Releasing Spiritual Gifts TodaySýnishorn

Workings of Miracles

Miracles appear to disregard the laws of nature. Healings can happen naturally in some cases, and divine healing just speeds them up. But miracles? They always go beyond the natural. For example, no matter what kind of water or jars you might use, you could never change plain water into fine wine by any natural process. It would take a miracle, such as Jesus performed in Cana, a village a few miles from Nazareth, as recorded in the second chapter of John. This was Jesus’ first public miracle, and of course He went on to perform many more miracles, as did His disciples.

I think it is a bit artificial to say that miracles “override” the laws of nature, as if the God who performs miracles did not set up the laws of nature in the first place. He can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants, regardless of what we consider normal and natural.

Getting People’s Attention

When people see a miracle, they know that something uncommon has just occurred. Many times, the extraordinary nature of what they have just seen with their own eyes or heard with their own ears is proof positive to them that God is truly good and benevolent. Miracles are meant to seize people’s attention, to show that He is real and relevant. There is no guarantee that the people will turn wholeheartedly to God as a result, but they will be forced to think about Him.

“For to one is given…the working[s] of miracles” (1 Corinthians 12:8, 10 NKJV). Similar to “gifts of healings,” the original Greek would render the term plural in both parts, as “workings of miracles.” The plurals indicate a range of outworkings. To be even truer to the original Greek, we could call the gift “workings of powers,” because the word we translate “miracles” is dunamis (“powers”) in Greek. The workings of miracles, then, could be understood as the “effectings” or achievements of the powers of the Holy Spirit. 

The Will of God plus Human Obedience

If you examine the circumstances of a miracle, you will almost always find that it was sparked by someone’s simple act of obedience. The miraculous results are all the more outstanding in comparison to the initial act of faith. When God parted the Red Sea for the Israelites, Moses’ job was not strenuous. God told him to lift up his staff and stretch out his hand over the sea. (See Exodus 14:16.) Later, when Moses and the people arrived at Marah where the waters were too bitter to drink, the Lord told Moses to throw a particular tree into the pool of water, and by a miracle the water became sweet. (See Exodus 15:23–25.) In both cases, Moses had to follow through. Neither the staff nor the tree caused the miracle; the miracle was effected by the power of God. But Moses had to obey explicitly.

Obedience is preceded by a communication from God. Obedient faith comes from hearing: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). In the above instances, God told Moses what to do. Similarly, the Lord told the prophet Elijah to give a destitute widow an unlikely-sounding word of direction, and her small supply of oil multiplied to fill every last jar she had collected. (See 2 Kings 4:1–7.) Miracles occur by believing and acting on the word of the Lord.

Demonstrating God’s Love

Miracles are given freely by the Holy Spirit, and like all of His gifts, they are demonstrations of the depths of God’s immense love. The spiritual gifts are given to flow through us as acts of mercy and kindness toward others. In other words, we cannot hoard them and keep them to ourselves. These grace packages are meant to pass through our hands; we are to distribute them as God shows us. Freely we have received, now freely we give! (See Matthew 10:8.)

In my personal experience, it almost seems as though miracles happen by “accident.” I am certainly not thinking about miracles when amazing things suddenly seem to occur—unintentionally on my part. One time, at the close of a gathering, people had congregated at the front of the auditorium, and I just started randomly wandering among the hungry souls as I often do, laying my hands on people to pronounce the blessing of the Lord. On that day, I gently touched a lady and announced, “Miracles!” Little did I know that this lady was desperate for a major miracle. She ran out of the auditorium, found the nearest restroom, and immediately passed seven bleeding tumors. She was totally healed in a moment. It was a miracle. Reports later verified her inexplicable healing. Praise the Lord! (I wish this happened with me all the time, but this was perhaps one out of a hundred.) How amazing is the love of God—healings and miracles happening when the person acting as the channel of God’s grace isn’t even aware of what he is doing.

Mahesh Chavda’s first book was Only Love Can Make a Miracle. That title captures a profound truth. Only God, who is Love, can perform a miracle. And only by growing in His love can we participate with Him in miracles. This is why compassion was such an important element in Jesus’ miracles, as in this example: “Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him [the leper], and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed’” (Mark 1:41). Compassion is an expression of love, and people whom God uses to work miracles will find that compassion rises up in their hearts in response to the stirrings of the Spirit.

God wants to protect and preserve, restore and build up. His grand purpose is to build up His kingdom. To that end, He builds up the people who populate His kingdom, and He exalts His glory through miraculous works so that more people will come to believe in Him and follow Him.

Miracles are meant to accompany the preaching of the gospel, working in connection with evangelism to confirm the work of the cross of Jesus and the power of the Word of God. This is the thrust of the Great Commission:

And [Jesus] said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.… These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. (Mark 16:15, 17–20)

Jesus has made us co-laborers with Him by the miracle-working power of His Holy Spirit. He wants His disciples to see miracles and to be the avenue of His miracle-working power in the earth. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:12–13).