Chapter 8: Miracles: Evidence of the Supernatural
Western theology invariably asks the question: Are miracles possible? This of course addresses the Enlightenment problem of a closed universe. In much of Asia that is a non-question because the miraculous is assumed and fairly regularly experienced.1
—HWA YUNG (BISHOP EMERITUS OF MALAYSIA)
THE REALITY THAT JESUS IS LORD, THE PROMISED Messiah, had a powerful and practical effect on the world. From the beginning the apostles preached the gospel and demonstrated God’s stamp of approval by showing the authority of the name of Jesus. They explained that the healings and miracles that followed their preaching were not because of any special power of their own but through faith in Jesus’ name. “By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see” (Acts 3:16).
That same faith in His name can still produce the kind of results today that it did two thousand years ago. This is the truth that compelled me after my college graduation to devote my life to reaching the world for Christ. The reality that all things are possible to him who believes caused me to wake up every day with a sense of expectation of good things that could happen, regardless of how bleak and desperate the circumstance. This included the Holy Spirit’s guidance when it came to sharing my faith with others.
My journey as a minister, in fact, started with a supernatural encounter. Funny enough, it did not take place in a church. While I was playing a game of pickup basketball at Mississippi State University, the Holy Spirit impressed on my mind a message about a young man playing on another court in the gym. Though I heard no voice, there was a distinct sense that God was speaking to me about him: he’s been praying for someone to talk to him about Me. It seemed apparent to me that this was a message I was to tell him. This experience reminds me of a scene from the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, when Clarence the Angel tells George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) that he’s been sent as an answer to his prayer. He responds, “You look like the kind of angel I’d get.” This young man on the court was a big, intimidating guy, and I had a little apprehension that neither the message nor me as the messenger would be perceived as the answer to his prayer. Was I in for a shock! When I finally mustered the courage to introduce myself to him, my approach was a little abrupt and awkward. I told him what I felt God had told me about him, and his jaw literally dropped. He had prayed that very prayer the night before.
In the next few days, he would fully commit his life to Christ, and several of his friends would follow his decision as well. That moment proved to be the beginning of a lifelong calling to reach university students. Throughout the years God has helped me in many supernatural ways through insights into people’s lives as well as physical healings and other answers to prayers that were offered in the name of Jesus. Sometimes those answers came instantly; others were manifested over time.
The reports of healings and miracles happening around the world have caused dramatic growth in the Christian faith. As I traveled to other nations, I began to see and hear of God’s power at work in phenomenal ways. In Korea, this once predominantly Buddhist nation, a spiritual awakening was taking place because of these kinds of demonstrations of God’s power. I attended an outdoor meeting there in 1984, with more than one million in attendance. The same pattern can be seen in China.
In China the growth of Christianity was taking place because the supernatural accompanied the preaching of the gospel. The China Christian Council estimated that “half of the new conversions of the last twenty years have been caused by faith healing experiences.” Other researchers have suggested that recent figures could be as high as 90 percent.2
The evidence for miracles is too overwhelming to dismiss as coincidence. We have seen the same dramatic supernatural manifestations around the world on college campuses. This setting is important because students can certainly tend to be skeptical. If something happens that is inexplicable in terms of natural causes, they are reticent to ascribe it to being a miracle or a direct result of divine action.
Remember, to be a Christian means that you believe that Christ was miraculously raised from the dead, three days after His death. If this was the only miracle that ever happened, it would still be enough to put our trust in Him. However, this foundational miracle points to the fact that all the other miracles recorded in the Gospels were real as well. Not only the dramatic physical miracles, but the supernatural leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit. As Jesus said to the apostles, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
While our faith must be grounded fully in the work of Jesus Christ in His life, death, and resurrection, we must be open to His working in the lives of people today as well. There are indeed moments when the supernatural hand of God breaks into our lives and communities in such a way that it is an undeniable witness to His continuing presence and work in the world. In the face of overwhelming pain and suffering all around us, we have not been left without the hope of His providing help. Such experiences are why after thirty years of being a Christian I still believe that “with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37 NKJV).
