Miracles

Meditation
Hebrews 2:1-4--We must, therefore, pay even more attention to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away. For if the message spoken through angels was legally binding and every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment, how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was first spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. At the same time, God also testified by signs and wonders, various miracles, and distributions of gifts from the Holy Spirit according to His will.

​There are those in Christendom who honestly believe that God no longer works miracles, His supernatural workings ended after the time of Christ and the early Apostles.  Without meaning to be disrespectful I’ve always believed such notions to be hogwash for two reasons.  First, I see nothing in Scripture that restricts God from defying the laws of physics in the lives of people today.  Second, I have witnessed firsthand, His awesome handiwork.

When I was a boy, I, along with a great number of people, prayed that my mother would be healed of cancer.  She died.  When the doctors informed my wife and I, that Bryan had little to no chance of surviving a brain-stem tumor, a large number of us prayed that our son would be healed of cancer.  He survived. He remains alive on earth and serves as a great inspiration to the many who know him.  Why does the Holy Spirit intervene and miraculously heal or help some people while at other times remain seemingly aloof and silent?  

There will always be those who refuse to believe God does anything on earth anymore.  Life membership in the Skeptics Club is free for the taking.  For many it is difficult to trust in a miracle-working Father when the most familiar music one hears is the sound of a kicked bucket.  Yet, across the globe right now, God is at work--in a remote Indian village, a teeming metropolis, a dilapidated shack, a packed stadium.  If we could stop for a moment and don supernatural headphones, we would hear His voice instructing His angels, directing His servants, proclaiming His will! How and why we may not understand, but make no mistake, He is at work—there are too many accounts across the earth by followers of Jesus to deny this truth.  

Jesus taught His disciples, “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9,10). This was not a one-time teaching for a one-time generation. This was a divine directive to be taught to a chain of disciples each willing to arise, place their faith in God, and repeatedly request Do your will on earth, here—this planet, today—this hour!  Much of that work will be leading naturally those who are obedient. But some of that work will be supernatural intervening on behalf of those who call upon His name. 
​
There is the miraculous and the miraclueless.  We miss the former and live in the latter if we slap on God human fetters of disbelief.  Rory Noland and Greg Ferguson wrote the words and music that say it so well:
“He is able, more than able to do much more than I could ever dream, 
He is able, more than able to make me what He wants me to be.”
Something to think about . . . in reveration!
 
Inspiration
A miracle is a work done by one who has fuller knowledge and authority than we have . . . The miracles of Jesus were an exhibition of the power of God, that is, they were simply mirrors of what God Almighty is doing gradually and everywhere and all the time; but every miracle Jesus performed had a tremendous lesson behind it.  It was not merely an exhibition of the power of God, there was always a moral meaning behind for the individual.  That is why God does not heal some people.  We are apt to confine life to one phase only, the physical:  there are three phases—physical, psychical, and spiritual.—Oswald Chambers in The Servant As His Lord
 
©1998 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)