It’s easy to imagine that miracles don’t happen anymore these days. But God is a miracle working God – he was 2000 years ago and He is today. Nothing’s changed and I for one, still believe in miracles.

Have you ever needed a miracle in your life? Have you ever wondered even what a miracle looks like?

Well, I decided to go to Wikipedia – the internet based encyclopaedia to find out what it says about miracles. Well, here’s the definition it came up with:

A miracle is an event believed to be caused by the interposition of divine intervention by a supernatural being in the universe by which the ordinary operation of Nature is overruled, suspended, or modified.

A bit dry and clinical isn’t it? But it’s pretty much bang on the money. Except – I happen to believe not in the divine intervention of a super natural being in the universe, I happen to believe that the only God that performs miracles, real miracles, the sort that speak of His love for us – is the same God who sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for you and for me on that cross. Now, that was a miracle, not just the dying bit – as if that weren’t enough – but the being raised from the dead bit. That is one major miracle.

Now it’s easy to believe in miracles, until we desperately need one for ourselves. Until someone we love has cancer. Until we’re the ones in the jobless queue. Until it’s our marriage that’s in trouble. Then all of a sudden, it becomes incredibly hard to believe in miracles.

Miracles are a difficult subject for us to talk about. Because I know that there’s someone listening today who believed that God would do a miracle for their loved one who was dying – and they died anyway. And there’s someone who believed in a miracle when they lost their job and couldn’t afford to pay for their mortgage and they lost their house anyway. And there’s someone today who believed … you get the picture? God doesn’t always do miracles when we want Him to? Why? Because He’s God and He gets to choose.

See the statistics are that we live in a world where, the last time I checked, out of every 100 people – any 100 you’d care to choose – out of every 100 people – exactly 100 will die at some point. The body gets old, it wears out and it gives up. Either that or Jesus will return first. It’s just the way things are. I watched my dad die over 10 years ago, he was only 74.

A good friend of mine in Africa, his brother was killed by rebel fighters and his father was injured in the fighting and died because of the lack of medical care. Now this friend is a humble, powerful man of God. He believed for miracles.

We live in a world that rejected God and the result of that is that people suffer and people die. Look around, there are billions suffering in the world today. People who believe in Jesus and people who don’t. Jesus suffered. Jesus asked for the suffering to be taken away – but it wasn’t. But still, still I believe in miracles. Sometimes God steps in for no reason that’s particularly apparent to us and performs a miracle.

The first time I prayed for someone to be healed was a woman at church. She had bad knees, they were painful, I prayed. Now I didn’t really expect her to be healed and I kind of avoided her after that. Months later she told me that she had been healed.

I was shocked. Back then I thought it had something to do with me. And that – that’s the mistake that’s so easy to make. If I’m really, really, really, really good, God will give me a miracle. If I believe until I bust, if I clean up my act, if I do this or do that or say this or pray that … then, then I’ll get the miracle I’ve been hoping for. See, that completely and utterly misses the point.

Let me read you something, a letter that the apostle Paul wrote. This comes from Galatians chapter 3, beginning at verse 1. He writes:

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited and crucified! The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so much for nothing? – if it really was for nothing.

Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by you doing the works of the law, or by your believing in what you heard?

Pretty simple isn’t it. If we think we can get miracles by working our way into God’s favour, by playing the game, ticking the boxes, getting it all right. Paul’s saying, “you foolish Galatians! Did you see miracles happen because you did the right thing or because you believed in what you’d heard?” See, doing the right thing and ticking the boxes doesn’t deliver miracles.

Now Gods not a sugar daddy. He’s not a slot machine. You don’t put the coin in, pull the handle, and watch the dials spin and see the cash fall out to the bottom. It’s not how it works. Not some formula that we apply and hey presto – out pops the rabbit from the hat!

If there was – then God would be reduced to a performing poodle who does tricks on our command. It’s not it at all. Somewhere deep inside God has a plan and sometimes that plan includes miracles, sometimes it doesn’t. But the thing that causes God to perform a miracle is not what we do but what we believe.