Today most of humanity believes miracles are possible as well. To believe in God is to believe that He is able to alter circumstances, events, sickness, and impossible situations. Often even the atheist will pause to give God the chance to prove Himself by healing a loved one or friend. Many times the presence of unyielding pain and suffering convinces the skeptic that his unbelief is justified. But when these miraculous moments take place, they produce a faith in people that becomes unshakable. The goal of this chapter is to establish the philosophical possibility of miracles, as well as the biblical and historical testimony of their reality and the principles by which they work.
THE EXISTENCE OF GOD IS EVIDENCE FOR THE SUPERNATURAL
First of all, if God exists, then the supernatural dimension is real. The philosophy of naturalism asserts that nature is all there is. This notion has been thoroughly addressed in my book God’s Not Dead and was referenced again in the introduction of this book.
The evidence for miracles is overwhelming. In order to dismiss the testimonials of supernatural events, you have to rule out ahead of time (a priori) the possibility of miracles. In other words, in order to believe no miracles have ever happened, one must begin by assuming no miracles can happen. This logic is circular reasoning and therefore self-defeating from the outset. In contrast, the argument for the possibility of miracles is logically plausible and could be stated in this way:
—There is evidence that an uncaused, nonmaterial Creator exists who is responsible for bringing nature into existence.
—This Creator (God) would be supernatural in nature and essence.
—This supernatural Creator could interact with our world and cause certain events to happen beyond what solely natural laws could produce.
This argument is supported by the many types of evidence that point to God’s existence. From science, physicists have recognized for decades that the universe appeared to have a beginning. And the laws of physics seem to have been designed with life in mind. If gravity were ever so slightly larger or smaller, planets would not exist, which would make life impossible. Similarly, for life to exist on earth, countless details had to be set perfectly for our planet, sun, moon, and solar system. For instance, the earth needs to be the right distance from the sun, have the right rotation rate, and the proper atmosphere. From biology, the first cell on earth required DNA, which contains the instructions for its operations and reproduction. These instructions contain significant amounts of information, and information is only the product of an intelligent designer. All of these facts point to a creator outside of time and space who created our universe, planet, and life.3
One of the most common confusions about miracles is that believing in them means that one has to dismiss science. However, the fact that physical laws exist does not mean that the Creator of those laws is not able to intervene in His own creation. Some mistakenly dismiss miracles by misunderstanding what is taking place. They assume that a miracle is somehow a violation of the laws of nature, which they assume contradicts human experience. In reality, it is because we know the laws of nature that we are able to detect when something unusual or outside of those laws has happened. A professor of mathematics at Oxford University, John Lennox explains this important distinction:
The second objection is that now that we know the laws of nature, miracles are impossible, but that involves a further fallacy. Suppose I put $1,000 tonight in my hotel room in Cambridge and I put $1,000 in tomorrow night. One plus one equals two; that’s $2,000. On the third day, I opened the drawer and I find $500. Now, what do I say? Do I say the laws of arithmetic have been broken? Or the laws of the United States have been broken?4
As demonstrated, the arguments against the possibility of miracles are inherently flawed. The evidence falls into the categories of the evidence from scripture, from history, and from science.
The Testimony of Scripture
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
—Hebrews 13:8
As we learned earlier, the gospel records are reliable accounts of the life and words of Jesus. However, skeptical New Testament scholars persist in dismissing any stories of Jesus healing the sick or casting out demons as unhistorical, primarily because of their prior disbelief in their possibility. However, the weight of evidence in the past few decades has forced even some of the most skeptical to acknowledge that the Gospels are accurate in their portrayal of Jesus as both a miracle worker and an exorcist.5
This shift resulted from the recognition that the miracle stories meet numerous minimal fact criteria. Foremost, they permeate every layer of the Gospels and the book of Acts. Several events, such as the miraculous feeding, are mentioned by all four Gospels. Some examples also meet the criteria of embarrassment, such as the disciples’ inability to cast out a demon before Jesus arrives (Matthew 17:14–16, Mark 9:17–18). What Christian would make up stories that would make their respected leaders look so bad? Many accounts also meet the criteria of dissimilarity. Unlike all other healers and exorcists at that time, Jesus did not invoke any higher power to perform His healings and exorcisms but acted under His own authority. His miracles are also unique in their magnitude and frequency.6 In addition, even the historian Josephus, who was not a Christian, described Jesus as a “doer of amazing deeds.”7 Such evidence even convinced arch-skeptic Marcus Borg to state that the facts are “virtually indisputable that Jesus was a healer and exorcist.”8
Critics may accept the accounts at least to some extent as genuine, but they attempt to rationalize them away as misinterpretations of the actual events. In the end, they believe that all descriptions of Jesus’ healing the sick or casting out evil powers have natural explanations. For instance, they often claim that people who appeared to be healed by Jesus might have simply convinced themselves that they were made better due to the power of suggestion. But such explanations are difficult to imagine given both the dramatic and instantaneous nature of the purported healings. How could someone, who had been paralyzed since birth, through the power of suggestion begin to walk?
