, “My Savior, my Messiah.” Accepting Him as Savior was not a precondition for healing.  If you get around enough deliverance, you’re going to find the Deliverer. If you get around enough healing, you’re going to find the Healer. 

People seek prophetic words through psychic mediums. Why not find it through the prophetic people of God? They’re seeking healing through reiki and stones and crystals. Why not find healing through the people of God?

OBJECTION FIVE: They just need discipline, it’s not a demon.  

People say, “You think everything’s a demon.”  The term for the spirit of infirmity occurs in Luke 13:11, specifically in the King James version. Here you have a woman who had been crippled for 18 years. She’s healed by Jesus on the Sabbath day, and Luke says that she has a spirit of infirmity. Another translation calls it a disabling spirit. She didn’t need discipline, she needed deliverance from the spirit of infirmity. Sometimes there is a need for discipline, but if you are not equipped to do deliverance you’ll have people like the woman in Luke 13:11, that never get healed because you’re trying to tell them to go to the chiropractor. You’re trying to tell them to go do physical therapy. You’re trying to tell them to take pills. You’re trying to tell them to get surgery but they need deliverance, not discipline. 

Now, deliverance doesn’t replace discipline.  We know this. They go hand in hand.  In John 5:8, Jesus heals a man, then He says,  “Pick up your mat and walk.” So clearly Jesus understood the value of discipline because he knew that this man couldn’t be a beggar anymore. 

It’s about wisdom.  Of course, everything’s not a demon.  But if you are going to be powerful in the spiritual realm, a true believer and disciple of Jesus Christ, then you have to know when to tell somebody to pick up their mat and walk. And you have to know when to say, “Spirit of infirmity, come out of them.”

OBJECTION 6: Christians who do deliverance, healing, and prophecy are just doing it for fame/clout/finances.

As I teach the scriptures, I encounter modern-day Sadducees that get so upset that God is healing people.  Did you know there is still a spirit of the Pharisee, with pride and arrogance?  How arrogant do you have to be to assume the motive of every healing and deliverance minister on the internet? Those same people would have assumed the same thing about Jesus, as Jesus had large crowds surrounding him. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 says, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies,  but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”

It doesn’t say stop doing prophecy. If somebody prophesies wrong, it says, just test it, hold on to what is good, and reject what is evil. It says, don’t quench it. And there are a lot of Pharisees on Facebook. There are a lot of Sadducees on YouTube that are quenching the Spirit. They’re letting their preferences get in the way of their progress.  They’re letting their church background get in the way of their Holy Ghost future. And the Lord’s trying to call them to go to something deeper, but they’re being held back by doctrines of demons. 

Do not quench the Spirit. I’d rather lose friends than quench the Spirit. I’d rather shrink my circles than quench the Spirit. I’d rather them talk about me or gossip about me. There’s a high price to pay for the anointing. Jesus paid for the resurrection power so that you can operate in it freely, but the level of authority you operate in will always increase on the other side of passing your test.  Jesus himself was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. After He came out of the wilderness he spoke with a new authority. If Jesus’ authority can increase after passing a test, your authority increases after passing a test. 

So as you go through the next several weeks and are praying for people to be healed and delivered, and as you’re prophesying over people, you are going to be persecuted. But persecution is the first step of promotion. Persecution comes first and promotion comes after.  First, they start talking about you, and then, they cannot deny you. Why? Because God started you. No man can stop you, He called you. He separated you and designated you. It doesn’t matter if they see you’re calling.

OBJECTION 7: I believe it’s possible, but I’ve never seen it.  I’ve prayed but I’ve never seen it in my own life.

Matthew 13:57-58, says, “They took offense at Jesus. And Jesus said to them, only in his hometown and in his own household is a prophet without honor. And he did not do miracles there because of their lack of faith.” 

Just believe.  This is the phrase that Smith Wigglesworth used as he traveled all around, he would say the phrase “Just believe, only believe, only believe.” Here’s the thing, you might have to pray for 10,000 people before you see the first miracle. Don’t stop praying for miracles.

I can’t tell you how many generals of old, how many people that we come from in a lineage of faith y’all, we come from a lineage of God’s generals. I can’t tell you how many of them had prayed for hundreds and hundreds of people. No miracles happened, but all of a sudden one happened, and then they happened all the time. I don’t know why God moves that way, but I do believe it’s his will.  Biblically, you never see miracles cease.  You just see people stop believing.

Biblically, you never see prophecy cease.  You just see people who stop prophesying.  It’s still happening, but you’ve got to just believe. 

I wanna encourage your faith right now as we get ready to come to a close.  I started my preaching ministry at the age of 15.  There was a woman at the very first church that I preached at, a small church on the South Side of Chicago.  She brought her four-year-old daughter to me who was born with a decrepit hand. I laid hands on that woman’s child, and all of a sudden her hand begin to stretch forth and she was completely healed.  

One woman I prayed for worked at a Baptist church on staff.  She had multiple sclerosis and had asked for prayer from many different people and she still believed. And she was watching my broadcast and as she watched, she was completely healed. She went back to the doctors and they said every lesion in her brain and any remnant of MS is completely gone. She emailed me all of the medical verification. At V1 Conference, we had a creative miracle happen, where a woman with a deformed ear received healing in her ear. She still attends our church. Somebody else who was there went from nearly deaf to having better hearing than even average hearing. God has exceeded. 

And so, why do I say that?  Because God is raising Breakers. He’s raising up those who will push past every objection, who say, “No, I know the word.” I want to pray over you that you would receive an impartation of faith to become a Breaker, that you would be the generation that rises up in your family and sees every single chain broken, and that you would rise up and see God do it.

Father, I pray for a supernatural impartation from the top of their head down to the soles of their feet that they would receive your anointing.  That burden-removing yoke-destroying power of the Holy Spirit that signs, miracles, wonders, healings, and deliverance would come through their hands. God, that they would activate now, Lord that you would just use them to release the fire of the Holy Spirit. God, I’m not talking about Pentecostalism. I’m not talking about the charismatic movement. This is not a denomination. This is not a stream. This is the identity of sons and daughters rising up and saying, “I am a biblical Christian and I will do all that God’s called me to do.” And Father, I thank you, from this day forth we say “Yes,” to do everything that you’ve called us to do. We’ll pray the prayer of faith in Jesus’ name.

Further Resources

To learn more about The Breakers Challenge

📝The Breakers Challenge