The Conditions That Lead To Miracles – Sunday Thought For The Day

As we were heading home from church Friday evening, my wife and I discussed a church friend and his wife, both of whom the Lord healed from serious health issues.  Their healing was nothing short of miraculous.  The husband had been told by his doctor that there was nothing that could be done for his illness and he was going to die.  His wife suddenly began suffering from a mysterious illness that had the doctors completely confused, not as to what was causing the symptoms, but confused as to what she even had.

We had laid hands upon the husband weeks earlier and prayed over him; shortly thereafter upon going back to the specialist caring for him, the condition was “inexplicably” gone.  The doctors were unable to explain what had happened or how it had happened.  The only thing they were completely certain about was that he had the fatal condition and then it was gone.

His wife, it turns out was suffering from the doctors being totally in the dark regarding what she had and what was causing the episodes she was experiencing.  It turns out that the problem had been the failure of her the doctors and specialists to recognize her symptoms.  After being put in contact with another doctor, it turned out that her condition was not only reversible, but that she would be completely whole in approximately seven days.  Friday evening was the seventh day and by then her condition was completely remedied as if she had never experienced it.

I said to my wife that we live in a day and time of miracles.  The problem wasn’t that God isn’t miraculously answering our prayers; it is that many fail hear and/or recognize our Lord’s voice or they fail to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit.  The other problem is that many have had their hearts hardened with disbelief and the continued hardening of their heart blinds them to the grace, mercy, and desire of God to work in their lives.

A pastor friend and I were recently talking about miracles.  What people fail to realize is that in scripture, miracles occurred in the most difficult and most hopeless of circumstances.  People want the experience of a miracle, but they don’t want to experience the conditions of the moments prior to miracles taking place.

Daniel experienced a miracle in the den of lions.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in the fiery furnace.  Moses obeyed God and challenged Pharaoh at great personal peril and then had to believe a way would be made for he and his people to cross the Red Sea.  Peter was in prison, chained to a guard on each arm.  The blind and the lepers were in fact blind and suffering from leprosy.  Elijah was given sustenance by an angel and met God on Mount Horeb, but first he had to endure the threat on life by Jezebel.  Elisha told the Shunammite woman she would have a child, but after the child was born the woman had to experience her son dying.  It was after her son’s death that she experienced the miracle by Elijah of raising the child from the dead.  Many were healed by Jesus, but only after they had suffered blindness, deafness, being crippled and experiencing family members die.  This is only a tiny fraction of people who experienced miracles.

I know people who have faith ministries and are wholly dependent upon God for every financial need and even for the food on their table each day.  I know people who have received the financial help they desperately needed at the very last moment.

Yes, it is absolutely true that God is very much active in doing miracles today.  The question is, how many who profess to wanting a miracle are willing to live through the conditions in which they occur?

It has been my personal experience that the miracles in my life, have happened when the threat or need was the greatest.

Let me close with the greatest of miracles available to every single human being alive at this moment: People want to go to heaven, but they refuse the greatest miracle that has ever taken place.  The miracle of Jesus Christ being crucified, dead, buried and risen on the third day, just as He said He would.  Yet many today would rather refuse the free gift of the miracle of the new birth in Christ.  They would rather lie to themselves that their eternal salvation isn’t based upon the miracle of Christ’s sacrificial work on the cross.  How about you?

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