WAKING UP TO GOD | MIRACLES YESTERDAY AND TODAY

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

This week, I was telling Michael about a little miracle that happened to me a few days ago. I had been putting the blog into an email when I just had a feeling that the citation for one of the verses was incorrect. This has never happened to me before. At first, I dismissed this thought and just kept working. Then, the feeling became so powerful that I decided to look to make sure. I got up from my chair and walked the few steps to my desk. My King James Version Bible was lying on my desk and open to a place deep into the New Testament – around Hebrews, I believe. With my phone in my left hand, I used my right hand to pick up around a thousand pages of Scripture, heading toward Isaiah. On the first flip in that direction, I realized that I was at the exact Book, chapter and verse where I wanted to be. I stood there, stunned and said, out loud, “Thank you, Lord, for giving me this gift …a little miracle.” Then, I remembered why I had turned there in the first place. I looked back down at the cited verse. It was an incorrect citation. Glancing up one verse, I found the correct verse, the one in the text of the blog. I had been off one verse!

 

There are people who, upon listening to these facts, would say, “What an amazing…coincidence.” Truthfully, I know better. As a trial lawyer, evidence was my stock and trade. Between the strong feeling that a citation was wrong, then turning to the desired verse in one turn through a thousand pages of Scripture, AND then finding that, just as my feeling had, told me, I had transcribed the verse off one from the correct one, I was convinced beyond any doubt at all, that there had been divine intercession here.

 

Michael and I marveled about this, and then he said, “You know that there are modern day miracles as powerful as those in Biblical times.” He added, “These give us a helping hand in building our hope and faith.” I agreed because I have personally seen them. Michael then said, “Let’s write about this in the blog. Let’s make it clear that God is still working in today’s miracles.”

 

After we ended our phone conversation, I felt moved to turn to the Book of Acts in my Bible. I was comfortably sitting in my favorite chair, it was ten o’clock at night and I was planning on checking out Instagram and relaxing. So, I put this thought, regarding Acts, out of my mind… until a minute or so later, it returned, very strongly. (I believe that the Lord calls people like myself, “a stiff-necked people.”) Picking up my KIng James Version Bible, I obediently turned to Acts 1:1, very familiar territory. I began skimming the underlined verses. Within ninety seconds, I came to an underlined Acts 2:17. Here is what I read there: 

 

“…saith God, I will pour out my Spirit on ALL flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see VISIONS and your old men shall dream dreams.” (emphasis added)

 

Quoting from the Prophetic Book of Joel, Peter preached the above words in his iconic sermon on Pentecost. Clearly, this passage sets forth the possibility of visions and other kinds of miracles.

 

The next day, I told Michael about this experience and how I felt that his idea to write the blog on this subject was exactly where we were being led…and led now, as Michael had said.

 

Having decided this, we asked ourselves the following question: “What was Jesus’ view of miracles, both during his public ministry and, projecting ahead, to the subsequent centuries and right up to today?” This question took us to John 14:12, NIV, perhaps as astonishing a statement as exists in Scripture. Jesus is speaking:

 

“VERY TRULY (The KIng James Version also emphasizes this by stating, ‘Verily, Verily’), I tell you, WHOEVER BELIEVES IN ME, will do the works I have been doing, and they will do EVEN GREATER THINGS THAN I.” (emphasis added)

 

This began to really sink it – EVEN GREATER THINGS THAN I! What a remarkable prognostication by the Lord, himself, the author of miracles that are beyond extraordinary!

 

As to this prediction, there are some who are of the opinion that, because Jesus was, in this verse, speaking to his disciples at The Last Supper, this was directed to them and them alone. This theory is easily refuted.

 

First, the verse, itself, rebuts such a claim. Jesus plainly said, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN ME.” In no way did he limit these miracles and other great works that he had been doing, to an apostolic order.

 

Secondly, other verses are consistent with our interpretation that these miracles and GREATER THINGS than Jesus did, are to be performed by ALL BELIEVERS in him, and not just apostles.

 

“After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go…The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

(Luke 10:1,17

 

None of these were apostles.

