Experiencing Miracles

We live in perilous times.  We don’t know what the future holds.  But we do know this: God hasn’t changed. The God of the Bible is the God of today. The miracles of the Bible still happen today. I got saved because I witnessed miracles, and today God wants me to tell you about some of the miracles I’ve seen.

I believe God wants all of us at Shalom to begin to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the working of miracles is one of those gifts. But before I talk about miracles, I want to make it very clear to you that in God’s sight miracles are not the measure of a person’s ministry. So today I’m going to use an extreme example to prove to you that miracles are not the measure of a person’s ministry.

I want to talk for a moment about Judas Iscariot.

As you know, Judas was one of the 12 apostles. We know Judas was a bad guy.

We know Judas betrayed the Lord. We know that even before Judas betrayed the Lord, he was a thief: when Mary anointed Jesus’ feet we read in John 12, verses 4-6 that “. . . Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." John goes on to tell us that “Judas did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.” 

So we know that Judas was a thief, but what we don’t know is when the other 11 apostles learned that Judas was a thief. I suspect it wasn’t until after the Resurrection, because what we do know is that at the Last Supper, when Jesus told the 12 that one of them would betray Him, they didn’t automatically assume it would be Judas. Instead, we read that “they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” (Matthew 26:22).

What does this have to do with miracles?

Well, in Matthew 10 [verse 1] we learn that when Jesus sent out the 12, He “gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.”

It seems to me that if Judas had never worked a miracle, If he had never cast out evil spirits or healed every kind of disease and every kind of affliction, in short, if Judas wasn’t a miracle worker right along with all the rest of the apostles, then the other apostles would have noticed that they were working miracles and Judas wasn’t, and they wouldn’t have had any doubt about who the traitor was going to be.

I have already said that miracles are not the measure of a person’s ministry. The Bible tells us that Moses and Elijah and Elisha did a lot of miracles. It also tells us, in John 10:41, that John the Baptist did no miracles. And yet Jesus said, in Matthew 11:11, “ Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.”

In God’s sight, John the Baptist went before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, because he brought back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. He didn’t work Elijah’s miracles, but he and Elijah both did something that was far greater in the sight of God. They spoke the Word of God in power.

God doesn’t see the way man sees. Man looks at the outward appearance--miracles included--but God looks at the heart.

Turn with me to Matthew 7:21-23. Matthew 7:21-23. This is where Jesus said:

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

We know that in the end times the coming of the lawless one will be based on Satan's working, with all kinds of false miracles, signs, and wonders, The King James says with all power and signs and lying wonders.

The devil always has a counterfeit. But a counterfeit is always a copy of the real thing. God has the real thing. The real thing is referred to in the Bible as the working of miracles.

The working of miracles is one of the gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. First of all, please notice that the working of miracles is called a gift and not a payment. It’s not something you earn. It’s not a reward. And it’s not a merit badge.

We understand the difference between a gift and a payment when it comes to the gift of salvation. You cannot earn salvation. You can only receive salvation as a gift. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

We understand that salvation is a gift. We get that. It fits in with our theology.

What I want you to understand today is that, like salvation, the working of miracles is also a gift. It is a gift and not a payment. It is a gift and not a reward.

You can’t earn it, and it isn’t a merit badge. I hope we can get that too.

The gifts of the Spirit are empowered by the Spirit, and it is the Holy Spirit Who decides which gifts we get. But salvation is a gift that is promised to everyone who asks for it.  Romans 10:13 says that "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Nobody has to go to hell, because everybody can call on the name of the Lord and be saved. So once you realize Who Jesus is and you ask Him to save you -- if you call on His Name, you will be saved.

However, in my opinion, we don’t get to decide which gifts we get. We are told to covet earnestly the best gifts, so we can certainly pray that we will receive a certain gift, and we know that our God is a prayer answering God. But in the end, it’s the Holy Spirit Who ultimately decides which gifts we get and how strongly we will move in them.

Please turn to 1st Corinthians, chapter 12. First Corinthians 12, beginning in verse 4 says this:

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

I should add, by the way, that once we have those gifts, they’re ours for life. 

