Are you in the Middle of a Miracle?

 The disciples were disappointed, paralysed with confusion and fear.
 
When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, he was greeted with jubilation as the Messiah. Everyone expected the Son of David to fulfil the prophecies.

Jesus was to establish a new kingdom in Israel and cast out the Romans.
Instead, Jesus was arrested as a criminal and executed on the cross.

Not only had they lost their champion.
When Jesus was arrested, they had fled like cowards.
They had lost their support and were ashamed that they themselves had failed.

But it was even worse. They were terrified. Would the religious leaders arrest and kill them too?

They were also probably sleepless and exhausted.

How long did the disciples tremble in this fearful despair?

But they did not realise that they were in the midst of a miracle.

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.

She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping.
When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. Mk 16:9–11 NIV

Are you disappointed? Have others let you down? Have you failed yourself?

Jesus wants to come to you, but sometimes he waits.

Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. Mk 16:14 NIV

Despite everything, God has good plans for you. He loves you.

I prayed for my parents for years. Finally, they both came to faith on their deathbeds.

Are you stressed with the wait? Please never give up.

The desperate apostles were in the midst of an amazing miracle. Are you too? Why not?

God Turns our Thinking Upside Down

 Who would have expected a teenage girl in a Jewish village to become pregnant without a man?

When the Virgin Mary became pregnant, it was the fulfillment of a prophecy in the Old Testament.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Is 7:14 NIV

Mary's fiancé was a devout Jew who was familiar with the Old Testament, but it did not occur to him to connect Mary's pregnancy with prophecy.

God intervened and Joseph's biblically based way of thinking was completely turned on its head.

Even in the Old Testament, God called Jonah to preach in Nineveh. The Assyrians in Nineveh were the cruellest and most dangerous enemies of the Jews, and Jonah did not want to obey.

Jesus had not yet come. Jesus taught that we must love our enemies, but this teaching was quite radical in the New Testament.

Jonah wanted to escape God's calling. God's plan went against everything he understood as a pious Jew.

Then God intervened again in an amazing way. A huge fish swallowed Jonah and carried him to Nineveh.

It is in the nature of God to contradict the thinking of devout Bible experts.

A conservative pastor prayed and a girl was healed, but his congregation did not believe in miraculous healings. The preacher sought advice. Had he done the right thing? A wise preacher said he should ask the girl.

Does God want us to stay sick so that we can learn patience? Many say miraculous healings are demonic. In the NT, sickness came from the devil and Jesus was the healer... Strange! And now it's the other way round? Biblically correct, right?

Expect the Unexpected from God

 When something strange and unprecedented happens, many Christians are sure that it cannot be from God, but in the Bible, God has repeatedly intervened in unprecedented ways.

Hosea was a prophet in the Old Testament.

When the LORD first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the LORD and worshipping other gods.” Hos 1:2 NLT

Jonah was another prophet. He was swallowed by a huge fish and still escaped alive three days later.

Who did Jesus choose as his first apostles? Fishermen, a corrupt tax collector, a thief. Only Matthew was perhaps theologically trained, and he was the renegade sinner who extorted money for the Romans.

God's Son became an itinerant preacher who was never ordained by men. Nor was he accompanied by respected people.

After this, Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him,
and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Lk 8:1–2 NIV

Who was chosen by God to be the first witness of his Son's resurrection? It was actually a witness, Mary Magdalene, ‘from whom he had cast out seven demons.’

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. Jn 20:18 NIV

But the apostles did not believe.

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.

She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping.

When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. Mk 16:9–11 NIV

In the Bible, God chose witnesses who were not taken seriously by most believers. The Jewish prophets were often only honoured by the Jews after their death.

In the Welsh revival of 1904, God intervened dramatically.

‘The mules in the mines had to be retrained because the miners no longer used profanity in their orders. The man-made denominational barriers broke down completely as believers and pastors worshipped their majestic Lord together.’

https://sermons.faithlife.com/sermons/36242-welsh-revival-1904 

Not everything that happened in this revival is celebrated by many Christians today.

