Throughout the gospels, the power of God in Jesus allows him to heal people. And following Jesus' resurrection, the disciples receive the Holy Spirit, and they too can heal in the same way Jesus did. God is present in them in much the same way God was present in Jesus, which is why Paul can speak of the Church as the body of Christ.
So where is that power today?
Some Christian groups explain that there was a time when the Spirit was active as we see it in Acts, but that period ended in biblical times. That makes for a convenient explanation, but I'm not sure what basis this explanation has. The Bible speaks of all the faithful having the Spirit, and Paul says the Spirit allots spiritual gifts to all. Paul isn't talking about our natural talents either. These are gifts that the Spirit imparts so that we can be the body of Christ, so that God is present in us.
But modern Christianity, especially Western Christianity, has wedded the faith to our rationalist, Enlightenment views. For many of us, Christianity is more akin to a philosophy. It is a set of beliefs we agree to, and any power connected to those beliefs is deferred until some future date, usually when we die.
But the Church cannot be what we are supposed to be if we are simply a belief structure or philosophy or moral/ethical system. If God is not present in us, if the power of the Spirit is not evident in us, we are not the Church.
When you attend worship, or when you read your Bible, what expectations do you bring to that activity? Do you expect to encounter God's powerful, holy presence there? Do you expect to be transformed and equipped to be the part of the body of Christ the Spirit has a designated you to be? And if most of us don't expect such things to happen, should we still claim to be the Church?
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