Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
March 6, 2005 - W0510

One day, the Bible tells us, we will be in heaven where sorrow and tears no longer exist and only joy and health are the way of life. But for now, we live at the crossroads of the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the World. While on this earth, God’s promise of grace (whereby tears and sorrow don’t exist) is uncommon but there are times when God makes provision for what is normal in heaven to be on earth. These provisions are promises of the miraculous.

Some people believe that miracles only occurred during biblical times – some 2000 years ago but biblical times are when people live according to the Bible and where the presence of God is evident. These can be biblical times today. God has made provision for us to see miracles on earth as a preview of what is in store for us in heaven. Jesus told His disciples about this provision when He told them how to pray. He told them to pray like this…

“Your kingdom come. Your will be done on, earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).”

God is telling us to pray that His will of healing and the miraculous be done on earth. The Kingdom should be a part of our daily life. Luke 10:9 tells us that healing and the miraculous define the Kingdom of God.

“…heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you” (Luke 10:9).

Now, if the Kingdom of God comes with the miraculous, how can we establish an environment or atmosphere that encourages that to happen? Many times, in religion, we try to force or manufacture the miraculous to happen and if God doesn’t move in our direction, we try to make it look like He is…but that is not our role. It is God’s role to create the miraculous; it is our role to posture ourselves for that to happen.

Here are three principles for us to follow to foster an environment where miracles happen:

1.     establish the atmosphere for the miraculous.

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?...And they took offense at Him. And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He wondered at their unbelief ” (Mark 6:3, 5-6).”

This passage in Mark 6 reveals a crucial element to the atmosphere of the miraculous. Jesus was faced with religious leaders who said, “Who does Jesus think He is? We know Him. He grew up down the street.” And, because of their unbelief or offense toward Jesus, Jesus could do no miracles there. It’s not that he didn’t want to, but the Bible says he couldn’t do miracles there.

If you understand the setting of the miraculous, you must choose not to take offense. If anyone had the right to be offended, it was Jesus but He refused to be offended because He knew of the greater miracle of redemption that needed to take place. Think of it this way…offenses are the sins of others and taking offense is like capturing the offenses (or sins) of others (e.g., unkind words, thoughtless actions, etc.) and holding onto them. Sins pass through our lives all the time however it is not really the sin itself that hurts us but unresolved sin that does. So, in the example above where you have sin passing through your life all the time, if you let them come and go (e.g., repent and/or don’t take offense), you’ll be free of them, but when you take offense, it’s like you’re grabbing the sin and holding onto it…in which case, who gets hurt? You! In fact, someone once said, “Bitterness (unforgiven offense) is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” In other words, bitterness and taking offense does not hurt the one who committed the offense, it hurts the one who takes it.

Holding onto offense will impede your life’s posture for the miraculous to happen, as stated in John 20:22-23:

“And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained’” (John 20:22-23).

Here, the Bible is suggesting that if you retain sin in your life (whether it is your own or another’s in the way of taking offense), those sins will be retained. On the other hand, if you forgive the sins of any (whether it is forgiveness of others or repentance for yourself), they will be forgiven. Sin and offense impedes an atmosphere for the miraculous to happen and therefore hinders God’s ability to bestow His grace, and the grace of heaven, on us.

So, what are we doing to retain sin?

THREE WAYS THAT RETAIN SIN:

Here are three common ways we retain sin. In one case, it’s pretty obvious, but in the other two cases, we may not even realize we’re doing it. In the first case…

·        WHEN WE ARE WRONG (AND REFUSE TO ADMIT OR CONFESS IT).  This one is easy to see and fairly easy to understand. When we are wrong, and refuse to admit or confess it, we are retaining sin. Without repentance there is a spiritual debt we retain. The consequence of not satisfying that debt is death. That is a spiritual, universal principle. On the other hand, through the biblical principle of resolving sin through repentance and the way of the cross, you satisfy the debt because the debt was paid for on the cross by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Sin is a taskmaster that demands its wages to be paid. Psalm 32 says this: “When I was silent about my sin, my body wasted away as with the feverish heat of summer. For thy hand was heavy upon me.” When you refuse to confess and repent of your sins, it causes physical problems. Resolving it allows for miraculous healing to take place (physical and spiritual).

