Modern Christians, for the most part, seem to want their religion organized, measured, and dependably predictable, comfortably practiced on certain days of the week, at certain hours, and in repeatable rituals, with practical, down-to-earth dogmas; there is little room left in such a sterile, unspiritual environment for the random, unorganized, and certainly unpredictable display of supernatural sensationalism that was so commonly practiced and displayed by the Apostles. You only have to look at the stories in the New Testament to see the difference between the way things were done then and the way modern churches do them now.

Unfortunately so much of Christianity has developed into individual camps of, what I can only call, spiritual prejudice, exclusivity, and pious self-righteousness, ...and even, at least if we judge by modern American politics, outright political manipulation, which, like the seventeenth century Puritanism out of which it came, busies itself with the politics of the country and the world, the judgment of other people's morality, or the lack thereof, rather than the true spirituality of rendering only unto Caesar what is Caesar's and judging not lest they be judged.. Once again, they seem to have forgotten the words of Christianity's founder which I quoted above: "My kingdom is not of this world."

To truly see this, we only have to ask ourselves, when did Jesus ever endorse a political candidate or soap-box any worldly view for any purpose or reason, morally justified or otherwise. This type of carnally-oriented worldliness is focused on the "seen" rather than the "unseen" , the physical world rather than the spiritual. True Christianity is a message that constantly tells us, as the Apostle Paul emphasizes, not to focus on that which is seen, because "…things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." (Heb 11:1) Unfortunately modern Christianity has put the proverbial, spiritual cart before the spiritual horse.

If they truly follow the examples set forth by Christ Himself, then they, like the Apostles before them, will earnestly seek to practice and display spiritual gifts, power, and phenomena in their lives and the lives of others through the production and display of miracles, signs, and wonders. They will not be satisfied to just go to church on Sunday and Wednesday, and live the rest of the week in mere, mundane human existence. They will seek out and find the deeper spiritual answers and their methods of implementation; they will eat the spiritual "meat" that the Apostle Paul speaks of rather than the tepid milk of half-truths and empty rituals. Then they no longer will live as simply carnal, physical human beings, but rather as spiritual, supernatural entities imbued and empowered by the supernatural might of God.

Supernatural Phenomena Was The Evidence Of Real Christian Power

The Apostles demonstrated incredible and amazing spiritual powers, powers that we would clearly categorize today, using modern English, as nothing less than "psychic", otherworldly power. Of course, they never used the term psychic to describe or name this power and its phenomena because the word itself did not then exist, though again, many preachers would lead you to believe otherwise. Nowhere in the entire Bible will you find the word psychic or any reference, positive or negative, to the term psychics. Psychic or psychic power is a relatively modern, English word ,derived, of course, from the Ancient Greek ( the language the New Testament was originally written in), meaning of or from the soul (psykos). In the Bible, and particularly in the New Testament, they simply called these powerful, supernatural demonstrations, gifts of the spirit, prophecy, discernment, and miracles. It is we in modern times who have coined the term " psychic" to describe these types of spiritual manifestations.

As it is recorded in the New Testament, these incredible psychic or spiritual manifestations were not only performed and done by the Apostles, but also by both known (Stephen, Silas, etc.) and countless unknown followers as well. They performed instantaneous healings, manifested incredible ''signs and miracles", saw into future events, using what the Bible calls discernment of the spirit --- what we might call in modern terms, doing a psychic reading or, as some Christian churches refer to it "giving a word of knowledge. " The early Christians did this as a natural , everyday practice to simply advise their fellow Christians on the directions and paths they should take in approaching these future events and circumstances.

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