Our lives reflect an open book. The book is the Bible. The scriptures are our lessons about living a Christ-like life, and how we invest in sharing the Word through our actions and deeds. Works will not pay entrance into heaven, there are no works that great, but works are expected of all followers.
How can we spread the Word if we do not demonstrate what it is saying to nonbelievers and believers alike?
Image by Caleb Warren. Bible.com, YouVersion
Does God ever place an inquiry in your heart, something he wants you to learn more about? He planted my inquiry – miracles, and while researching miracles, this is what I am learning. I am not sharing this information to question anyone’s faith. I am sharing it to add another dimension of our God’s love for us. It is food for thought and something to share with God to gain greater understanding. I am doing the same. The question about whether miracles do exist today is a great conversation starter with the Lord.
Four Primary Types of Miracles
Johnhamelministeries.org
“For I am the Lord, I change not … ” (Malachi 3:6)
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)
We are going to be looking at the four primary types of miracles performed by Jesus during His earth Ministry. Jesus is the greatest miracle worker of all time. The Bible says He has not changed.
Keep in mind as we look at these miracles that we cannot possibly look at them all in this lesson. The Bible says that the number of miracles performed by Jesus would fill the libraries of the world if they were to be recorded. We will look only at the four primary classifications of miracles. This will give you an idea of what Jesus is still willing to do today for all who believe.
Noah Webster defines “miracle” as “an event that contradicts known scientific law.”
So a miracle is a supernatural act in the natural realm. God actually suspends the Laws of Nature and moves supernaturally.
The reasons for God performing miracles are too numerous to list in this brief study. I will share with you here only two of the most important reasons for Jesus performing miracles. First, Jesus performs miracles to glorify Himself and His Father. Second, Jesus is still performing miracles today to demonstrate His compassion for humanity.
Let us get right into the four primary types of miracles.
Miracles Over Nature
A miracle over nature would be a miracle performed over natural things. Jesus turned water into unfermented wine in John, chapter 2. That was a miracle over nature because those were natural elements. All the elements of nature are subject to Jesus because He created them all. (Colossians 1:16)
“Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. But as they sailed, he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake, and they were filled with water and were in jeopardy. And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then HE AROSE AND REBUKED THE WIND AND THE RAGING OF THE WATER: THEY CEASED, AND THERE WAS A CALM. (Luke 8:22-24 )
This is a wonderful example of Jesus exercising authority over the elements of nature, which were originally created by Him. The wind and the sea are still subject to His Divine authority. Somebody said, “Can’t do anything about the weather.” But that is not what the Bible says. If you ever find yourself in a natural crisis, on land, at sea or in the air, use your authority in Jesus’ Name. Command the circumstances to change. It will work for you.
Probably the most popular miracle of nature in the Ministry of Jesus is when He and Peter both walked on water in Matthew 14:22-33.
Jesus is still performing miracles of nature all over the Earth. People do not see them when they do not believe in them. God desires for you to experience miracles over nature.
Miracles of Supply
“And when they came to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.
Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and TAKE UP THE FISH THAT FIRST COMETH UP; AND WHEN THOU HAST OPENED HIS MOUTH, THOU SHALT FIND A PIECE OF MONEY: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.” (Matthew 17:24-27)
Of course, I am not telling anyone that when tax time rolls around that it is time to go fishing. Nor am I saying that God would not tell you to go fishing for a money miracle. What I am saying is that one type of miracle that Jesus performed was the miracle of supply. Jesus is still performing miracles of supply today to glorify Himself and His Father, to meet the needs of His family and to cause people to come to Him.
“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” (Luke 6:38 )
If you are faithful to support the work of the ministry with a percentage of the money that God gives you, He will see to it that your cupboards are never bare and your well will never dry up. Malachi 3:10 reveals that as we open our hand, releasing what we have, God will open the windows of Heaven, releasing what He has.
