Encouragement, Healing
Surprises and Miracles: A Must-Read Inspiring Story!
Do you like surprises? I want to take you to a miracle that surprised some folks in Scripture. Some folks loved it and some didn’t. It’s an inspiring story. Whether or not we like surprises, they happen to us sometimes! Sometimes they are good and something they aren’t. Let me tell you about one of my surprises!
Maybe you would like to hear it?
My friend Peggy has lost weight.
When I asked her how she was doing it, she explained she was doing water aerobics. Plus, she has a coach at the gym that was teaching them different exercises. She explained that if you repeat the same ones all the time, your body gets used to them. Instead, if you rotate them or learn new exercises from time to time it will surprise your body and you will continue to lose weight.
What a great idea!
The next morning while I was standing in front of my microwave waiting for my coffee to get hot, I was thought about her comments. No use wasting a whole a minute, why not try it now? Instead of the usual exercise bike, I will surprise my body today with something different.
How ’bout something fun?
I’ll do some jumping jacks.
So, for one minute I did jumping jacks.
When the minute was up, I turned with my cup of coffee in my hand, but unexpectedly, my body surprised me with some terrible pain in my heel. I don’t think that’s what Peggy meant at all. My heel screamed surprise, surprise at me all day long.
Surprise in the Bible
I want to take you to a place in the Bible where the people were surprised. It really is an amazing story. It’s a miracle story.
Everyone that saw it was surprised.
They couldn’t believe what they were seeing before their very eyes. The lame man who was over 40 years old, was walking around. He had never walked before. He had been lame since birth. They were amazed.
When Peter saw how surprised they were, he said to them, why are you surprised? Why are you looking at us as if, we could do this by our godliness or our own power? I want you to know, Peter explained in
Acts 3:16 BSB
By faith
in the name of Jesus,
this man whom you see and
know has been made strong.
It is Jesus’ name
and the faith that comes through Him
that has given him this
complete healing
in your presence.
Would you please read that verse again!!!
Powerful! Powerful truth.
Then he continued preaching Jesus. As he preached Jesus, the crowds continued to grow.
Scribes, Pharisees and even the temple guard joined the crowd. They weren’t surprised. You might think these religious leaders would have been absolutely delighted at the wonderful miracle that had taken place. They were just the opposite, they were upset.
They were angry.
Furious would describe them more accurately. Peter and John were preaching in the name of Jesus. They didn’t want the faith in Jesus to spread, so they arrested Peter and John
I don’t know how Peter and John felt.
I don’t know if they were angry. Disheartened or afraid. It’s really surprising that they would be arrested after a miraculous healing like the lame man experienced.
Look at Acts 4:4.
But many who heard
the message,
believed.
And the number of men
grew to about 5000.
This is important.
Although, it was a tragic thing to be arrested, evidently something bigger was happening. God was bringing people into the kingdom. If we only see deceived, hard hearted spiritual leaders and an unjust arrest, then we miss the miracles that came out of the miracle!
What’s going on in your life?
Is God working a miracle in your life that will produce miracles in other people’s life? We must keep our eyes on Jesus, not the rough stuff we are going through.
Because it was in the evening,
they held in prison. The next morning the religious leaders interrogated Peter and John.
In Acts 4:8 it says,
Then Peter,
filled with the Holy Spirit,
said to them,
rulers and elders of the people,
if we’re being examined today
about a kind service to a man
who was lame to determine
how he was healed,
then let this be known
to all of you and to all the people of Israel.
It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead,
that this man stands before you healed.
This Jesus is the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.
Acts 4:12 Salvation exists in no one else.
For there is no other name under heaven
given to men and by which we must be saved.
Look at this…
can people say this about you?
And when they saw the boldness of Peter and John,
and realized that they were unschooled,
ordinary men, they marveled and took note
that these men had been with Jesus.
Oh! What a difference spending time with Jesus makes in us.
They were furious,
but they didn’t know what to do with Peter and John, because here was this miracle standing right there in front of everybody.
Warned them
They certainly couldn’t ignore the situation. They didn’t want Peter and John’s doctrine spreading like wildfire. After they talked among themselves, they decided that they would warn them, emphatically warn them, that they were NOT to preach in the name of Jesus any longer.
Peter looked at them and said,
According to God? Who do you think we ought to obey; you or God? So, they released them.
Peter and John went to their people.
There, they reported what had happened. Then they prayed. There was total unity in their prayer. Look at a little snippet of that prayer.
You might want to pray this prayer too..
And now, Lord, consider their threats,
and enable Your servants
to speak Your word
with complete boldness,
30as You stretch out Your hand
to heal and
perform signs and wonders
through the name of Your
holy servant Jesus.”
Wait there’s more.
God responded to their prayer.
31 After they had prayed,
their meeting place was shaken,
and they were all filled
the Holy Spirit
and spoke the word of God boldly.
Oh, how we need that empowerment of the Holy Spirit today.
Don’t be surprised!
We shouldn’t be surprised when people oppose us and fight against us.
Yet like Peter and John, we need to surround ourselves with people that are of like faith. People that pray with you when you go through rough places. Trustworthy voices that speak God’s Word to you and believe God with you for miracles.
Expectant people that are holding onto promises and believing God to do great and mighty things, instead of grumbling and gripping.
Faithful people that will pray, that will respond by asking God to give us His courage and faith that He will confirm His word with signs and wonders.
It’s not a time for you and I to back off.
Without a doubt, it is time for us, like Peter and John, to say, “such as I have given to you.” Lastly, we must believe specifically for God to confirm His Word with signs and wonders.
I want to encourage you don’t give up. Keep believing God. Never stop pushing forward. Pray without ceasing. Keep believing God.