The seminary that Jesus’ disciples went to was a lot different than the one most of us went or are going to. His provided the power of God’s anointing to everything He did and said. When He “went throughout Galilee,” He was able to transform people’s lives and bodies. That is really cheating! How in the world does He expect me, who couldn’t heal an already pretty much recovered person from a common cold, to get involved in the “go into all” ministry? The Bible is full of this kind of thing. Everywhere you read, Old Testament or New Testament, something miraculous is constantly happening. It would appear that God isn’t going to let anyone do the ministry unless they allow Him do God-sized things in and through them.

Here we are, reading our Bibles, trying to learn how to do the ministry, and Jesus takes us out on our first outing. What do we get? Preaching and teaching with power and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

How is this supposed to help us learn how to do the ministry? That feels like totally useless information for our ministries. Those things don’t happen today! Even if they do, they sure don’t happen to me.

Some of us are saying: “When I preach and teach, they go to sleep. When I pray for them, they get worse....” Calm down! Most of us know exactly how you feel. Don’t throw your Bible down, grab your favorite blanket, cuddle up on the couch, and read your favorite book “How To Get Your Church To Grow In The Twenty-First Century.” This is Jesus doing all these power things. They come easy for Him. The trainees were just as powerless at this stage of their lives and ministries as we often are. Wait until you see them following graduation though. A lot of things are going to happen in their lives and ministries from boat-leaving (or whatever they left) to the moment when they graduated.