Miracles of Healing
“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and HEALING ALL MANNER OF SICKNESS AND ALL MANNER OF DISEASE among the people.” (Matthew 4:23)
Jesus created your body. He can restore your body when it begins to malfunction. Some Christians have more faith in automobile manufacturers than they do in Jesus. They know that when their automobile breaks, the manufacturer can fix it because the manufacturer made it.
If Believers had as much confidence in Jesus as they do in automobile manufacturers, sickness would not be as rampant in the Body of Christ as it is today.
It is always God’s will for people to be healed. But people do not always get healed because they do not always meet the conditions of faith. Jesus is limited by what we believe. (Mark 6:1-6)
Not only does Jesus heal sick bodies, but He has also developed a pretty good reputation for raising dead ones.
“Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And HE THAT WAS DEAD SAT UP AND BEGAN TO SPEAK. And he delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.” (Luke 7:12-16 )
I have heard people say when it comes to raising the dead, “Yea, right. I’ll believe that when I see it.” I always tell them, “No, Jesus said you’ll see that when you believe it.” We do not see more of these types of miracles today because we have fallen into tradition, religion, and unbelief concerning them. The time is upon us now when all of the world will be astounded by all of the types of miracles we are studying today. I personally have experienced all four types of miracles.
Miracles Over Demon Powers
“And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and CAST OUT MANY DEVILS; AND SUFFERED NOT THE DEVILS TO SPEAK, because they knew him.” (Mark 1:32-34 )
Somebody once said about the above verse, “Jesus healed many of these people, but He didn’t heal all of them.” To which I say, “No, He did heal them all. He healed as many as were sick. He also cast out as many demons as were present.”
No matter how great the manifestation of demon powers in the Ministry of Jesus, they could never hold their own against Him. The best they could do was to start talking incessantly to make the people think that their power was the same as Jesus’ power. This was an attempt to discredit Him and make Him look like He was one of them.
I believe this is why Jesus would not allow demons to speak unless spoken to. He would just tell them to “shut up and come out,” and that was that. No matter how great the concentration of evil, the power of Jesus is tremendously greater.
Demon spirits today, as in Bible days, still cause dumbness, deafness, foaming, fits, insanity, teeth gnashing, sickliness, sickness, suicide, screaming, and exhaustion. Jesus, through Believers, is still exerting power over all physical and spiritual manifestations of Satan and demon spirits. Jesus is still drawing men and women to Himself through miracles over nature, miracles of supply, miracles of healing and miracles over demon powers.
Tell God that you believe in miracles. Tell Him that He is welcome to perform miracles on your behalf. Ask Him to use you to perform miracles on behalf of others. He will.
Have you made Jesus the Miracle Worker the Lord of your life? If not, just say, “Jesus, You’re my choice.” (Romans 10:13) That’ll open the door to a parade of miracles in your life.
Be Blessed … John and Barbara Hamel
THIS IS A GOOD DISCUSSION TOPIC, ANYONE INTERESTED IN SHARING?
We sharpen each other through conversation and prayer. Accountability is a cherished tool. Two minds can provide mutual counsel and strengthen each other’s judgement. It builds our countenance in the Lord. What better gift can one bestow on the other than helping one another mature in the Word and to do good in their sphere of influence?
Walking by Faith and not by sight is a great way to begin your day.
As we go about our day, most of us see homeless people, people begging for food, people being rude and mean to others, people stressed out and anxiety ridden, and people engulfed by hate and violence, but we cannot let that destroy our spirit. Satan is attempting to flatline us. These are the things of the world that represent the dark times. However, fear not, the Lord is our comforter especially in times of trouble. Paul wrote, in 2 Corinthians 4:16, 18, that outwardly we may be wasting away, yet inward, we are being renewed day by day; we fix our eyes not on want is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary and what is not seen is eternal.
