3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.
These two became conduits of God’s message and God’s power. They spoke even in this area where there was opposition. But where there was opposition, there was also a great harvest. Many people came to faith in Jesus and grew in their knowledge and experience of Him. And the Spirit was present every step of the way. One important point that often gets missed by observers of TV ministries, Paul and Barnabas could not do any signs or wonders. Signs and wonders were not in their suitcase of evangelistic tools. They did not have authority to just do them when they wanted to do them. But God used them to do miracles. That is an important distinction. These two were just PVC pipe through whom the Lord poured His miraculous grace. There was nothing special about Paul and Barnabas. They were just ordinary human beings, very much like you and me. But they listened and yielded to the moving of the Spirit. Then the Lord was able to pass the signs and wonders through them to a hurting world. The signs and wonders were not the end of the process. They were an out-of-the-ordinary happening extended by the Lord to help these new believers’ faith. They were also sent to convict the non-believers. It gets very hard to deny the truth when it is demonstrated with miraculous signs and wonders. I don’t think we see too many of these in our world today, at least not in this country. Some places in the world God is pouring out His grace in miraculous ways and these types of signs and wonders are present. Remember, it is not the person doing the preaching that does miracles. God does miracles and He often passes them through a person. It is always His grace accomplishing anything of eternal value.
The Arnold Journey 