The Signs That Will Accompany Those Who Believe Mark 16:17-18, NIV And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well. I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “The Signs That Will Accompany Those Who Believe,” based on Mark 16:17-18. Could you please repeat after me? “The Signs That Will Accompany Those Who Believe. The Signs That Will Accompany Those Who Believe.” The Bible is a book of miracles. The Bible, from Genesis through Revelation, is filled with miracles. The miracles that are recorded in the Bible are also happening among us today. Christianity is a religion of miracles. The greatest miracle is that we have become the children of God, because we were saved by believing in Jesus Christ. This is the greatest miracle. This is the greatest blessing and grace. I know a man who was converted in his later years after all his children were married. Since the day he first believed in Jesus, he has been blessed so much. He cries whenever he sings hymns, whenever he prays, and whenever he listens to sermons. Hallelujah! This is a miracle. Recently, he has started copying the Scriptures in notebooks, and God blesses him when he does that. He said, “Pastor, I am copying the book of Micah now. When I copy the Scriptures, I am so blessed that I cannot help but cry.” This is a miracle. This man had not known Jesus most of his life, thinking that he had nothing to do with Jesus. He never paid any attention to his children’s requests for him to become a Christian, insisting on his own ways. However, the grace of God has called him, and he has become a child of God. He is overjoyed. He never skips the early morning prayer meetings. He is always blessed at each worship service. This is a miracle. I want you to experience such wonderful grace of the Lord during this worship service. I want you to be blessed with enthusiasm, joy, and grace when you sing hymns, pray, and listen to the message. I pray that all your worries and problems will leave your mind while you worship the Lord. I pray that you will be healed. I pray that all your problems will melt away. I pray that you will have overflowing joy in your lives. For whom does God do miracles? God performs miracles for believers. We must give thanks to God for giving us authority as the children of God. When a prince is born in a royal court, all the citizens rejoice, and the prince will grow up having all the authority of a prince. The same is true with us. We have the authority of the children of God, who created the whole universe and has control over it. The Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples about our authority before He was taken up to heaven. I will speak about these five authorities today. The first authority is the power to drive out demons. Mark 16:17 says, “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons.” Even though demons are not visible, they exist all around us. Unless we drive out demons, we will be deprived of our blessings, ending up living hopelessly. Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights before He started His public ministry. After His fasting, the devil tempted Him, but He resisted the devil with the Word. He also drove out many demons during His public ministry. Luke 4:35 says, “‘Be quiet!’ Jesus said sternly. ‘Come out of him!’ Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.” Some people say, “We do not see demons. How can they exist?” Just as air exists even though we do not see it, demons exist. Demons come to us to destroy us. They try to steal and kill and destroy us. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” The devil slanders us and takes away our happiness, bringing us disease, worry, and various problems in life. That is why apostle Peter exhorts Christians in his letter. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” What does the devil do? What do demons do? They try to prevent us from serving the Lord and try to plunge us into worldly pleasure, which leads us to the desires of the flesh, making us slaves of greed. Demons tell fortunes. They deceive and lie. They cause people to do filthy and wicked things. They cause disease. Demons cause people to betray and oppress others, forcing them to commit sin or murder. They also cause people to disobey God. They bring tribulation and temptation, hindering the work of the kingdom of heaven, and persecute Christians. The Lord Jesus, however, came and healed the demon-possessed. Acts 10:38 says, “…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” The Scripture says that Jesus healed all who were under the power of the devil. In his book, The Third Wind, Peter Wagner introduces a missionary who ministered in the Philippines, Rev. Lester Sumrall. Missionary Sumrall served in the Philippines for five years but led only five people to the Lord. We can imagine that his missionary work must have been very frustrating and unfruitful with an average of only one conversion a year. One day Rev. Sumrall was listening to the radio and heard about a woman shaman named Clarita Villanueva who was in Bilibid Prison. She was making all kinds of problems there. She kicked doctors, harmed herself, shouted, and was the biggest nuisance in the prison. The Holy Spirit told Rev. Sumrall to go to her, and he went to the prison to see her. The moment she saw the missionary, she yelled at the top of her voice, “I hate you!” cursing God. Even though she had never learned English, she was shouting at him in English. Missionary Sumrall said to her, “I command you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth to come out!” Instantly, she collapsed, foaming at the mouth and