Furthermore, as we established in an earlier chapter, the evidence for the resurrection itself is compelling. And if the resurrection took place, then the miraculous does not only become possible but probable. Therefore, the accounts of miracles from the New Testament must also be considered possible, which leads to the clear conclusion that they actually happened.
Miracles Throughout History
Even after the death of the first apostles, Christians continued to heal the sick through prayer and cast out evil powers as Jesus had done. These signs were recorded by numerous early church leaders. For instance, Irenaeus in the second century wrote about people being raised from the dead in the name of Jesus:
[Heretics are] so far . . . from being able to raise the dead, as the Lord raised them and the apostles did by means of prayer, and as has been frequently done in the brotherhood on account of some necessity. The entire church in that particular locality entreating with much fasting and prayer, the spirit of the dead man has returned, and he has been bestowed in answer to the prayers of the saints.9
Athanasius wrote in the fourth century about Christian miracle workers among the bishops and monks, “So take these as an example, beloved Dracontius, and do not say, or believe those who say, that the bishop’s office is an occasion to sin. . . . For we know both bishops who fast and monks who eat. We know bishops who drink no wine as well as monks who do. We know bishops who work miracles as well as monks who do not.”10
Several other church fathers also described miracles in their midst, including (to name just a few) Athanasius, Origen, Tertullian, and Chrysostom. Some, such as Augustine, were eyewitnesses of the events, and several used them apologetically to both defend the Christian faith and to challenge heretics. Other ancient writings described miracles as a primary motivation in the conversion of Jews and pagans. Even enemies of the Christians acknowledged the miraculous power they demonstrated. The commonality of miracles varied throughout church history, but the consistent and authoritative testimony to their existence is undeniable.
In his book Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, Craig Keener documented historical records of miracles throughout history in all parts of the world. Some of the most dramatic stories have taken place in the last century. For instance, several healing ministers in the early twentieth century reported thousands of cases of miraculous healings, including instantaneous recovery from cancer, broken bones, blindness, and countless other maladies. Several cases have even been medically documented.
Keener has also collected stories of miracles occurring in many parts of the world today. The statistics of their frequency in many regions are gripping. A 2006 Pew Forum survey was conducted on experiencing the miraculous in ten countries. The results indicated that the number of Christians who experienced a miracle was roughly two hundred million. And I haven’t even mentioned the thousands of Muslims in the Middle East, converting to Christianity after experiencing Jesus Christ in a dream. Many of the dream descriptions were the same even though the recipients had never met.
“Against Miracles”—Responding to Hume
As mentioned earlier, many scientists and philosophers immediately dismiss the miracle stories because they deny the existence of anything beyond nature. They often justify their position by appealing to the arguments made by eighteenth-century philosopher David Hume against the existence of miracles. To give a condensed version of Hume’s argument, he begins by claiming that everyone’s everyday experiences indicate that all events are governed by natural laws. This experience is so uniform that any claim that something occurred that seems to violate those laws (i.e., is miraculous) must be taken with the highest skepticism. He also argues that witnesses to miracles are illiterate, uneducated, and superstitious, so their testimony cannot be trusted. Therefore, any natural explanation for the event, no matter how improbable, should be preferred to believing in a miracle, which is effectively impossible.
