Miracles of Power

When I was a senior at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, I had a divinely orchestrated encounter that changed my life.

Before I arrived at Baylor, while I was a senior in high school, I had the overwhelming sense that the Lord was calling me to be a pastor. I obeyed this calling by getting involved in ministry-related activities, such as sharing the gospel with other students, leading Bible studies, and memorizing Bible passages. After high school graduation, I was eager to attend Baylor, a Baptist University, and to dive deep into the study of the Scriptures. I didn’t realize that, at the time, many professors at Baylor didn’t believe in the inerrancy of the Bible.

Week after week, as I attended Bible classes taught by professors who claimed the Bible was filled with contradictions, errors, and inconsistencies, I began to doubt God’s Word and His calling me to pastoral ministry. I couldn’t shake the shiver in my spine whenever I thought about committing my life to preaching a book that was apparently filled with mistakes and statements that couldn’t be trusted. I seriously considered abandoning my calling, changing career goals, and perhaps turning my back on Christianity altogether.  

Then the Lord graciously steered some key people across my path who believed in the inerrancy of the Bible for sound intellectual reasons. They convinced me I didn’t have to commit intellectual suicide to trust in God’s Word. They also encouraged me to attend the Urbana Missions Conference in Champagne, Illinois, during Christmas break. 

The final night of the conference, I was sitting in the last row of a huge auditorium filled with thousands of university students, still wrestling with whether the Bible was really the Word of God and whether I should go into ministry, when Billy Graham walked onto the stage. He shared that, too, he had a crisis of faith as a student at a Bible college. One night, while Billy was speaking at the Forest Home conference center in California, he took a walk along a trail at the conference center. About 50 yards from the main path, a large rock, on which he sat for a long time with his Bible spread open on a tree stump. With a spirit of surrender, he said, “Oh, God, I cannot prove certain things, I cannot answer some of the questions being raised, but I accept this book by faith as the Word of God.”

Today at the Forest Home Conference Center, there is a bronze tablet by that rock identifying it as the Stone of Witness, where Billy Graham once and for all accepted the absolute authority of Scripture.

The Lord heard that prayer, and Dr. Graham fulfilled his promise to preach the Bible faithfully as God’s inerrant Word.  

As I listened to that story, with tears streaming down my face, Dr. Graham’s prayer became my prayer—and the Lord, in His grace, answered it for me as well. 

I realized God had directed me to that conference to hear Billy Graham’s story of struggle—the same struggle I had been wrestling with. But then the Lord added a “cherry” to that “spiritual sundae” He served me that night! 

After Dr. Graham finished his presentation and the evening concluded, I somehow missed the exit and ended up in a freight elevator with him and a security guard. I said to him, “Dr. Graham, you’ll never know what your message meant to me tonight.” I told him about my own misgivings. He took my spiral notebook, signed it, and included a Bible verse to encourage me in the future. Whenever I’m tempted to doubt God’s Word, I think back to that evening and look at my notebook—yes, I still have it—and am reminded of that cold night in December 1976, when God divinely orchestrated people and events in my life to confirm the reliability of His Word and His calling for me. 

I’ve no doubt that you, too, if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, have experienced divine interventions of God’s care and concern for you. The particulars of your story will differ from mine, but the Lord’s grace and provision in your story are the same, just as the Scripture teaches: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

1. God’s Power on Display in Five Periods

• Moses and Joshua (Exodus 3:1-22)

Israel’s exodus from Egyptian bondage signaled that God was in the process of doing something brand new: taking a single-family line—that of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and forging it into a nation. This first “cluster” of dramatic demonstrations of God’s power began with the burning bush miracle and the calling of Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 3:1–22). 

From there miracles gathered like flies: Aaron’s staff turned into a snake and ate the magician’s snakes and staffs, ten plagues ravaged Egypt, the Red Sea parted and the people passed through on dry ground, manna and quail came from heaven and water flowed from a rock, the Ten Commandments were written by the finger of God, and on into the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy the miracles buzzed around the Israelites.

When Moses died, Joshua led the nation into the land God had promised them. They crossed the Jordan River at flood stage on dry land, Joshua encountered the preincarnate Christ—the “commander of the LORD’s army” (Joshua 5:13–15 NLT)—the walls collapsed, allowing them to conquer Jericho, and Joshua called on the sun to stand still.

• Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17:1-6, 18:17-40; 2 Kings 11-12)

By the time Israel was well established and living in peace and prosperity under David’s and Solomon’s rule, miracles became less frequent. But when the nation was divided into two, and the northern kingdom of Israel fell into idolatry and corruption, the Lord had a new message: one of divine judgment. His chosen messenger was a man from Tishbe named Elijah.

Like the miracle of the burning bush, the first miracle in the life of Elijah occurred in the wilderness—a divine charcuterie board supplied by ravens after Elijah predicted a drought. When the creek Elijah used for water dried up, the Lord sent him Gentile widow, where he stocked her dwindling pantry and raised up her dead son). 

Later, Elijah challenged the corrupt king, Ahab, and his idolatrous priests to a showdown on Mount Carmel, where the Lord breathed fire from heaven, followed by heavy rains. God performed other miracles through Elijah, culminating in the whirlwind of the fiery chariot that transported the prophet alive to heaven.

God hadn’t finished judging Israel when Elijah was raptured to heaven. His protégé, Elisha, was left behind to continue as God’s representative. Elisha performed many of the same miracles as Elijah but performed almost twice as many, including predicting the pregnancy for a poor woman, then raising her son to life when he died. Elisha also cured the leper Naaman while cursing Gehazi with leprosy, performing many other miracles during his lifetime.

• Daniel and His Friends (Daniel 2:1-47, 3:1-30)

Because of Israel’s persistence in worshipping other gods and refusing to learn the lessons of the miracles performed through His messengers, Elijah and Elisha, God handed the Israelites over to the Assyrians in 722 BC. One hundred and seventeen years later, in 605 BC, the southern kingdom of Judah became the puppet-state of the Babylonians, who carted off some of the leading citizens of Jerusalem, including Daniel and his three friends: Hananiah (Shadrach), Mishael (Meshach), and Azariah (Abed-Nego).

If you spent any time in Sunday school, you’re familiar with the miracles that took place during Judah’s exile in Babylon and recorded in the book of Daniel. Refusing to eat food sacrificed to idols, Daniel and his friends chose a diet of vegetables and water. The Lord honored their commitment by giving them strong bodies and robust minds on a diet of vegetables and water . Daniel was given the insight to know what Nebuchadnezzar dreamt and the ability to interpret the dream when the king’s wisemen couldn’t. For their obedience to worship God alone, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were thrown into the fiery furnace. And yet, the preincarnate Christ was with them, protecting them from the flames and the heat. 

Again, Daniel was granted the power to recount another one of the king’s dreams and to interpret it. This time, Daniel warned Nebuchadnezzar to submit to God’s grace or face God’s wrath, which would come in the form of madness. And then there was, of course, Daniel ability to read God’s mysterious message left on the wall of Belshazzar’s banquet hall and Daniel’s quiet night in the lions’ den.  

These numerous demonstrations of God’s power all occurred within about a 70 year time frame during which the Israelites—uprooted from their homeland—needed dramatic and consistent reminders of God’s faithfulness and God’s power.  

• Jesus and the Apostles (Matthew 9:27-31; Mark 7:31-37; John 2:1-11)

When we turn the page from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we see God doing the most dramatic work of all: the incarnation of His Son, Jesus, along with Christ’s death and resurrection. In support of His claim that He is the Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah, Jesus works miracles up and down the length of Israel (especially early in His ministry). 

According to the Gospels, Jesus performed 35 miracles during His earthly ministry. Some are unique to Matthew—healing two blind men and finding money in a fish’s mouth; some are unique to Mark—healing a deaf man and a blind man at Bethsaida; some are unique to Luke—raising a widow’s son and healing a woman who suffered for 18 years; and some are unique to John—turning water into wine and raising Lazarus from the dead. Interestingly, there’s only one miracle recorded in all four Gospels: the feeding of the five thousand (Matthew14:13–21; Mark 6:32–44; Luke 9:10–17; John 6:1–14).

Following the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the Holy Spirit came to permanently indwell all believers, and the church was born in Jerusalem. The leaders of the church—the apostles—were empowered by the Holy Spirit and followed in Jesus’s footsteps as miracle workers. They healed the lame and paralyzed they cast out demons; and brought the dead back to life.

