"God also testified to (the Good News) by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will" (Heb. 2:4).
For a few years, I worked part-time for a small advertising company while I continued to pastor my church in Walnut, CA. I learned how to place advertising in newspapers, magazines and other publications. But I also placed billboards, radio spots and even television ads. At one point, I wrote a paper for our clients on beginning to use the internet to place ads on their sites and on other search engines. We began to develop online components to just about every ad campaign. This area has continued to grow significantly in recent years.
Did you know that God has a marketing strategy for the Gospel? It is described in the text quoted above from Hebrews. God advertised the incredibly Good News about Jesus through "signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit." And I think His strategy has been phenomenally successful. The 500 or so people who would have called themselves disciples when Jesus ascended into heaven has become 2.5 billion (out of about 7.5 billion total world population) in 2020.
Instead of internet ads, TV commercials, radio spots or newspaper ads, God has used incredibly powerful tools that are all empowered by the Holy Spirit:
• Signs: which are supernatural interventions of God that point to the reality of His presence.
• Wonders: which is another way of looking at miracles from the human perspective. That is, when God intervenes and His presence is made known, it causes the sense of "wonder or awe" in the observer. You could say that the miracle has a stunning effect and creates an "Aha!" moment in the recipient.
• Miracles: is just a way of saying that God's intervention breaks our understanding of how nature is supposed to act. Wayne Gruden says, "A miracle is a less common kind of God's activity in which he arouses people's awe and wonder and bears witness to himself" (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, ch. 52).
• Gifts of the Holy Spirit: from our perspective, the nine "manifestation gifts" of the Spirit mentioned in 1 Cor. 12:7-11. The unique thing about these charismata is that they are purely works done through the believer by the Holy Spirit, not by human cleverness or skill.
This last Sunday, I was standing in the back of the sanctuary as Pastor Alan was leading us into a time of ministry. I felt God speaking to me about a woman who was with two others, here for the first time. I went over to them and asked if I could pray for the middle women because I had a word for her. I can't describe it here because it is too close to the event. Suffice it to say that it was specific enough that she began to cry and her two friends were agreeing to the accuracy of what God had given me. What they didn't know is that, because I'm a chicken sometimes, I was holding another more specific part of my word to her.
After the Service was over, they came to talk to me and I gave the rest of my Word of Knowledge. One of the women exclaimed, "How did you know that?!" I told her it was not me, it was God. He wanted her to know that He not only saw what she was dealing with, but that He cared and that, indeed, He loved her.
You see, God used the revelation gift as a way making His presence real. This got her attention like no billboard could. The Gospel got through.
In 1 Cor. 14, Paul says, "If an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he/she will be convinced by all that he/she is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his/her heart will be laid bare. So he/she will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, 'God is really among you!'" (1 Cor. 14:24-25).
The Church has largely lost it's zeal to see the Holy Spirit move. Instead, we have sought out the "experts" to tell us how to market our church, how to grow through advertising or better "outreach" campaigns. What would happen if we got back to the basics of letting the Holy Spirit distribute His gifts according to His will? What would happen if we started to risk moving out in faith and letting His presence be known through us? What would happen if He took over our marketing campaign through signs, wonders, miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit?