Faith, the faith to believe, come what may. Irrespective of the outcome – I’m gonna honour God and I’m going to obey Him and I’m going to love Him and I’m going to bow my life down to Him and I am going to believe in Jesus for a miracle.

Just believe – call me crazy. Call me simple. Call me whatever you like. I just believe. Like the three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They refused to bow down and worship an idol that King Nebuchadnezzar wanted them to worship. He threatened to throw them into a furnace and this is what they said:

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defence to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up. (Daniel 3:16-18)

And they were thrown into the furnace and God did deliver them. But even if he hadn’t, they still weren’t going to bow down to any other god. Sometimes I’ve believed mightily for a miracle and God hasn’t done it. And I remember on a few occasions how painful and distressing that was. Like having my heart torn out – but God had something different planned.

Other times, just recently in fact, I’ve under-believed in God. I had low expectations and God has done such mighty miracles, opened doors for the Gospel that for years have been tightly shut to me. Moved the hearts of people that I’ve never even met to grant me favour.

And I’ve stood back in awe of what He’s done. Why? I don’t know, I’m like you, I’m just some little guy. I believe in Jesus, I worship Him, I do my best every day to honour Him. I fall flat on my face some days. And every now and then, He does something amazing – and you know what I’ve noticed? It’s invariably for His glory not mine. His name is lifted up and yep, it helps me sometimes, but that’s a side benefit really.

Do I believe in miracles? Absolutely! Do they always work out like I’ve planned – not on your nelly. It’s just the way it is.

It’s easy to imagine that God will do a miracle for other people, but never, ever for me.  Sure I believe God can do miracles…just not for me.  I mean, if I believe in a miracle and He doesn’t show up, I’m going to look like a fool.

How often in life do we think to ourselves – I just need a miracle. Nothing but a miracle is going to get this done. And you know the struggle with that? We just don’t know when, or even if, a miracle is ever going to happen. Is God going to step in this time, or not? I mean, if I believe in God for a miracle and it doesn’t happen – I’m going to look like an idiot. And you know something, so often that’s exactly what stops us from believing in Him for a miracle.

What will other people say? What if I believe God for this or for that and I tell someone else and then God doesn’t come through and then I look stupid. Well maybe, maybe it would be safer not to believe God for that breakthrough. Maybe I should just shut up and stay in my little box and put up with the misery that’s going on in my life and let other people ask Jesus for stuff. Do you see the mentality? Do you see how pride can stop us from asking and receiving?

Jesus once said to his disciples, “The reason you haven’t received anything, is because you haven’t asked me for anything yet.” But … well, anyone who’s ever dared in their heart to believe God for a miracle will know that feeling, that niggling sense of “what will other people think?” This is real life. I don’t want to dress up the idea of miracles. There are two equal and opposite mistakes in talking and thinking about miracles. The first one is to under spiritualise.

We can think and act and behave and believe as though miracles never happen. I have to tell you something – if miracles never happen, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you right now, I just wouldn’t. I wouldn’t even be on air on this station. I would have gone broke ages ago.

The other end of the spectrum is too over spiritualise. This kind of drifting on cloud nine kind of spirituality. As if nothing ever goes wrong in life if you believe in Jesus. What a load of rubbish. Of course things go wrong. Of course we make mistakes. Of course people get cancer. Of course children die. But somewhere in the middle of all that, the notion that I might be embarrassed if I believe in God for a miracle and He doesn’t show up. Well … that sort of thing niggles away at our minds, doesn’t it?

I want to introduce you today to a couple of men – men at the bottom of the social ladder who put everything on the line. And a third man, right at the top of the social ladder who did the same. The first of these two men are blind beggars. They heard that Jesus was in town. Here’s what happened. You can read about it in Matthew, chapter 20:29-34.

As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Jesus. There were two blind men sitting by the roadside. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

The crowd sternly ordered them to be quiet; but they shouted even more loudly, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!” Jesus stood still and called to them, saying, “What do you want me to do?” They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.”

Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they regained their sight and followed him.