The Holy Spirit doesn’t take His gifts back. That’s one reason why we sometimes see powerful gifts--genuine gifts--moving through backslidden men or women of God. Here’s chapter and verse for that. Romans 11:29 says that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” 

God never changes his mind once you accept His call, and God never takes back the gifts of the Spirit once you have received them. So if there happen to be any backslidden preachers within the sound of my voice, the gifts haven’t left you and the calling hasn’t left you.  It’s time to pick yourself up, get right with God, and no matter what the religious world would say to you, it’s time to get back in the ministry.

The gifts of the Spirit move through ordinary human beings. The great men of the Bible were ordinary human beings. In Acts, chapter 14, when Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra, Paul healed a cripple. The crowds were so impressed that they wanted to worship Paul and Barnabus with sacrifices. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you.

In 1980 and 1981 I went to a school of ministry founded by healing evangelists Charles and Frances Hunter. Ruth Holloway, who works here at The Nathaniel Center, also attended that same school and she also used to work in the office of Hunter Ministries*. Ruth and I can both tell you that we witnessed numerous miracles in the Hunters’ services as well as in their everyday lives. We can both tell you that whatever other people used to think, the Hunters thought of themselves as ordinary human beings.  They didn’t consider themselves to be super-saints. One of their favorite sayings was, “If Charles and Frances can do it, you can do it too.” God works through ordinary human beings, and God can work through you. 

My mother and I lived in Pittsburgh back when Kathryn Kuhlman held monthly miracle services there. People used to come from overseas--mainly Germany and Scandinavia and Switzerland--to stay at our house so they could attend her meetings.  Some got healed, and some didn’t, but I can tell you that Kathryn Kuhlman did in fact have miracles in her services -- spectacular miracles. But despite all the miracles that happened in her services, I can’t tell you how often I heard Kathryn Kuhlman say, “I have no healing virtue.” She would explain it this way: “I know that I have no healing virtue. Believe me, without the power of the Holy Ghost I am sunk."  Not everyone who went to her services got healed.  Some of the people we took to her services got healed and others didn’t. But Kathryn never tried to explain why some people received their healing and others didn’t. She believed that it was up to God.

So miracles are real. And they are done by people like us. James 5, verses 16-18 says this: “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” 

Sometimes miracles happen because we pray, and sometimes miracles happen because we use the Name of Jesus. Let’s look at what Peter said when the lame man was healed in Acts chapter 3.  In verse 12 Peter said, “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? Peter used the occasion to preach about Jesus, and then in verse 16, Acts 3:16, Peter said “And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

So Peter and John had no power to make the lame man walk.  Peter said that it was not by his own power or piety that the miracle happened. Similarly, I personally have no miracle-working power, but I have been blessed to witness some amazing miracles. 

The summer after I graduated from the Hunter’s school of ministry they had a summer school that included a number of foreign students.  My mother and I invited two of those students to come to lunch with us. I planned to serve a small eye of round roast beef -- about the smallest eye of round I’ve ever seen, just enough to feed four people.  It was hot, our air conditioner wasn’t working as well as it should have, the oven was on, and I was already frazzled when the students showed up. Instead of coming by themselves, those two students had invited the whole class!  It wasn’t a large class--I would guess there were maybe 20 to 25 of them, I don’t really remember.  But I lost it. By this time the roast was out of the oven and on the counter, and I said “Humph! I suppose I’m going to have to lay hands on this roast--and I smacked the roast--and command it to multiply in the name of Jesus!” And I didn’t think I was praying. So far as I knew, I was venting. I made more salad, I cooked more vegetables, I made more of everything I could make more of, but it was still just a four person roast.  And then I started to carve.  I got to about the middle of the roast, and then the roast just didn’t get any smaller.  Some people had seconds. There were leftovers. It was totally inconspicuous. I’m not sure anybody noticed except for my mother and myself. But even without really meaning to, I had in fact used the Name of Jesus, and the roast had in fact multiplied. The lesson learned is this: it was not through my own power or piety that the roast got multiplied, any more than it was Peter’s power or piety that made the lame man walk. In both those cases, it was the Name of Jesus, and if you are a believer you have just as much right to use that Name as I do.