 

An even broader category was included in a subsequent passage:

 

“Teacher,’ said John. ‘We saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.’ (As an aside, anytime we need encouragement, we need look no further than Jesus’ apostles, who, like ourselves, astound in their lack of understanding.) ‘Do not stop him,’ Jesus said. ‘For no one who does a miracle in my name can, in the next moment, say anything bad about me, for WHOEVER IS NOT AGAINST US , IS FOR US.” (emphasis added).

(Mark 9:38-40) NIV

 

Now, this Scripture tells us that ANYONE NOT AGAINST US, can perform miracles when done in the name of Jesus. This miracle worker was not an insider by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it appears that he was a believer well out onto the fringe of believers. Yet, Jesus has affirmed his miraculous works.

 

Looking at the sum total of these verses, we can rest assured that miracles were being performed over a widespread area by believers outside the inner circle of the Apostles.

 

With that settled, why did Jesus say, in John 14:12, that believers in him would be able to do the works he had been doing and even greater ones? What was the purpose of miracles to Jesus and why did he do so many, as well as encourage those who believe in him to do the same? For the answer to this central question, let’s turn to Luke 7:19, NIV.

 

The context for this verse is that John the Baptist has been imprisoned and knows that he is very likely soon to be executed. This same prophet and forerunner of Jesus, the one about whom Jesus said, “Truly, I tell you, among those born of women, there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist,“ (Matthew 11:11) NIV, this same John the Baptist, had a question for Jesus. John sent two of his disciples to Jesus with the following inquiry:

 

“Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

(Luke 7:19) NIV

 

Clearly, John was asking Jesus whether he was the Messiah or not. Equally clear is that Jesus knew the great import of his answer back to John. He was acutely aware of the high stakes of his reply. Thus, we are coming to our point. One might expect that Jesus would have just told John’s messengers to tell him that, yes, of course, he, Jesus, was the long-awaited Messiah. But, that is not at all what he did:

 

“Then, Jesus answering, said unto them, ‘Go your way and tell John what things ye have seen and heard: how the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor, the gospel is preached.”

(Luke 7:22) KJV

 

Jesus said, in so many words, “The miracles say it all, John. These miracles are my credibility, my PROOF that I am the one who was to come, that you should not expect another. Am I the Messiah? I am he.”

 

Miracles? Jesus performed many. He let these speak of his origins, his deity, his Messiahship. He does the same with his followers today. He has spoken unambiguously in the earlier cited John 14:12, in which, to reiterate, he commissioned and affirmed his believers, down the ages, to perform and experience the miraculous in “doing even greater things than I!”

 

Of course, this was effective. The crowds followed him, observing miracle after miracle. After he walked on water, Scripture records the disciples in the boat as stating, “Truly, you are the Son of God.” (Matthew 14:33) NIV. Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council, said to Jesus,

 

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For, no one could perform the SIGNS you are doing, if God were not with him.” (emphasis added)

(John 3:2) NIV

 

Jesus, the Messiah, knew then, and knows today, the impact of the miraculous. When a person sees a miracle up close or hears of one from a credible witness, doubts fade and faith emerges and grows. Michael is so right when he says, “It’s like waking up to God. The miraculous paths and all the doors in front of you – these are welcoming doors, there for your faith. These are miracles placed there for you.” How wise this is.

 

Hopefully, this week’s blog makes a compelling case for establishing that Jesus envisioned the performance of miracles by ordinary believers, as well as visions of the miraculous by believers. Next week, Michael and I will write of why these miracles continued down the centuries and right into the present day. We will name many of these, specifically, and personally, along with asking you, if you like, to share, large and small miracles that you have seen in your lives, as you respond with these in the comment section following the blog.

 

May the God of all power open our eyes to His miracles in all ages, Biblical and modern and in every era in between.

 

Postscript:

We are indebted to two articles in writing this week’s blog:

1) “Are the Apostles the Only Ones Who Healed and Did Miracles?” by Eric M. Hill

2) “Why Don’t We See Miracles Like the Apostles Did?” by Justin Holcomb