See, these were two blind, beggarly outcasts. There was no social security safety net in those days. No cheque coming in the mail every two weeks. They were blind, they couldn’t work, therefore they were poor, therefore they were ostracised. Therefore they weren’t part of the crowd following Jesus. They were sitting on the side of the road And these crowds were milling around Jesus. They were normal people. They were the beautiful people. They were the people who had a right to be there. Would have been so easy for these beggars just to say to one another:

Hey Fred, Jesus is here. Yeah, I know Dave, but look at us. Do you really, really think He’d ever do one of those miracles for the likes of you and me? Nah – you’re right, it’s a complete waste of time isn’t it? Can you imagine? Can you imagine if they’d had that attitude? They’d have died blind. What a complete and utter tragedy that would have been. What? There aren’t any words to describe it. I’m not good enough! Let’s not go! They would have missed out, wouldn’t they? Do you get it? And look at what they did, they shouted out in public. The crowds told them to shush. But they went public anyway, they went against public opinion. They went against conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom was, “Jesus won’t do a miracle for you because you’re not one of the beautiful people, right?” And yet, they got their miracle. But, I hear you say, but they were outcasts. When it comes to reputation, they had nothing to lose.

Well … maybe you’re right. Perhaps they had nothing to lose – they were, after all, at the bottom of the social register. So now let’s look at a man at the complete opposite end of the social scale. A man by the name Jairus.

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue a man named Jairus came and, when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” (Mark 5:21-23)

This was the leader of the synagogue. This Jairus guy was really somebody. Jesus, on they other hand, even though He was drawing big crowds, already had a dodgy relationship with religious hierarchy in Jerusalem. But this man’s desperation outweighed his concern over his reputation. He threw himself publicly, in front of the crowds, in front of the people who attended his synagogue, down at Jesus’ feet. He would have looked pretty stupid if Jesus had ignored him or turned him away. And there it is. There’s the answer.

Read Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, any one of the historical accounts of Jesus life, and tell me if you can find one instance where Jesus turned away just one person who came to Him and asked Him for a miracle. And I’ve got to tell you, I’m going to save you some time. There’s not a one.

Tell me the one time when Jesus admonished someone for having too much faith or for calling on Him in public – NOT ONCE!That’s why people did it. That’s why they weren’t concerned with looking stupid – because He never turned them away. Didn’t always give them the answer they were looking for but mostly He did. Jesus never, ever turned them away. Jesus never made them look stupid. He always rewarded their faith.

You know what I’ve decided – I am happy to put my faith in Him and believe in Him for a miracle when I need one, even if I end up looking stupid. I’m sorry, I just don’t care what other people think. I don’t mean that arrogantly. I just don’t care what you think. Actually what everyone else thinks is absolutely irrelevant. I’d rather look a fool, sure people think that sometimes, than miss out on the miracle working power of God in my life. And you know what happens when we abandon our reputation. When we stop worrying about what other people think and put our trust in Jesus, you know what happens? We end up seeing more than our fair share of miracles. I had one just yesterday. God opened a door that had been firmly shut to me for years. Should never have been opened. But it was.

More than my fair share of miracles? That works, doesn’t it?

Sometimes we think that, well … we have to be perfect to receive a miracle.  Never mind that we desperately need God’s supernatural helping hand, never mind that He’s a God of grace and mercy – we kind of figure that we have to get our act together first.

There’s something about God that I sometimes find difficult to come to grips with. It almost seems as though there’s a contradiction.On the one hand, when you read Gods Word, the Bible, it’s pretty clear that God honours those who honour Him. In fact there’s a specific verse in the Old Testament that says that. 1 Samuel 2:30, God says:

I will honour those who honour me but those who despise me will be treated with contempt.

That kind of makes sense doesn’t it?

But then, then you see God do things, good things, miraculous things for people who never asked and who never particularly seem to deserve a miracle. And you think to yourself, well this honouring God and Him honouring us is one thing. But sometimes He kind of just zaps people from on high and does amazing things in their lives.

Me on the other hand, I just plod along, day after day, put up with all the stuff I have to put up with.Clearly, I’m not one of those special people. And clearly I don’t deserve a miracle – so I’ll just keep on plodding along. Well, maybe today, maybe today we’re going to discover something that will just blow us apart.

