Miracles
I have been asked to speak on the subject of miracles. This subject leaves me with a dilemma. It is not what to say that is the problem, but what to leave out. It is a very large topic. I have decided to split the topic into four different areas. Firstly, what are miracles and what is their purpose? Secondly, can we expect to see miracles today? Thirdly, why don’t we see miracles every time we pray time? Finally, how to pray for a miracle with power and authority.
What are Miracles?
The first thing that I am going to do is to actually define what I am talking about. I am also going to be talking about the gift of healing. If you read 1 Corinthians 12, verses 7-11, the gift of healing and the gift of miracles given by the Holy Spirit are identified as two separate gifts. The gift of healing is when God intervenes in a persons health and performs the impossible. It can be physical healing, emotional healing or even deliverance from demonic possession. Miracles are when God intervenes in the laws of physics and performs the impossible. Essentially however they have this in common, God intervening in some part of our lives and performing the impossible.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was accredited as being from God because of the miracles and wonders that he performed. In the Gospel of John, John records seven of the healings and miracles that Jesus performed. The healing of the man born blind, the turning of the water into wine etc. John calls them signs and wonders. These signs demonstrated a little of who Jesus was.
In the first sign, the turning of the water into wine, Jesus revealed how He is able to take useless ritual, and turn it into an everlasting covenant. In the second sign, the healing of the official’s son, Jesus demonstrates how He is the Word of God. In the third sign, the healing of the man at the pool, we discovered that Jesus is the one who is able to forgive sins. In the forth sign, the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus reveals that He is the bread of life. In the fifth sign, the walking upon water Jesus revealed that the old system was ending and a new one was beginning. In the sixth sign, the healing of the man born blind, Jesus reveals how he is the light of the world. In the seventh miracle, the raising of Lazarus, Jesus demonstrates that He is the resurrection and the life.
Miracles serve the same purpose now. They are primary a testament to the truth that has already been spoken. (Acts 14:3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.) However not all miracles are from God. Any ‘miracle’ that takes glory away from God and in another direction is from Satan. In some of the cults any other religions that we see around the world, there is real power, but it is not Gods power. In 2 Thessalonians 2:9, we read that when the anti Christ comes he will also perform counterfeit miracles. A counterfeit miracle will always glorify either the person who performs them or the false god that they represent. In Acts 8:20, we find that Peter had to rebuke a former sorcerer called Simon who wanted to buy the power of God so that he could use it for his own glory. Miracles that come from God always either bring glory to God or confirm his word.
We must remember that we do not perform miracles. It is the Holy Spirit within us that will perform miracles. The Holy Spirit is the power by which miracles take place. As Christians we are given the authority to use that power as long as we are acting within our responsibilities as Christians. I will come on to that a little later.
Can we expect to see miracles today?
The simple answer to this question is, yes we can expect to see miracles today and we still do see them.
Milan’s 3 year old son Ruben is a miracle. Most of you will know that he recently fell down the stairwell two floors and yet didn’t receive any serious injury. To give an exact figure I would need to measure the distance that he fell, but I worked it out that he would have hit the ground, head first onto solid concrete, at a speed of somewhere between 40 and 50 km/h. The fact that he was running around the church on the following Sunday as if nothing had happened is an absolute miracle.
Just prior to coming to Slovakia I attended Bible college in England. There was a woman there that had a serious allergic reaction every time she ate peppers, or related vegetables. Even if she just ate a small amount then she would have an anaphylactic shock. She had almost died in hospital on a couple of occasions. She asked for prayer and believed that she was healed. The next day she was so certain that she was healed that she purposely ate peppers. She then did that every day that we were there without any reaction at all. This was a miracle. The first thing that she did was phone up her ex husband who was an unbeliever and tell him what had happened. He was the one who had taken her to hospital on the previous occasions and so even he had to admit that it was a miracle.
God has been performing miracles and healings on this earth ever since Adam and Eve sinned. In fact, it was their sin that caused death and destruction to come into the world in the first place. If it wasn’t for sin, then our bodies wouldn’t deteriorate, and we wouldn’t need healing. Healing was not necessary in the garden of Eden. Having said that let me make clear, that a persons illness is not necessary related to a sin they have committed. Jesus makes that clear when he heals the man who has been crippled from birth. There are times when it can be related to an individual sin but we will cover that a little later.
So we only get ill because we are all sinners, but that doesn’t mean that we are ill because of a particular sin.
