Some Miracles Take a Long Time

 Nowadays, some couples want to live without children. Some women only want to have one or two children. They want to pursue a career first and only try to get pregnant when they are 35. Many then have problems and end up paying a lot of money for artificial insemination.

In the biblical era, it was quite different. A woman was expected to be married, and there was great shame in being childless.

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.

Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.
But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old. Lk 1:5–7 NIV

Elizabeth was old and despite her strong faith and devotion, and her many prayers, she remained childless. Had God forgotten her? She was faithful, but was God not faithful?

But God had a plan for her. She was to be the mother of a great prophet. Her son was John the Baptist.

Sometimes our faith and patience must be tested for years before God can perform a great miracle and give us even greater blessings.

When Moses fled Egypt at 40 years old, he was not a prophet and was not at all ready to rule a nation. After 40 years as a shepherd in the desert, he was able to begin fulfilling his destiny.

Abraham was to be the father of many nations, but he received this promise at about 75 years of age. He had to wait until he was almost 100 years old, and his wife was over 90 before they had their promised son.

Sometimes we see miracles happen very quickly. I know of a family that had a baby who was completely deaf. Before the little boy was 18 months old, he and his mother attended a service where the preacher prayed for him. A week later, he could hear a little, and three months later, he had 100% normal hearing.

When Jesus performed miracle healings in the New Testament, it didn't take long. The sick recovered dramatically. This also happens today, especially in revivals, but there are also healings where the recovery time takes longer, but the healing is still miraculous.

For many years I was a member of a congregation with a wonderful pastor. The pastor became ill. He was very close to death because of cancer, but God healed him. His recovery took quite a long time and afterwards he was never strong, but he lived for more than ten years. His ministry after his healing was even better and more blessed than before.

Before the war, there were no antibiotics. A pastor in England became ill with tuberculosis, which at that time was incurable. The pastor believed in miracle healings and he prayed that God would heal him.

The Holy Spirit promised him that if he would pray two hours each day, God would heal him. He believed and obeyed. He prayed every day and he gradually recovered completely.

In the Bible, we read how devout Jews and Christians somehow, in some mysterious way, received messages from the Holy Spirit. God has not changed. He still speaks. It is part of His nature.

Do you know God's voice? You can learn to listen to God. Ask God to help you. He can heal the deaf ears and also awaken a listening heart in you.

Your Time Will Come

Have you been a believer for a long time? Do you read the wonderful promises of fruitfulness in the Bible? Are you fulfilled and satisfied, or is your Christian life just a religious routine?

Maybe you have already broken out of the religious routine, but you can't see any fruit. You love God and you have a close friendship with Jesus.

You want to win disciples for Jesus. You want to lay hands on the sick and see miraculous healings. Maybe you love Jesus, but you haven't received a miracle healing yet, even though you desperately need healing.

You love God and your trust in God is real and strong, but your hoped-for miracles are not appearing. And you need these miracles because you are disabled by illness, because your relatives are not yet believers, because you must wrestle with financial problems.

In the Gospel of Luke, we find an elderly woman who served God with a faithful heart for decades. She had prayed for children since her marriage, but she never had a single baby. Yet she never became bitter.

Had God abandoned her? Not at all. God had a marvellous plan. She was to experience a miracle, but without the long years of disappointment, God could not bring about this miracle.

Her husband Zechariah was a priest serving in the temple when an angel of the Lord appeared and shared an amazing message.

But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. Lk 1:13 NIV

Elizabeth was to be the mother of John the Baptist, the great prophet who would announce the coming of God's Son.

Everywhere in this chaotic world there are faithful disciples of the Lord who are waiting for the second coming of Jesus. Some are well-known prophets, good pastors, or well-known evangelists, but there are also many unknown saints who are frustrated because their prayers seem to be unanswered.

Are you one of them? Take courage. God has not forgotten you. God has prepared a spiritual army that He will release in the great end-time revival. Hold on to your hope. Your time is coming.