I want to make something clear before we start talking about miracles today. I’m definitely, absolutely definitely NOT one of those people that we all look at and go – well he deserves a miracle. He’s one of those Christians that God would definitely bless.

ABSOLUTELY NOT. In fact, if I could only show you the total disastrous mess that my life was in when I finally turned it over to God, you’d pick me as one of those people where you’d think “Well, God would never want that guy in His kingdom!”

It’s really important for you to understand that. When Berni Dymet came to Christ he was just your average punter with his life in a mess.

And yet, I’ve seen miracle after miracle in my life since I gave it to Jesus. To be sure – not every miracle that I’ve asked for I’ve received. Sometimes, God had different plans. But so often, God’s stepped in with miracles that I didn’t even ask for. For example I was called to go to Bible College. Now I went part time because I was a business man and I was jetting all over the world all the time. I was always on a plane to somewhere.

I said, “God, how am I going to make lectures? I mean I’m never there. This is never going to work.” But I just had a deep sense of God’s calling and I took that step to go and I just felt God saying, “you go and I’ll figure the rest out.”

So I embarked on a 6 year part time degree, a Bachelor of Ministry. Now I was running an international IT consulting firm. Figure that out. So I took the step, I signed up. Not only did I finish the degree in just 4 years – but I only ever missed one lecture. That was the week that I was in New Zealand on my honeymoon with my now wife. Amazing. Somehow, I always made it there.

Once I was sitting on a tarmac in a plane that couldn’t take off. I was overseas, they needed to fly in a spare part from another city and the Captain came on and suggested that we may not be able to take off today. I just smiled to myself and thought, “you just don’t understand. I have a lecture at Bible College at 2pm this afternoon.” And sure enough, I walked into the lecture room with just a minute to spare.

Or the time that an atheist program director on a huge radio station in Africa agreed to take our programs and air them to a weekly audience of millions of people. Or the time that … well I could go on.

And you know, the problem with hearing some bloke talking about all the miracles God’s done in his life is that, to anyone listening, it can be just so disheartening. Well, well – I haven’t seen those sorts of miracles. Isn’t it funny how other people’s testimonies can do that to us? To tell you the truth – I’ve been there too.

So I want to share a story with you today, a story of a woman who asked Jesus for a miracle and didn’t get quite the response that she was looking for. Have a listen. This story comes from Matthews’s gospel, chapter 15, starts at verse 21:

Jesus left that place and went on to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was instantly healed.

See she was a Canaanite, not one an Israelite, not one of God’s chosen people. But a Gentile and the Jews hated the Gentiles. They often called them dogs in those days. But she needed a miracle. And she’d heard about the miraculous things that Jesus has been doing. Maybe she’d even seen one or two.

So she comes and kneels before Him. Get it, she’s lowering herself to a Jew. She is a gentile. This is a bit like an Irishman bowing down to an Englishman, or an Australian bowing down to a New Zealander, or a Tutsi bowing down to a Hutu. It’s an unbelievably amazing thing that she did in public. And Jesus gives her a response that fitted in completely with the animosity between Jew and Gentile. He answered:

It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs. (Matthew 15:26)

That is really rude, she could have been very offended. She could have spat something back in His face. She could have just left. See, she didn’t fit the mould for someone who deserved a miracle. But instead, she said:

Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. (Matthew 15:27)

She crashed through this test that Jesus was laying out before her because He, He wasn’t being deliberately rude, He loves her, He’s the Son of God. He was wanting to see how she would respond and she responded rightly. And so Jesus answered her, verse 28 of Matthew chapter 15. And so Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was immediately healed.

We can tell ourselves we don’t fit the mould for a miracle. We can compare ourselves to other people and think – nope, definitely not me. Or we can just say to ourselves – you know something, I’ve been asking Jesus for this miracle for years and nothing’s happened.

And so, we can end up just giving up. Or…or we can listen to this story of the Canaanite woman who just believed in Jesus despite anything and decide that it tells us something about Jesus. With just the smallest mustard seed of faith, we can believe that if she can have a miracle in her desperation, well, I’m just going to believe in Jesus for my miracle too. That’s it. No ifs. No buts. Not going to let anyone talk me out of it. Not going to let my circumstances talk me out of it.

