The Prepper Broadcasting Network - 2025.10.29 - Reliance - Signs and Wonders

Episode Date: November 2, 2025

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So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Copernum, there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. The official said to him, sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, go, your son will live. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.

As he was going down, his servants met him, told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better. And they said to him, yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him. The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, your son will live. And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Jesus. Judea to Galilee. Lord, we bless you and we praise you.

We lift up those who need to know you. Those who will respond, Lord, to the call of your Holy Spirit, to the good news of your gospel. Lord, we even lift up those who fight against us and against you. Lord, we pray for your mercy and your grace to be shown. we pray for miraculous transformations and deliverances and salvations. Lord, you can do anything. There is nothing that you cannot accomplish in this generation.

Lord, it is your will that none be lost and that all be saved and all come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Lord, let your kingdom come and let your will be done. Let your name be glorified in everything. that we do. Jesus, you instructed us to pray for our enemies. You instructed us to love and to extend the love of God, even to our enemies. God, work miracles, show great signs and wonders in this time. Bring about a moment of clarity. Bring about a time of unveiling. Show us, Lord, show us your power and your might in this generation.

Move, Holy Spirit, as we look to you and repent of our bitterness and our divisiveness and our quarreling and our anger and our wrath and all of the sins that so easily beset us. Lord, you know us, you know our hearts, you know our tendencies, you know our faults. Lord, would you redeem the time? Would you strengthen our hands? Would you give us the words to speak? Give us the eyes to see. Give us the ears to hear. Lord, use this time for your glory.

Holy Spirit, open the word of God to us. Help us to see in your word who we should be at this moment in time. We bless you. Lord, we praise you. We declare your righteous. and your holiness to this generation. In Jesus' name, amen.

I always wonder about what Jesus's tonality was when he spoke the words declared in this passage, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. At first glance, it seems like there is an exasperation going on, that there is a bemoaning of the fact that there is a bemoaning of the fact, that people seem to need to see signs and wonders in order to believe. And this is completely fair in context with the rest of the Gospels, where later on in his ministry,

Jesus says that no sign will be given to this foolish and wicked generation that seeks after a sign except for the prophet Jonah. He is continually provoked to do this or that work, even up until the point of the cross where the religious leader said, if you are the son of God, come down off that cross and we will believe you. And so it is reasonable

to take the tonality and the argumentation and the structure of those passages and read them in here. But I do wonder, because in John's Gospel, this sign of healing the official son, this was the second sign

that Jesus did when he came from Judea to Galilee. And if we're talking about the sort of coveting after religious works and the supernatural and the mystical and all of those things, if it's just following for the fascination of it all as opposed to God, this is very early on in Jesus' ministry. And there haven't been as many signs and wonders as soon there will be. And also notice that in verse 50, right after Jesus said to the official, Go, your son will live, the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. He believed the word before seeing the healing.

Right after Jesus said, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. Now, to be fair, in verse 53, after the sign is confirmed, then the, the, official is stated to be believing at that point, said, and he himself believed in all his household. So I don't think we want to sort of squeeze and stretch and wrap these passages around to try to use semantics in order to get the exact, precise nature of the grammar and the syntax. I don't think that's what we want to do right here and right now. I think that risks bending the scriptures in a way that would not be productive. But I think what we can say is that

it may not be universally true that Jesus is bemoaning this situation. Because we certainly don't want to say that Jesus's statement, unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe, is wrong about something that happens just a couple verses later that the man believed the word that Jesus spoke before he saw the signs and the wonder that was being done to him. Now, maybe it's true that this man has heard of Jesus, so it's the after effects of the signs and the wonders that have already been done. Maybe he got word of what happened in Cana.

