04/10/2018
There are many who study the Bible, and upon reading of the healings and other miracles come to the conclusion that those days must have been the “times of miracles”, and convince themselves that we are not living in such times today. Friends, there is no biblical foundation for such thought, as a matter of fact Jesus taught by using miracles, just as we see in the Old Testament, and He teaches us that we too will perform and receive miracles today.
Our God is a healer, and the performer of miracles, and just as He healed and performed miracles through Jesus and the disciples, He does so today through us. Miracles are indeed the breath of a vibrant and living God! Listen to James as he writes about healing in the church...
“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”
James 5:14-15 ESV
This is not written of a bygone era, or about one church... it is spoken of the church as a whole, and for all time. This is as true for us today as it was in the day of James, and Jesus. And for those who have convinced themselves that Jesus was different, He was the Son of God, and we are not, or that Jesus was divine, and we are not, I want to remind you that He laid down His divinity for us, and walked as a man among us, His miracles were performed while a man in every way, and God, our Father, still does miracles through us today.
“who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Philippians 2:6-8 ESV
So that which was true regarding miracles in the Old Testament...
“saying, "If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer."”
Exodus 15:26 ESV
Is still true in the New Testament..,
“Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me."”
John 11:40-42 ESV
And is true today...
Miracles are from God, and He is just as alive today as He was in the time of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and even Peter. He performs them to teach, convince, glorify Himself, and because He loves us and wishes for us to be healthy and love Him back.
“Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed." And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.”
Acts 9:32-35 ESV
I am one member of a trio of elders at my church, and we pray for those in need. Over the course of the years I have been praying with them in this way I have seen miracles performed... healings, eyesight restored to normal, back pain healed, cancer survived, and the list goes on. I say this so that you will understand that miracles have never ceased. God is still performing them today, and mere men are allowed to be a part of God’s miraculous work... just as Jesus performed miracles in concert with God the Father so amazingly in the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and Peter did in the healing of Aeneas, we have a role to play in God’s miracles today.
To those in the church today miracles are not uncommon, but sometimes their incorrect interpretation as being natural occurrences stifles our faith, and the denial, or hushed tone in which we speak of them, is a sign of our reluctance to separate ourselves from a disbelieving society. There is a fear of revealing miracles that goes hand in hand with the reluctance to admit ones faith openly in public. What we call an attack on our faith and the church in modern times is much more a desire by the church itself to be perceived as “relevant” in the eyes of non believers, and there is nowhere that this is more evident than in the secrecy and denial that surrounds modern day miracles.
“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
2 Timothy 1:6-7 ESV
Do not be afraid to lay hands on one another, and pray in the spirit for healing, and wonders. Gather your elders together, listen to the will of God as He directs you, and witness the power that you are intended to receive and wield. Prayer is not a milk toast activity intended to make you secretly feel better about yourself... it is bold, and is full of promise and power. Pray with authority... pray for miracles!
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
James 5:16 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the miracles you perform today, and the encouragement, and comfort we receive from them. I thank you for being bold in your answers to our prayers, and I pray that you strengthen my courage as I stand before the world and claim your miracles as truth, and your miraculous power as being real today. Holy Father, I understand that denying your work is denying you, and I will proclaim your good works and miracles before all men, just as I proclaim my faith. I pray that your church would reclaim the courage to stand before a world that denies you and demonstrate its faith in you through word, and deed. I pray that the miracles which come from you be revealed before all men, and not held as secret treasure for fear that secular thieves might rob them of their glory. You are a powerful God, and none can stand against you; who am I to defend your miracles, if not a man of little faith. Great art thou my God, and greatly to be praised! I will shout your name from the mountaintops, and reveal you to a world who needs to see you in miracles, and wonders as they wrestle with their faith.
“Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!"”
Mark 9:24 ESV
Rich Forbes