How to
Receive Miracles
by
Michael M. Wilson
What
is A Miracle?
Hebrew
4159
mowpheth; mopheth, mo-faith.
The
sense of conspicuousness (To open to the view;
obvious to the eye; easy to be seen; plainly
visible; manifest; attracting the eye.); a
sign or wonder.
Greek
1411
dunamis, doo-nam-is
Miraculous
power. Miracle itself- ability, abundance,
meaning, might.
Worker of miracle- power, strength,
violence, mighty (wonderful) work.
Webster's
Revised Unabridged Dictionary
An event
or effect contrary to the established
constitution and course of things, or a
deviation from the known laws of nature; a
supernatural event, or one transcending the
ordinary laws by which the universe is
governed.
MIRACLES
ARE FOR US
John
14:12-14 Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on
me, the works that I do shall he do also; and
greater works than these shall he do; because
I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that
the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If ye ask any thing in my name, I will
do it.
If
we want to see miracles, all we have to do is
believe.
We don’t need to wait for God to show
up, because he is already here.
He lives in us.
We don’t have to wait until we feel a
feeling from God.
This verse says, “He that believeth
on me, the works that I do shall he do
also”.
There is nothing said about a feeling
or waiting.
People always want to say I’m waiting
for God, and when we do this nothing gets
done. If
everyone had this attitude, nothing would get
done. The
time has ended for making excuses.
It is now time to stand up for what we
believe.
Through out history, people have stood
up for what they believe in.
Missionaries are at risk of dying
everyday for being a Christian, and we just
sit back and do nothing. In
America we have an advantage because the
intensity of our persecution is not nearly as
drastic as theirs.
The worst thing that could happen to us
is someone might laugh at us or yell at us.
Even if we were to die for standing for
what we believe in, it doesn’t matter.
Jesus was on the cross, beaten, laughed
at, tortured, spit upon, stoned, and I don’t
even know what else he went through. We are so selfish and lazy.
We want to leave our business for
someone else.
The time has ended for this, now its
time to crucify our flesh.
A
Miracle Must Glorify God
What
ever it is that we ask must be done to glorify
God. Whether
you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it for
the glory of God 1 Corinthians 10:31. This verse is saying that everything that we do should be
done to glorify God.
If you don’t glorify God, then
nothing will happen through you.
In Matthew 5:16, it says, “Let
you light so shine before men, that they may
see your good works and glorify your Father in
heaven.”
Jesus came to earth just to glorify
God. He
didn’t come to play games, he was here for
one purpose and one purpose only to save the
world and show the world what God wants to do
in us. Here
Jesus is saying let you light shine. He wants to use you and he wants nothing more than to use his
people to glorify His name.
You
might ask, “How do I glorify God?” The
answer is simple follow His commandments, and
live a life of holiness.
You are the
salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its
flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then
good for nothing but to be thrown out and
trampled underfoot by men Matthew
5:13. We
glorify God by being different from the world.
We are to live a life for God.
For it is written, be holy for I am
holy 1 Peter 1:16.
If we act like the world, then we will
be like the world. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want any part of the
ways of the world.
It is up to us to be different from the
world. We
do this by spending time with God, in His word
and by praying. If we live the life of the world, then we will be crushed by
the world and be miserable.
What
Does It Take To Do A Miracle?
1.
FAITH
4102
Faith pistis pis-tos Conviction,
reliance upon Christ for salvation, assurance,
belief, believe, fidelity.
Salvation
is the deliverance from the power or penalty
of sin; redemption or the agent or means that brings about such deliverance.
The
Bible says, “if you
have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to
this mountain, Move from here to there, and it
will move; and nothing will be impossible for
you. However,
this kind does not go out except by prayer and
fasting” Matt. 17:20,21.
Faith is one of the main ingredients
for a miracle.
As we walk in our Christian walk, we
will build a strong foundation of faith.
This kind of faith is when you know in
your heart the miracle can be done.
It also means that you must rely on
Christ to deliver the miracle to you.
But, in order for Christ to deliver the
miracle to you, you must take a step of faith.
