Do miracles still happen? I believe they do. Why else would I be holding out hope for my health issues. Or praying for people’s healing on the COVID 1900 prayer times. I recently read a book titled “The Case for Miracles” by Lee Strobel”, I liked the book. It opened my eyes to other events in this world which I would never have heard about.
Defining the Miraculous
The definition which is used in the book by Lee for what a miracle is was one I liked very much. It comes from a philosopher named Richard L Purtill who said, “A miracle is an event that is brought about by the power of God that is a temporary exception to the ordinary course of nature for the purpose of showing that God is acting in history” (In Defense of Miracles, IVP, 1997). This made it clear to me the word “miracle” is used for a lot of things which are not miracles.
The Bus Stop
There are those who believe miracles have not happened on the Earth for a long time. Some say since the day Christ went to heaven. And there are other who believe angels are not present down here on Earth in these days. There was a time when I had been a frequent listener of “The Bible Bus” on the radio for nearly a decade. I learned a great many things from the program. Good things, Godly things, about the bible.
It was an eye opener for me when one day I heard its founder J Vernon McGee say, “A man is a nut job if you say you have seen an angel in these days”. Well you might as well get ready the rubber room and straight jacket for me because I believe angels and miracles, are very active today. And I have witnessed both.
Do Miracles Still Happen? Yes.
Some may ask, “Why do I believe in miracles”? Simple it is because of events like this:
When I was just a young man, I was recently married 21 years old and it was Mother’s Day. I had attended church since I was 17 in order to date my future bride. This was one of the rules of my then future mother in law. “All boyfriends of my girls must attend church with us.” And so, attend church with them I did for 4 years.
So here I was now 21 years old and married to her daughter. At this point I believed in God, but I had no personal relationship with Jesus. After we left church on this particular Mother’s Day we headed to my mother in law’s house for brunch. There we sat in the left turn lane on 148th Street in Bellevue’s east side. We were turning up NE 8th heading for the crossroads area where my wife grew up. And then it happened… All of a sudden in my inner most being I was overwhelmed with the need to head back to my house, NOW! There were no explanations other than I needed to go home now! When I told my wife what I was about to do she said, “Mother is going to kill you she has dinner ready.” Cell phones did not exist then so I could not call until after we got to our house.
What Happened Next
I drove like crazy back to my house which was about 15 minutes away. My very unhappy wife asked me as we pulled up to the house “so what’s wrong with the house”? As I looked at it, I did not notice anything which was off. No strange cars, or house guests, no smoke billowing from the premises nothing abnormal. Still, I got out of the car and walked up to the front door. I looked in the front window to see if there was maybe somebody in my house. This is when I realized I could not see across the living room and out my back window it was all hazy. I opened the front door and found my house was full of smoke.
I covered my face with my shirt and ran to the laundry room door and noticed it was no longer brown in color but black in the middle. When I touched the door it was super-hot, I knew not to open it. This is when I ran outside and around to the laundry room window and looked in only to find my furnace was engulfed in flames. I yelled to my wife to bring me some pliers from the car, my tool bags were in there. Then I found the gas meter on the outside of the house, only there was no shut off valve. So, I followed the piping until it went underground, then dug through the decorative rocks and found the shut off valve. I turned it off with the pliers and the fire in the furnace went out. My house was saved.
Surely, I Was Convinced, Right?
So, what was this sixth sense thing which happened in my car in the left turn lane, behind my mother in law’s house? Was it a miracle? Divine intervention? Would you believe I chalked it up at the time to a more simplistic idea… “Wow that was cool!” This was it, this was all the attention it got from me, at the time. I did not see the spiritual connection. It would be years later when God showed himself again and reminded me about this day and how He was there with me on that day.
Eyewitness…or…I Witness
During my 38 plus years of attending church I have been a witness to many incredible things which have taken place. Most of these miracles where while meeting with others. Like praying over a young boy who was scheduled for surgery to remove the cancer from his body. After praying collectively over him and asking God for a miracle we waited. The pre op check in revealed the cancer had vanished.
Another time one of our elders at the church had a lung disease which was causing severe issues in her livelihood including weight loss, energy loss, and a diagnosis which was not fixable by the doctors. She was too sick to be able to be present at the church. Her friend suggested she could volunteer to symbolically sit in a chair as though she were the one who was sick; and ask the church to put their hands on her and pray for her to become well. This is exactly what we did.
It was weird and took faith. However, it was reported back to us this was the very night the sick woman slept well for the first time in a long time. This event was the beginning of her healing. She got well over the next several weeks. Miracle?
There are many more miracles I have witnessed. Ask me some day and I can also tell you about the angels.
Correlation
According to the book, ” The Case for Miracles“, there is a correlation between the miraculous happening in places of wealth, the abundance of health care and technology rich; verses, places of poverty which lack the technology and lack hospitals and doctors. It is recorded in impoverished places the miraculous is happening at a greater rate. Could it be because they simply have no other option for help but God? Perhaps, but in those places, God is getting the credit for the help given to them, belief in Jesus is spreading and the people’s faith is increasing. Some 80% of them attribute their conversion to the witnessing of a healing.
I Say Yes
So, this is why I would say miracles are very much alive today. We must keep our eyes focused on where the miraculous stems from. From a loving Father. It is in our desperation for His divine intervention which we seek for his miraculous help. His miracles are not performed because we summoned Him to our need as if we had control in any of it. Nor is it because we are so perfect in are right standing with Him. Neither is it because we have repented properly or properly humbled ourselves. He chooses to do what he will to those whom he decides to do it for. But we are told by Him to ask Him for what our hearts desire. With the right motivation… And to cast our burdens upon Him because He cares.
So, never stop asking for the miraculous. He is listening. Always.
Going Deeper
Do you believe in miracles?
Looking back…have you ever had a “Wow, that was cool” moment which may have been a little more spiritual?
Why do you think miracles are recognized more in poverty and downtrodden societies than our own culture, where even the poor live in luxury compared to most of the world?
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