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 Rewards Patient Prayer

 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Gal 6:9 NIV

Have you persistently prayed for a friend or your child? Has God intervened in a miraculous way?

Not yet? Please don't give up! God sees your groaning. He hears your prayers.

I prayed for my mother for 25 years and for my father for 40 years. Both of them only believed on their deathbeds.

At 65, I was still a language teacher. I was tired and really struggling to cope with my problems, but I kept working. I worked part time until I was 71 and I had saved enough to retire. Now I'm 75 and I am living modestly with God’s provision.

Never give up!

Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Ps 37:3–4 NKJV

If you want to follow Jesus, the enemy of your soul will use all kinds of tactics to distract you from a fruitful life.

Discouragement.
Your children have grown up and turned away from Jesus. Never stop loving your children, praying for them, helping them. When you pray with hope and faith, God is at work in their lives, even if you must wait years.

Illness.
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. Jn 10:10 NKJV

The enemy of your soul wants to overcome you with sickness, but we must resist the devil in faith, even if we don't get an overnight miracle.

In October 2018, I was shocked to receive a cancer diagnosis.

I prayed hard. I studied healing in the Bible and read miraculous healing testimonies. I attended church services where people prayed for healing.

I was open to the Holy Spirit, but also open to radiotherapy if that was what God wanted.

Two years later, I read a report after an MRI scan. No trace of the tumours. God healed without radiotherapy!

Years later I had a third biopsy. The tumours were still there but really tiny and they had not grown in over 5 years. The specialist said I would probably never need treatment. God moves in mysterious ways.

Never give up. When you read the Bible, do so with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Listen when God speaks to you in His Word. Be open to impressions from the Holy Spirit when you pray.

Remain steadfast in your discipleship and love for your neighbour. Never give up!
Have you persistently prayed for a friend or your child? Has God intervened in a miraculous way?

Not yet? Please don't give up! God sees your groaning. He hears your prayers.

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

Believe Patiently. God Steps In

 Sometimes we pray with confidence in God, but we don't see an answer for days, weeks, months or years, but sometimes we see an amazing answer from God in minutes or seconds.

I was converted in 1974. I prayed for my father for almost 36 years. At 88, he was bedridden in an aged care home and he gave his life to Jesus. He died at 91 and is now in heaven.

Faith without patience often doesn't work.

In 2011, I was in Germany with my wife. We visited a friend of ours in a clinic. When we left the clinic, it was dark and cold. It was drizzling. We urgently needed a taxi, but we didn't see a vehicle in this quiet suburb. Our host told us not to expect a taxi here. Nevertheless, my wife prayed for a taxi and one appeared almost immediately.

Everything can change in a short time.

Jesus had to die on the cross. His disciples gave up all hope, but three days later Jesus came back from the grave.

Moses was a refugee. He spent forty years as a shepherd in the desert, but then God himself appeared as a fire in a bush. Suddenly his life was totally different.

After his resurrection from the grave, Jesus spent forty days with his disciples, but then he returned to heaven. After that, the disciples stayed together for a week until, in an instant, God intervened dramatically.

And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Acts 2:2–4 NASB95

You may have been frustrated and disappointed for years, but God sees your heart and He cares for you. God has not forgotten you.

Don't give up hope. You can trust God. He will amaze us in the time to come.

God Answers Persevering Prayer

 Time and again, Jesus taught that our faith connects us with God, that faith releases God's miracle-working power.

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.

She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”

Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment. Mt 9:20–22 NIV

But is it true that you cannot receive anything from God if you do not expect God's grace and do not pray for it yourself?

The apostle Paul was not always the holy man of God.

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 1 Cor 15:9 NIV

Did Saul, the brutal Pharisee, pray for God's mercy?

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest… Acts 9:1 NIV

Saul was authorised by the high priest to arrest the Christians in Damascus.

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. Acts 9:3–5 NIV

God acts when people believe, but Saul only believed when he received a visitation from Jesus.

What role did faith play? Jesus taught that we must love our enemies.

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Mt 5:44 NIV

Saul was the leader of the persecution and the Christians prayed for him. God hears our prayers for ourselves, but also for others.

In Islamic countries, Christians are cruelly persecuted, but millions of Muslims experience visitations from Jesus, mostly in dreams. Many believe immediately, but many believe later, sometimes only after years. Many probably never believe, despite God's grace. God respects our free will.

Why does this happen? Islamic countries are bombarded by evangelistic outreach, through radio, satellite TV and the internet. At the same time, millions of Christians are praying for Muslims and God is answering our prayers. The faith of Christians is sparking the intervention of God.

There was an Islamic preacher in Africa who was considered a holy fundamentalist, but he was a hypocrite who was secretly involved in sins. Then he reaped what he had sown and he was about to die with AIDS.

Then he saw Jesus next to his deathbed. Jesus healed him and he became a Christian preacher. The Christians had obviously prayed for him.

Do you have children who are mentally ill or addicted to drugs for a long time, or involved in prostitution? Please never give up!

I prayed for my family for years. My parents didn't believe until they were on their deathbeds. I have seen lost children restored after years of prayer.

Do you have enemies that torment you? Pray for your enemies. Jesus died for your enemies too.

God Gives us Hope

The environmental activists may be right. Our planet is so poisoned that it could become uninhabitable. But God is the Creator, and He has not retired.

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. Rev 21:1 NIV

We will all die. What is the most dangerous job? Retirement.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Jn 11:25–26 NRSV

Have you failed? Are you stressed or threatened because of your mistakes or sins?

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lam 3:22–23 NRSV

Are you harshly persecuted? Are you being harassed? God stands by you.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Rom 8:31 NKJV

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by.

I will cry out to God Most High, To God who performs all things for me. Ps 57:1–2 NKJV

Are you sick? Jesus healed all who sought healing. He never rejected anyone who was sick. He never changed.

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick,

that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses.” Mt 8:16–17 NKJV

Have you prayed but are still sick?

He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.

Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;

but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Is 40:29–31 NRSV

Before the war there were no antibiotics. A British preacher prayed for healing from tuberculosis, but he did not experience a quick miraculous healing. He continued to pray and God instructed him to pray for two hours every day. He obeyed and gradually got well.

Please never give up!

Your Prayers can Change Things

We sometimes pray fervently and desperately, but then we hope that God might fulfil half of our longing.

You think you are just a Christian of little faith who can expect little.

It's true that our unbelief, bitterness or resentment towards someone can stand in the way of God's miracle-working power.

But if you pray fervently for someone out of love and care, you can expect miraculous help from God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, Eph 3:20 NIV

If your prayers are moved by God's love, you can be sure that the mighty power of the Holy Spirit is at your disposal. The same power will then be released in the lives of your friends or loved ones.

I will never forget how our beloved pastor confidently proclaimed blessings and healing over all kinds of suffering people:

‘’ We proclaim life, life, life!‘’

We saw so many miracles in this church.

A woman who could only walk with great difficulty because of emphysema was set free and was able to walk around unhindered for a while later.

I was visiting a church in Germany. The guest preacher proclaimed healings. Someone who was always trembling because of Parkinson's disease stopped trembling immediately.

My father was not a believer at the age of seventy. He had smoked 40 cigarettes a day for years and I expected that he would not live many years longer because of emphysema.

I prayed that he would not die prematurely, but would have enough time to find his way to saving faith.

He committed his life to Jesus at the age of 88 and died in peace at the age of 91.