Miracles Pt. 2
![The Illusive Properties of Miracles
Miracles, #2
(an extension of our study in the Book of John)
By Pastor Dan Kennedy
© October 2, 2011
www.pastorkennedy.com
(On the website above, click the link to “recent message notes” to view this message online.)
The Dominant Old Testament Miracle
There was one series of miracles that have dominated most, if not all the miracles in the Old Testament. This one series of miracles, even until today, has motivated many in the Jewish nation in their belief of God.
What was that extraordinary set of miracles?
If you thought of the Plagues in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea, you were right!
No single series of miracles have had a more profound affect on a nation – and the world, than the ten devastating Plagues on Egypt found in Exodus chapters 7-12 and the subsequent parting of the Red Sea.
1) Water turned to Blood
2) Infestation of Frogs
3) Swarms of Gnats
4) Swarms of Flies
5) Plague on Egyptian livestock
6) Painful Boils
7) Deadly Hail
8) Clouds of Ravenous Locusts
9) Penetrating Darkness
10) Death of the Firstborn not protected by the sacrificial blood of a lamb
The Hand of God through these miracles, thrust out the Israelites on the very day God had promised (Ex. 12:41), after four hundred thirty years in Egypt, most of which was under that nation’s oppressive, debilitating national bondage.
The Parting of the Red Sea
The final miracle associated with this amazing Exodus of some two million Israelites from Egypt, was the parting of the Red Sea, through which the Israelites fled on dry land from their oppressors. When the army of Pharaoh doggedly pursued the Israelites through the miraculous dry-bed passageway, which God had supernaturally opened up for Israel through the sea, Pharaoh and his army were consumed and destroyed as the wall of water collapsed over them and all around them.
(Side-note) Reflected End-Time “Miracles”?
Ominously enough, it seems that these series of Old Testament miracles judging Egypt and drawing out Israel, might reflect a snapshot of end-time plagues – pressing the whole world in judgment and toward repentance, as foreseen in books such as Revelation and Daniel, Matthew 24 and Luke 21, etc., before the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ in Power and Glory.
Miracles of God follow Principles from the Scripture
In continuing our overview of miracles found in the Bible, today we are looking at the “properties” of miracles. Does God require certain things to be true when He evidences Himself in miracles, or do miracles just spontaneously and randomly happen for no purpose at all?
Can people say that miracles are just unexplainable events and are not really out of the ordinary? Can supernatural miracles happen today? Can they happen in my life?
In this message we will be looking at Three Aspects of Miracles:
• The Premise for Miracles
• The Problems of Miracles
• The Promise of Miracles
The Premise for Miracles
There is one fact that underlines the rationality, reasonability and reality of the existence of miracles:
Since God Created Everything then Nothing is Too Hard for God
It is convenient to do away with God… when we do away with God then we can do away with personal accountability and also easily do away with miracles
Many of us have grown up having been taught the principles of evolution, as absolute fact, from childhood.
In our modern, scientific, computer-aged culture, we have come to accept the convenient theory of evolution with which we can easily replace God with anything our bright (and devious) mind conceives.
Once we erase the essence of God from the picture then we have no more illusions of restraint, moral accountability, or …the liability of unaccountable events such as miracles! We can perfectly control our own special unrestrained world. We can enjoy all the pleasures and selfish indulgences available to us, with only a slight tinge of conscience – because we are not accountable to God anyway, since He is not there and has no jurisdiction in our life…right?
How can there be miracles, if we evolved by chance? Miracles don’t exist.
If, however, there is a powerful Creator God who made everything, then miracles are to be expected!
The Scriptural Evidence of Creation (see addendum*)
Genesis 1-2:3*
John 1:1-5*
Hebrews 1:1-3*
Colossians 1:15-20*
God’s Creative Power erases all barriers to miracles.
The Intriguing Story of the Purchase of Land by an Owner who knew he would Never Enjoy it.
Jeremiah 32 gives an intriguing story of the purchase of a plot of land by Jeremiah from an uncle. Most real estate transactions are not abnormal, but this purchase was during the siege of Jerusalem and the land to be purchased was under the control of the Babylonians. Jeremiah could not possess his land. Further, Jeremiah himself had prophesied that Babylonia would conquer Jerusalem and the surrounding land. Jeremiah had prophesied the conquering of Jerusalem and had been beaten and threatened with death, because of his prophesies against Jerusalem. Jeremiah had also been “imprisoned” in the court of the guard. It was during this horrific siege that God told Jeremiah to purchase a plot of land. This transaction was confirmed to Jeremiah when his uncle came to where Jeremiah was being kept and asked him to purchase the same plot that God had told him to buy.
Jeremiah followed what God had told him to do – buy a field that he could never possess. A field on which the Babylonian army was occupying at that very time, while they were besieging Jerusalem! A field that would be considered conquered by the Babylonians. Jeremiah had prophesied that it would be 70 years before Israel would return to Jerusalem, so it was a field, which would be useless to any Israelite for the next 70 years! Jeremiah would never possess this land.
Jeremiah signed the deed of purchase, sealed it, got witnesses and weighed out a fair purchase price in silver on scales in front of everybody – while Jerusalem was in lock-down mode from the Babylonian siege. He then asked his scribe to take all the official documents and put them in an earthenware jar so they would keep for a long time. Jeremiah did this to prove to all who observed the transaction, that although he was prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, that one day God would restore Jerusalem to Israel and land would one day again be bought and sold and the Israelites would be blessed with a new life including ownership of their own property in Israel.