I’m just going to believe in this Jesus with all that I am. Sometimes, He’s delayed. The other day He gave me something I’ve been waiting for, for three years. Sometimes, He says ‘no’ to something that I’ve wanted desperately.

Like I said, He hasn’t given me every miracle I’ve ever asked for. But on the other hand, I’ve discovered that when I believe doggedly and tenaciously for a miracle, I end up seeing more miracles than my fair share.

Sometimes, we expect God to show up with a miracle in our lives, kind of like the pizza delivery man at the front door. But God – well, sometimes He has a different plan.  Sometimes He wants us to grow the sort of faith that’s going to blow a hole in the roof.

It never ceases to amaze me how different God’s ways are from our own. See when I want something from God – when I go to him and pray and ask Him for something, I kind of expect Him not just to say yes each and every time, but I expect Him to deliver me the answer on a platter.

I kind of imagine that it’s like when I ring up to order a Pizza home delivery, and the little man shows up on his motorbike and delivers it to my front door. I mean – isn’t that how it should be? Isn’t that how we expect that God should operate? Come, putting up on His little motor bike and knock on our doors and say – here it is, just sign here?

Now, I know that sounds a little crazy, but the truth be known, that’s how we expect God to operate. I mean why wouldn’t He. He’s our Dad. He loves us. Surely He wants to bless us.

But then again, I’m a dad too. And there’s one thing for certain – I have never delivered breakfast in bed to any of my children. Because (a) I wanted them to learn how to be responsible and to get up out of bed for themselves and get breakfast for themselves and (b) in any case, I’m their father and they should be delivering breakfast for me in bed.

I’ll do the things they can’t do for themselves, I’ll help them and I’ll encourage them and I’ll discipline them, but they need to learn to do the things that they have to do. And on top of that, I as a dad, will sometimes put them under pressure, or set them tasks that are difficult – because unless I do that, where are they going to learn that stuff from?

So why is it that we would somehow imagine that God would be any different? Why do we imagine that He’d be in the business of delivering breakfast in bed, or pizza to the front door? I’ll tell you why. Because we have a consumer mentality. We live in a “me” centred world. God is supposed to dance to my tune. And that’s an attitude that we can take into our expectations about miracles.

This week we’re doing a series called “I Need a Miracle”. But I want us to get realistic about this whole miracle thing. On the one hand sometimes we imagine that God wouldn’t ever do a miracle for me, hopefully we’ve dealt with that earlier in the week. ‘Cause that’s a load of rubbish. God is a miracle working God. He was 2000 years ago. He still is today and nothing’s changed.

But on the other hand, we can get this spiritual couch potato view of the world and expect miracles to be easy. But I have to tell you, my experience is, sure some miracles from God are easy. But some are a long time in coming and take a lot of perseverance and trust through difficult times, before they actually happen. And that bit kind of jars with our sugar daddy view of what God should be and how He should deliver miracles.

So today I want to share with you a story that could well be familiar to you. It’s the story of a miracle. And yet it wasn’t an easy one. It took quite some effort. Let’s take a look. It comes from Mark’s Gospel, chapter 2.

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them.

Then some people came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “why does this fellow speak in this way? What a blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God?” At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and He said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk?”

But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins” – he said to the paralytic – “I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.” And the man stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Sounds easy to skim over this and say, “oh yeah. This is just Jesus doing another one of His miracles.” But here were these people, four of them carrying this one man. Let’s take a look at this miracle from their perspective.

This man who couldn’t walk, now that was a big deal in those days. Not just that he couldn’t walk but he couldn’t earn any money. He was a burden on his family. There were no social security cheques arriving in the mail every two weeks. So it was a big deal not being able to walk.

Now they hear that Jesus is coming to town. I remember when I was a kid, when the Beatles came to town. And I was watching them on the old black and white TV. And the crowds were cheering and pushing. Each one of them hoping to get a glimpse. The idea that any one could ever even get close to the Beatles, well that was beyond imagination.