The problem with Hume’s argument is, as many philosophers have noted, his use of circular reasoning. He assumes from the beginning that the everyday experience of all people is that the laws of nature alone dictate all that happens. And the only testimony of events that seem to violate those laws comes from people who are superstitious and uneducated. For if they were trustworthy, they would never have claimed to have witnessed something miraculous, which is clearly impossible. He then concludes that miracles do not happen due to a lack of “reliable” evidence. To summarize, Hume throws out all evidence for the miraculous by assuming any such evidence could only come from people who are unreliable, for only unreliable people would claim something that is impossible. To condense even more, he argues that miracles do not occur, because he knows miracles do not occur.
A similar critique of Hume is given by William Lane Craig, who summarizes philosopher Gottfried Less:
Hume’s principal argument is that testimony to miracles has the experience of the world and the centuries against it. In response, Less argues: (1) Because nature is the freely willed order of God, a miracle is just as possible as any event. Therefore, it is just as believable as any event. (2) Testimony to an event cannot be refuted by experiences and observations. Otherwise we would never be justified in believing anything outside our present experience; no new discoveries would be possible. (3) There is no contradiction between experience and Christian miracles. Miracles are different events (contraria) from experience in general, but not contradictory events (contradictoria) to experience in general.11
As with the resurrection, if one does not deny God’s existence from the beginning, the existence of miracles is not only possible but to be expected. A second problem with Hume’s argument also relates to his use of evidence. He set extraordinarily high standards in evaluating claims of miracles. However, people in his day presented him with cases that met his criteria. In response, he simply added new criteria or proposed fantastically improbable alternatives. He responded to the evidence similarly to the manner in which skeptics respond today, through denial and blind faith in naturalistic philosophy. As Keener comments:
Hume presupposes a standard of proof so high that any evidence is effectively ruled out in advance. That is, Hume so frames his position that he renders it unfalsifiable—and therefore not tenable for public discourses by traditional standards of logic. Unfortunately, this heads-I-win, tails-you-lose form of argument remains popular even today, even with respect to miracles. For example, roughly two decades ago I asked one professor, who was dismissing evidence for miracles, if he would believe in supernatural activity if someone were raised from the dead in front of him. He responded, consistent to his approach, that he would not. Interestingly, some doubt that even Hume, being an empiricist, would have insisted that the person was not raised from the dead if he himself witnessed it.12
Hume’s assumption that people do not regularly experience the miraculous only applied to his cultural context. Moreover, many miracle cases meet Hume’s most exacting criteria in the quality of their scientific documentation.
Scientific Evidence for Miracles
Many of the miracles around the world today are experienced in areas with little access to the equipment and trained medical personnel needed for proper scientific documentation. God demonstrates His power most often among people with the least exposure to Christian teaching, which at least at the moment happens to correspond to regions least influenced by globalization. However, some medical professionals have taken the time to collect proper records. Keener includes several references to cases where doctors have extensive documentation, including pre- and post-healing X-rays or CAT-scans.
Skeptics often argue that such data are not entirely convincing since some serious illnesses occasionally go into remission spontaneously. However, some of the recorded cases include complete recoveries occurring immediately after prayer, and a large collection of the healings resulted from the ministry of a single person, such as Kathryn Kuhlman. The chances are fantastically small that a single person would pray for numerous people and see such a high proportion of them have extremely unlikely spontaneous recoveries. The only reasonable explanation in these examples is genuine supernatural interventions.
A group of Christian scholars even published an article on healing resulting from the ministry of Heidi Baker. The study documented the impact of a healing crusade, where Dr. Baker and colleagues extensively prayed for the recovery of hearing and vision. The researchers tested the hearing and vision of attendees before and after prayer. The hearing and the vision improved so much in so many participants that the differences could not be explained by anything other than God answering prayer.13
WHY IS NOT EVERYONE HEALED?
As mentioned, the number of people claiming to have had specific prayers answered are in the hundreds of millions. On a typical Sunday in our church with hundreds of members, I will ask for a show of hands as to how many present know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have had a specific prayer answered. Almost all the people present raise their hands. Skeptics immediately assume their experiences were merely coincidences that are attributed to God. But to those who experienced them, they are real. And much historical and scientific documentation exists to suggest many are correct.
