In Mark 3:5, the man stretched out his hand to be healed. In John 5:8, Jesus tells the man to pick up his mat and walk. In Mark and Matthew we hear about the boy giving his lunch and Jesus fed thousands.
Of course it is possible for God to work omnipotently and independently without any input from us. Jesus could have healed the blind man without telling him to get up and wash the mud from his eyes. But all of the miracle stories have us participating in our own healing, our own feeding, our own seeing.
There is a story that a friend reminded me of the other day. It's always been a favorite of mine.
There were 2 farmers, both in desperate need of rain. Both prayed for rain, but only one farmer actually prepared his fields to receive the rain. Which one trusted God to send the rain? Which one are you? God will send the rain when He's ready. We need to prepare our fields to receive it. (from the movie Facing the Giants)
Throughout scripture, we are asked over and over again to participate with Jesus. We are not to just sit by and pray and hope for a result. We are to enter into the miracle.
When we felt called to make this move to South Carolina, it was a very strong message. Even though we didn't really know anyone here, we believed this was God's plan for us. We started out by saying, "well, if the house sells we will move. If it doesn't sell by the end of the summer, we won't." By the end of June, no sale and yet we felt God saying we needed to move forward. We need to prepare our fields even though there was no rain. We started packing, had a garage sale, rented a house in South Carolina and paid to register the kids in school. We were definitely readying our fields, but without any signs of rain! We were stressed!
I kept telling myself that to stress was to not trust; that one day we would look back on that time and realize we had no reason to stress.
We set our move date for August 8th. The week before we left, we got an offer. The rain came.
I remember writing in my journal during that time, "it's not the end result that's the miracle. It's what happens to us in the waiting."
People we work with will often say, "I want God to bless my business." Our response is usually, "Give Him something to bless!" It is more my daily prayer in asking Him to bless my efforts that they may produce good fruit, help to others and glory to Him.
What are you doing today that is bringing you His healing or His grace? What is your participation? What can you do to further your work, your relationships? Do you need to step out in faith in answer to the prompting of the Spirit? Do you need to forgive someone else so that you can find peace? Do you need to ask
God for direction so that you may work with Him in bringing about His purpose for you?
God performs miracles every day. It is my conclusion, based on past experiences and the stories of Jesus walking with us that God would prefer to work these miracles through us. Through Him, with Him and in the unity of the Holy Spirit!
How exciting! God wants us to be involved. He wants us to share in the miracles with Him. That is so exciting and humbling that God, Creator of everything, would want to use me that I may be changed in the process.
For today: If you are praying for rain, how ready are your fields?
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