What are the Greater Works of John 14:12?

Do you perform miracles? Do you heal the sick and raise the dead? Because if you’re not, you may not be a real Christian. That’s according to some people. But not me.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe the life we have in Christ is supernatural, and I pray for the sick.

But if you love the Lord and have never healed the sick or raised the dead that does not make you any less of a Christian. The newest, least supernatural believer is 100 percent righteous, holy, and eternally secure in Christ.

So what are the “greater works” Jesus said we would do? And how do we do them?

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. (John 14:12)

At the time he said this, Jesus had:

• turned water into wine (John 2)
• had a word of knowledge for a woman at a well that led to a Samaritan revival (John 4)
• healed a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years (John 5)
• fed 5,000 hungry people (John 6)
• walked on water (John 6)
• given sight to a man born blind (John 9)
• raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11)
• preached, prophesied, and told parables

We can imagine the disciples’ shock when Jesus said, “You will do these and greater works besides.” What are the greater works?

The usual answer is that Jesus was referring to works that are greater in scope. He did a few miracles in one place over a short time. His millions of followers have done countless miracles across the whole world for hundreds of years.

But I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind. Jesus said we would do:

1. The works that I do (e.g., healing the sick, raising the dead)
2. Greater works

He did not say we would do more works, but greater works. He’s talking about two kinds of works.

1. “The works that I do, you will do”

When Jesus sent out the disciples, he gave them the authority to do what he had been doing.

Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. (Matt. 10:1)

Later, he repeated the exercise with seventy disciples (Luke 10:1). The disciples returned saying that they had done what Jesus commissioned them to do.

The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.” (Luke 10:17)

Jesus said it – “The works that I do, you will do” – and the apostles did it. We can too. We don’t do the works to prove we are real Christians. Rather, we get to do them because Jesus said so.

Jesus didn’t retire after he ascended to heaven. The works he did – proclaiming liberty to the captives, opening blind eyes, delivering the oppressed – we can do because his Spirit lives within us. It’s a promise to believe, not a test you must pass.

2. “Greater works also”

Jesus said, “Because I go to the Father, you will do greater works also.” He was saying, “After I’m gone, everything will change.” And in Acts 2, everything changed:

• Before Pentecost, the disciples did the works of Jesus
• After Pentecost, the disciples did greater works

In addition to healing the sick and delivering the oppressed, the early Christians released the life of the Holy Spirit – something that had not been possible before the Spirit was given. They co-laboured with the Lord to make new creation believers.

This is how it happened: believers preached the gospel, people responded in faith, and the Holy Spirit made them new. He transferred them out of Adam’s family and put them into Christ. This is the greater work.

Before the cross, no one could be born again or born of the Spirit. After Pentecost, thousands of people turned to God in faith and were made new. Eighty years ago, E. W. Kenyon wrote about the greater works in his book New Creation Realities:

We are doing greater works than the Master did in his earth walk, because we help men spiritually. We bring them the Word of life and they are recreated; they come into the family of God. We help them pass out of death unto life.

Every person Jesus fed, hungered again. Every person Jesus healed, eventually died. But every person who is born of the Spirit, has everlasting life and fellowship with the Lord.

What are the greater works Jesus said we would do?

With the aid of the Holy Spirit, we can make people new. Here’s E. W Kenyon again:

Our ministry is almost an unlimited ministry; his ministry was a limited one. Jesus healed men’s bodies. We, through the grace of God, heal men’s spirits. He raised men from the dead to die again. We show them that they were raised together with Christ. He fed the hungry with loaves and fishes. We feed the spiritually hungry with his own wonderful words.

A sick person who is healed will eventually die, but someone who has been made new by the power of God will never die (John 11:26, Gal. 6:8). Being born again is a greater work than merely being healed or delivered.

You may not have healed anyone or raised anyone from the dead, but if you’ve told someone the good news and they responded in faith and were born again, you have done a greater work.

All this is to the glory of Jesus Christ who gave us his life-giving Spirit. It is the Spirit of Christ who gives life to the dead, makes us new and does greater works through us.

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E.W. Kenyon had an enormous influence on the Word of Faith movement and indirectly on the modern grace movement. In the bonus materials that accompany this article on Patreon, I list some of his more influential books and share my favorite E.W. Kenyon quotes.