Hi all,
A miracle is defined as something that can’t be explained by the laws of nature, so is attributed to being an act of God. I have also seen miracles (incorrectly) defined as something that violates the known natural laws.
A miracle is defined as a singular event. Jesus multiplied food. Blind eyes were opened. These have happened in our day too, but they are not a common occurrence.
The subject of this series, making miracles normal for your life, is not about seeing ‘big’ miracles all the time. It is about living in a flow of miracles. Living such a finely tuned life that God’s orchestration of one’s life constitutes living in the miraculous.
From what I’ve observed, miracles are often divine timing where the Father orchestrates several good things coming together at the same time to benefit a person. What if this were a way of life? This is grace at a level unbelievers don’t have, and many Christians don’t seem to walk in it either. Can miracles become a way of life for us?
Roller coaster Christian life
A miracle doesn’t violate natural laws, the Father just uses higher laws which supersede the lower ones. An airplane lifts off the ground in this way; it doesn’t violate the law of gravity, it uses a higher law, the law of lift, to supersede gravity for a time. But the airplane is never free from gravity, it just uses higher laws to fly through the air. But then the plane lands and the lower law takes over again. But what if the plane lived in the higher laws and never had to land?
In my teen years and now as an adult I often see Christians living ‘big’ miracle to ‘big’ miracle with a deep valley in between. I wondered as a teenager: What if you could live within the realm of miracles? Then miracles would be a way of life, a lifestyle, an expectation for every day.
I reasoned I would have to start by shortening the time between miracles and valleys so I could step over the valleys and walk mountain top to mountain top. Hopefully one day I could just step miracle to miracle as a way of life.
I also wondered if living at the top of the curve just meant that I was going to grow to the point valleys didn’t seem so deep, the way Paul valued hardship and even seemed to value being weak in the flesh so His grace could be perfected within him?
Knowing His ways
When I was a teenager Psalm 103:7 was something I longed for: “He made known His ways unto Moses; His acts to the children of Israel.” If I knew His ways, the acts (miracles) would follow.
The acts that Israel saw included manna in the wilderness, water from a rock, a miraculous catch of quail and more. They went from hunger to thirst and back to hunger again as a way of life. They saw His acts.
I wanted to know His ways, which are: “The ways in which He Himself walks” and “The steps and methods He takes to show forth His glory.” (Gill’s Exposition of the Bible on Ps 103:7) That was my heart. Still is.
I saw most every Christian, my teen friends and my mom’s adult Christian friends running around looking for a miracle. Their Christian life was getting manna one day, starving the next several, then water from a rock, then starving, then a flock of quail so they could eat again, then lack – in a never ending cycle as a way of life. They lived a roller coaster Christian existence. I didn’t want that. I wanted to know the ways of the Father. If I knew the ways, the acts would follow.
Can we live on the mountain top? An invitation
About the time I was asking if I could know the ways of the Lord like Moses, which would then lead to living in miracles instead of a roller coaster existence, our Saturday night ‘prayer and praise’ meeting introduced a new song.
It was 1975, so imagine an autoharp and guitar playing as we sang, based on Isaiah 55: 6-13:
“You will go out with joy, and be led forth with peace, the mountains and the hills will break forth before you. There’ll be shouts of joy, and all the trees of the field will clap, will clap their hands. And the trees of the field will clap their hands. The trees of the field will clap their hands. The trees of the field will clap their hands, and you’ll go out with joy.”
Upon studying that text I saw something I never had before – an invitation which proceeded all that joy and the reason all those trees were clapping their hands:
“Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God for He will abundantly pardon.”
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,” 55: 6-9 (And you will go out with joy, and be led forth with peace, and the mountains and hills will break forth before you…)
Suddenly I saw it – the wicked, unrighteous man is extended an invitation to forsake his ways to return to the higher ways of the Lord! Yes, I saw it! God was not making a statement that He is so high and lofty that we mere humans can’t relate. He was saying to leave your ways and thoughts, return to the Lord and His higher ways and thoughts! Read that passage in its entirety and you’ll find hope and joy, yes, you can know His ways and live there!
We CAN come up to His ways and His thoughts – we can know His ways! That in turn will lead to miracles. Miracles can be normal, a way of life as we walk in His higher ways and higher thoughts. We aren’t seeking miracles, we are seeking to know His ways.
Next week I’ll share part of my journey that is key to living in the ways of the Father, rather than living miracle to valley to miracle, always looking for the next big thing which will rescue from the latest situation.
Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