A few years ago I heard a guest preacher from Wales. She told me about an almost forgotten preacher. She was only 15 years old when she became an anointed preacher. She preached on the street and all sorts of people wanted to hear her, including respectable politicians and despised prostitutes.

When you hear amazing or outrageous stories, please don't be critical. You think you are standing up for biblical truth, but you may be criticising the works of God.

This is the era of the unexpected! This is the era where God will do things that are SO unusual because He wants to reveal His majesty, His glory and His power. We have only just begun to see a ‘drop in the bucket’ of what God will do in this new age.

God is going to demonstrate His power, His glory, His splendour in ways we have never seen before, but it REQUIRES eyes to see and ears to hear.... Lana Vawser. Australia November 2021

God Changes Everything

 When Jesus appeared in Israel, he was the saviour for many. Prostitutes were freed from their torment and shame. Lepers were healed and the blind were able to see again.

But through the presence of God's Son, many prominent leaders also failed.  

The official leaders of the Jewish religion were not interested in the Son of God. The self-righteous Pharisees and high priests were rejected by God. At the same time, God raised up a new leadership.

Scholarly rabbis and priests failed to recognise their Messiah and God appointed unknown fishermen as apostles.

Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, Lk 2:34 NIV

The official leaders of the Jewish religion had gone astray. God had to establish a new order.

When Jesus gave his life on the cross, religious leaders scoffed, but a Roman soldier believed.

Then God changed everything. Before the cross, non-Jews were allowed to come to God, but they had to submit to the laws that God gave through Moses. They had to become adopted Jews.

After the cross, non-Jews could be saved by putting their faith in Jesus. Jews could not be saved through Moses. They had to trust Jesus as the Son of God.

Before Jesus appeared, the Jews had expected their Messiah, but they could not imagine that God would transform everything so completely.

In recent years, many Christians have been praying for a mighty worldwide move of the Holy Spirit, but we can't imagine what God's new order will look like.

The mighty manifestation of the Holy Spirit in these last days will deeply shake the order in this world, but not only the order in the world, but also the traditional order in the Christian religion.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Eph 3:20 NLT

Are you hoping for a miraculous revival? God will work far beyond your wildest dreams, but God will also often intervene in a completely different way than you expect.

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Is 55:8–9 NLT

God has Better Plans

Are you discouraged? Disappointed? Anxious?
Are you really down?

Before the Last Supper, the apostles were disappointed and deeply shaken.

But how was that possible? They were Jesus' closest friends. They believed he was the Son of God, their Saviour and Redeemer. He was with them in the flesh. And they were dismayed?

A few days earlier, Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem. The crowds had acknowledged him as the Messiah with great excitement.

The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest!” Matthew 21:9 NIV84

The Jews, and also the apostles, expected that Jesus as Messiah would then establish the Kingdom of God, that Jesus would rule the world as King in Jerusalem.

But Jesus did not. Everyone was disappointed. The religious leaders could now manipulate the disappointed Jews.

Instead of the expected triumph, the disciples stared disaster in the face.

What did Jesus say to this?

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. John 14:1 NIV84

You have expected a great revival, prayed for it for years, heard wonderful prophecies.

Yet the Corona disaster came. Where is God? You no longer understand anything.

What is Jesus saying now?

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. John 14:1 NIV84

You were expecting something wonderful from God. You have waited a long time for it, and now you are shaken.

My father was 70 years old. He had been smoking 40 cigarettes a day for many years and his lungs were black inside. I had prayed for him for years but there was no sign of faith. 

He was tormented by emphysema. That was a death sentence.

Then I started praying a new prayer. "Please let my father live until he comes to faith."

At the age of 88, he converted. He was very weak, but there was no sign of emphysema.

Finally he turned 91. He was half blind and life had become a burden to him.

Then I read in the Bible:

With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.” Psalm 91:16 NKJV

I gave thanks and praise to God. And then I prayed a very bold prayer.

"Dear God, you have heard my prayer, but my father is really suffering. How would it be if my father goes to heaven exactly 16 days after his 91st birthday?

Exactly 16 days later, Jesus took my father to heaven with no pain.

In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:2–3 NKJV

God has good plans for us, and that includes you.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. John 14:1 NIV84