Maybe he got word of what happened in Samaria. Maybe he has a reputation. And in fact, that's a reasonable conclusion, right? Because otherwise, it is not necessarily the case that this man, having heard that Jesus is coming to Galilee, is going to go out and ask for him to come down and heal his son. He clearly knew something about who Jesus was. So maybe it is the signs and wonders that he has already received a report of that it is. enabling this belief. But then again, Jesus in verse 48 says, unless you see signs and wonders, was this man actually there? At this point, this is why I don't want to get sort of twisted into

knots here figuring out the exact background of what happened. Instead, I want to rely on the Holy Spirit to bring something out of this verse that is valuable for this time. Regardless of of exactly how you parse each jot and tittle of this portion of the gospel. It remains to be seen that scripture reads in verse 48 of John chapter 4. So Jesus said to him, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. Now, whether that is a judgment or just a statement, whether it was said with exasperation or just as a matter of fact, I think it is a true statement. stated by Jesus.

And note that immediately after Jesus makes that statement, he pronounces healing. He pronounces a sign. He shows his power. He demonstrates a wonder, the miraculous healing, just by virtue of the power of his word. And so I want to encourage you with something today. we may very well be at a time when unless people see signs and wonders they will not believe people are extraordinarily hard of heart and people could even turn away from signs and wonders if they wanted to but there is a greater degree of openness when people really get a sense

that the world that they have been told by every single authoritative source possible is dry and lifeless in the end and pointless and lacking any kind of greater objective meaning and morality, when people who have been raised in a godless humanistic enterprise, then any semblance of the supernatural or the fantastic, anything there is capable of inspiring a great deal of curiosity to the point where now, if you look at the culture writ large, if you look at the nature of discourse in a variety of different modes, the biggest challenge is no longer that people are completely devoid of any spiritual instinct or a desire for the supernatural. The challenge is that there is a supernatural relativism going on where it's kind of just a free-for-all.

And you have fewer and fewer people really sticking to the hardcore naturalist line and more and more people willing to be open to different things to the extent that people care, which is a completely different question. But at that point, when we see the leading secular thinkers and other cultural influences just not have. the same potency anymore and the nature of the conversation shifting in a different direction and the way that things are presented out in public and just a general transformation of the zeitgeist what we do have to understand is that people are eyes open for signs and wonders people want to see and want to experience these things so first principle that we can understand here. There are some people who require a testimony of signs and wonders in order to believe. Jesus said, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. Now, does that mean

that God is somehow trapped or beholden to these people to show them signs and wonders? Again, we may be a little bit above our theological paygrade in terms of unpacking all of that because it comes down to a variety of different doctrines that are all very complicated and difficult even to define in the time frame that we have. But what I can say, without pause or without hesitation, is that God wants everyone to be saved. It is God's will that everyone come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And if that is in part implying that there need to be signs and wonders demonstrated, then so be it as far as I'm concerned. And so then the question is, well, what does it mean if there are people who espouse the Christian faith but who don't believe in signs and wonders or the working of the Holy Spirit and many of these other things?

Well, maybe that kind of faith is inert at these various levels. And again, it's not my job to question people's salvation or the nature of their Christian faith. That is between them and God. And there may not be a way for me to understand all of the components to pronounce such a judgment. That's clearly not my place. But it is my place to make a judgment that if someone is in a position where they don't, don't think signs and wonders and the working of the Holy Spirit, either coextensive or in separate categories, are things that take place now, those are things just being

for Bible times and not for our current age, then that seems to me to be exceptionally narrow-minded. And the arguments for it rest on quite a mixture of a sense. certainly it shouldn't be held as something with the sturdiness of the central doctrines of the Christian faith. So when we think about this, we want to avoid a presentation of Christianity that is devoid of signs and wonders, but it also can't just seek after signs and wonders because that's the other scriptures in context in the other gospels where Jesus said a wicked generation seeks after a sign and after a wonder. And we risk at a time of decreasing secularization going into a mode where it's just chasing the next spiritual thing, chasing the next sign, chasing the next wonder. But we need to understand the times that we are living in so that we can navigate them.