Bit like when Jesus came to town. So these four friends saw an opportunity for a healing. They heard about Jesus and his miracles. So they arrive carrying their friend on a stretcher only to be confronted by crowds. They couldn’t move, they couldn’t get near Jesus. Their hearts sank. The disappointment would have been overwhelming, they were human. Do you think they’re any different to you or to me?

Now how easy would it have been to give up dejected? How easy would it have been to think, “oh well, if Jesus had meant for our friend to be healed, He would have come out or something or He would have been easy to get at or … ”

Instead, they stood there and they thought to themselves, “we are going to get this miracle. We are not going to give up this easily. We’re here now and we’re going for it. Now, what’s another way to skin this cat?” “Oh I know”, says one of them, “why don’t we rip a hole in the roof. Let’s climb up there with our friend on the stretcher, lift the tiles off the roof, and then, knock a whacking great hole in Jesus’ roof. I mean, He’s only the Son of God, why not?

Do you see how audacious their faith was? Not some pizza delivery model – but a faith that went hard after God Himself. A faith that was prepared to claw through clay, baked dry and hard, with their bare hands to get this miracle. A faith that was prepared to blow a hole in the roof.

And Jesus, He didn’t care that they’d knocked a hole in the roof, someone could fix that later. He was blown away by their faith. Do you see how different God is to us? And they got their miracle. Not only did they get their miracle but the crowds and the religious leaders received a lesson that day about who Jesus really is.

Wake up! It is time for us to realise that our faith is like a muscle. And God knows that unless we use our muscles they have a way of getting weak and flabby and giving up all together.

God is a great Dad. And see, He’s like any Dad, He looks at us and He wants us to grow and to be strong and to develop. And so He is going to let us go through things so that we can learn to use our faith, to strengthen our faith. To look at Jesus and to follow a heart after Him and develop the sort of faith that’s prepared to knock a hole in the roof to get to Him.

And then, we know when God’s got us in that place, when that muscle of faith is growing, then just watch the miracles start to flow.

Yep, yep.  I believe in miracles.  I believe that God will do a miracle for me.  But – well, what happens when He says no.  What happens when I have a heart for this or for that – but He closes the door.  Slams it in our face.

This week on the program, we’ve been talking about miracles. This series is called “I Need a Miracle Please”. How many times have you and I been caught in a tight spot and thought to ourselves – nothing short of a miracle is going to save me from this one.

Or, or there’s something on our hearts. We have this desire. A good desire. A desire perhaps to serve God and yet things just don’t seem to be working out.

We can’t talk about miracles without talking about the fact that sometimes, sometimes, we go to God and ask Him for a miracle and that miracle seems to be denied by God. How can that be? Jesus Himself said:

If you love me and my word abides in you and you abide in me, you can ask anything that you wish in my name and it will be done for you. (John 15:7)

How can it be that God would deny me miracle that opens the door to me doing some good work for Him? How can it be that God denies me a miracle of healing – healing a sick child, or healing a loved one. How can it be? I’ve heard people preach that the only circumstance in which we miss out on something that we ask for, is if we don’t have enough faith. Frankly – I’d love to ring their necks. Because that just isn’t true. You may think that’s pretty strong language but I get really angry with people who twist the truth.

Now a lack of faith, that sometimes is the reason we miss out on things from God. Yes. It is. Listen to what James writes when he talks about going to God and asking for wisdom. James chapter 1 beginning at verse 6. He says:

But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

See, God rewards faith, that’s what we’ve been talking about over these last few days. But He doesn’t demand complete faith, or perfect faith. In fact, the last time that I checked, faith the size of a tiny little mustard seed was enough to tell a mountain to go jump into the lake.

It’s not the size of our faith that matters. Not the perfection of our faith. See sometimes, my heart is deeply troubled. Sometimes, I’m afraid to stand in a place that God’s called me to stand. Sometimes I’m afraid to step forward and do the things that God’s called me to do.

