The Supernatural Becomes the Norm

If we study the New Testament with an open mind, we are compelled to acknowledge that the whole life and experience of the early Christians was permeated by the supernatural. Supernatural experiences were not something incidental or additional; they were an integral part of their lives as Christians. Their praying was supernatural; their preaching was supernatural; they were supernaturally guided, supernaturally empowered, supernaturally transported, supernaturally protected.

Remove the supernatural from the book of Acts, and you are left with something that has no meaning or coherence. From the descent of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, it is impossible to find a single chapter in which the supernatural does not play an essential part.

In the account of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus we find a most arresting and thought-provoking expression.

“Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul.” (Acts 19:11)

Consider the implications of that phrase “unusual miracles.” The Greek could be translated, somewhat freely, “miracles of a kind that do not happen every day.” Miracles were an everyday occurrence in the early Church. Normally they would have caused no special surprise or comment. But the miracles granted here in Ephesus through the ministry of Paul were such that even the early Church found them worthy of special record.

In how many churches today would we find occasion to use the phrase “miracles of a kind that do not happen every day”? In how many churches today do miracles ever happen – let alone happen every day?

The truth is, where we do not see and experience the supernatural, we have no right to speak of New Testament Christianity. These two things – the supernatural and New Testament Christianity – are inseparably interwoven.

Without the supernatural we may have New Testament doctrine, but it is bare doctrine, not experience. Such doctrine, divorced from supernatural experience, is of the kind described by Paul.

“For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”(2 Cor. 3:6)

Only the Holy Spirit can give life to the letter of New Testament doctrine and make that doctrine a living, personal, supernatural way of life for each believer. One main purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is to do just this.