Do Miracles Still Happen?

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been to any parties where water turned into wine. I haven’t heard about any bodies of water being split or people being healed by touch either. Now, what is God doing? Where are all the miracles I hear about in the Bible? Is God still at work or am I on my own?

With everything going on in the world, it can be easy to start to feel like you’re alone. With all the distractions, it is easy to miss the work that God is doing. We find ways to explain away the awesome and ignore the amazing. We attempt to use science to explain away God, but that is like using the “Mona Lisa” to explain away Leonardo Di Vinci. God created science; a creation can’t explain away its creator.

Recently, the offices for the church I attend were struck by lightning and caught fire. It happened in the middle of the night so thankfully nobody was hurt, but the offices were destroyed. However, the youth Bibles that were kept there were completely unharmed. There was a fire and paper didn’t burn. The area around them was burned. There was even burned debris on top of some of them, yet the books containing the Word of God were unharmed. Now, some may try to give explanations for why this happened and pass it off as perfectly normal. This is what I know: paper burns faster than wood. The wood building burned and the paper books did not. I know the offices burning were a tough experience for our church, but the image of the Bibles unscathed reminded all of us that God was in control.

It is so easy to fall into the habit of blinding ourselves to God’s work. I have done it myself. I would take credit for it, give it to friends, or pass it off as good luck. I refused to give God credit, yet I was upset that God wasn’t helping me in my struggles. It wasn’t that I didn’t want God to have credit but rather I was so distracted I could only see the end result and somehow missed God’s involvement.

When I was born I had some health issues, I have heard my Mom tell this story many times. This is a story about me but it is my Mom’s story so I have asked her to tell it. So here it is in my Mom’s words:

“When Nick was born he was a bouncing 8 pounds 4 ounces. What a boy! However, it wasn’t long before it became clear that he was not as healthy as we thought. He began to lose weight and instead of buying larger size clothes I was pulling out the clothes he had just grown out of, as he grew smaller. It seemed we were at the doctor’s office constantly. When his doctor called me and asked me how familiar I was with cystic fibrosis and suggested I read up on it I knew we were in trouble. The survival rate at that time was, at best, late teens. I struggled to stay strong. I prayed, and to be honest, I worried a lot on my knees.”

“The specialist we went to next determined he did not have cystic fibrosis. Great news, right? Not so fast. His blood work revealed immature white blood cells. They explained this to me by comparing him to “the boy in the bubble.” I was told, while his white count was normal, the cells died before they matured. Therefore, he did not have an adequate immune defense system. They told me I could shelter him while he was young, but by the time he was school age, he would most likely catch a common childhood illness, even a cold or flu and for him it would be fatal. Again, I was devastated. As morbid as this sounds, I began to plan his funeral. I knew WHEN the time came I would not be able to do what was necessary. He suffered pneumonia repeatedly. He was diagnosed with infantile asthma. He was on at home breathing treatments. He was unable to keep his food down and continued to lose weight.”

“At some point his weight began to stabilize. But the breathing issues continued. Then one day, when he was 3 years old, he was suffering once again with pneumonia. I held him while he slept. His fever was incredibly high. I prayed, cried, pleaded with God to heal my baby. As I rocked him, I read a story in Guidepost magazine about a young boy who had Cystic Fibrosis. At the end of his life he was so strong and his favorite verse was Isaiah 40:31 but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.”

“This was also Nicholas’ dad’s favorite verse. I began to wonder if God was sending me a message to prepare myself for Nicholas’ passing. I hesitantly looked in the back of the guidepost for a picture of the boy in this story. I was taken aback when I saw his picture. He was about 9 or 10, but he looked so much like my little boy. I cried even more. Please God, don’t take my baby. Then as I tried to submit to His will, whatever it might be, however hard it would be. I heard Him speak to my spirit. So plainly, so clearly He said, ‘I love you so much, My Son died for you…But your son is not going to die.’”

“I couldn’t believe it. I knew that was God. I knew He was healing Nicholas. After that day, Nicholas had pneumonia one more time. Since then he has never again had a problem. His immune system is normal. He had a normal childhood, with normal childhood illnesses and has lived to tell the tale.”

“God is in the miracle business, and I’m so very glad He is!”

