What could be more antithetical to the Christian faith than Christians and Clergymen who doubt,despise and mock the miraculous?

Such claim that it's only Jesus, the apostles and a few Bible characters who are licenced to walk that path is not only ridiculous but mischievous.

Their only focus is the exegesis of the word while ignoring the requisite corresponding prayer walk with the Holy spirit without which signs and wonders will not happen.

Matthew 17:21
[21]Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

You criticize the opening of blind eyes because you lack the gift
You despise raising of the dead because God did not use you.
You tag as fake the healing of cripples because your ministry lacks such proofs.
You mock all manner of miracles and call it hypnosis and crowd manipulation simply because it's not you.

If roles were switched and it was during your preaching meeting that blind eyes suddenly popped open, cripples felt a sensation in their knees that made them walk and the dead resurrected , would you still be critical of miracles? I doubt.

This is nothing short of jealousy and envy. If you truly desire a gift, why not ask the Holy Spirit to release such into your ministry or ask those who manifest such how they got it.

The ministry of Jesus our mentor and role model was not just a teaching ministry , signs and wonders followed his word.

Pentecostal Pharisees prefer you to preach, teach, pontificate, elaborate, enumerate and cascade the word. But the moment you mention healing the sick, raising the dead and demonstrating the revelational or power gifts or making use of olive oil, mantles, water or any of the Biblically established points of contacts for miracles, they get irritated, uncomfortable and impatient with you.

Is that not a replica of what the Pharisees did to Jesus , they would rather have the sick die in their pain than to be healed. This is not only wicked , heartless but totally "unkingdomlike".

They accused Jesus of casting out devils with Beelzebub because they couldn't. So, what they couldn't do , they despised and condemned.

Luke 11:15
But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils.

Jesus was not just a word man he was a miracle man who healed the sick, cleansed the lepers and raised the dead.

Furthermore, he commissioned his ministers to walk in the same anointing he carried and to do greater works.

John 14:12
[12]Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Mark 16:15-18
[15]And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
[16]He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
[17]And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
[18]They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

These anti- miracle teachings has raised a generation of rude, mannerless and rebellious Christians who talk carelessly of kingdom dignitaries

Jude 1:8-10
[8]Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
[9]Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
[10]But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

Am I suggesting that all miracles are real? far from it. However, not all miracles are fake and staged. You wish to know how to distinguish between fake and real? Ask for the gift of discerning of spirit.

Discerning of spirit is not demonstrated by contrasting what is said or done with the Word alone , it is actually a spiritual ability to navigate and see into the unseen realm to identify the spirit in operation.

In other words, the minister can say and do all the right things according to the Bible and still operate by a familiar spirit and fool the natural Christian.

Why disparage miracles when the Christian faith is predicated on the miracle of resurrection?

Ademola Akinyeye