When will miracles continue on until. There are some Christians who believe that the gifts of the spirit were only for the times of the apostles and the early church. However we read something completely different in the book of 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 13.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
We can see from this scripture that there will be a time when the gifts of the Spirit will cease. It mentions the gift of knowledge, tongues, prophesy etc. However it tells us that they will disappear when perfection comes. The gifts of the Spirit will stay on this earth until perfection comes, that is when we are made perfect and enter heaven. The fact is that in heaven we won’t need the gift of knowledge, we will have all knowledge. We won’t need the gift of healing, nobody will be sick. However until that time, the gifts are there for us to use. That includes miracles and healing.
We should expect to see miracles today.
Why don’t we see miracles every time we pray time?
You might ask this question if you have prayed for something or someone and not seen it happen. I want to give a number of reasons why this may be the case.
Firstly, are you in Gods will.
1 John 5:14
14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
Sometimes we can ask for things out of selfish motives. If you are praying for a BMW motor car, so that you can show off to your friends, and expecting God to miraculously provide the money, then you might just find it doesn’t get answered. God has given us the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority to use that power. However with that authority comes the responsibility to ensure that we are using the power for Gods glory. We have a responsibility to ensure that we are in Gods will. Jesus had all the power under heaven and yet he only did what he saw his father doing (John 5:19). Firstly check your motives when you pray for anything.
The second reason is because of a lack of faith. In James’ letter he tells us that a prayer offered in faith will make somebody well (James 5:15). Even Jesus didn’t perform many miracles in his home town because of the lack of faith.
Mark 6:5&6
5He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.
6And he was amazed at their lack of faith.
Its amazing that its says… ‘except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.’ The truth is that we would probably consider that a revival.
They seem to have a lot more faith in parts Africa where they can’t rely on medical care. Sometime I feel that we pray for someone and think, well if it doesn’t work then you will just have to go to the doctors.
The third is unconfessed sin. James also states that there are times that we need to confess our sin in order to obtain healing (James 5:16). An individual sin can be a direct cause of an illness. Unless we repent then we probably will not receive our healing. If you have caught a sexually transmitted disease because you have a different sexual partner each week, if you don’t repent of that sin, then you will probably not receive your healing.
The first three reasons I have cited for the existence of suffering, are as a result of failings of people within the church. There are also other reasons that are only under God’s control. In Peter’s first letter he states that God can sometimes allow us to suffer, or undergo trials, for a short time in order to refine us (1 Peter 1:6 & Romans 5:3). Finally, as Paul points out in his letter to the church of Rome, it could also be that we are being brought into closer fellowship with God (Romans 8:35-37). We are told that if God is working within us in any of these ways that the end result will only be for the greater good (Romans 8:28).
If we do not see healing for either of the first three reasons, then there is something that we can do about it. If we do not see healing for either of the second two reasons, then it will only be for a time, and until God’s purpose is achieved. I believe that we should expect to see healing within the church on a regular basis as a result of his atoning power. When Jesus died on the cross He broke the power that sin has over us, and therefore broke the power of sickness. We should expect to see miracles.
How to pray for a miracle with power and authority.
I have already mentioned authority and power and number of times and I want to quickly just talk about how to pray for a miracle with authority and power.
Luke 9:1&2
1When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases,
2and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Jesus did not give the disciples a special technique for miracles. He himself used many different ways, sometimes He just spoke the word, sometimes covered the persons eyes with clay etc. Instead of giving them a special technique he gave the disciples power and authority.
When the disciples were sent out they could defeat even demons, cure diseases and heal the sick. The disciples were discovering how to live life as an overcomer. You be like these disciples and are more than capable of dealing with the problems that are around you. However sometimes problems can come along that seem so big, that nothing will shift them. This is a situation that the disciples were soon to encounter.
Matthew 17:14-21
14 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying,
15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.
16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.”
18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
The disciples come across a problem that is too big for them. Jesus then heals the man’s son. The disciples ask him privately why they weren’t able to heal the boy and Jesus in Matthew confirms that part of the reason was to do with their lack of faith. But he also goes on to say that for some problems we need to pray and fast.
For the majority of problems that we face in day to day life, whether it is a financial difficulty, or even if it is demonic opposition; simply having faith in God, and believing upon His word and what it says in the scriptures, is enough for us to overcome it. The power that we have in us, simply because we have put our faith in Jesus and believe His Word, is greater than most opposition. However there will be times, and there will be situations were we need to get on our knees.