Just as everything in life, acting on
Gods word takes practice.
It takes practice to be a Christian, as
we live this life, will get better and better
at it. Just like a sport. You
can’t one day say, “I’m going to play
basketball”, and then make every shot you
shoot. In
order to get good at basketball, you must
practice.
Just like faith, Faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God Romans
10:17. We
must study or hear, the word of God then we
will be able to apply it to our lives.
Hebrews
11:1 says, now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Hebrews 11:6 says, Without faith it is impossible to
please Him, for he who comes to God must
believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder
of those who diligently seek Him.
With out faith there is no hope.
We must believe in something in this
life we are in.
This belief is what keeps us going on
in life.
There is nothing greater than believing
the word of God.
The people who hate life, and feel that
there is no purpose to life, have no hope.
They often turn to things in the world or
think of ways to get out.
No matter what these people turn to,
they always find themselves missing something
or they are never satisfied with life.
This is what is great about being a
Christian once we give our life to God we
finally receive that hope that we have been
searching for.
We will never be able to please God if
we have no faith.
The more we believe in God and trust in
Him, the more he will reward us.
This is why it is so important to give
everything to God.
Just like in any relationship, the more
we put into a relationship, the more we get
out of it.
So, if we don’t put much in our
relationship with God, then we shouldn’t
expect much.
Mark
9:23 says, Jesus said to him, “If
you can believe, all things are possible to
him who believes.”
All that we need to be able to do is
believe.
It says all things are possible, this
means if we can think it, we can do it.
2.
PRAYER
2171
prayer euche, yoo-khay a wish expressed
as a petition, or a solemn supplication or
request to a superior authority; an entreaty,
to God, or in votive (Expressing
or symbolizing a wish, desire, or vow)
obligation.
When
we pray, we have a desire either to receive
from God, or else to give to God.
As I mentioned earlier being a
Christian is having a relationship with God.
In any relationship, we must be able to
give and receive.
As we pray for a miracle, we must use
the word of God while we are praying.
When I was little there was a song,
part of it was, “there is power in the name
of the Lord, there is strength in the name of
the Lord”, this is true.
The Lord is Jesus and Jesus is the
word. John
1:3-5 says concerning Jesus, “All things
were made through Him, and without Him nothing
was made that was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the
light of men.
And the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
The Bible is also known as the word,
because God wrote it through man.
This is why the Bible is so powerful.
In order to receive a miracle our words
need to be as powerful as Jesus’ words while
he was on earth.
We can be intellectual as we pray, but
the only problem with this is that there is no
power in our intellect.
The only power that we have in our
lives is the power we have from God.
Since were not Jesus, we must refer to
the Bible, for this power.
John
10:32 says, many good works I have shown
you from My Father.
Jesus and God had to work together in
order make a difference in the world.
The same goes for us in order to see
and do miracles, we must work as a team with
God. Lets
take a look at the 1993 Chicago Bulls when
they had Michael Jordan.
Michael was one of the main people in
the team.
Without him the Bulls wouldn’t have
won the NBA playoffs, and with out the other
players of the team, the Bulls would have went
nowhere.
Just like God and us, God is the main
person of our team without us God will not do
anything, and without God in our lives we can
do nothing.
James
5:13-16 says, is anyone among you
suffering? Let him
pray. Is
anyone cheerful? Let him
sings psalms.
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, and
the Lord will raise him
up. And
if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Confess your trespasses to one another,
and pray for one another, that you may be
healed. The
effective fervent prayer of a righteous man
avails much.
The word him is written in these verses
six times.
The word is implying to us.
It is up to us to make sure we pray for
one another and get the job done.
We shouldn’t complain about how
things are going in the world if were not
doing anything to change it.
3.
FASTING
3521
Fasting nesteia, nace-ti-ah abstinence
(from lack of food, or voluntary and
religious)
To me
fasting is going without food, just as it
means in the Greek dictionary.
But not only is it going without food,
but its not having a desire to eat because you
are fed by the word of God.