The Bible tells us that in the last days perilous times will come and men’s hearts will be failing them for fear.  We live in times when we will need to have faith in God.  We are going to need to be able to believe God for miracles. We are going to need to know that miracles do happen, and that they can happen for us. 

Let me tell you about weather miracles. I have seen God do miracles during various storms on numerous occasions.  I prayed for protection during Hurricane Ike.  During that hurricane, a huge tree fell on my house without causing any damage to the roof, and a smaller tree fell on my car. The next morning I wasn’t able to lift the tree off the car, but I was able to back out from under it, and the car had sustained no damage where the tree fell. During the night, a large mirror had fallen off the wall and onto the tile floor right next to where I was sleeping.  It didn’t wake me up, and the mirror didn’t shatter. 

During an earlier hurricane while my mother was still alive, our neighbors called to tell us to get away from the back of our house because a tree was about to fall on it.  Don’t ask me why, but my mother and I went to the back of the house, looked out the sliding glass door, and sure enough a tree was leaning in our direction, about to fall.  We commanded it to fall somewhere else in the Name of Jesus.  So the tree stood back up, stood straight for a minute, and then fell at about a 45 degree angle to its original direction.  It then landed between our house and the next one without doing any damage to either house. 

In another weather-related miracle, a friend of mine needed to drive to Dallas to visit her sister, who was living in a home for mentally disabled people in the Dallas area. The weather was very hot, and the air conditioner in her car wasn’t working. Her mechanic had taken a part out of the air conditioner and had left it sitting on the counter while he ordered a replacement. It didn’t occur to me to tell the air conditioner to work.  Instead, I prayed Psalm 121:6 over her, the verse that says “The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.” Well, she started driving, and it got so hot that she reached over and absent-mindedly turned the air conditioner on--and it worked! And it kept on working the whole time she had that car, without ever needing that replacement part.

When my mother and I lived in Coraopolis, Pa, we hosted a double wedding in our backyard. We prayed for good weather because there was no way all the wedding guests would have been able to fit in the house. The weather forecast was not good.  During the wedding, one drop of rain fell on my mother’s nose.  She looked up to see that even though it was sunny where we were, it was raining in a complete circle around our property.

But the biggest weather miracle I’ve seen was at Greater Pittsburgh Church of the Brethren, the first church I attended after I got saved. On one particular Sunday, it was raining so hard and so horizontally that the water was coming through the leading in the stained glass windows.  One of the elders’ wives grabbed me and told me we had to pray or the rain would ruin the carpet.  We rushed to the porch, where she commanded the rain, which was still torrential, to stop in the name of Jesus. It stopped instantly. There was just a very brief moment while the drops that were already in mid-air fell to the ground, and that was it. It was a miracle of Biblical proportions.

I’m not going to tell my husband’s testimony for him, but before we were married, my husband also experienced a miracle of Biblical proportions, where in answer to prayer Will went from making minimum wage one day to making $250 an hour the next--and that job lasted (although not at that rate) for the next ten years. I say it’s a miracle of Biblical proportions because it reminds me of the story of four lepers in Elisha’s time, where the city went from famine to abundance overnight.

Well, Brother John Osteen used to say, “Blessed are the short-winded, for they shall be invited back.” So I know I need to close.  I’ll close with this. The last part of 1 Corinthians 12 says this, beginning in verse 27.

27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

As we very well know, Paul’s more excellent way is the way of love.  The very next thing Paul says is this:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Cor. 13:1-3)

I believe in miracles. I got saved because I witnessed miracles. Miracles are important. We live in perilous times, and the ability to believe God for miracles may determine whether our natural bodies live or die. But let’s keep the main thing the main thing. And--as Pastor Philip preached a couple of weeks ago--the main thing is--the greatest of these--is love.

Margot Armer

*Ruth Holloway has gone home to be with the Lord, and Shalom now meets at Words of Life in Atascocita.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version© (ESV©), Copyright: 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers ©. Used by permission. All rights reserved.