I am not a woman of Great Faith. . . I am a woman of little faith in a Great God! A God of Miracles. Miracles; What they are; How they happen, How they change lives.
Webster’s dictionary defines a miracle as an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. The definition I like is this: a Miracle is a supernatural intervention by God into a situation/circumstance that would not otherwise change.
Those who believe in miracles accept them because they believe they have evidence for them. Something that has happened in their own life or something witnessed in the life of someone else. Those who disbelieve in miracles, deny them because they have been taught a doctrine against them.
Is it not true that the God we believe in, who created us and loves us, found a way to break into our world? Could each of us believe in miracles just enough to believe that it was a miracle that brought us to salvation?
When Jesus began his public ministry, it was a ministry of miracles. His conception, birth, life, wisdom and teachings, ministry, death, resurrection, appearances, and ascension were astounding and undeniable miracles. When the church began her ministry, it was a ministry of miracles. A stream of miracles flowed from the hands of the apostles, upsetting the religious system of that day to the extent that even the Roman government was shaken.
The church had made a discovery: Christ, who God had raised from the dead, left them with the same power to work the same miracles in response to their command when they used His name. They had the same power as he did before he was condemned and killed. He was alive again! He lived in them! He had not changed! In Jesus name, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, and demons were cast out!
Those first years of early church history, as recorded in the “Acts of the Apostles,” were example years for the “Acts of the Church” until the return of our Lord. It was original Christianity and it is unchanged today. If we do not have the supernatural in Christianity, we have nothing to offer the unbeliever accept a religion. True Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is the heart and nature of Jesus Christ manifested or demonstrated and expressed in and through human persons. Christianity is a miracle life. It began as a miracle; it is based on a succession of miracles; it is transmitted by miracles. It is the only way of life that can satisfy the spiritual longing of men and women.
God’s purpose and plan for humanity was that people would have supernatural ability. That has not changed. Wherever there arises a man or woman whose prayers are heard and answered (Aimee Semple McPhearson, Kathryn Kuhlman, Oral Roberts, TL Osborn, Benny Hinn, Marilyn Hickey, Bill Johnson), greater crowds will gather to hear them. But we must remember that our prayers are just as powerful and “the greater works ministry” is available to all who believe.
Every spiritual awakening in history has honored Christ and His word. All have been attested to by signs, wonders and dynamic miracles. It is almost impossible to proclaim God’s word with biblical faith and not see miracles. This desire for the miraculous is deep-seated in humanity regardless of background because every human person is another offspring of the miracle of God.
John 2:23 - "Many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did." Jesus Christ is as much a miracle worker now as he ever was, and humanity needs his miracle touch now more than ever. When the gospel in its simplicity is communicated, the sick will be healed, and non-Christians will be converted and will turn to Christ. When actions correspond with teaching, it opens the way for Christ in His power to confirm His Word. Psalm 107:20 - "God sent his word, and it healed them." Proverbs 4:22 - "God’s promises are life to those that find them, and health to all their flesh."
What does it mean to go beyond? “Beyond what we can ask, think, or imagine" (Eph. 3:20)? Miracles take us beyond. Remember that “the prayers that are most unanswered are the prayers that are not never prayed.” Sometimes we do a lot of thinking, we do a lot of visualizing, we do a lot of hoping and a lot of wondering, but do we do a lot of actual praying? When we pray to the God who is outside time and space, and that God reaches into time and space with the answer we have miracles.
Believing for Miracles,
Pastor Jo Ann Angelo