the demon was cast out of her. Hallelujah! Let us give glory to God. The woman who had practically shaken the whole prison became gentle and nice after the demon was cast out. The news about this miracle spread widely. People heard that a powerful shaman had yielded to the power of Jesus. All the villagers heard about it and began to come to the Lord. A total of 150,000 villagers came to the Lord. Hallelujah! We must drive out demons in the name of the Lord Jesus. We must drive out the dark power behind the worry and anxiety in our lives, in the name of Jesus. James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” We have the authority of the children of God. When we march forward with that authority, the devil and demons will be cast out. When we proclaim our authority in the name of Jesus and through the Word of the Lord, trusting in the blood of Jesus Christ, He will drive out demons. Are you gloomy? Proclaim, “Gloominess, I command you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, go away.” Are you worried? Proclaim, “Worry, I command you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, go away.” We must boldly say, “Power of darkness, I command you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, go away.” When we proclaim with faith, trusting in the Word of the Lord, Jesus Christ will cast out demons. Revelations 12:11 says, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” With confidence as the children of God and with authority given by the Lord, let us fight and defeat the devil. Second, we will speak in new tongues. Mark 16:17 says, “They will speak in new tongues.” New tongues are the languages that the Holy Spirit gives to us. When the Holy Spirit baptizes us, God gives us new tongues. Acts 2:4 says, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” When the Holy Spirit fills us, we will speak in new tongues. Therefore, we must pray that God will fill us with the Spirit so that we may speak in tongues. 1 Corinthians 14:39 says, “Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.” When we speak in tongues, we pray spiritually to God. When the Holy Spirit fills us, God gives us the gift of speaking in tongues. Unless we pray in tongues, our prayers are usually limited and short. However, when we speak in tongues, our prayers will be deeper and longer. Since the Spirit groans and prays for us when we pray in tongues, we are giving double prayers to God: one in tongues and the other in our minds. God will pour His wonderful grace and miracles upon us for our double prayer. Romans 8:26 says, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” When we pray in tongues, the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans, and God will pour out His grace and blessings upon us. Therefore, we must make every effort to pray, especially to pray in tongues. Lord, fill us with the Holy Spirit. Help us to pray to You, Father, especially in tongues. Help us to pray to You more deeply through the power of prayer in tongues. Help us pray to You more ardently. Fulfill Your wonderful will through our prayers. Cast out demons and fill our lives with Your grace and blessings when we pray. Why are we powerless, easily tempted, falling, and often in trouble? That is because we do not pray. Since we do not pray, we cannot live victoriously. Soldiers need to be well trained, following the orders of their commander, in order to win a war. In order to win in spiritual warfare, we also need to be well trained through our prayers, following the Word of Jesus, our commander. Try to pray all the time. I want you to start your day with prayer the first thing in the morning. I want you to pray while you are in a vehicle. I want you to start your job with prayer at your workplace or business. Report to work before anyone else, and start your work by praying first. I urge you to pray to God before going to bed at the end of the day, giving thanks to God for the day. When you are in too much trouble or agony to pray, sing hymns. Hymns are prayers with a melody. When we keep singing hymns, our hearts will open, and we will be able to pray. We need to pray. Since God has told us to pray in new tongues, we will have abundant grace upon us when we pray ardently in tongues. We will understand the will of God. The Lord will lead our ways. Therefore, I pray that your spiritual realms will expand further and further by praying ardently, especially in tongues. Moreover, our languages will change when we believe in Jesus. We used to speak negatively in hopelessness. We used to slander others and gossip. However, as we speak in new tongues, our languages will change, giving thanks and praise, speaking positively. Our languages should change. We must speak new languages. We must speak positive, active, creative, and productive languages. When we speak such languages, God’s miracles and blessings will follow us. Just as light was created when God told the light to exist, when we speak of joy, joy will be there. When we speak of thanksgiving, true thanksgiving will be there. Therefore, I pray that you will always speak holy, joyful, thankful, and creative languages. When we believe in Jesus, the Lord gives us the authority to drive out demons and to speak in new tongues. Third, the Lord gives us the authority to pick up snakes with our hands. Mark 16:18 says, “They will pick up snakes with their hands.” In this verse, snakes spiritually symbolize the power of Satan attacking us? rather than literal snakes. The snakes here are poisonous vipers. Some vipers are so deadly that only one bite kills people. Such a poisonous viper tempted and bit Eve, killing Adam and Eve. Their physical bodies may have still been alive, but they were spiritually dead. Their communication with God was severed. The serpent degenerated Adam and Eve, pushing them into God’s judgment. Therefore, snakes in this Scripture symbolize evil power, which is the most harmful and deadly. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can pick up snakes and throw them away. What kinds of snakes are biting you? Are they the snakes of complaints and grudges? Pick them up now. Are the snakes of lewdness biting you? Pick them up now. We need to pick up snakes?the snakes of greed, complaints, and all the snakes that torture and hurt us. Sometimes the snakes from inerasable hurts of the past bite us. After believing in Jesus, we have no such thing as a bad past. Since we have become new creations by believing in Jesus, we must pick up the snakes of the hurts of the past, declaring, “The old has gone, the new has come!” Of course, the Scripture shows some incidents of picking up real snakes. In Acts 28, Paul had a shipwreck while he was being sent to Rome. They reached an island called Malta. They built a fire because it was cold. A viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on Paul’s hand, so he shook the snake off into the fire. The islanders saw that and expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead. After waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god. Therefore, the islanders came to honor Paul. He preached the Gospel to them and healed their diseases. Acts 28:9 says, “When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured.” The snake, the devil, is the father of all lies. The serpent came to Adam and Eve, deceived them, bit them, and they sinned. The serpent symbolizes lies. I pray that you will pick up the snake of lies with the Word of Truth. I pray that you will never compromise with lies. Live truthfully. Always follow the truth. Lead a godly life, which is pleasing to God. You should never compromise with lies?even if you may have to lose something. We should never compromise with unrighteousness, either. Snakes are trying to make us compromise with lies and unrighteousness. They are trying to bite us. When we are bitten once, we belong to them forever. They will destroy us. We see many cases in which a small mistake destroys a very promising and successful person. We must protect ourselves with the Word lest poisonous snakes bite us. Officials should guard themselves lest the snakes of bribery bite them. High officials should guard themselves against being bitten by the snakes of pride or greed. I pray that, as the children of God, you will always love and serve the Lord. There is only one truth. Jesus is the only truth. John 14:6 says, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ ” I pray that you will pick up snakes and throw them away in the name of the Lord Jesus. Fourth, when we drink deadly poison, it will not hurt us at all. Mark 16:18 says, “When they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all.” Here, poison means poisonous elements that hurt, incriminate, or slander us, rather than literal poison. Words carry the most deadly poison. Slanderous words cause serious problems and make them more complicated, eventually destroying people. When we hear something that brings us anger and hopelessness, it will leave poison in our hearts, which will destroy us. I knew a person who was very rich. When his company went through a labor dispute, it made him extremely furious, and it eventually caused his premature death. He owned many large real estates, and his business went very well. However, his factory stopped for a month because of a labor dispute, which caused bankruptcy of the factory. He soon lost almost everything because of a domino effect. It planted extreme anger, hatred, and resentment in his heart. He used to be very healthy but did not live long. I felt very sorry to see what happened to him. He worked very hard, energetically running his factory and business. His extreme anger against the laborers, who had started the labor dispute and caused bankruptcy, made him fall and die. We must get rid of anger from our hearts. When poison like anger comes into our hearts, we must wash it away through the blood of Jesus. When we pray in the name of Jesus, and when we wash it away through the blood of Jesus, we can get rid of anger. Morgan Blake wrote the following: I am more deadly than the screaming shell of the cannon. I win without killing. I tear down homes, breaks hearts, and wreck lives. I travel on the wings of the wind. No innocence is strong enough to intimidate me, no purity pure enough to daunt me. I have no regard for truth, no respect for justice, no mercy for the defenseless. My victims are as numerous as the sands of the sea and often as innocent. I never forget and seldom forgive. My name is Gossip. If you have slandered or gossiped about other people, stop doing it. Do not plant or carry poison. From now on, let us change our words and attitudes so that we may speak loving, forgiving, healing, and understanding words to other people, getting rid of the poison from people’s hearts. So many people poison one another through their words. We must wash the poison away by the blood of Jesus. Sometimes, knowingly or unknowingly, we plant poison in others’ hearts through our words. We must guard our lips, cleansing them with the blood of Jesus, to avoid planting poison in others’ hearts. Let us give glory to God as His precious children. The media and press in Korea must be cleansed. Television programs and newspapers must be purified through the blood of Jesus. The press carries so much poison and thus hurts a great number of people. We need to pray, “Heavenly Father, purify and change those who are involved in the media so that they may carry reviving, healing, and forgiving news instead of deadly poison.” Fifth, we will place our hands on sick people, and they will get well. Mark 16:18 says, “They will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Christianity is a religion of healing. The God we believe in is the God who heals. Exodus 15:26 says, “He said, ‘If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.’ ” Our God is the Lord who heals us. When we listen to the Word of God and obey it, He heals us even now. He heals the disease in our minds, in our bodies, in our circumstances, and in our homes. Two-thirds of Jesus’ public ministry was devoted to healing. Matthew 4:23-24 says, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them.” Hallelujah! Jesus preached the good news of the kingdom and healed every disease and sickness among the people. The Lord is not only our Savior but also our Healer. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same Jesus is with us today. As long as we trust in the Lord Jesus and in the power of His blood, we will be healed from all kinds of diseases. “Lord, cover us with Your blood and heal us from the worry in our hearts and from the disease in our bodies. Heal us from the disease in our circumstances and homes.” When we believe in Jesus, we will enjoy good health and all may go well with us, even as our souls are getting along well. Jesus gave His disciples the authority to heal disease. Matthew 10:1 says, “He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” In the Early Christian Church, people asked the church elders to pray for the sick. James 5:14-15 says, “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.” I pray that God will heal you from disease when you believe in Jesus. According to the Bureau of National Health, one out of four Koreans has some kind of ailment. They are suffering from some kind of disease?except those who are here. One out of four sounds too many to me. People suffer from hypochondria, alcoholism, drug abuse, a drive to commit suicide, obesity, high or low blood pressure, liver problems, hyperglycemia, diabetes, kidney disease, etc. It is true that medicine can heal us. Since God also gives medical doctors and medicine, medicine and medical technology can heal us. However, God himself can heal all disease. God can heal the disease that even the most advanced medicine and technology cannot cure. God performs miracles. God pours His grace upon us so that unthinkable things can happen. A member of our church collapsed from a cerebral hemorrhage and went to the ICU at Joonjang University Hospital. He was supposed to have surgery, but his fever was too high to go through surgery. The doctors opened his skull but could not do anything. He was in a coma. A few days passed. A cerebral hemorrhage requires immediate surgery, but he was just lying there for days. The doctors said that he did not have a chance to live. I went to the ICU. He was lying in bed unconscious, with an open skull. Some of our church members gathered and were praying for him. I prayed ardently, “Heavenly Father, make his fever go away, and restore him so that he can function as the head of his household. He is a son of an elder of our church. Help him to experience Your healing power and to regain his health.” His body temperature dropped that day. Let us give glory to God! He fully recovered, and he and his wife and child came to my office to thank me. I was overwhelmed with thanksgiving. He seemed hopeless when I saw him lying in the hospital bed with an open skull, unable to go through surgery, but the Lord healed him! Our Lord is the Lord of healing. He is healing us even now. He heals your heart when you listen to the Word. He heals the disease in your body and all your problems. As soon as we come to the Lord, He will heal every disease. He performs His wonderful works for us. I pray that you will experience this grace of healing all the time. The history of Yoido Full Gospel Church has a history of healing. The healing that started in the tent church at Bulgwangdong continues even now. Since a boy who was born crippled was healed at the tent church, walking and jumping, almost all the people who were sick swarmed to the church. Since God’s healing was done there, it brought an explosive growth to our church. Healing is still being done. God has given us the authority to heal. When we believe in Jesus, He gives us the authority to drive out demons and to speak in new tongues. We can pick up snakes with our hands and deadly poison cannot harm us, even when we drink it. When we lay our hands on sick people, they will get well. The miracles and blessings of the Lord will be with us. I pray that you will use your great authority given by the Lord and live for the glory of God in the name of Jesus. I pray that for you in the name of the Lord Jesus. Let us pray. Our Father of infinite love, grace, and mercy, we thank You for today’s message. We thank You for giving us such signs that accompany those who believe. We march forward, trusting in the Scripture and proclaiming, “We will drive out demons; we will speak in new tongues; we will pick up snakes with our hands; and when we drink deadly poison, it will not hurt us at all; we will place our hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Pour Your grace upon us, and help us to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth, exercising the authority You have given us. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.