At a youth meeting the other night, four of us racers were sharing our experience so far, and one of the teen guys asked us what miracles we have seen. We looked at each other and smiled, and I began to share of the time when God healed my team leader's hearing that had been impaired since age four and when He healed my other teammate's eyesight. Karen shared about Him healing her foot, Jessica shared about moments of deliverance she's witnessed, and Alex spoke of small miracles God has done in every day life, like provisions of shoes and food. I say "small" because it seems we put a qualitative value on the ways God moves, and many times we want to hear about the "big" miracles. Since that evening, the words "And you will see miracles" have been stirring in my thoughts, reflecting on what Jesus told Martha in John 11:40, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God."
I think about how miracles show the power and presence of God, and how they impact a life, a group, a community, a nation. This morning I shared my thoughts with Elizabeth, and she said, "It comes down to what you see is a miracle."
With that, here are miracles I've seen:
God saving my soul from eternal damnation and giving me eternal life.
Family members coming to Christ.
Friends coming to Christ.
Jesus healing my broken heart.
Jesus healing me from a disease.
Jesus turning generational curses in my family into generational blessings.
God providing a home, food, clothes, and gas money when I was in need.
God providing when my family was in need; when my dad's business was in the tank, when my mom lost her job.
God turning divorce into a thing of beauty, drawing us closer together and closer to Him.
God providing jobs.
God showering my family with financial favor.
Jesus turning a heart of stone into a heart of flesh, soft and loving.
Holy Spirit leading my friends and I to speak truth and life to each other at the perfect time of need though we were over 100 miles apart not knowing each others circumstances.
Holy Spirit leading me to speak life into a stranger and that stranger crying and thanking me because he needed to know that God was hearing his prayers.
Angels stopping a spinning car and placing it just right so my life would continue, not one or two but four times. When I was little, at age 14, in college, and just a few years ago.
God providing the financial means for me to go on and continue on the World Race.
Jesus saving the life of a guy who was living as a transvestite and now lives life as a man of God, going to the nations to share Jesus.
Jesus healing sickness over and over and over again; in me, in my teammates, and in people He has had us pray for.
God bringing the rain during a drought after we've prayed for it. I've seen this in four different countries, and I've seen it happen that afternoon, the very next day, and even in the moment as we were worshipping and praising Him…that one was WILD! God opened the floodgates of Heaven and the rains CAME! We then prayed for Him to calm the storm! Lol. And He did.
I've seen demons cast out, I've seen lives change-completely change and grow in glorious ways, I've seen God's protection over my team and squad countless times, I've witnessed people giving their lives to Christ and seeing the instant change in their faces and lives-their eyes shining bright as the day. I've seen us have more than enough food on very little money, and I've seen money come and clothes come and provisions for a place to sleep when all I did was pray.
I've seen God make it cool in places we were told were ridiculously hot! My teammate Laura and I are not big fans of the super-heat, so we prayed and God answered.
And yet, all of these seem to skim the depth of the miracles God has done in my life and that I have seen, yet there is one that comes to mind, the one that continues to impact and mold me the most… it is the miracle of love.
You may say love is not a miracle, but it is to me.
I have seen, experienced, grown in, witnessed, felt, poured out, been filled up and been given so much love. It overwhelms me in the best possible way. Many times it's in the small actions, like giving an apple to a teen girl that comes up to your van window to wash the windows for money. To see her, look into her eyes and smile, gently offer her an apple and she smile back with thankful eyes and a sweet spirit. And as our van drove off, I said a prayer for her, knowing God heard my prayer, for in that moment that was what I had to offer, trusting that moment had an impact in eternity for it was full of love.
The world cannot create moments like that.
Nothing really is impossible with God. I am witness to Him impacting the world through the miracle of love "For God so loved the world that He GAVE us Jesus, His only begotten Son, to die on a cross for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God, that whoever believes in Him should not perish in eternal damnation, but have everlasting life. Jesus was not sent into the world to condemn it, but that the world through Him might be saved." John 3:16-17
He didn't come to point a finger, He came to open His arms to us in love, and He continues to love on the world through us who believe in Him and are born again into a new creation that the world through Him might be saved. Amen.
I am witness to this miracle.