properly. And here's what I would say for each and every one of us listening with this preamble. Finally, coming to a close. The signs and wonders that Jesus showed were mighty, were powerful. They accomplished what they were intended to do. He healed the sick. He restored sight to the blind. He saved. He delivered. He cast out demons. He did many, many, mighty, miraculous, powerful works in fulfillment of prophecy, in fulfillment of the will of the Father for the benefit of not just the people who receive the signs and wonders, but for our benefit as well, the recipients of that testimony. Now, does that mean that all signs and wonders take that kind of form? form. You could go through a taxonomy of them, other things like that. But I would say that for people with eyes to see, there are many supernatural signs and wonders. Not necessarily

just in these fireworks kind of attention-grabbing events. Those are necessary. Those are powerful. Those are mighty. Those are important. Praise God for every single aspect of the ministry of Christ and of those things continuing to take place. We have seen people healed. We have seen people delivered. We have seen people radically saved and transformed. What I'm encouraging you with, brothers and sisters, is that even if you go through your entire life without praying over someone and seeing them raised from the dead back to life, that doesn't mean that you were not capable of expressing and demonstrating and showcasing signs and wonders to this generation.

Following Jesus faithfully, living the way that we should amidst a world that backbites and castigates and comes down hard against every single thing, being behind enemy lines and doing that with grace and with love that is only possible with supernatural power and supernatural grace and supernatural authority as our guide and as our foundation it is only possible by the power and the grace of jesus that is a supernatural wonder living the day to day christian life in an honorable holy way to the best of our ability being obedient to the Word of God

in the situations that we face is a sign. It's a sign that there is power because it is not something that can be obeyed through our own strength because of the fallen nature of humanity, because of sin and the surrounding atmosphere and the surrounding environment of sin.

whether the sins are heinous and in your face or just the sins of apathy and irreverence and just the casual nature of the hedonism that we see present throughout this culture. Being able to obey by trusting on the grace of God is a sign to those. It's a wonder. It's a curiosity. it's an unusual piece of the puzzle it's something that people notice and it may be exactly what people need to see in you it may be difficult but it is very plausible that we need to expand our understanding of what it means to be a saint of the lord what it means to be a person of God

what it means to be influential in the kingdom, what it means to be demonstrating signs and wonders to include the everyday, day to day, moment to moment, obedience and dependence on God that is not going to catch the attention of every single person in the world. It's not going to go viral. It's not going to win followers. It's not going to do all of the fancy things. that people think that signs and wonders are supposed to do. But it stands as a testimony to the people around you, to the people in your family.

It is difficult. It is the difficult work of doing the right thing over and over and over and over and over again. There's one way to do the right thing in many circumstances, but there's a thousand wrong ways. We need the Holy Spirit to do it over and over and over again, to go through the tasks and responsibilities that we have, to do everything for the glory of God, to treat those as divinely inspired and motivated tasks that God has called us to do. Whether it's housework, whether it's yard work, whether it's paperwork, whether it's spending time with our children, whether it's organizing, whether it's being polite to someone, whether it is expressing love, whether it is

prayer, whether it is diligence, whether it is reading the word, whether it is fasting, whether it is just simply being grieved in heart for what you see around you. All of these things should be thought of as signs and wonders. All of these things. Every act of obedience is an act of spiritual warfare. Every act of obedience to the Holy Spirit is a victory in the heavenlies. Every time we make the decision to go God's way, it glorifies God and it serves as a testimony to those around us. Even if no one ever sees, knows, or understands the things that we do day in, day out, even if no one ever gets a glimpse of our thought life and thinks better of us because we're really striving to do the right thing. Even if it doesn't result in public recognition

or any kind of plot it's from anyone at any point at any time. It is something that God observes and will use to establish the kind of external signs and wonders that people will notice. There is no mandate upon us individually that says you have to get a badge for reaching a million followers. There is a requirement and a commandment for us to be obedient to the will of God, whatever that means in the course of our lives. If we have to lay our lives down, so be it.

