Identifying Miracles
The First Steps in Seeing Miracles
Praying for a Miracle – Part 2
What is a miracle? One of the first questions I like to ask is how do you define a miracle? What comes to your mind when you hear that word? Here are the most common answers I have received: to regain, raised from the dead, not humanly possible, passing a test, unexpected increase, supernatural, divine, and unexplainable. Now let’s contrast that to how Dictionary.com defines a miracle.
- “An effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.
- Such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.
- A wonder; marvel.
- A wonderful or surpassing example of some quality.” [1]
When we take what we know and add that with the experts on defining a word, what we get is something like this. A miracle occurs when normal circumstances are overwritten with uncommon outcomes. In other words, a person was expecting a known and common outcome, but experienced something different.
With that said we must not confuse healing from a sickness or disease with a miracle. Healing in this case is an outcome or rather a type of miracle. Miracles include more than a person being healed of something that is incurable or what a doctor cannot resolve.
With the definitions behind us, let’s talk about what we know about miracles. We will begin with this. We know Jesus performed miracles. What most of us don’t know is this little unknown fact. He performed so many miracles that if they had all been recorded, the world would not have been able to contain the books that would have been written. [2] That tells us a lot. Miracles for Jesus was not uncommon. Therefore, I believe that miracles for you and me are not uncommon.
There are others in the Bible who performed miracles. Peter performed miracles. The 12 apostles or senior disciples performed miracles. The disciples in training (the 72) performed miracles. [3] Paul, the church planter, performed miracles. Let’s not overlook all the miracles performed in the OT (Old Testament) either. Moses performed them. Many prophets performed them like Elijah and Elisha. It is full of miracles. The Bible is full of miracles and just maybe so is your life.
I say and remind you of all this to heighten your miracle awareness antenna. There are miracles that happened then, and similar miracles are happening like this today. The question is do you know enough about miracles to identify them when they occur?
Before we can begin talking about praying for a miracle, we must understand a miracle so that we know what we are asking for. Could it be that we have limited our idea of what a miracle is and thus are not aware of the miracles that happen around us with regularity? Let me say it again. We experience a miracle when normal circumstances get overwritten with uncommon outcomes. How many times in your life have you expected a normal outcome but got something different? All signs say it should have gone one way, but it went a totally different way. You should not have had enough, but somehow it was more than enough. We are talking about miracles.
Questions: can you identify at least two miracles you have witnessed or experienced over the last year?
[1] Miracle, Dictionary.com, accessed September 27, 2023, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/miracle
[2] John 21:25 NLT, Bible.com, accessed September 26, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JHN.21.25.NLT
[3] Luke 10:16-20 NLT, Bible.com, accessed September 26, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/LUK.10.16-20.NLT
All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.
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