Do We Believe in Miracles?

In January of 2015, I was at a church service in the Dominican Republic. A mother held her little girl who was not yet two years old and told us the child, named Katy, had not eaten in two days. She had a fever, she was lethargic, and her mother was concerned.

 

A group of us –people who had just met her on the mission trip and her friends and neighbors– gathered around her, laid hands on Katy, and prayed healing in the name of Jesus.

 

Less than two hours later, we were at Pastor Secundino’s house milling about in the kitchen like all visitors do regardless of the culture, and Katy was eating and playing and back to being the happy, energetic little girl we had come to know and love. The fever had left her and praises and prayers of thanksgiving were lifted high.

 

Proverbs 3: 5-6 says:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.” (ESV)

 

Jesus said in Mark 11:23:

“Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. (NIV)

 

Luke 17:6 says,

“The Lord answered, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you!” (NLT)

 

Luke 1:37 says,

“For nothing will be impossible with God.” (ESV)

 

Ephesians 3:20-21:

“Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (KJV)

 

Over and over again, our Bibles tell us that what is possible with God far exceeds our ability to even imagine. If we are to believe the Word of the LORD, we should not be surprised by the power given us even over demons, but that our names are written in heaven!  (Luke 10:17-20)

 

We are told we are more than conquerors and that overwhelming victory is ours in Christ Jesus! (Romans 8:37)

 

But do we live our lives like that? Do we run our ministries and our churches like that? Or, do we worry and fret that there won’t be enough time, money, or people to do the things the Lord would have us do?

 

Are we afraid of having that kind of power? Do we shrink back from bold ministry led by the Holy Spirit because we don’t want to be seen as smarmy hucksters peddling faith healing for our own enrichment like some sleazy televangelists? Are we lazy, complacent, luke-warm, afraid to take risks because we might fail? Have we bought into some unbiblical idea of “stewardship” that’s nothing more than burying our talents in a hole? Do we fail to kill the fatted calf and throw a party for the prodigals who were once dead but are now alive because they don’t deserve that kind of grace after wasting their inheritance on bad booze and worse women?

 

These are tough questions –and the answers to those questions are things we need to ponder for ourselves.

 

But this I do know –the people who started Kinship Radio 40 years ago took on an absolutely impossible project. There is no way a group of farmers and others could have possibly started a Christian radio station with no funds, no supporters, and no knowledge in a small town almost no one had ever heard of beside the freeway. By all logical assessments of the situation, it was absolutely destined to fail. 

 

Normal people would say they didn’t have a prayer.

 

But that is the one thing they did have. 

 

And, just like that group of Dominicans in Pastor Secundino’s kitchen will tell you, prayer works miracles.

 

Today’s Praise

John 15:7

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”