Signs Shall Follow Them That Believe

The Savior gave his apostles the charge to take the gospel to all the world after his resurrection and then gave this promise: “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:17-18).  In the same way that He repeated much of the Sermon on the Mount, the Savior gave the Nephite multitude an identical promise: “And these signs shall follow them that believe— in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover” (Mormon 9:24).  Moroni later emphasized this again when He quoted the Savior in his account of the Jaredites: “Signs shall follow them that believe in my name” (Ether 4:18).  In our day the Lord said again that “the gospel must be preached unto every creature, with signs following them that believe” (D&C 58:64).  In another section He elaborated on this saying, “And these signs shall follow them that believe—In my name they shall do many wonderful works; In my name they shall cast out devils; In my name they shall heal the sick;  In my name they shall open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf; And the tongue of the dumb shall speak; And if any man shall administer poison unto them it shall not hurt them; And the poison of a serpent shall not have power to harm them” (D&C 84:65-72).  These are pretty incredible miracles that the believers are promised—essentially the Savior wants His disciples to be able to do the same things that He did. 

                Other scriptures tell us that we should not seek after signs, but from the above verses we know that there should be signs that follow after us.  Thinking about these promises begs the question as to whether we have enough faith and belief such that these kinds of these will “follow” after me.  Do I have the kind of belief such that I can do “many wonderful works” through the name of the Savior?  Moroni taught us clearly that if miracles don’t take place then it is God’s fault: “And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.”  We must believe in Christ “doubting nothing” in order to have the kinds of miracles that the Savior promised to His disciples (Mormon 9:20-21).  That the ability to perform such works is important to us is highlighted by the fact that the last two Priesthood conference talks that the prophet gave included stories of miracles performed by faith.  In the most recent he told the story of John Larsen who nearly died in WWII but through his faith was able to gain strength beyond his own abilities and make it onto the ship that was rescuing him.  The conference before that President Monson told another WWI story, this time about someone who nearly died at sea but through the Priesthood was able to command the rescue vessel to come and pick him up.  In both of these cases their lives were saved through a miracle that was brought about by their faith.  Certainly in the days ahead we will need those kinds of miracles, which means that we must believe so that signs will follow us.