Expecting

Intro: Saxophone

So far we have covered the importance of

praying

Reading (your Bible)

getting rid of idols and sin that separates you from God

Sharing the Love and Message of Christ with Nonbelievers

Depending on God

We touched on expecting the miraculous, but I want to expand on that expectation today

much of our faith is tied into the miraculous

Turn to your neighbor and let them know about a time that you experienced or witnessed the miraculous

Luke 7:22 NASB95

And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Do blind people still receive sight?

Mission’s trip

In March 2017, a seminary student named Ethan Lintemuth went on a missions trip to Zambia

Thier group was going from village to village to share the gospel and pray with people in those villages

In response to a movie they had seen about miracles, Ethan and one of his friends started discussing why they had never saw any miracles

As they were expressing thier skepticism, a woman came around the corner and told them to follow her

She let them to an old woman who requested prayer because she was blind

Here is his account:

Her eyes did look quite dead

So my friend and I prayed for her

and we asked her if anything had happened

the translator told us no

So we thought well ok, time to go to lunch

but then my friend urged us to pray again

so we did

then we asked again if there was any improvement

to our surprise, she said yes

so we prayed again, and the translator exclaimed “She can see!

Sure enough, I looked in her eyes and they were whole, full of life

Macular Degeneration

Greg Spencer worked in law enforcement for 15 years and was exposed to heavy violence and suffered PTSD

He was hardened and deeply disturbed by what he had seen

Shortly after leaving his job as an officer, his vision began to decline

medical professionals diagnosed him with macular degeneration

a condition that is irreversible

Tests included mapping the structure of his eyes

and revealed a form of permanent mottling in the center of his vision

Placed on disability, he went though full training for blindness with the Oregon Commission for the Blind

never expecting to see again

Soon after this, Greg me a believer named Wendy,

Who helped come to faith in Christ and eventually became his wife

Still troubled by his memories of the awful scenes he had witnessed,

he attended a church retreat focused on the healing of his mind

While praying for the healing of his mind

he felt that God said

You are clean

When Greg opened his eyes, he discovered that God had restored not only his mind but also his vision

The rest of his retreat he kept pointing out all of the things that he could now see, like birds and license plates

Not everyone who experiences healing collect any medical documentation

but Greg Spencer needed to get off of disability now that he could see

Unfortunately the Social Security Administration could not accept his claim that macular degeneration had simply disappeared

That was not supposed to happen

they questioned whether he had simply faked blindness earlier

Greg say a number of professionals and they carefully examined him

the documentation is clear

before his experience, he was legally blind

but afterward he could see

After finishing its investigation, the social security administration acknowledged that Spencer’s eyesight was no longer impaired

that he was blind but now could see

Do disabled people still walk?

missing achilles

Evangelist Randy Clark tells the story from an incident in 2011 in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2011

While he was leading the service he felt that God wanted to heal someone who had been injured on a motorcycle

Sure enough, a 28 year old woman came up on crutches

she had caught her heel in the back wheel of a motorcycle fifteen years earlier (when she was 13)

It had ripped out muscle and her achilles tendon

leaving he with a large gash and an inability to walk unaided

multiple surgeries had not been able to repair the damage

She was scheduled for an amputation because of the necrotic tissue that had developed

After Randy prayed for her, she walked unaided for the first time in 15 years

the whole began to close

the necrotic tissue turned from dark black dead tissue to pink

I personally watched a video of her showing the before pictures of her injury and dancing on stage at that church in Brazil

Multiple Sclerosis

Dro. Robert Larmer, chair of the department of philosophy at the University of New Brunswick,

shares about his interview with Irene MacDonald in his published works

Irene had Multiple Sclerosis

her doctors told her that she did not have long tilive when her condition rapidly declined

She was bedridden, and needed spinal injections for pain every ten days

However, one Friday afternoon, Irene got a call from a friend saying that she felt sure that God was saying that he was going to heal her soon

given all that she had been through, Irene was understandably skeptical of such encouragement by this point

However, she had a dream that night, and felt some increased strength in the morning

She asked to be carried into church on Sunday

During prayer for her there, feeling suddenly returned to her arm and legs

Instantly, Irene had full control of her body and fully regained muscular strength

Despite being confined to bed for a long time,

she walked from the church

and was able to return to all of her activities that she did prior to her becoming sick

Are Lepers Still Cleansed?

What we call leprosy today (Hansen’s disease) differs from most of the skin afflictions called leprosy in the Bible

Jesus healed the serious skin condition called leprosy in the Bible

Still God heals lepers today

Shaman Missionary

Bari Malto was a village shaman in Africa

However he was exiled from his village after he contracted leprosy

A couple of Christians came and prayed for him

and that night two angels touched his hands in a dream

When Bari awoke the next day, he was completely healed

He ran into the village and showed the villagers what had happned

As a result, the entire village became followers of Jesus

Years later when a missionary went back to that same region,

over half of the region had already become followers of Jesus

and many people knew the story of the former shaman

Goiter

A goiter is an enlargement of the thyroid gland, located in the front of the neck

A visible bulge or lump in the neck, Difficulty swallowing, Hoarseness, Coughing, and Neck pain or tightness.