John 4:31-34 says, In the meantime His
disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi,
eat.” But He said to them, “I
have food to eat of which you do not know.”
Therefore the disciples said to one
another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to
eat?” Jesus said to them, “My
food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and
to finish His
work.”
I hear
of people fasting from the television, video
games, caffeine, or and other things of this
world that is not a need.
To me if you have to fast from one of
these things, then it’s an addiction.
Whatever it is that you fast should be
a sacrifice to you.
If you find yourself fasting from
entertainment or something time consuming then
I believe you are putting that before God and
that is a sin.
Maybe I just don’t understand why
anyone would rather go home everyday and spend
all day watching television rather than
spending it with God and family.
During the times of the Bible, they
didn’t have things as we have today, maybe
this is why we don’t hear of them fasting
from anything else.
This would explain why all the
definitions for fasting refers to hunger or
food, but even in the English definition it
refers to food, so fasting should be a
sacrifice from food.
In
Mark 9:14-29, There was a parent who brought
Jesus their son, who had a mute spirit.
This spirit threw him down into water,
fire, and land, and it also caused the boy to
foam at the mouth.
Jesus then rebuked the spirit and it
left the boy.
In verse 28,29 it says, and when He
had come into the house, His disciples asked
Him privately, “Why could we not cast it
out?” So
He said to them, “This
kind can come out by nothing but prayer and
fasting.”
Since Jesus was the only one who was
fasting, He was the only one who was able to
cast out the spirit.
I believe Jesus didn’t fast
intentionally, but he was so consumed with God
that he had no hunger.
Its like sometimes when hangout with
our friends and we ask ourselves, “Where
does the time go?”
Sometimes when this happens, we don’t
eat because time went by so fast.
The same happens with God, and us when
we get to the place where we love to spend
time with God, then we loose track of time.
I believe this is where Jesus was, He
was spending so much time with God and
didn’t want to leave that he chose not to
eat, because God sustained his hunger.
The
Worlds View on Miracles
THE
WORLD QUESTIONS MIRACLES
Judges
6:13 Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if
the Lord is with us, why then has all this
happened to us? And where are all His
miracles, which our fathers told us about,
saying, “Did not the Lord bring us up from
Egypt?” But now the Lord has forsaken us and
delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
Many
times we ask ourselves where are these
miracles that are found in the Bible. Then we
see all this evil happening and wonder if
there is a God.
Instead of doubting God, trust God then
miracles will happen.
The world wants to let everyone know of
all the bad that is happening in society even
the news does it.
No one wants to talk about the good
that is occurring in people’s lives.
The world will never see any miracles
unless we take action and do what we believe
rather than what everyone else thinks. We must believe and act on what we believe.
Many people don’t believe the word of
God because we act too much like the world.
They don’t see that special something
different about us.
God has called us to be leaders, but we
are not answering the call.
The world will not believe until we
show them what God can do. They want to see how he has changed our lives, they want to
experience his love through us, they want
something different than the world, and all
there is that God has to offer.
THE
WORLD IS WAITING FOR A MIRACLE
Luke
23:8 Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was
exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a
long time to see Him, because he had heard
many things about Him, and he hoped to see
some miracle done by Him.
Just
as Herod, the world is waiting for miracles.
Just as I mentioned before miracles
must glorify God.
Jesus didn’t do any miracles while he
was on trial because he knew that they knew
what God could do through him and they still
wouldn’t accept him.
Sometimes the world will not accept us
no matter what.
We are different than the world, and
some don’t like that.
But regardless what some of the people
don’t like, the majority of the world is
still looking for what we have to offer.
There is so much controversy and
division in the world that no one knows what
they want.
They may be satisfied with the things
of this world, but that will soon fade away,
and then what?
Everyone wants to try everything,
except Jesus.
Everyone is saying this is right and
that is right.
Everyone is at a different extreme than
the other, but they all have one thing in
common, they are never satisfied.
They may be happy for a while, maybe
even twenty or thirty years, but then they get
tired and find themselves where they were
before. They
are looking for something.
We are the only ones who can satisfy
them, but they must be willing to accept us.