How do I know that I have faith? I’ll tell you. If I stay in that place, and do the things that God’s called me to do, if I’m prepared to fail unless God shows up, no matter how much my emotions are on that roller coaster ride, if I hang on to that tiny little seed of faith somewhere in my heart then I know I have faith. But if I run and hide to protect myself then I don’t.

Sure, faith is important but sometimes we get it wrong. Sometimes we don’t hear God properly. And sometimes we ask God for something that isn’t in His sovereign will. I’ve written a book recently called ‘Unlocking the Power of Prayer’ and I’ve devoted a whole chapter to this question.

You know, when my children were little, I wouldn’t give them a sharp knife to play with. It’s only when they grew up into young adults that they got to use the carving knife. Sometimes we ask God for things that we’re not mature enough to use or to do or to cope with.

And so the reason I get so upset by people that somehow seem to preach that we can expect God to deliver on any outrageous request that we make and that if He doesn’t it’s because we lack enough faith. That’s not only a lie, but it condemns those who listen. It blames them for something that’s not their fault.

And I just feel today that we need to deal with this decisively because when we ask something of God and His loving, perfect answer is no, then we naturally feel condemned. We do and that’s not what we’re meant to feel.

There’s no better way of tackling this subject than through the Apostle Paul. Now Paul is definitely one of your biblical ‘A’ List. One of those great characters of the New Testament. In fact, he wrote almost half the books of the New Testament so God entrusted an awful lot to this guy, Paul.

He was a passionate fellow. He had a heart to tell as many people as he could about Jesus. Travelled all over the place for years and years. Right across the known world, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news.

Sometimes, in fact quite a few times, his heart raced out there ahead of God to do this or to do that but he was prevented from doing so. Have a listen to what he writes to the church in Rome, in Romans 1, chapter 13.

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you but thus far have been prevented, in order that I might reap some harvest among you as I have amongst the rest of the Gentiles.

See, he’s writing to them, “I really, really, really have wanted to come to you, to tell you about Jesus, to reap a harvest for God’s glory.” You can just imagine Paul praying and imploring God, “God let me go to Rome. Let me go to them. God, let me go and tell them about you. Father God, please, please let me go in Jesus name!” Pouring his heart out to God over this.

Now this is a good, honourable thing. This wasn’t for Paul’s comfort or luxury or glory, far from it. Travelling to Rome in those days was not an easy journey, as he was later to find out when he was shipwrecked along the way. No, this was for God’s glory. Paul’s intentions were Godly and good in every way. But listen to what he says, “Thus far I have been prevented.”

In other words, to that point, God had not answered his prayer. God had not let him pursue the desires of his heart. God had not opened the door. God had not made a way for Paul to go and fulfil his heart’s desire. So what, did Paul lack faith? Was Paul double minded? No, he was a great man of God. He gave his life to the service of preaching the Gospel. He was responsible for planting so many churches. He was used mightily of God. God just said no that time. In fact, later in the book of Romans Paul tells us why:

Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the good news, not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build up someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him shall see, and those who have never heard of him shall understand.” This is the reason that I have so often been hindered from coming to you.

That’s Romans chapter 15.

In other words, the Romans had already heard about Jesus and there were other people in the world that hadn’t. And God had something better for Paul to do right then with his time than go and tell people who’d already heard about Jesus, about Jesus.

Paul had a heart to do one thing, and God had a plan for Him to do something else. Paul wanted to go to Rome but God had other, more important things for him to do and that’s okay because Paul did what God had told him to do. Eventually he did get to go to Rome but on God’s terms, in chains, on death row. See how plain and simple this is. It’s got nothing to do with lack of faith on Paul’s part. And again of Timothy, Paul and Silas we read in Acts chapter 16:

They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

Sometimes God just has different plans. And that hurts. That can be confusing. Sometimes we wish it was different. As I’ve said many times, God isn’t some performing poodle that dances to our tune. He’s a sovereign and mighty God. And when we pray, “Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name, your will be done, your kingdom come … ” What we’re saying to Him is this. First and foremost, no matter what the cost to me Dad, I just want you to know that I want your will to be done. And you know something, when we’re in that will, there’s a peace and a rest and a trust and a joy that happens. Because He is going to get it right.