Seeing Miracles In Your Life

A young man in college was reading the bible when a liberal professor walked by. “Wow” said the young man. The professor, interested in what caused his excitement, asked the young man what he was reading. The young man said that God had parted the Red Sea to allow the Hebrew people to cross. The professor started to explain how at that period in history there was a drought and really the Sea was only about three inches deep, so it was not really a miracle. “Oh” said the disheartened young man as he went back to reading. “Wow!” the boy said again, even more excited. The professor said, “What is it now?” to which the young man replied, “God just drowned the whole Egyptian army in three inches of water!

In today’s world a lot of attention has been given to the miracles that some preachers can seemingly perform. TV evangelists, such as Benny Hinn, supposedly can simply breathe out over a crowd of needy people and the power of his breath can cause them to be instantly healed of whatever sickness or disease they are suffering from. Now, as to whether his breath can really knock people out I will not doubt. But that it causes the lame to walk, that I do doubt. But this miracle working power is something that a lot of hurting people are attracted to. And in my opinion it’s something that many frauds have taken advantage of in order to gain personal wealth while leaving hurting people still hurting. And this evening, I think that this scheming that some men have done has caused the rest of us to doubt whether God really does do miracles today. I think that because there are those who have scammed so many with their make believe powers, it has driven us to a place where we don’t believe that God has the power to work miracles in our life.

But you know, we talked last Sunday morning about the fact that God still has the same power today that He did in the time of Moses and Joshua. The same God who split the Red Sea and brought the walls of Jericho tumbling down is the God that we serve today. And while there are those who have made an industry out of the power of our God, I believe that we are serving a God who still does miracles. I believe that God is still interested in doing things for us today that are beyond our human ability to explain or understand. But I think that in order for God to be able to work a miracle in our lives there are some requirements that He has given us.

In John 2:1-12, we find the story of the first miracle that Jesus performed. What was that miracle? He turned water into wine. I want us to read that story together and I think there are some lessons that we can draw from it when it comes to seeing God work miracles in our lives today. Let’s read it together…

The story is told about an alcoholic who became was wonderfully saved. One day he was asked how he could possibly believe all the nonsense in the Bible about miracles. “You don’t believe that Jesus changed the water into wine do you?” they asked him. “I sure do,” he replied, “because in our house Jesus changed the whiskey into furniture.”

Friends, I believe that God still works miracles. I believe that we don’t have to allow the fakes to drive us away from believing that God can perform a genuine miracle in my life today. But I do believe that there are some requirements that we must fulfill in order to give Him the ability to do it for us. There are three of them that we can see in this passage. Let me share them with you.

I. Seeing Miracles Requires A Right Perception Of Jesus

First of all, seeing miracles requires that we have a right perception of who Jesus is. You see, Mary, the mother of Jesus, came to Him and said, “They have no wine.” Now, it’s possible that Mary was telling Jesus this to hint that before the wine ran out, Jesus needed to go to town and get some more. It’s possible that she was hinting that Jesus and those who were with Him needed to leave before the party ran out of wine so as to try and make sure that there was enough for those who were left. Or it could be possible that she was just sharing with Jesus the fact that the wine was running out. But I don’t think so. I would have to think, and it’s more reasonable, that Mary told Jesus about the lack of wine with the expectation that He would show His glory by doing something extraordinary to supply the need. I would tend to believe that while Jesus had yet to do a miracle, Mary had come to form an idea about His power and His goodness. No doubt she remembered the miraculous way Jesus was born. No doubt she had heard what John the Baptist had said about Him. And now that Jesus had a following, a group of disciples, Mary probably felt as though Jesus was entering in already to His Messianic work of building His Kingdom. And so she ventures out and asks Jesus for a miracle.