Recently a friend and fellow believer mentioned to me that he was "ready to see the good stuff of the Holy Spirit." He went on to say that he was ready to see the withered hand become restored, the blind to regain sight, the lame be made to walk; this kind of awe-inspiring miracle stuff that so many of us believers have wished to see. It was an interesting comment to me. And first of all, I can honestly say that I can relate. Countless times have I asked God to show me some kind of miracle that would wipe away any doubt that I would have of His power. I usually say these little prayers quietly in my head, lest I look like a failure, or a doubting Christian if God were not to perform my bidding. Still, miracles have remained an area of theological confusion for me almost since the day that I first embraced being a follower of Jesus Christ. It seems to be sort of common sense that most of the churches that most of us go to don't look like the church that most of us don't read about in the New Testament of the Bible.
But I did think about the scriptures quite a bit after my friend made his comment. And I am no Biblical Studies scholar. I don't sit here at my laptop on a Monday morning with a head full of Hebraic vocabulary. But I do read a lot of Bible. These days I tend to read it more like a story. So when I meditate on it I think of it much as one might recall the scenes from a movie; sort of scrolling through the chronology of all of the familiar books and considering the thematic landmarks along the way. In this case, the thematic landmark was New Testament miracles.
Jesus comes first. He did a lot of miracle stuff. But I honestly can't think that he did a whole lot of miracles for the twelve crazy guys that were following him around full-time. In other words, we don't have any scriptural evidence of Peter having a tummy ache, Jesus spitting on his stomach and saying, "go forth and eat enchiladas no more". The gospel writers record a lot of stories where Jesus performed miracles for people who just happened to be along the way from point A to point B. He is walking down to the watering hole and someone just happens to be there who needs a little help. Or on the way into town some guy interrupts the disciples conversations by crying out for a little mercy. In other words, Jesus seemed to do most of his miracles for the outsiders, the people who weren't entirely sure about what He was all about. I can only think of two instances where this rule may not apply. At some point Jesus helped out Peter's mother who was sick. And later on, I believe, He resurrected Lazarus from the grave. One can assume that Lazarus was a follower of Jesus' teachings, but even then, we don't really know for sure. He certainly was a friend of Jesus. This we do know. But I have had friends who didn't like the things I said. So who knows?
The other most useful book in the Bible is the book of Acts, or the Acts of the Apostles. This book is also full of miracles of healing and various signs and wonders. Again, most of the miracles that take place in this book seem to be for the crowds, and the unbelievers. Saul was made to be a believer through a miraculous physical sign by being made blind for a short time. A stranger on the sidewalk was made to walk despite being lame when all he really asked to receive was some spare change. The only miracle that really comes to my mind in the book of Acts where Christians are involved is when two believers who were dishonest with some financial matters were basically struck dead on the spot by the Holy Spirit. I guess God saves the rougher miracles for the believers.
In Paul's letters he often speaks about "signs and wonders". Paul talks about these things as evidence of his apostleship. In other words, the signs and wonders that he and the other apostles performed contribute to their credibility as true disciples of Christ. These miracles helped the non-believers to embrace the message that came alongside these acts of healing. We don't ever see Paul asking for healing. Except at one point in the book of 2 Corinthians. Paul shares a story where he asked God to remove a thorn from his flesh. But then he shares with us that God didn't perform this task. Instead, God's lesson about grace trumped Paul's desire for comfort.
I better get to my point here before you, the reader, start to snooze. I have spent most of my Christian experience in certain kinds of churches. So I don't mean to generalize on the comments I'm about to make. However, I do believe that the types of churches I have generally attended have been the most popular types of churches in our culture today. These churches have not been the type where you see very many signs and wonders. At least not the kinds of signs and wonders where withered body parts restore and paralyzed people get up and walk. Now, we have spent a lot of time justifying the little tiny miracles that take place in our churches and calling them signs and wonders so that we feel like the Holy Spirit is at least doing a little something for us. But, for the most part, we ignore the fact that not a lot of really miraculous stuff happens during our church services.
I have also seen a lot of Christians pray for miracles. I've been in a lot of prayer circles where we politely ask God to heal some friend of ours who is laid sick in a hospital. Or we might lay our hands on one of our Christian brothers or sisters and ask that God remove their back pain, or take away their cancer. I believe these are good prayers to make, and I believe our Father wants us to ask Him for these things. But, what I mainly want to point out today is an imbalance that seems obvious to me now. We spend most of our time asking for miracles for our own kind. The New Testament believers spent most of their miracle prayer time asking for healing for the non-believers so that they might begin to believe. Why the difference? I think mainly, at least for me, it's simply more comfortable. If I ask God to heal up my Christian friend who has a bad knee, and I say the prayer around a few other Christian friends, I'm pretty confident about a few things. One, I'm pretty confident that God probably won't heal my friends' knee. Two, I'm pretty confident that when He doesn't heal my friends knee, all of my other Christian friends around me know the polite theological things to say. Things like, "It must not be God's timing right now." Or, "perhaps there is something God wants us to learn in this experience."
Let me be so bold as to make a strong proposition of which many of you may not agree. Perhaps God is curious why we are always asking Him to remove the pain in our knees when He has given us the keys to his treasure room. Don't the New Testament scriptures tell us that everything that belongs to God is also now ours? Doesn't Paul tell us that we are now heirs of the Kingdom of God, made sons of God through adoption?
We, as Christians, gave our lives to the service of Christ. Paul even uses the language of slavery, mentioning that we are now slaves of Christ. Our freedom is given to us through this willing slavery. But this also means that the outcome of our lives is completely up to God. I've always been baffled at the believers who so quickly doubt when God allows them a little pain and suffering. Isn't my body God's to injure if He wishes to injure, and to heal if He wishes to heal? If it is injured, which prayer should I say more quickly; "God please heal this injury?" Or, "God, please use this injury?"
The ministry of healing in the Christian church of my culture seems to be very self-obsessed. My charismatic brothers would brag to me that miracles of healing take place in their congregations on a daily basis. Amen! So show me, my brothers and sisters, where your miracles of healing are taking place then on the sidewalks of downtown? If your churches are havens for such great power, then why do you keep it within your walls? Why do you save it for your own spiritual families?
I will be the first to admit that I do not consider myself qualified. I ask for healing for others willingly when around my own church family. But ask me to pray for some guy I have never met, and I will do all that I can to avoid the issue. Why? Lack of faith I think, both in myself and in my God. I feel that I am not alone here.
What would happen if we turned our prayers outward? What would occur if we stopped praying for ourselves and started sharing the treasures of God with those around us who do not have them? After all, it is us who carry the keys to the treasure room. I wonder.
