The Hand or The Face? Why not both?!: The Hesitancy in Pursuing Spiritual gifts/Signs and Wonders in the Church

I've been on a book reading craze the past few months. Two books that I read which have challenged me are Mike Bickle's "Growing in The Prophetic" and Bill Johnson's "When Heaven Invades Earth". Both books in particular make great points about the tension and reluctance on the part of many, to pursue spiritual gifts and seek signs and wonders, thinking that we're not called to do this but to just focus on Jesus. I just wanted to share some of their more salient points in regards to this topic.

Mike Bickle in his book mentions that the phrase "Seek God's face, and not His hand" has become somewhat popular in the church today. The phrase refers to seeking the Lord in intimacy, and not His blessings, which evidently would include the full release of His power in ministry. And while this may sound nice and has some truth in regards to higher priority, Mike argues that it is not entirely biblical. The two ideas are not mutually exclusive to one another but are rather active partners. God never says to seek one thing and not the other. But rather, we're called to seek His face without NEGLECTING seeking His hand, or His power in ministry. After all, it's His power that sets people free to fulfill the first part of the phrase-seeking His face, in the first place.

And actually, seeking the gifts is in part, a sign of hunger for more of God. It's pointless and trivial to seek fireworks without the God behind them. And it's not like you can get to that place where you move in signs and wonders without intimacy/uncomfortable lifestyle of faith with God in the first place. So to shirk off the responsibility in pursuing these things just gives us a very convenient reason not to press in to the Lord in a lifestlye of faith and intimacy, as the two aspects go hand in hand. We can just degenerate into blobs floating around as an expression of emasculated Christianity.

Anyways, if we look in the Bible, and at the NT church, it's quite clear that it was a church that was pursuing signs and wonders/spiritual gifts, and were even commanded to by Paul. "But eagerly desire the greater gifts."1 Corinthians 12:31. Nowhere do we find in the NT the opposite witness to this reality. With what we see in the Bible, although it's clearly wrong to seek power first, it's equally wrong to neglect seeking it! It's an entirely unbiblical position to put this stuff on the back burner because it makes you uncomfortable or stretches your faith, or even worse oppose it. That is not NT Christianity and that is not what Paul taught. On that note, although I respect those who hold the cessationist position, the truth is, no one can come to that position while honestly reading the NT. It's something that's been taught. Seeking the greater gifts/signs and wonders was a NT command and frankly, not an option in the dog-eat-dog-world of the early church. The Church could not have survived without the very real flow of the Spirit's movement, especially as evidenced through miracles which happened daily. We see the same reality in the underground church in China where the church has just exploded in growth; much in large measure because of the power of the Holy Spirit, with miracles taking place daily, confirming the message of the gospel.

I've heard of the argument, these are just "signs". "Signs" pointing to a greater reality in Jesus. And yes, Jesus is the greatest reality and without Him, this stuff is meaningless. But to use this argument in advocating backing off, or not pursuing these "signs", doesn't make the greatest logical sense to me. After all, if these "signs" point to Jesus, I want more of them! During my days of college, seminary I used to put up signs in the hallways and doors for various worship gatherings, and I'd put alot of them to make sure that people couldn't miss. And I as process all this, I realize, how much more should we seek these signs when what we have to offer is the most powerful message in the world in the gospel, and has life/death consequences? ... Signs? I want as many signs as possible pointing to Jesus! So that even the most dullest or hard-hearted heart will become broken by the power of God, and as it says in scripture, fall on His knees and "worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!" (1 Corinthians 14:25)

If we speak of a supernatural Jesus who was able to heal and move in wonders, and we believe that this Jesus lives inside of us, I think we need to back it up to the world, or seek to grow in it. This is something the Lord has been challenging me after a season in which I effectively disqualified myself from this chase, thinking out of self-pity that I was only given a small measure of the Spirit and I was consigned to live this way for the rest of my life. But seeing the Lord especially revive a prophetic spirit in me, I hear Him challenging me not to be a cop out, but to ask for more because He wants to give more, not only to me but to all of us as we step out in faith. The world needs it. The world hungers to see a God who is real and active in our midst. No more phonies who preach one thing and live another!

Bill Johnson makes the great point that Jesus Himself said, "Unless I do the works of the Father, do not believe me. Or at least believe me on the account of the miracles themselves". In Bill's words, "Jesus gave people the right to disbelieve it all if there was no demonstration of power upon His ministry. I hunger for the day when the Church will make the same statement to the world. If we're not doing the miracles that Jesus did, you don't have to believe us".