While not leprosy, it is an example of something that may have been called leprosy because of the physical deformity

Doctors Wonsuk and Julie Ma, Korean christians on a missions trip to the philippines tell the story of Edna

Edna had a large, toxic goiter

This woman had seen many doctors and her family had payed expensive fees to the local cultic spiritists without any signs of improving

She had recently been sent to the hospital and had to be resuscitated

she was in critical condition

feeling that they were out of options the finally allowed the Christians to pray for her

while they were praying, Edna felt something in her neck and was able to swallow her saliva

something she was unable to do because of her critical condition

In the sight of many witnesses, the goiter disappeared

Edna, her family, and many many others became followers of Christ that day

Do Deaf People Still Hear?

The fact that God does a miracle sometimes does not mean that we should expect him to do it every time

Most of us have some area of disability or physical weakness and we learn to work around it

Those who have disabilities in any of the nonlethal ways I have mention are no exception

Deaf communities have a beautiful culture,

individuals raised in that culture often don’t want to be defined as disabled

and there are bountiful accessibility options here in the states

we have subtitles

there is sign language

voice to text

reading lips

phones flash and vibrate to messages

fire alarms are required to flash brightly in addition to the sound

emergency vehicles have flashing lights and sound

Miracles are less often necessary in the US than in some other places

The US contains less than 5%of the worlds population

so naturally fewer miracles occur here

Also, when miracles do happen here

our antisupernatural mindset often renders them invisible to us

because we grasp at other explanations

There are still parts of the world whose culture says that thunder is the gods bowling or some other spiritual explaination

Since miracles are less meaningful to us

they are also less likely to happen

Mark 6:5–6 NASB95

And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He wondered at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching.

However it does not mean that God does not still heal the deaf.

especially in countries that are not as advanced as ours is

Beathoven would have wanted his hearing back if he had the option

God created us with this sense, and to be without it means that a part of our intended state is broken

the same can be said of the blind

Sweedish music

Maria Johansonn began to lose her hearing in 2012 and eventually reached a point where she needed to read lips and was unable to talk on the phone

The condition was organic and doctors warned her that she would lose hearing completely if she did not have a cochlear implant

On Sunday, Aug 21, 2016

Maria and her family went to worship at Sion Assembly in Flen, Sweeden

When people prayed for her, she felt as if a warm blanket had been laid over her

Abruptly and to her astonishment, she noticed that she was hearing the hymn

Her children were astounded when she called tem, able to talk on the phone

She noted that night she could hear the cars on the road, the fly buzzing on the windowpain, and her husband’s snowing

She said: Everything was like sweet music, even the snoring

On Sept 9, she returned to the audiologist

After testing, the surprised dr concluded that everyhting with her hearing was within the normal range

He said, “something has happened to your ears that I simply cannot explain”

A Child’s Faith

In the book Healing Miracles, you find the story of a 9 year old girl named Rebecca

She was losing her hearing because of significant and medically confirmed auditory nerve damage

audiograms and tympanograms showed a hearing loss of 70 decibels in her right ear

and 40 in her left

She began to wear hearing aids, but was praying everyday that GOd would heal her so that she wouldn’t have to wear them anymore

When one of her hearing aids was damaged at school, she had to go back to the audiologist to procure a new one

The next night, she suddenly rushed from her bedroom to inform her mother that she could hear

Testing her carefully, her parents discovered that it was true

After thanking God, they called the dr

He understandably said

I don’t believe you. It is not possible

He had examined her just a day earlier after all

The next day, further tests revealed that Rebecca’s hearing was normal

The doctor wrote in his report:

Her hearing returned completely to normal

I was completely unable to explain this phenomenon but naturally, like her parents, I was absolutely delighted

I can think of no rational explanation as to why her hearing returned to normal,

there being a sever bilateral sensorineural loss

Are the Dead still Raised?

Cold Water Drowning

One case that made widewpread news was the 2015 resuscitation of 22 month old toddler Gardell Martin

Gardell was playing with his siblings when he fell into a swollen creek and was swept nearly a quarter of a mile downstream

He was not found until about half an hour later when a neighbor found him facedown in the creek

his small body had been caught in a tree branch as the water raged around him

Rescuers immediately began CPR and he was undergoing chest compressions for over 100 minutes when his pulse returned

Gardell’s mother, Rose Martin, pointed out later that the family and the local church groups were banding together to pray for him at the very time that his pulse returned.

