True religion has consequences. We may not be used to thinking of an understanding of God and our relationship to Him as actually determining events or bringing profound change to the spectrum of human experience. Nevertheless, it does.
Christ Jesus explained that the effects of godliness in human thought and life are "like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." If you've ever made bread, you know what a potent agent for change yeast (or leaven) is. And how indispensable. It easily doubles or triples in size any amount of raw dough by causing it to expand, or "rise." The transformation comes silently. Yet the effects are unmistakable and all-pervasive. In fact, from the vantage point of the dough, they are nothing less than revolutionary!
Genuine Christianity has always provoked fundamental change and growth in the lives of those willing to listen to its message. And this spiritual leavening has always been accompanied in some degree by what New Testament writers called "signs and wonders." Healing, in the broadest sense, was invariably a part of the picture. Christ Jesus promised that his followers—"them that believe"—would heal as he did. And it was the presence of healing, and the consistency with which it was accomplished, that were and are still the most reliable way we can determine whether we've found "the real thing."