Our Lord clarified that we live in the world, but are not of the world. It is our responsibility, as followers of Christ, to present a Christ-like persona, regardless of what the world is presenting as reality. We must live by faith and be the glow in the room. The glow is the Holy Spirit flowing out of us. Our challenge is to help when we can, greet people as we walk by, pray for everyone, and use the Fruit as the Spirit to walk in the Word and live by faith. Our walk defines how we live, how we act, and how we conduct ourselves. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians 5:1, “therefore be imitators of God.” When we live by faith, we live in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3). Living by faith is fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith. (Hebrews 12:1-3). Faith Anchors Us To God.
In a time where it seems that the Civil War spirit has spread throughout the nation, it’s important to remember who we are – God’s children.
We live in this world but are not of this world, and some of the commandments do not line up with worldly logic. I understand that, my response, to paraphrase Jesus, is, ‘not my will, but your will be done’.
God’s command is to ’love our enemies, to love those who hate us and despise us.’ We are to bless those who curse us and to pray for those who mistreat us.
Why?
We are God’s children and He wants to save all souls. ”The idea of blessing is to invoke God‘s favor on another’s behalf or at least appeal to God for that person.” Jesus is calling for an unnatural response. He wants us to respond in love and not physical or verbal retaliation.
This is important for everyone including me. I am at times taken over by the prevailing spirit of hate and anger, succumbing to the spirit of Civil War hate. But my response feels unnatural and weakens my resolve.
As we mature as Christians, our continuance is no longer of this world. We can no longer linger in the hate, hurt, or malice. God has called us into another world. One that stands in the face of this energy and proclaims Him the victor, our Lord, and Savior.
We cannot be separated from God. We are his children. And we have an intimate relationship with Him. It is unnatural to abandon Him during these dark times.
It is precisely during these times that people look for light and look for God. We are the light, the Holy Spirit lives in us and shines through our being. They look to see how we respond, with love or hate. The war is not ours, it is a principality war and we are charged to carry out the Lord’s commands. We are God’s foot soldiers. Our light must continue to shine brightly in this all-encompassing darkness.
Light always shines through the darkness, if we ’STAND’ in these evil times. We need to do good and be merciful to our enemies because of what God did for us, when we were unsaved sinners.
Re-Blog – https://wp.me/p98Coa-Dv
Scripture Bible.com; Biblegateway.com, TNIV
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Thank you for visiting my Young Christian Warriors site and dailyinspiration-lisasthoughts.com.
Remorse, repentance and Godly sorrow, are part of the process of maturing in our Christian walk.
How many of us have sinned, and the sin changed our trajectory in life? It may have been at school, work, or in a relationship. The Bible says, we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. Fortunately, we live in the New Testament dispensation, and Jesus died to free us from our sins. Does that mean, we no longer sin? No, it means we are no longer bound by our sins. We, in our humanity – can be remorseful about the event. We can repent for our sin. And, most importantly, we can have Godly sorrow about our sin.
A few days ago, I was listening to Beth Moore’s audiobook, Praying God’s Prayers, and one of the things that stood out was the distinction between remorse, repentance, and Godly sorrow. My mind (focus) would not leave this topic, I needed to know more and continued to query, what is the difference between the three forms of admission of sin? This is what I learned.
Remorse
Let us begin with remorse, which is defined as a deep and painful regret for wrongdoing. A compunction – a feeling of uneasiness or anxiety by regret for doing wrong or causing pain. Remorse is sadness that primarily focuses on us. We seek forgiveness for our sin, but little more. This type of regret is referred to as worldly sorrow. Worldly sorrow lacks repentance.
10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.11 Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right.
2 Corinthians 7:10-11 NLT
When we are remorseful for a sin, which is wrongdoing, we are acting in our carnal nature. It is a human response to our wrongdoing. We acknowledge it and seek forgiveness from the person/s that were affected. The focus is our desire for them to forgive us.
