Do we still believe in a miracle-making God?
There is a whole branch of the Christian scene that features miracles of sorts. Benny Hinn, on his beautifully designed web site, states in an article titled Miracles are for Today: “The Bible is filled with glorious accounts of miracles. Throughout the ministry of Jesus, Scripture reveals many occasions when He supernaturally intervened in the lives of men and women.” Agreed. Hinn continues: “There was no disease or condition that was too difficult for Jesus to heal. He had power over all disease…” Good so far. I might even say, “Amen!” to that. Then he writes: “The same Jesus who walked this earth ‘healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people’ still heals today.” And now my response is an elongated, “Yeeess, but…” I see where he’s going, and I’m not prepared to go that far. He now inserts Hebrews 13:8 into the argument at this point, a standard Charismatic approach. If Jesus is the same, “yesterday, and today, and forever,”* well then, the rest of the line (hook, line, and sinker, really) follows: if “as many as touched Him were made whole” (Mk. 6:56) in that day, then there is no reason why everyone can’t be made whole—at an upcoming Benny Hinn Miracle Crusade in a stadium near you, of course.
Unfortunately, our “Yeeess, but…” attitude sometimes puts far more emphasis on the “but” than on the “yes.” We know the warning of Scripture that in the last times there will be “signs and lying wonders” (2 Thess. 2:9) which come from hell, not heaven. Paul reminds us about Jannes and Jambres, Pharoah’s court magicians who are examples of those in our day who “resist the truth” (see 2 Tim. 3:8-9). How did they, and how will others like them, resist the truth? By imitating it! Their intention is to gain power over men with such miracles, and it is a sad fact that millions find such an influence both blinding and binding.
Nonetheless, while we reject such miracle workers with their showmanship and egotism, it must be stated unequivocally: God is a God of miracles, and such miraculous works are for the Church age. Jesus told His own that the greater works they would do were based, not on His earthly miracle-working ministry, but because He was going “to the Father.” His ministry of miracles through His people was indeed to be a present-day phenomenon.
We need the convincing ministry of miracles today. Hard-hearted, cynical, agnostic, “I’ve-seen-it-all” North Americans will not likely be won by apologetics alone. They need something that is beyond argument: bonafide, God-given, 21st century miracles.
That was George Mueller’s intention with his orphanage. While he was interested in the spiritual and physical well-being of the children, his first objective, he wrote, was “that God might be glorified in so furnishing the means as to show that it is not a vain thing to trust in Him” (emphasis added). In other words, Mueller wanted to put himself into such a position that only God could get him out of it. And there’s the rub.
If we want to exhibit to a lost world not only God’s existence but His large-hearted love and thoughtfulness, we will have to stop insulating ourselves with stuff, and living out such small existences that no miracles are needed—lives that can be fully explained in materialistic terms. It’s time to make ourselves available, Mueller-like, to be miracle needy.