I prayed for years and God healed my depression.
I prayed for years and God saved my parents on their deathbed.
I prayed for years and .... I am not disappointed.

“Sing, barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD. Is 54:1 NIV

God Transforms your Past

 Not only Jesus himself, but also John the Baptist lived a holy life from an early age.

When the priest Zechariah was serving in the temple, he was visited by an angel who announced the birth of John the Baptist.

... he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 

He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. Lk 1:15–16 NIV 

If you have lived close to God from an early age, you can praise and thank God for that, but that is not my story.

But God has planned my life. He has also woven the failures and missteps of my childhood and youth into his plan for my Christian life. That's his way of doing things.

Milly Bennitt's parents were deeply committed Christians, but she was a rebellious party girl.

When she was about twenty years old, her father was dying. She came home to say goodbye. Then God miraculously answered her parents' prayers.

As her father passed on to the next life, he raised his arms and his face shone with the glory of God. Milly was deeply touched and became a believer.

She fell in love with Jesus, but Milly still had no time for rigid religious conformity.

She often sat in the garden, smoked a cigarette and had loving conversations with Jesus. One day Jesus said to her, ‘You don't need those cigarettes anymore,’ and she was able to give up smoking without much difficulty.

She loved Jesus with all her heart, but she was not a conventional young Christian. She was passionate about driving her sports car, but she was much more excited about heavenly visitations and miracles.

God had a plan for this party girl. He sent her as a missionary to a tourist island in Thailand where there was no church and no mission.

She didn't plant a church. She was just friendly. As a former party girl, it was not difficult for her to make friends with all kinds of people, whether Muslims, Buddhists or secular tourists.

Her mission was so successful that Muslims became Christians. Then she was harshly persecuted by strict Muslims. They wanted to murder her. One day she was ambushed. She stared death in the eye, but instantly became invisible.

Is that biblical? Yes, it is.

When Jesus preached in his hometown, he was cruelly rejected.

All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.

They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.
But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. Lk 4:28–30 NIV

I once went to an excellent Christian conference where the senior pastor was converted in prison and the outstanding guest preacher had been a gangster and a pimp.  

A very sinful woman was devoted to Jesus. How did He respond?

Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Lk 7:47–48 NIV

Does your past still trouble you in some way? 

 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Ps 147:3 NIV

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Rom 8:28 NIV

 

Jesus is Coming Back

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. Jn 1:6–8 CSB

We all know the story of John the Baptist in the Bible. He was a man sent by God. He proclaimed the message of salvation.

This message is still relevant. This world is shaking. We recognise that nothing is safe anymore. We need salvation from a better world.

Some are fascinated by fantasy films. There must be something out there.

And there really is something more, much more than we understand.

Religion has become dry and bland because the Bible has been reduced to a book of fairy tales or theology.

But people in the Bible really did see angels, and that still happens today.
Lazarus died and was in the grave for four days, and then Jesus came and raised him back to life.

An American preacher named Richard Sigmund was dead for 8 hours and came back. He told what he had experienced in heaven.

...I heard someone say, ‘He's been dead for hours.’
I sat up and replied: ‘I'm not dead yet.’
Someone from the medical staff screamed out loud. Another lost control of his bladder.
https://big-ideas-with-god.blogspot.com/2024/09/are-near-death-experiences-real.html

‘’But that can't be!

If it can't be, why are you wasting your time reading the Bible, where impossible miracles are presented as historical facts.

If God could perform seemingly impossible works in the Bible, why shouldn't he do the same today?

But perhaps you don't want to believe because it doesn't seem reasonable.

God is not at all impressed by our reasonable worldview.
Look around you. What kind of world has our reason created? Everything is shaking.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. John 1:6-7 CSB

There are people today who work miracles with the power of the Holy Spirit, like the apostles in the Bible. Like John, they declare that Jesus is coming, but this time not as a baby in a manger, but as the Lord from heaven.

But that is surely an old fairy tale. It can't be. We are modern and sensible now.

What kind of world has our modern rationality created?

How long can this planet continue to exist if Jesus does not come back?