Why do we always major on the Word and neglect powers like miraculous power, healing power…etc?
The coming of Jesus to save man and to destroy the works of the devil is not firstly for the body, but for the soul, then the body.
The problem of man isn’t firstly the bodily diseases, but the infirmities of the soul. What brought about the issues in the body is because the soul had journeyed so far away from God by using the law of sin to live.
The reign and dominion of sin after killing the spirit of man was to train and kill the soul also. The training of the soul by sin is a process and it was hampered by the coming of Jesus and the introduction of the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. The power of the Gospel according to Romans 1:16-17, is unto Salvation and for the revelation of the righteousness of God.
Our God is a powerful being. He is a God of Powers. He can work miraculous powers, supernatural powers, healing powers, but the power that is of Him is such that can bring a man to Salvation. Salvation here speaks of a man coming into a place where he has the very life and essence of God in him.
The very power of God hidden in the Gospel is the ability of God to turn a carnal/fleshly man to a spiritual man and ultimately make him partake of the divine nature.
That is the miracle of the soul – that Jesus could take a fisherman (Peter) and when He finished with him (in teaching, and raising), he became an apostle of the Lamb and a preacher of everlasting righteousness, just like the other disciples.
Miraculous power, and healing powers for the body do not change the soul of a man. It does not renew the mind and transform the heart (Romans 12:1-2). For the mind to be renewed, you need the unveiling of the Gospel of Christ and feeding on the word of God.
The miraculous is a function of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and they manifest as the Spirit wills, usually as a sign to those who are outside the Church (unbelievers), to persuade them to get born again. But after the New Birth, the emphasis on the believer is spiritual growth.
Spiritual growth from childhood to sonship is by the revelation of the righteousness of Christ. The true health of the physical body of a believer is dependent on the soul’s prosperity or growth (3 John 2). Sometimes, the workings of miraculous powers can distract a believer from focusing on “sitting down and hearing sound doctrine’’. Eventually we get to see that the body comes into wholeness when the soul is made whole in Christ Jesus.