The second scenario is more dangerous, in part because it is more difficult to recognize…

·        WHEN WE ARE RIGHT. We are perhaps most vulnerable to being wrong, when we are right. Let me explain. When we are right, we often feel justified in attacking others. We use our “rightness” (or in other terms, our self-righteousness) to allow us to be condescending towards others…after all, we are right! However, stewarding “rightness” is a tough assignment yet something we must do. Remember, Jesus was right (sinless, flawless) when He was on the cross, and yet He did not condemn those who put Him there, instead, Jesus asked for forgiveness for His offenders. He knew that the redemption of mankind was at stake and He traded in His “rightness” for our lives. Stewarding rightness is a tough assignment but it will nurture an atmosphere of the miraculous and bring about wholeness and healing.

Then, thirdly…

·        WHEN WE SHOULDER ANOTHER’S OFFENSE. This one is especially tricky because often all we think we’re doing is showing support for our friends or family. For example, someone close to you has been wronged and is hurting. Our typical behavior is to side with our friend and shoulder his or her offense. This, in turn, can cause us to sin against that other person (e.g., sabotage their character, retain their offense). Instead, we must remember Proverbs 3:34 “He gives grace to the afflicted,” and 2 Corinthians 12, “My grace is sufficient.” God gives grace to the injured person to handle the offense. Grace is a powerful gift of God that stays the enemy and embraces the afflicted to prevent further injury and in fact, bring about healing. However, when you shoulder someone else’s offense, there is no grace for you because you were not the one injured. Instead, we should encourage those injured to seek God’s grace because God’s grace is sufficient.

Now that we understand the first principle of establishing an atmosphere for the miraculous and our common behaviors (sins) that impede it, let’s take a look at the second principle…

2.     start praying! it sets miracles in motion.

King Herod threw John, the brother of James, in prison. Because it made the people happy, Herod decided to throw Peter in prison also. But, an angel appeared to Peter and released him from prison in the middle of the night. “So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.” (Acts 12:5). The church prayed so fervently for Peter that it set a miracle in motion.

Daniel 10:12 tells us how Daniel prayed for 21 days before God sent an angel to tell him: “Daniel, do not be afraid. From the very first day that you began to pray and set your heart to understand the things of God, I heard you and came in response to your words.” Daniel’s praying started the miraculous in motion but because of spiritual challenges and other things that needed to be overcome, there was (and can be) lag time between prayer and miracles or healing.

The point is…begin praying today for the miracles you expect tomorrow. And not only should we pray but we should believe for the miracles and thank Him before they ever comes to pass – to demonstrate our faith.

“Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him” (James 5:14-15).

Then, the third (and last) principle for us to remember while waiting between the prayers and miracles…

3.      our primary role is to serve god’s purposes…not mine.

It’s between the prayer and the miracle where some people’s greatest ministry will take place. Not everyone in Jesus’ time was healed and delivered. In fact, Jesus was not. It happened that way because of God’s purposes to bring redemption and healing to mankind, not to Christ. Job’s greatest ministry happened when he was in the valley and not when he was at the mountaintop. Jeremiah, called the weeping prophet, had his greatest legacy when he was down in the dumps, along with Ezekiel. Joseph’s greatest grace and instruction to us came when he was in prison. Sometimes redemption comes when you obey the will of God even if you don’t like the situation it puts you in; it may well be your greatest legacy.

Remember the great legacy of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego? “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (James 5:14-15).

Then, how about David? “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep…” (Acts 13:36).

There will definitely be difficult times in all our lives, but the glory of it all is that between the prayers and the miraculous lies your most phenomenal season.

When Jesus told us to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” He was encouraging us to establish an atmosphere here on earth, similar to heaven, through which miracles can happen. And to further encourage those miracles, we need to pray because prayer sets miracles in motion even when we don’t see them. And while we are believing for those miracles and waiting, we must remember that our primary role is to serve God’s purposes, not our own…and in the waiting, oftentimes, it’ll be our greatest ministry through which we will fulfill God’s purpose for our lives. Amen? Amen.

Discussion Topics

1.      Are there any offenses in your life that need letting go? How will you begin the process?

2.      Can you remember a time when you finally let go of an offense and received healing? Please share about how that touched your heart and your life?

3.      Think of a time when you were right but it caused you to do wrong. How would you have handled it differently?

4.      Is there someone you’ve been shouldering an offense for? If so, how can you encourage them to seek God’s grace?

5.      What can you pray for to start a miracle in motion?

6.      Describe someone whose submission to God’s will over their own has been an inspiration to you.

Much “Mahalo!” to Debbie Chang who is supporting an atmosphere of the miraculous by touching lives through her service in the ministry and serving God’s purposes in reaching His people.