If we have to serve in one capacity or another, so be it. If we have to be engaged in a battle, so be it. If we have to go through the valley of the shadow of death, so be it. Can we just simply respond to God by saying, yes, I know that when you are working through me, even if it's not these high-profile situations, even if it's not Lazarus, even if it's not this official son being healed the way that Jesus accomplished it, even if it's not those things, then it is still part of the signs and the wonders of God. His people are a peculiar people. They are unusual to the world. They stand apart from the world. They operate in the world. They

serve as a testimony to the world. And we demonstrate signs and wonders by our character, by our behavior, by our responses, by our tenderness, by the words that we speak to others, by our attitude, by the service that we provide. Again, it doesn't have to be grandiose. Most signs and wonders, if we're adding the current conceptualization to it, most signs and wonders, most acts of obedience, most components of the testimony of God are found in the small gestures, in the acts of obedience that people would imagine are trivial, but that matter so much more than we could ever think. Lord, help us to repent of those small things that we just brush away. Help us to understand that you want to show forth signs and wonders,

not just in magnificent attention-getting ways, but in our own lives. Lord, let there be signs and wonders of all manner, of all varieties, so that many would come to believe. Let there be clarity and good doctrine and the right exposition of the word so that when people believe they place their faith in the right one in you let them understand how these things work so they're not led astray by foolish teachers and false prophets lord let your will be accomplished in this generation are you going to stand by while they die shall not the judge of all the earth do right absolutely not you will call you will equip you will measure out you will establish, you will send, you will make your will be known to your people. You will call

them. You will seek for one who will respond. It is a sign and a wonder when any of us respond to you positively in any way, because it is a work of the Holy Spirit. It is a work of God's grace. And when we see God's grace at work specifically in individual lives, that That is a sign that God is with us, that God is among us, that God is for us. Every answered prayer, every song of praise from a worshipful heart, every act of obedience. Lord, let us understand these as the signs and wonders that are going to add up in testimony to this generation. Lord, we need you to show us.

We need you to be with us. We need you to be glorified. Lord, as we fast and pray for the lost and for our enemies, God, would you help us understand that that love, the obedience to the love that you called us to show forth, that that in and of itself is a sign and a wonder, not for our own aggrandizement or validation or purpose or anything like that, but for your glory.

Lord, you have called us. us to something greater. You've called us to something deeper. You've called us to something eternal, a supernaturally empowered, walk with you, suffused with love and purpose and meaning and joy, even in the most challenging of times and situations, even in the most difficult of circumstances. Lord, you will show us signs and wonders in our own lives. Have you not done so already? Have you not done so? Jesus, were you not obedient? Not just to the point of death, but in everything, to the will of the Father.

Lord, help us to be obedient. Help us to understand. Help us to get our priorities straight. Help us to allow you to transform our hearts where they need to be transformed. would you break the bondage of just improper balance in our interpretation of scripture would you take away religious spirits and proof texting lord would you give us a sense of your heart for these things would you give us sound doctrine in our minds how terrible it would be, Lord, for us to stand before you in the judgment, having had all of the Bible and

fervency and zeal, only to be told that we had things, in many cases, substantially wrong because of one reason or another. We're all going to be in a position of having an incomplete picture. It would be arrogant to say that I have a perfect sense of doctrine, but help us to not be arrogant, help us to not be hubristic about these things, help us to hold firm to the truth that we have been given, and help us to understand how to navigate points of contention. God, you are so merciful and we need so much mercy. Lord, as we go forth, as we speak to this generation as we lay down our lives each day and crucify the flesh, Lord, would you show us signs and wonders in our own lives, in our own families? Show us salvations. Show us

deliverances. Show us deliverances. Show us, Lord, the works of your Holy Spirit. God, speak to our hearts now. Give us the time and the space and the opportunity and the desire to hear from you, to be restored by you, to be corrected and disciplined and chastened by you, to be moved forward under your power so that this generation would see the signs and the wonders that are only possible through the glory and the goodness and the love and the grace and the action of your Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, thank you for being with us through this time. Use our lives for the kingdom of God. Bear fruit through our lives in many ways.

Lord, show signs and wonders to this generation that they would believe.