Have you heard others question why God doesn’t still do miracles today? I sure have. And I have to say that just breaks my heart in two — split apart in sorrow. I want to hug them and say, “Friend, if you don’t believe God still does miracles today then why do you pray?”
Writing and speaking about miracles is kind of scary to me.
My heart is pounding with anxiety right now; because, who am I to say whether you will experience a miracle or you won’t. It’s a fact that all of us won’t get every prayer answered the way we want or in our time. We pray for miracles and they never come or they at least don’t come how we think we should see them.
A month ago we gathered for our Be Still ~ Beach Retreat. It was purposed to be a beautiful weekend away on the island so that women could step out of their busy lifestyles and experience God’s fresh beauty in the island breeze and sun. When the weekend arrived storms were pounding out of the Gulf of Mexico upon the coast. The forecast was set for a dreary windy weekend. And while God can use storms for his glory, this is totally not what I had planned for the weekend.
What I’m learning about miracles.
I began to unload the car and get our meeting spaces prepared for the retreat guests. The rain was biting and the wind cut deep. I began praying boldly for the storms to stand back off the shore for the weekend. With each step I took, my prayers got bolder. I felt that I should prepare as if there would be no rain.
I called my husband to come help me get the golf cart out and get it uncovered and ready for trolly-ing guests around. I could see his eyes roll on the other side of the phone. But I just knew I had to prepare for the prayers I was praying. And that I did — and guess what? The storms stood off the shore and the sun even blessed us with its presence.
Waiting in anticipation of a miracle, I was reminded of what we can do to prepare for miracles.
3 Steps that Will Prepare You for Your Miracle
1. Pray boldly.
I have to admit, it felt weird praying so boldly. Probably because I never pray like that. I realize that while I am praying against rainfall, farmers are praying for rainfall. And so my prayers are usually lifted up with deflated faith. But that’s not how God expects us to pray.
Joshua had been called to lead the Israelites and prayed a crazy bold prayer in faith. Scriptures tell us in Joshua 10:12-13, “On the day the Lord gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites, Joshua prayed to the Lord in front of all the people of Israel. He said, ‘Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon.’ So the sun stood still and the moon stayed in place until the nation of Israel had defeated its enemies.”
Joshua didn’t pray “Lord, if it’s your will” or “Lord, if you could see fit.” No! He prayed “Lord, let the sun stand still.” And so the sun stood still. That is praying boldly. I’m slowly learning how to pray like Joshua.
2. Expect a miracle.
This takes faith. This is also where others will think you’ve gone crazy. It is so easy for each of us to get lost in our everyday routines that we forget the supernatural all around us. We may pray for our marriages to be restored and live expectantly knowing that God is working on our behalf, but others don’t hear our cries to God nor do they stop to see the supernatural taking place.
Once we lay our bold prayers before God’s throne, we must expect miracles despite what others think or say. When my oldest daughter got married, we had planned for an outdoor wedding. And guess what? Yes!! Storms were covering the coast that day. I had prayed like Joshua diligently all day — storms stand off our venue. As I met with the wedding coordinator for the final walk through, she encouraged me to come up with a Plan B. My only response was there is no Plan B. I was using my faith as Joshua had.
The woman with the issue of bleeding, which you can read about in Luke 8:43-48 is a great example of how we should push through and expect miracles. Although she was banished from town, because her bleeding made her unclean, she put feet to her prayers and pushed through the crowd just to touch the hem of Jesus garment. She pushed by those who pointed at her and those who called her “unclean” for the past 12 years. Scripture says she thought — she expected — she knew that if she just touched the hem of Jesus garment she would be made well.
3. Prepare for a miracle.
Here is the main thing I’m learning about miracles. If we do not prepare for them, we will not be ready to receive them. We can sit quietly and pray diligently day and night, but if we are not doing our part we can not receive the blessing.
Two years ago, I had a crazy accident that left me with a concussion, whiplash, vertigo, and total hair loss in 21 days. It was the darkest of times. I prayed fervently. I expected God to answer and do something miraculous. But I was in bad shape.
I had let a season of burn-out run my physical, spiritual, and emotional self down to nothing. There was nothing left to give in any of those areas. I was depleted and not ready to receive a healing, and definitely not an instant one.
For many prayers we lift up, God needs us to do our part. Leading up to my accident, I had done a great job of tearing myself apart. Now it was time I began preparing for a miracle. If I wanted God to do a miracle and renew my health then I knew I needed to prepare my body to be made new from the inside-out.
What can you do today?
With all this said, maybe you feel you’re prayed up and ready to receive. So what can you do today to prepare for a miracle?
For me, to have a healthy body again I had to strip my diet down to only clean eating and get a lot of rest. And wait for God’s timing . . . as it took two years to heal from the concussion and my hair to grow back.
For you, maybe you’re struggling financially and you need a breakthrough. Then prepare by saving what you can, even if it’s cents, and show God you are preparing for his miraculous answers.
Or maybe you are waiting for a new job. Don’t just pray for a miracle, get busy and rework that resume’ and get it in the hands of as many companies as you can.
Can God do miracles any time and in any way he wants? Yes. Absolutely, yes! He can raise the dead, heal the bleeding, turn water into wine, and cause the sun to stand still. And I’m thrilled to know he still works miracles today. The supernatural is not only stories of old in the Bible — God still performs the miraculous today.