His Heart, My Home

In last week’s post, I shared the testimony of a miracle healing that took place in one of our crusades in the Philippines.

A man named Henry had been paralyzed from the waist down for over three months, and was instantly healed as he heard and believed the Word that was preached.

Although Henry’s healing was extraordinary, it was certainly not exceptional. By that I mean that there were healings in every crusade that we conducted. Healing was the rule, not the exception.

In our more than 60 crusades, Holy Spirit always faithfully confirmed God’s Word with supernatural signs, wonders, healings, and salvation. My team and I expected no less and He never disappointed us.

We expected God to show up and show out. And we boldly challenged others to expect the same.

Before each crusade, we had banners made to hang all over town and thousands of handbills distributed in the marketplace. And all of our promotional materials had this invitation and challenge prominently and boldly displayed:

” Bring the sick, the lame, the deaf, the blind, and the oppressed, and come expecting to receive life and healing from God!”

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

Simple message… supernatural results!

We, ourselves, are new-creation miracles, and we have the Miracle-Creator living in us! The child of God should be just as comfortable and confident in the realm of the miraculous as a bird in the air, a fish in the stream, or a lamb in the meadow. The miraculous should be our hangout, our harbor, our haven, our habitat, and our home!

This week, I want to challenge you to launch out into the deep, to boldly go where you haven’t gone before, to reach for the stars… and to experience, maybe for the first time, the miracle-working power of God!

As with almost everything in life there is a learning curve. We learn to crawl before we walk, walk before we run, and run before we pole-vault!

We begin by learning how to receive a miracle from God for ourselves. Then we grow in grace and learn how to be a channel of God’s miracle working power to others.

Got it? Ready to get started? OK! Let’s do it! First, there are several important principles  found in 2 Kings 4:1-7, NIV related to receiving a miracle. This is the story of a woman with a soul-crushing burden, who was delivered by God’s miraculous power.

¹ “The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.” ² Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.” ³ Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. ⁴ Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” ⁵ She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. ⁶ When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar left.”  Then the oil stopped flowing. ⁷ She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

Principle #1:

STOP talking about the NEED!

START talking the language of FAITH!

This widow was emotionally distraught as she described her multi-layered problems to the prophet Elisha. She told him of the death of her husband and her deep grief. She spoke of her seemingly impossible debt problem, and the impending loss of her two sons. A sad and horrible situation, to be sure.

There are times when the mountain in front of us, which we are attempting to move by our faith, “counter-attacks”, sending a huge rockslide hurtling down the slope, right on top of us. Anybody know what I mean? This poor widow was completely buried and barely hanging on.

But did you notice what Elisha asked her? He said, “What shall I do for you?” (Verse 2)

At first glance, this seems like a strange question. She had just told Elisha all about her problems. Obviously, she needed his help so she could pay her debt and keep her two sons from being sold into slavery. So why such a pointless question?

It’s actually simple and absolutely essential. Elisha wanted the widow to stop dwelling on her problems long enough to verbalize her faith. He was looking for a fulcrum-point that could be used to shift her expectation from disaster to deliverance.

We see this same principle in the miracle- ministry of Jesus, specifically when He restored the sight of blind Bartimaeus.
(Please see Mark 10:46-52)

Jesus could clearly see what Bartimaeus needed. But seeing the need does not, in and of itself, produce a miracle.

The Lord is both willing and able to give us our miracle. But He wants us to express our faith through our words and actions,  because it is faith, not our desperate needs, that connects us to His glorious power.

Jesus asked a vitally important question of Bartimaeus. It helped Bartimaeus pivot from the impossibility of the problem to the Him-possibility of faith.

Jesus said: “What do YOU want ME (the Creator and Master of all) to DO for YOU?”

How would you answer that question? Would you be worrying and fretting about the complexity and immensity of “your problems” so much that you wouldn’t hear the invitation contained within His question?

Would you be so resigned to the status quo and the “permanence” of “your problems” that you let the opportunity to receive a miracle pass you by?

I hope not! But unfortunately I’ve seen this tragic outcome before. It’s heartbreaking to see someone in a wheelchair come forward at the invitation to receive divine healing, and when they are asked “What do you want the Lord to do for you?” to hear them say, “Please pray for my headache (or insomnia, or skin rash, etc.).

Of course, I would never refuse to lay hands on them for their minor ailments. The compassionate heart of Jesus  always longs to alleviate our suffering, and will always meet us on our level of faith… but still… it’s heartbreaking!

The Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:6 that “without faith it is impossible to please Him (God).” We usually read that verse and think, “What can I do to please God? What would make God happy, so that He will heal me, or get me that promotion at work, etc.?”

A closer examination of the word “please” in this scripture paints a different picture than what we have traditionally believed. The Greek word used is “euarestos“. It’s root means “to fit; to join; to fasten together; to connect.” As it’s used in our verse above, it denotes things that fit together and work together in harmony and agreement for an intended purpose.

The Lord is always ready and available to provide the miracle you need. Before you ever open your mouth to say a word, He already knows exactly what He wants to do for you, and how He’s going to do it.
(Isaiah 65:24)

He will save you, heal you, strengthen you, deliver you, protect you, provide for you, give you wisdom, give you victory, give you joy, and give you peace… IF you will only give Him the opportunity to do so, by connecting your faith to His power.

Let’s close with this analogy. Our energy system consists of power generating plants that produce and then transmit incredible amounts of energy, measured in gigawatts (a billion watts). One gigawatt of electricity can power 100,000 homes.

This source of power comes right into our homes, which are wired to receive it and use it, to heat and cool our living space, run all of our household appliances, electronics, and gadgets. The power is all there, available and ready to use. All we have to do is to plug into the power.

You already see it, don’t you? God is always producing and transmitting all the miracle- power we could ever need. And we can access His power just by plugging our faith into the receptacle of His love and grace!

²⁰ “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, ²¹ to Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”  (Ephesians 3:20-21)

God’s power is always on! Plug into your miracle!

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We pray you were blessed and encouraged by this post. If so, please let us know by “liking”, or by posting a comment  below.

Blessings!