Have Miracles Ceased?

Have miracles ceassed to happen in Christianity?

Has the Holy Spirit left the churches of Jesus Christ?

Is prayer not longer important or even necessary for Christians?

Is the Bible all we need for change, growth, healing, evangelism, church growth?

I would say YES to all of these because in most of the seminaries and churches I see none of these things are practiced, preached or sought. Thus, since few Professors and Preachers promote prayer, healing, spiritual warfare and gifts of the Spirit they must not be needed today. In fact, that is what several people told me after I had a dramatic experience with God and started reading what the Bible had to say about prayer and healing.

"Today," Gary, we have education and good schools so the devil has been banished to poor nations. We have doctors and hospitals so healing is  no longer needed. We have an educated clergy and people who can read the Bible and understand the Ten Commandments so we do not need to pray for God's anointing and the Holy Spirit to fall anymore. We have homiletic teachers and speech teachers so we don't need the conviction of the Spirit because we can do it with good stories and emotional language."

If this were true I suppose when we look at the world we would see a triumphant church filled with righteous Christians who are free of sin and living victorious lives. Maybe I need new glasses.