John 14:12-14
“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. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."
The above verses have been argued about, but no-one has really offered a true meaning. Jesus says here that anyone who believes in Him “will” do the works that he does. This phraseology is expressed in the indicative mood, which means that this is something that will absolutely happen. It is not up for debate or question- it will be! Further the great debate has stemmed around what “greater works” are. Does it mean greater in number? Does it mean greater in miraculous content? I believe that it means greater in number for two reasons. First, a servant is not above his master and doing greater miracles than Jesus did is not an option. There are only a handful of miracles that are displayed in the Acts that we don’t have clear evidence of Jesus doing- One is speaking in tongues and the other is miraculous transportation as Phillip had with the Eunich. It can be argued , however that Jesus did speak in tongues on the cross and when he commanded the 12-year-old girl to rise from the dead. It can also be argued that Jesus did display supernatural transportation when he immediately translated the boat across the sea of Galilee and when He appeared to the apostles after the resurrection via walking through the wall. Those are simply opinions however and cannot be emphatically stated.
Second, when Jesus walked the Earth there was only one of Him {so to speak} so there was a limit to how many people he could actually come into contact with. After God resurrected Him and sent the Holy Spirit, however, every believer can go about doing what He did- healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, casting out demons…Because there are {in theory} so many of us, more works can be done.
It is also vitally important to note that the prayers a person prays have to be in the name of Jesus because Jesus is the only one worthy to approach the Father. As well, anything that is asked must be a request that will glorify the Father. So many times, because people do not know the heart of God they will either ask something that will not glorify Him, or they do not ask anything at all. These verses give us a very clear picture into answered prayer. The notion is that because we believe in Jesus, we are provoked to do the works that He did. Then we are provoked to ask the Lord to back us up on manifesting the works in the name of our Lord Jesus. Once the works manifest, God is glorified through Jesus! This is how prayer works in a very simple format. The thing that people miss, though is that very first line- “he who believes in Me.” People are convinced that they believe in Jesus just because they know His name. This is not the case. The book of James assures us that to believe without acting is what the demons do. They believe and they tremble!. That is why Jesus said that if you believe- if you believe truly that Jesus is your Lord and that you are one with Him- you WILL do the works that He did!!! Believing is not worth anything unless it causes action for the kingdom of God!!
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