Now this was a cold-water drowning, which is sometimes survivable, as in this case

However, oxygen deprivation had driven Gardell’s blood acid level to a pH of 6.5

The time without oxygen had been too long

and brain damage seemed certain

Dr Frank Maffei, the physician who oversaw Gardell’s early hours in the pediatric intensive care unit, testifies to his delight that Gardell was conscious and answering questions just eight hours after his pulse started again

Dr. Maffei considered this rare preservation of the child’s life miraculous

A week after Gardell’s resuscitation from death, a CNN video shows him running around playfully

even his parents were astonished at his recovery

Momma Lives

One young mother named Ruby died after amniotic fluid leaked into her bloodstream during birth, called an amniotic fluid embolism

Doctorss did their best to resuscitate her, but after she had no pulse for 45 minutes, they called the family to come into the operating room to say their goodbyes before they stopped chest compressions

Dr Michael Fleischer’s report later describes the heart-wrenching pleas with God not to take her as the family cried out to God

Dr Fleischer quietly joined them in prayer

After recognizing the futility of further attempts at resuscitation, the medical team stopped chest compressions

The hear monitor showed some type of vague background elecrical activity, although no true heart beats

Then the impossible happened

Somehow, Ruby’s heart started to pump on its own, now with a normal rhythm

and jsut as impossibly, her blood pressure was suddenly normal

Still, after 45 minutes without a heartbeat, she should have had brain damage and other organ failure

However, soon after attempts to revive her stopped, she opened her eyes and pointed to heaven

The next day, Dr. FLeischer was able to explain to her what had happened

She had no damage to her organs, inluding her brain

In fact, not even her ribs were broken

They weren’t even bruised

both of which are common and expected after CPR

Especially CPR for as long and as hard as she sustained

Defying all the statistics and all the textbooks

3 days later, Ruby went home with her healthy baby and her entire family

The Poor have the Gospel Preached to Them!

Paralyzed man

In 1994, in Suriname South America

There was an established church for a long time,

but there was only a few hundred Christians

and churches competed with each other for the same members

The locals had another dominant faith that had resisted the gospel message for centuries

Dr. Douglass Norwood was preaching to these churches as a missionary

after one sermon in November, the church repented of their divisions

and cried out to God for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit

Believers went out and began to share their faith with surprised neighbors

who were surprised because they had never known the christians to act this way before

That night, many non-believers gathered at the church

Several of them were hostile

one hostile visitor, in his 70’s, had been paralyzed on his right side virtually all his life

because he couldn’t walk, his friends had brought him on a blanket or rug

and plopped him down in front of Noorwood

This man was not happy

He shouted “your religion is garbage”

My religion is garbage too

I’ve prayed to Shiva, and to Vishnu, and to my other gods, and nothing happens

Now you want me to pray to Jesus?

As he uttered the name Jesus, his paralyzed arem shuddenly shot up into the air

He stared at his own arem, shocked

No one had prayed for him, but when he mentioned Jesus, God healed his paralysis

At that instant, he jumped up, grabbed the mic from the missionary

and began screaming “look what Jesus did for me!”

as he danced around, waving his now-healed arm in the air

The other visitors were converted almost as quickly as he was

over the next few years, tens of thousands of people came to Christ

CHINA

Statistics are difficult to obtain in china, but the figures I’m about to share are some observers’ estimates

one source within the state-authorized church suggests that half of all Christian conversions

over the last two decades

were due to “faith healing experiences

One rural house church estimate puts the figure closer to 90 percent

whatever the actual statistic is, we are talking about millions of people converting because of healings

Why don’t we see more miracles?

God especially provides supernaturally when there is no other way, not simply to entertain us or show off

When natural means exist, God often works through them

Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread, but it is not unbelief to go out and earn a living

The fact that God does a miracle sometimes does not mean that we should expect him to do it every time

Faith is not expressed in a formula of action we can simply repeat

that would be magic

Faith is a relationship with God

There is no necessary conflict between what we call natural and what we call supernatural means, which can often work together

The ways our bodies often recover naturally are no less a gift of God than the times when he acts more dramatically

When God cures us through doctors, it is no less an answer to prayer than when he does it without them

Miracles do not, and are not intended to, resolve every problem in this world

miracles are foretastes of a better future

and they show us what God cares about

Jesus miraculously healed the sick,

delivered those afflicted by spirits

fet the hungry

and protected his followers from lethal storms

God cares about health, hunger and safety.

This means that when God is not doing a miracle,

those who care about what God cares about should use whatever natural means at our disposal to met the same kinds of needs

Not everyone who is prayed for is healed

The Bible takes for granted that death remains in this age

think about every repetition of “and he died” in the geneologies throughout Genesis (not including Enoch)

When Paul speaks to other Christians about believers that died,

he says nothing about the need to raise them in this age

he focuses instead on the ultimate resurrection to come

1 Thessalonians 4:13–14 NASB95

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

Luke 4:27 NASB95

“And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

Luke 14:13 NASB95

“But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,

Even king David became physically weak, declining with old age

Isaac could no longer see when Jacob came to impersonate his brother esau

Paul does not urge Timothy to pray for healing when he instructs him to use healthier means to take care of his digestive issues

1 Timothy 5:23 NASB95

No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

Altar Call: Pray with each other for the miraculous to happen

what situation in your life cannot be solved by natural means?