There's a fellow on my ship who is a charismatic. He has real life experiences with miracles, including one instance with his wife. She had developed these bumps of some sort on her back and after their minister prayed over her they were gone. My heart tells me he isn't lying but after seeking advice and asking questions I still am not satisfied. I've been told that the devil masquerades as an angel of light yet my interpretation of the Bible is that no one can perform miracles unless God is with him. If you have some wisdom on this I would appreciate another perspective. -- Ben Burnett

The "miracle" of the woman being healed of her bumps doesn't sound very impressive does it? In fact such a "healing," although doubtless she is grateful for the assistance, hardly qualifies as a miracle of biblical dimensions. You will find more on this in chapter 16 of The Spirit (available in the Book and Audio section of this website), a book I wrote to answer these sorts of questions.

The Bible does say however that Satan is into counterfeit miracles. They are not necessarily genuine; they only try to imitate or approximate the real McCoy. See 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11 for example. And yet the Bible does say that sometimes those who do not know God perform amazing things. Please read over Acts 19 (the seven sons of Sceva Jews who truly exorcised demons) and Deuteronomy 13 (an even more amazing passage).

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