After he had given the deed to his scribe to store safely for “a long time”, he prayed this prayer:
“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” (Jer. 32:17)
It would take a miracle for Israel to be brought back into the land, but “nothing is too hard” for the God who created heaven and earth!! (Jer. 32:17-25)
(Side-note) If it was a miracle for God to restore Jerusalem to the Israelites after their 70 years in captivity in Jeremiah’s day, then it truly was a miracle for Israel to be restored as a nation in 1948, after 2,000 years of being disbursed and persecuted throughout the nations of the world!
After his prayer to God, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jer. 32:26-27)
A Worthy Prayer for Impossible Situations
Jeremiah’s prayer is a worthy prayer for any Child of God to pray in any impossible circumstance of life!
“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”
The premise for any true miracle is that nothing is too hard for God, who is the Creator of all things!
The Problems of Miracles
Miracles are Limited
Miracles just don’t happen any time at the whim of anybody, if they did everyone would have “superpowers”. They happen either at God’s bidding or at the bidding of another spiritual force in opposition to God.
If God is in control of His miracles, then miracles follow His rules.
Obvious rules for God’s miracles
Any miracle from God must follow at least one of the following four principles:
The miracle from God must be:
1. For God’s Glory: A miracle must give Him Glory.
2. In God’s Will: A miracle must be in His Will.
3. In God’s Time: A miracle must be in His Time.
4. For God’s Purpose: A miracle must be to fulfill His Purpose.
Asking God for Miracles
As God’s Children we can ask for a miracle from God at any time, but we cannot expect God to always give us a miracle.
We do not know the completeness of God’s Will, Time or Purpose so we are to ask our requests to God, “According to His will.”
James 4:13–17
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
God’s Miracles are within God’s Will
Moses, Elijah or Elisha, (or others who have been God’s mouthpiece for miracles) can command water to come out of a rock, call fire down from heaven, and raise a dead boy to life, if these things are for God’s Glory and in His Will.
If we do not have the certainty of God’s Spirit confirming a miracle, we can only pray, “If it is Your will!” and ask our request.
• Jesus requested His Father to have “the cup” (of His crucifixion and death) be removed from Him… but, the Plan of Redemption for sinful mankind would have been nullified had “the cup passed” (Matt. 26:39). Jesus concluded, “Not My will but Yours be done!”
• Paul’s request to have the “thorn” in his flesh removed, did not take place. God’s will was for Paul, in weakness, to evidence God’s power! In eternity, this would be of far more blessing to Paul than to have the temporary easement of the “thorn” being taken away. (2 Cor. 12:7-10) (This may be somewhat easy for us to say, not being in Paul’s shoes. The same is true for those going through fiery trials now…we can glibly say… “Oh, the eternal benefit!” But, for the one going though the trial, it is not quite so easily said, though it may be true!
God does not always reveal His purposes to us. We are those who live by faith
God does not cause miracles to happen for people who simply want to consume the miracle for their own gain…this compromises God’s purposes and will.
When Does God Not Answer Our Request?
God does not perform miracles so someone can fulfill their own desires or gain their own glory.
James 4:1–6
4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
[Review]
Miracles are Limited
They happen either at God’s bidding or at the bidding of another spiritual force in opposition to God.
Miracles from God only happen:
• For God’s Glory
• In God’s Will
• In God’s Time
• For God’s Purpose
We do not know the completeness of God’s Will, Time or Purpose so we are to ask our requests to God, “According to His will.”
• Jesus prayed for His Father’s will be done and He accepted “the cup” of suffering and death.
• Paul’s request for “the thorn” to be removed; instead, God gave Him grace.
God does not answer a request when someone wants God’s answer to fulfill his or her own passion and not His will.
The Promise of Miracles
• God Promises to Hear His Children
God promises His children that if they call on Him, He will answer.
• God Promises to Respond to His Children, according to His Will
He does not promise that He will answer in their time and way, but in His time and way, for their good and His glory.
Matthew 7:7
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
John 14:12–14
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
The Divine Tension
Here we see the Divine tension: God will do what we ask, for His Glory, and for our good, in His will and in His time.
• God loves His Children and hears them, and will answer for their good…every time.
Romans 8:28
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
• Eternity enters into Miracles’ Promises
And not to be forgotten, there is the interrelated aspect of eternity.
God accomplishes His will and answers our requests for our eternal benefit.
Hebrews 11:32–40
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Hebrews 11:13–16
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Conclusion
• Since God Created Everything then Nothing is Too Hard for God.
• We do not know the completeness of God’s Will, Time or Purpose so we are to ask our requests to God, “According to His will.”
• God loves His Children and hears them, and will answer for their good…every time.
• Eternity enters into Miracles’ Promises.
An Honorable Prayer from the heart of a Child of God in any Circumstance of Life:
“Ah, Sovereign Lord, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched Arm.
Nothing is too hard for You.
According to Your will I bring my request before Your Throne.”
****
Scriptural Addendum on Creation
Genesis 1–2:3 (NIV)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
John 1:1–5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
Hebrews 1:1–3
1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
Colossians 1:15–20
The Supremacy of Christ
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.](Miracles_%28Pt._2%29_files/shapeimage_3.png)
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