Right about now, you might be getting misty-eyed about the “good old days,” thinking to yourself, Man, wouldn’t it have been great to live during the time of Moses or Elijah and Daniel or during the early days of the church to witness the stunning power of God? 

We should be grateful for the era in which God has chosen for us to live. Although we must face a culture that is increasingly ungodly and live under a government that is increasingly dysfunctional, we live in a time of relative political and societal calm compared to other ages of human history.  

And think of the unique spiritual blessings we can experience that no believer in the past was able to enjoy. We have the complete Word of God at our fingertips, something none of the people who lived during the days of the Old or New Testaments had. 

We have the indwelling Holy Spirit, which wasn’t true of believers during the days of Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Daniel and his friends, or even when Jesus walked the earth. 

I told you there are five periods when miracles clustered together. We’ve seen four of them. The fifth and final age of miracles is yet to come—and no one wants to experience it. This period will occur during the end times, and it is the final struggle between Satan and God.

• Satan and God (2 Thessalonians 2:8-9)

Paul makes clear in 2 Thessalonians, as John does in the book of Revelation, that the final cluster of miracles of power will occur during the end times—the seven years of tribulation after the rapture of the church and before the second coming of Christ and His Millennial Kingdom. This is certainly a unique period in human history—unlike any period before it—and it doesn’t follow the pattern of other miraculous eras. 

Instead of God working through His faithful servants or His Son, many of the miracles in this era will be performed by Satan and his Antichrist. Paul warns of the appearance of a “lawless one . . . whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:8–9). This “lawless one”—the Antichrist—will perform many “miracles” to validate Satan’s false claim that the Antichrist is the savior of the world and that the people of the world should worship him. Satan’s “lying wonders” (KJV) are scattered throughout the book of Revelation. God brings a cascading series of devastating miraculous judgments upon the unrepentant who follow Satan and the Antichrist rather than turning in faith to follow God and Christ.

The book of Revelation culminates in the great miracle of the new heavens and the new earth, where “there will no longer be any curse” and all the baggage that came because of the curse (Revelation 22:3). That’s the miracle we’re all looking forward to!

2. God’s Power Promised for Today (Isaiah 40:25-31)

In one of the most famous passages in the Old Testament God describes Himself as timeless (eternal), not bound by a clock; as the covenant-making and covenant-keeping God, not forgetting His promises; as the Creator of all the earth, not restricted to one parcel of land; as the tireless Lord, not a rundown old man; and as the inscrutable God, not a children’s book deity who is easily understood.

God doesn’t just possess all power; He gives power to the weak. God doesn’t just possess all energy; He gives energy to the fatigued. All you need to do is “wait”—to rest in hope, looking to the Lord for all your needs—and He will “renew” (NIV) or exchange His power for your powerlessness.

Once a man approached Jesus, asking the Lord to deliver his son from a demonic spirit that threatened to harm the boy. The father said to Jesus, “If You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” (Mark 9:22). Jesus answered, “‘If You can?” (v. 23). The troubled father wanted to know whether Jesus had power over demonic forces. But Jesus wanted to know whether the father had faith in God’s all-consuming power because He said to the father, “All things are possible to him who believes” in the all-powerful God (v. 23). 

The Scripture is clear on this point. In fact, it’s repeated throughout the Old and New Testaments: Nothing is impossible with God. You just need to come to the omnipotent God in faith.

3. The Principles for Experiencing God’s Power 

The Scripture lays out four principles to follow if you want to access God’s power in your life. If we think about these principles as classes in a college degree program, the first would be considered a prerequisite, while principles two to four would be considered classes for your major.

• Principle #1: God’s Power Is Primarily for His Children (John 1:12)
• Principle #2: God’s Power Is Generated by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9)
• Principle #3: God’s Power Is Amplified by His Word (Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
• Principle #4: God’s Power Is Often Accessed Through Prayer (James 5:16)

God isn’t limited to doing what we ask or even can imagine.  He is able to do far more—exceedingly abundantly beyond!   The Greek word here is one that Paul just made up.  He couldn’t think of a word to express how powerful God was so he just strung three Greek Words together—like supercalifragilistic expialidocious!