What exactly is a miracle?
This is a question I have been wrestling with this month. After praying for Eliseo, Smiley (one of the guys we had spent a lot of time with this month) asked me, “Jake, have you ever seen a miracle?” My initial response was no. Then he went on to tell me how he has seen a miracle and as he described this miracle it was not exactly the kind of miracle I was thinking of. To me, when I hear the term miracle, I think of people who can’t walk, being able to walk. Or people who are blind or deaf being able to see or hear. Or the crazy ones I’ve heard of people without arms or legs suddenly growing their limbs back.
But as I listened to Smiley explain how he had helped someone out by giving the last bit of money he had to them, knowing that he wouldn’t have enough money to get himself home and then getting a ride from a moto taxi driver who got a call in the middle of the ride and had to leave so he gave Smiley enough money to catch a bus home. I then realized that miracles are not only the sick being miraculously healed, but we experience miracles on a regular basis!
Now, let me share with you a story from exactly one week ago. A miracle of when God showed His faithfulness, grace and mercy among me and a young man named Sebastian. Check it out:
October 23rd, 2014
Today I experienced a miracle. Shelby, Bethany and myself were sitting at Mercy’s (our host) house cooking food for the group. Out of no where Mercy yelled to me from the street to come help. I didn’t know what was going on but I ran out to help. She was holding a young boy by the name of Sebastian, whose body look nearly lifeless. He was completely limp and had absolutely no energy left in him. So I helped Mercy carry him across the street and into her home, we placed him in a chair and began to pray for him. After a few minutes of praying, we stopped and just kind of stood there surrounding the boy. As he sat in the chair he seemed to have been going in and out of consciousness with his head kind of bobbing up and down and his body still quite limp. I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to keep praying for this boy but I wanted to make sure that I was listening the Him clearly on what He wanted me to do. So I pulled up a chair and began listening to the Holy Spirit and telling Him that I know it’s not going to be me who heals this boy, it’s only Him who could ever do it. Then the Holy Spirit began to remind me of what Jesus told His 12 disciples. The bible says in Matthew 10:1, “Summoning His 12 disciples, He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness.” He then began telling me, “You’re right, you’re not going to heal this kid but I have give you the authority to declare that this boy will be healed in my name!” So, with a bit of hesitation, because to be honest, I was scared that it wasn’t going to happen, I grabbed Sebastian’s hands and began to pray some more and declare healing over him in the name of Jesus. After probably 5 more minutes of praying for him, I somberly stood up, touched his head, and walked toward the back of the house slightly confused and discouraged that I didn’t see the life immediately come back to Sebastian. While I was in the back, they had picked Sebastian back up and walked him back home across the street.
I began wrestling with God again and asking why people weren’t being healed and I was about ready to just cry out to God.
So we continue to finish cooking and the teams showed up for lunch. About an hour later, after we had finished lunch and were just hanging out a bit, Bethany came running in the house and said, “Sebastian is up and walking!” So I threw on my shoes, ran out of the house and followed him down the street to the tienda. When I caught up with him I asked him how he was feeling and he looked at me with a huge smile and such big eyes and said, “Bien! (Good)” and it was then that I knew he had been healed! And every time I’ve seen him since he has been full of energy and life!
“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.“
-Ephesians 3:20
I want to encourage you, if you think you’ve never seen a miracle, think again. Look back on your life and think about the incredible things God has done in your life. I mean shoot, if you know Him and He has saved you, that’s a miracle in itself! As soon as you take on that mindset, you’ll begin seeing miracles all the time!