In
everything in life, we must act on.
We either act on sin or we act on
righteousness.
There is no in between.
We either have life or death.
It’s all up to us.
What ever we choose should be either
totally for God or totally against God.
Revelation 3:15,16 says, I know your
works, that you are neither cold nor hot.
I could wish you were cold or hot.
So then, because you are lukewarm, and
neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of
my mouth.
THE
WORLD DOSENT ALWAYS HAVE TO SEE A MIRACLE
John
10:41,42 says, then they came to Him and
said, “John performed no sign, but all the
things that John spoke about this Man were
true.”
And many believed in Him there.
Sometimes
the world doesn’t need a miracle because
they see for themselves that what you say is
true. John
the Baptist never did a miracle in his life,
he just told the people to repent and to get
baptized with water. John did what God told him to do and the people came.
If we live life as a Christian, then we
should follow Christ in truth.
Sometimes when we speak truth to people
just like this verse, people will believe.
Miracles
don’t always have to happen; sometimes when
we speak it is a miracle in itself.
John7: 45,46 says, and then the
officers came to the chief priests and
Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you
not brought Him?
The officers answered, “No man ever
spoke like this Man!” The Pharisees called the officers to arrest Jesus, and they
didn’t because of the words that he spoke.
Many times we don’t know the effect
of our own words.
Jesus was able to convince the officers
not to arrest Him.
At times the way we speak make a world
of difference.
THE
WORLD DOSENT ALWAYS ACCEPT MIRACLES
Romans
1:20,21says, For since the creation of the
world His invisible attributes are clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are
made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so
that they are with out excuse, because,
although they knew God, they did not glorify
Him as God, nor were thankful, but became
futile in their thoughts, and their foolish
hearts were darkened. People don’t
always accept miracles.
There are miracles all around.
For instance, the earth it self is a
miracle, the life, the abilities we have,
everything around us is a miracle, it’s not
suppose to happen, but it does.
People are just like George Clooney in
the movie, “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?”
at the end George was praying to God that
something would happen, because the police was
after him, then all of a sudden a flood swept
through and saved him from being captured from
the police.
Many times this is what people are
like. If
they see a miracle they want to make an excuse
of why it happened rather than giving the
credit to God.
John
2:11 says, this beginning of signs Jesus
did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His
glory; and His disciples believed in Him.
When Jesus did miracles, God was
magnified by it.
God wants to work through us, if only
we let him.
People want to see miracles and God
wants to do them.
In Luke 16:19-21, Jesus tells a story
of a rich man and a beggar.
Both men die and the rich man goes to
hell and the beggar goes to Abraham’s bosom.
The rich man talks to Abraham and at
the end of the conversation, he ask if he
could be raised from the dead just so his
brothers would know that hell was real.
Abraham said, “If they hear not Moses
and the prophets, neither will they be
persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”
People don’t want to believe in
Miracles.
Miracles
Are For Today
The
Bible says, And it shall come to pass in
the last days, says God, that I will pour out
my spirit on all flesh: your sons and
daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall
see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.
And on my menservants and on My
maidservants I will pour out My spirit in
those days; And they shall prophesy, I will
show wonders in heaven above And signs in the
earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of
smoke. Acts 2:17-19.
Gods not going to wait a couple of
years before he comes to earth to pour out his
spirit. God
released his spirit after Jesus died and was
raised. Jesus
said, Watch
therefore, for you do not know what hour your
Lord is coming.
But know this, that if the master of
the house had known what hour the thief would
come, he would have watched and not allowed
his house to be broken into.
Therefore you also be ready for the Son
of Man is coming at an hour you don not expect
Matt. 24:42-44.
The Devil is waiting to break into our
lives. We
have to be ready for him at all times.
No one knows the time, or hour of the
arrival of Jesus. God will not pour out his spirit a few years before
his arrival because we need to be ready at all
times. The people thought Jesus was going to come back during the
time of the Apostles, because that is when His
spirit was poured out.
Gods spirit is on this earth, all we
have to do it receive it and take action. |
