How Did They Do It?
To answer that question, we must first ask, how did Jesus do it?
John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
Jesus made the works He performed about His union with the Father. It was the evidence of His knowing and belonging to the Father. After making that point, He then stated,
John 14:12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
Here is how we know the works Jesus is speaking of are not being offered on a cross as He was to pay for the sin of the whole world. Only Jesus could do that. Jesus used the word "works" to refer to the things He performed that they had witnessed.
What were these works? Well, He cast out demons, He healed the sick, He made the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the mute to speak. He also raised the dead.
When He sent out His disciples, He told them,
Luke 9:2 He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Luke 10:9 And heal the sick there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
I have personally witnessed tumors disappear, hearing restored, sight restored, lameness healed, demons cast out, various types of healings, and the multitudes miraculously fed, and I believe to see the dead raised before I go to be with Jesus. I know people who have been participants in the raising of the dead. Now I know it wasn't I who performed these things; I was merely a contact point, due to Jesus in me and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in and through me. It was Jesus in me doing these things to confirm the gospel concerning Himself being preached.
I realize that some people struggle with this idea for various reasons. But Jesus showed us the way He did it so we could understand how to do it. He did it by means of the Father in Him.
This was not just for the apostles during that time. It is for anyone who believes in Jesus.
Mark 16:14 Later, He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
We are in the last days, evil days, and our generation is a hardened one at that, more so than even the one Jesus ministered to in His day. If the generation of Jesus and the apostles needed the evidence of the miraculous to confirm the truth of the gospel, why would not this one? Miracles, signs, and wonders are for the sake of those the Father is calling to the Son in these last days. They are also often blessings for those who have already believed, simply because they need mercy to help them at times. How did they do it? Jesus in them just as Jesus did it by the Father in Him.