Repentance
When we repent, we ask God for forgiveness for the sin or wrongdoing. True repentance offers forgiveness and places the sin in the “sea of forgetfulness’. This refers to God’s forgiveness, and how when we are justified in Christ, God forgets our sins so completely that they may as well be buried at the bottom of the sea. The crux of repentance is that we ask God to forgive us, and He does, but then we revisit the offense meaning, we have not forgiven ourselves. We failed to turn it over to God. If we believe God, we must forgive ourselves and place the offense at the bottom of the sea, or as far as the east is from the west. In short, we can no longer revisit it.
Question – do we change our course when we repent and continue to replay the sin in our minds? No. We have not given up the thought of the sin, though we may have chosen not to repeat it physically, it stills lives deep within us.
We asked for God’s mercy but did not accept it. In other words, we turned away from the sin but did not turn to God. Our repentance is incomplete. Our sin nature is still active and has not relinquished the sin. Our remorse and regret remain selfish and self-centered. We cry out for justice to relieve our own pain, but not for the pain we have 
caused others. Worldly sorrow produces death because Satan maintains a hold on us through our selfish cries for redemption. This sorrow falls short of Godly sorrow, in fact, it does not exist in the same universe.
Godly Sorrow
Godly sorrow is when we grieve for those we hurt when we sinned. It is defined as having grief over the sin, rather than the consequences of the sin. Godly sorrow (deep sorrow) is another element of repentance. Godly sorrow is lying prone before God crying out for His forgiveness. Godly sorrow leads to salvation and leaves no room for regret. As the scripture says, it produces earnestness, indignation, alarm, concern, and an acute sense of sadness as the result of the sin. “Godly sorrow is a kind of wretchedness that can bring the repentant sinner to tears of grief.” (gotQuestions.org). James wrote that “Godly sorrow is the experience of lamenting, grieving, mourning and wailing,” (James 4:8-9). Godly sorrow results from a heartfelt conviction that we have offended God by our sin. When we have Godly sorrow, we resolve within our hearts that we will ‘cease to do evil’ and learn to do good with God’s help.
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good.
Isaiah 1:16-17 ESV
One of the clearest examples of Godly sorrow can be seen in Luke 7:36-50. In summary, Godly sorrow:
*Draws us to Jesus
*Drives our faith
*Expresses itself externally
*Increases our love for Christ
*Produces assurance of forgiveness* (Five Signs of Godly Sorrow. Ryan Huguley.com)
As we mature as Christians, we move from being remorseful to of asking for repentance and moving into Godly sorrows. Our ultimate goal is to lay our sins before God and plead for his forgiveness and salvation, placing our focus away from the sin and to God. I hope this Post enlightens you, I know the study has provided a greater depth of understanding and has shown me where I have fallen short. I always questioned ‘why’ after repenting did I find myself reliving the sin over and over in my mind. The answer is clear – I did not release the worldly sorrow in exchange for Godly sorrow. The focus remained on me and not on those affected by my sin, or on offending God. I was still reliving the sin in my mind and feeling hurt by the result of the actions, failing to place the focus on others and crying out to God to help those who were hurt. Repentance does not focus on self. Remorse focuses on self. Repentance focuses on those we hurt, and Godly sorrow focuses on having offended God. Godly sorrow leads to salvation.
Godly sorrow is sorrow that is often misunderstood and therefore not executed as part of our repentance and turning away from our sin. Having read this, and pondering over replays of sin, can you now upgrade your repentance to Godly sorrow, turn away from the sin once and for all, place it in the sea of forgetfulness, and turn to God?
Re-Blog – https://wp.me/p98Coa-CH
Scripture – Bible.com, ESV
Images – Google Images
References – What is godly Sorrow, gotQuestions.org; Five Signs of Godly Sorrow. Ryan Huguley.com; Vine’s Expository Dictionary; Guilt and Repentance, Dr. Nicolas Ellen, Slideshare.com (Google Images); Praying God’s Prayers, Beth Moore
Thank you for visiting my Young Christian Warriors site and dailyinspiration-lisasthoughts.com.
Lisa’s Daily Inspirations 