There are times, when it comes to the miracles of God, that we need to understand that they are beyond any formulas or anything we might be able to work out for ourselves. It isn’t always necessary for us to know how God does things, we just just need to know that He can and He does!
There was a time, as a ministry, that we had felt led by the Spirit of God to travel to India for an Evangelistic Campaign. It was our first major step as a ministry. During this time, I was at a conferernce in Germany discussing our direction with a ministry board member.
I said “I really feel God wants us to go to India, but I just don’t know how it can happen.” My board member responded by saying, “Well sometimes we just need to put the ‘how’ aside and trust that God will do what He has said.”
His words challenged me to the core. My mind was having issues with this faith business; I needed to know how? As it turned out, we had a wonderful trip to India. God moved every mountain and there were many that accepted Christ and had their lives tremendously impacted by the power of God. God cares about precious unsaved people who have never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel.
There are times when we need to move beyond dependence of our own understanding. Scriptures say in Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not in your own understanding. Acknowledge the Lord in all of your ways and He will direct your paths.”
Sometimes trusting God when you don’t know how a thing will pan out is easier said than done. But thats just it, sometimes it’s not about us understanding something, it’s just trusting that somehow, some way, God can do a miracle.
Today I want to look at this ‘how’ issue with one of the great miracles recorded in the New Testament, the story of Jesus healing the man born blind. John 9:24-24 tells us:
“A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?” Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.” (John 9:24-34)
Jesus had healed this man. In verse 11 the man said “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
This is one of those situations where God does an incredible miracle and human beings have to grapple with the implications of it. There have been times in this ministry when we have seen God do miracles, and people have been saved as they have grappled with the implications of it. A miracle speaks for itself.
And these Pharisees had issues. They were set against Jesus because of His popularity with the people and because His teaching challenged and exposed their hypocrisy. They were determined to get this blind man to say the miracle was God’s doing and that Jesus had nothing to do with it.
They were determined to challenge the legitimacy and authority of Christ and yet the miracle before them spoke clearly of all Jesus came to do. The blind man said “Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”
This man who had been born blind didn’t have all the theological reasons for his miracle, but he knew the simple truth that he had been healed. He didn’t know how it had happened, he just knew it had happened. Of course the Pharisees could not accept this simple truth, their unregenerate minds needed to question and challenge it.
They needed to know how it had happened and this man couldn’t give them an answer. Sometimes their is no answer other than Jesus did it. They weren’t willing to accept the reality of what was standing right there in front of them; they didn’t want to believe it.
Of course I believe deep down, these folks were being deeply challenged by what they were seeing. They wanted to believe Jesus was a sinner, that He was a fraud, but what they were seeing was challenging their sin and unbelief.
In today’s western culture, we live in an age of skepticism. The supernatural is viewed with suspicion. But I’m telling you when God really shows up and does the impossible, even the toughest skeptic has a struggle. Unfortunately this culture of skepticism affects the minds of precious believers in Jesus. We need to be people who doubt the culture of doubt, and just believe God!
As much as I hate to say it, I believe there is a little bit similarity with these Pharisee’s in every one of us. The bible tells us, “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” We need have our mind renewed (Romans 12:2), to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5)
Today I want to challenge you, even dare you to trust and believe God for the impossible in your life. Maybe God has spoken something impossible to you by His Word or by His Spirit, and you are struggling right now with how He’s going to do it. I want to encourage you to dare to trust that He can do it, even if you don’t know how.
Don’t allow those thoughts which are opposed to what God is saying, determine what you will believe. Allow your mind to be used for the glory of God. Allow it to be transformed, filled with thoughts of faith. God will do the impossible, all he needs you to do is believe! (Matthew 5:36)
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