What does Jesus mean by prayer and fasting? The kind of prayer that Jesus is referring to is clearly a petition to God. The kind of prayer that Jesus talks about in the parable of the man who goes around to his neighbours for some bread. Jesus regularly got up early and spent time with his father. We shouldn’t just pray in this way when we have a problem, but all the time. But why is fasting important alongside prayer, and what does it actually entail?
To fast is to voluntarily give up some, or all, food and drink for a period of time for God. It is something that is done many times throughout both the Old and the New Testament. It is nearly always done at a time when people want to repent or humble themselves before God. When we fast we weaken the body, and so it is a sign that we are no longer relying on our own strength, but that we needs God to strengthen us.
Isaiah makes it clear that it is not just an act of giving up food but it is also an attitude. We can’t say that we are truly fasting unless we are looking after those around us.
Isaiah 58:5-7
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
6 Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Fasting is not just about giving up food, it is an attitude of repentance, of obedience and of humility before God. The best analogy for a fast that I know is something that happened to me while I was at work. I work as a police officer and one day, my sergeant asked a colleague and my self to go and visit certain pubs in the area to make sure that there weren’t any problems and that they were shutting down on time. We would enter the pubs at around 11pm speak to the Landlord or Landlady and make sure that everybody was thinking of leaving.
We were tasked to go to a public house in a place called Middlewich. It was a pub that had a little bit of a bad reputation. We had already been in two pubs and hadn’t had any trouble. We walked into the pub and the moment that we went through the doors it was like a scene from a Wild West movie where strangers walk into a bar. The place went silent and everybody turned and looked at us. The place was full of around 30 to 40 men who started to gather around us.
Undeterred we made our way to the back to speak to the Land Lady. As we did so we had to push past people and people weren’t going to move for us. When we got to the back I turned around and suddenly realised that I was at the back of the pub, at the furthest point away possible from the door. The crowd gathered around us and we realised that there was likely to be trouble. One man came up to me nose to nose. He had a large scar, that looked fairly recent, that went all the way from his forehead to his chin.
He looked at me menacingly, pointed at his scar, and said, ’Do you want to find out how I got this.’ I politely replied ’No thank you, I’m busy.’ At this point both my colleague and I were completely surrounded. My colleague was a big rugby player and didn’t take any messing about. I was hoping that he would do anything daft, and fortunately he realised that the situation wasn’t exactly in our favour.
The men gathered around, all of whom were big fighting men, stood around us staring at us. They were making it very clear that if we even tried to clear this pub, we were going to get our heads made to look like mashed potato. We spoke to the Landlady, made some excuse, and made our way out of the pub, having to push through the crowd. As we went back they were jostling us slightly. Thankfully, we managed to get out safely without having to fight, or without having to run and losing all dignity.
At this point we shouted up our Sergeant on the radio and let him know what had happened. Indignant that two of his officers had been intimidated out of a pub in such a way he came with us while we visited the pub once again. This time he had shouted up at least a dozen other officers to join us as well as a rather large snarling police dog.
My self and my colleague entered the pub again and were greeted by the same reception. At this point somebody opened the doors and all of a sudden all those inside the pub could see a line of police cars waiting outside, as well as dog who was frantic to be let off his lead. You have never seen a pub empty out as quickly, quietly or peacefully as it did that night. The same men who moments earlier had been waiting to get stuck into me and my colleague, left the pub with their heads down, and without uttering a whisper.
I want to ask this question. What was the difference between the first time that we entered into the pub and the second time? The answer is that the second time we entered in with real power. You see as officers of the law we had already been given power and authority. We had been given the authority, as servants of the Queen, to enter that public house and to clear it because it was after hours. We even had a certain amount of power. We were both trained in self defence. We were both carrying batons, C.S. Gas, and handcuffs. However we realised the limitations of our own power. As a result we had to request back up. We had to humble ourselves enough to realise that we couldn’t handle the situation ourselves.
When you fast and pray, that is exactly what you are doing. You have been given the authority of the situation, yet you are admitting that you can’t handle it in you own power. You are asking God to release the power of heaven, and He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. When we ask for His power, just as I was able to request the power available from the police force in the form of other officer, we have access to all the power of heaven itself. We just have to humble ourselves and ask for it. There is no opposition that can stand against that power.
When you pray in this way, if it is according to His will, when you are acting within the authority given to you, then you will see you problem disappear with its tail between its legs, and without it murmuring a word.
