By Thomas Mathew
I have heard many people complaining about
miracles not happening in their lives. They say that they keep on praying and
seek God’s blessings. They ask for healing of their near and dear ones. But
they don’t get answers. There’s no healing.
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| Thomas Mathew |
This was succinctly and intensely explained
by Shalom TV preacher Dr D John recently. His advice is that when you ask for a
miracle in your life, you need to do a small thing. Then the big miracle
follows. What you have to do or provide would be a small role. But it’s the
key. God will then act in a big way if you show that inclination. Let’s take some
examples.
MIRACLE
AT CANA:
This was the first miracle of
Jesus. When the family realized that there was no wine left, Mother Mary told
Jesus about it. Jesus asked the people to fill the jars with water. Then He
prayed and the water became wine.
Here the key point is that Jesus asked them
to fill the jar with water. He could have created wine in the jar without water
in it. Suppose it the people had refused to fill the jar with water. But they
obeyed and prepared for the big miracle.
In fact, this thought came to my mind when I
visited Cana in Israel
last week.
FEEDING 5000 PEOPLE WITH FIVE LOAVES OF BREAD:
Here again, when Jesus saw a huge
crowd, turning to Philip, he asked, "Where can we buy bread to feed all
these people?" He was probably testing Philip, for He already knew what he
was going to do. Philip replied, "Even if we worked for months, we
wouldn't have enough money to feed them!"
Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s
brother, spoke up. "There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two
fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?" Maybe disciples had
stock of food but they didn’t want to take it out, lest they would go hungry.
But Jesus took the bread and fish from the young boy and prayed. Then it
started multiplying. The entire crowd was fed and there was balance food as
well.
Jesus could have performed the
miracle without the five loaves and two fish. One small innocent boy offered
that food and Jesus performed a big miracle. When you seek miracles in your
life, offer a little to Him so that He can act.
FISHING AND BIG CATCH:
This
happened after the resurrection of Jesus and He appeared
again to his disciples at the Sea
of Tiberias. Some
disciples, led by Simon Peter set out in a
boat for fishing, but throughout the night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the
disciples didn’t realize it was Jesus. Jesus
called to them, “Children, have you caught anything to
eat?” They answered him, “no.” He said, “Cast your net on the right
side of the boat and you will find some.” So
they did, and there were so many fish that they couldn’t haul in the net.
Remember that Peter and other
disciples were experts in fishing. They were traditional fisherman. They could
have ignored Jesus’ advice to cast the net on the right side. When they listed
to His advice, they got a huge catch of fish. Jesus could have performed a
miracle without asking them to cast the net on the right side.
So listen to His advice. When
Jesus tells you something, obey that. Then you will witness a big miracle.
LAZARUS BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE:
Lazarus, brother of the sisters Mary and Martha, was ill but Jesus
intentionally remained where he was for two more days before beginning the
journey.When Jesus arrived in Bethany, he found that Lazarus was dead and had already been in his tomb for four days. Martha lamented that Jesus did not arrive soon enough to heal her brother. Then the Bible says, “Jesus wept.” In the presence of a crowd of Jewish mourners, Jesus came to the tomb and over the objections of Martha, Jesus asked them to roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb and said a prayer. He then called Lazarus to come out and Lazarus did so, still wrapped in his grave-cloths.
(The writer is a mechanical engineer based in Doha)
