Miracles … Only God.

Let’s be honest—there is a lot of confusion about miracles … we’ve heard

~about television preachers rigging their healing services with ‘plants’, about

~big-tent meetings where people are getting healed on a nightly basis, and of

~long-held sacred beliefs on the healing powers at Fatima, Portugal1,  and then

~some of our denominations do not believe in healing prayer for the miraculous..

~or they do, but don’t talk about it much—certainly don’t teach it from the pulpit

I recounted my own experience, having grown up primarily in the Baptist church, where I do not recall ever hearing a message that yet today God works miracles in the lives of his people.  Admittedly, I didn’t spend too much time thinking about it until my little son was languishing in the hospital, the best medical care couldn’t cure him, and only God could help us!   Even then, it took a stranger to point out to me that we needed to cry out to God for a miracle.  Truthfully, when the lady grabbed my hands and said, “Honey, we’re going to ask God for a miracle,” I looked in her eyes through the eyes of my heart, and said, “Oh, please do!”  See, it didn’t matter then what anyone else taught or believed, what mattered was that my son needed help that ONLY God could provide.  Everything else fell away from my thinking but that.

I’m sure that is how the father of the possessed boy felt, when he brought his son to Jesus, desperate for a touch of the divine.  Jesus told him, “…Everything is possible for one who believes.”  “Immediately the boy’s father said, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”2  Jesus healed the boy.  When the disciples couldn’t heal him, ONLY God … and God did.

When modern medicine has done all it can … ONLY God.  The question is, ‘How do we access the miraculous power of God?’  Well, first, what is the miraculous?  That which cannot be explained or accomplished in our natural, finite states.  ‘Yes, but can we ask God for miracles??’ 

We can and we ought.  Our Lord’s brother, James wrotes, ‘you have not because you ask not.’  How many answers to prayer, how many miracles have gone begging because God’s people didn’t ask? 

‘But, but … I don’t know how … I don’t have enough faith!’

Really … how much faith does one need?

To which Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”3

Keeping that thought alive, please allow me to segue for a moment.  People regularly state that they would like to serve God, they would like to do things for other people in his name, but they just don’t have time, or they are unsure of what to do.  ENTER PRAYER.   The truth is, all of us could spend more time in prayer—getting to know the God of the Universe, and increasing our faith while doing so--going before that awesome, powerful God, asking him for the needs of others AND our own.  Perhaps ‘you have not, because you ask not.’

I should like to put before you several NEEDS – not wants, or nice-to-haves:

Mercy – At three years of age coming back up Hwy. 5 in her parents’ vehicle, she had no inkling that her car was to be rear-ended, nearly taking her life, but instead leaving her with a fractured skull and a severe spinal cord injury.  Doctors said she would never talk, move or breathe on her own again.  Five years later, through the hands-on loving care of her family, and ‘without ceasing’ prayer, Mercy talks and moves, goes to school and so much more….however, when I went to pray for her a week ago in her Huntington Beach apt., I looked in her eyes, and said, ‘Honey, what do you need God to do for you?’     ‘Well, I really want to walk … I really want to walk!’  I looked at Mom who said, ‘and her kidneys are both failing right now—could you pray for them?’  WILL YOU JOIN ME IN PRAYING FOR THE MIRACULOUS FOR MERCY?

Lauren – Fourteen-year-old Lauren has been suffering from Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome for almost three years.  It is a genetic condition that causes extreme and constant nausea, with vomiting, and fatigue, which of course, affect everything about her life—academics, sports, friendships, and family.  There have been multiple doctors, constant testing, blood work, etc.  WILL YOU JOIN ME IN PRAYING FOR THE MIRACULOUS FOR LAUREN?  Pray that God will touch her, that in his mercy, he will heal her!  (Offer prayers for others you know who are fighting a difficult illness, or even what doctors have termed ‘no hope’ )

Grant – Sixteen-year-old Grant went to the hospital with severe strep throat, and through medical snafus has now been told there is ‘nothing more that can be done’ to save him … to which I say, BUT GOD.  JOIN ME, Friends.

ONLY YOU, GOD, are big enough to make precious Mercy walk again, heal Grant, and take Lauren’s nausea and vomiting away, so … we ask you to shine your healing light on them.  Amen.  Let it be.

Christine

podcast:

1   11     http://www.christusrex.org/www1/apparitions/pr00011.htm

2     2       Mark 9.23-24 

3     3       Matthew 17.20