I had heard this story many times but had never experienced something like this myself. However, I have in recent years seen God work in my life in ways I couldn’t possibly ignore. When my wife was pregnant for the first time, we were struggling financially. A mix up with the bank concerning our first mortgage payment had caused our bank account to be severely overdrawn. Since we were already behind a couple payments to the doctor, we now were faced with not being able to see our baby for the first time via ultrasound. Some members of our church gave us $1,000 to take care of the overdraft, buy groceries and pay the doctor. Allowing us to have our first ultrasound and find out we were having twins at 19 weeks. (Miracle #1)

As the pregnancy continued, the doctors became concerned about twin to twin transfusion. Basically this means one twin is taking more than his share of the nutrients and the other is not getting enough. Twin A wasn’t growing as fast as Twin B and seemed to be falling behind. In extreme cases this can lead to the death of one or both of the twins. I started to pray that God would fix whatever the problem was and that we would be blessed with two healthy babies. Shortly before they were born, my wife asked me what I thought the twin’s birth weight and sizes would be. Without thinking about it I guessed weights and sizes that put twin A as the bigger baby despite the fact that he had been smaller at every ultrasound. Our last ultrasound was two days before they were born and as expected Twin A was still the smaller of the two. Twin A, who we named Cash, was born 5 ounces heavier and ½ an inch taller than his brother and in perfect health. He has been slightly bigger than his brother, Raylan, ever since birth. (Miracle #2)

As I have stated before in “Fair-Weather Faith,” after my car broke down we were given an Expedition by another family at our church. They just gave it to us! About a year and half later we were on our way to Memphis to spend Christmas with family and we were in a wreck that involved 7 cars on the Interstate. The full size GMC behind us was crumpled like an accordion. My wife actually thought it was one of the small 1980’s Toyota pick up trucks; that’s how bad it had been smashed. We were the lead car and were hit twice by two separate cars, but the truck that God gave us kept us all safe. Not even a bruise. (Miracles #3 and #4)

I know some people will read those and as we so often do, attempt to explain that God isn’t needed for these to happen. However, the reality is that I felt God move in each of these situations. I know that it wasn’t my actions or the actions of the doctors that got me a car or healed my son. I was in a situation where I needed God to help me, and God came to my aid. Is it a parting of the Red Sea? No, but I didn’t need that. In fact, if God had parted a sea in any of those situations it would have been useless to me. God could have let my son die and then resurrected him to “prove” that it was Him. Luckily, God didn’t force me to go through that pain. God did what was necessary to help me in my situation just like He did for Moses. Perhaps it isn’t as earth shattering as some miracles, but for me, in my situation, it was a mind-blowing reminder that God was still working in my life; reassurance that God was firmly in control.

I’m sure if you stop and think about it, you can think of some moments when God came through for you in your situation. Maybe you have allowed the world to convince you it wasn’t God. Maybe you didn’t recognize that was God at the time. Stop reading for a moment and ask God to remind you and point out the times He has moved in your life. And then truly wait and listen for the answer.

(Don’t worry I’ll wait.)

Did he remind you of something? Can you see how He has helped you and rescued you?

I have heard it said before that, “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world that he didn’t exist.” I would have to disagree. I believe the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world that God didn’t exist. In doing so, he allowed himself to wage war on humans with very little resistance. Imagine if two nations were poised for war, but before they started, one nation was able to convince the other that guns were not effective and that the only real weapons were NERF guns. It would certainly make the war a breeze for the nation with guns. I know that analogy seems preposterous. However, that is effectively what Satan has done by convincing so many that God doesn’t exist. He has taken away the only weapon that can actually protect us against him, the only hope we have for victory and the only source we have for joy.

God absolutely performs miracles. God proves his own existence all the time, but Satan provides a plethora of explanations to attempt to blind us and make his war easier. Don’t allow the enemy to convince you that God hasn’t moved when you know He has. Don’t allow others to take away meaning by dismissing it as coincidental. Don’t hide the miracles He has done for you. Instead, show them to the world. Counter the enemy’s propaganda by showing people how He is always at work.

“Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” (Matthew 5:15)

Shine your Light!

Give the world a reason to believe!

Tell me how God has worked in your life! Comment with your story below. Let us all tell the world that God is still in the business of miracles.