Yet a challenging question still remains. Why do so many prayers, particularly for healings, seem to go unanswered? Remember, the focus of this book is on the evidence for the historical Jesus of the Gospels. Our faith is in Jesus Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection. Those events are true regardless of whether my latest petition to God was answered or not. However, the question still weighs heavily on many Christians’ hearts.
One of the atheist websites asks the question a bit differently: “Why doesn’t God heal amputees?” This question is phrased as if it is the ultimate argument that God does not exist and therefore cannot respond to prayers. The answer to this apparent quandary is straightforward: How do you know He hasn’t? Just because you have never seen it, does not mean it has not happened.
I have spoken to people who witnessed firsthand miracle stories in places like India and throughout Africa. They claim to have seen limbs restored, empty eye sockets receiving sight, and even the dead raised back to life. Immediately, skeptics chide that they refuse to believe such stories. But their lack of belief does not mean these miracles did not happen. This type of attitude was addressed in the book of Acts, after many notable miracles had taken place and the cities were being stirred by these reports:
Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you:
“ ‘Look, you scoffers,
wonder and perish,
for I am going to do something in your days
that you would never believe
even if someone told you.’ ” (Acts 13:40–41)
The real question skeptics are asking is, “Why doesn’t God just heal everyone, everywhere, on demand?” Even more they are asking, “Why is there pain and suffering at all?”
In particular, answers to prayer, such as divine healings, are signs of God’s ultimate redemption of creation, which point to the truth of Jesus (John 20:30–31), but the full restoration will come only at the end of history when Jesus returns. We now live in a fallen world, so even the most devout of believers will experience pain, suffering, and disease. However, we know that God will eventually make all things right. For the moment, God does not heal every sick person. That day will certainly come when Christ returns and we are standing fully in His presence. For now, He presents enough signs to convince people who truly desire to know the truth yet not so many signs as to force people into believing if they have no desire to do so. As the seventeenth-century mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal said, “He has given signs of Himself, visible to those who seek Him, and not to those who seek Him not. There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition.”14
Today Christians can rejoice for those who experience healings and extraordinary answers to prayer, but we can also endure trials and suffering, knowing that one day God will remove all evil and suffering from the world and resurrect us to spend eternity in His presence.
MODERN-DAY MIRACLES
Around the world the stories of healings and other miracles are as abundant as they are astounding. Many books have chronicled testimonies of these occurrences and provided firsthand verification. However, regardless of the amount of evidence and personal testimony provided, room always exists for the skeptical mind to dismiss reports of this nature. Yet the experiences described not only convinced the recipients that they were genuine, but many met the most rigorous requirements of scientific investigation. Here are a few examples.
Healings and Miracles
Countless cases of extraordinary miracles have been documented by historians, researchers, and medical professionals. The following are but a small sample that Craig Keener and others have collected. The first case centers on a boy named Onel in Placetas, Villa Clara, Cuba, who had malformed bones in his feet. An X-ray showed that the lower bones were becoming like sand. He was expected to lose his ability to walk in about a year. Onel was prayed for by visiting evangelist Otto De La Torre. The feet were X-rayed later in the week and the new X-ray showed that they were now completely normal. The doctor was originally convinced the X-rays were mixed up, but he later confirmed his diagnosis was correct. Onel’s family still has the before and after X-rays.15
Elaine Panelo from the Philippines contracted liver cancer and went to a local hospital for help. Her doctors determined that her cancer was too advanced for medical treatment. Her condition continued to deteriorate, and she eventually died. She was then taken to the morgue. A Baptist pastor decided to pray for her, even though she was not sure if she believed in divine healing. Elaine’s head started moving, and she came fully back to life. The symptoms of her cancer seemed to have subsided. She eventually went back to one of her original doctors, who refused to believe she was the same person. After she checked the original records, the dramatic nature of the healing convinced her and her husband to become Christians.16
A final example is one of many miracle accounts researched by Dr. Richard Casdorph, which he documents with X-ray photos in his book The Miracles.17 Marion had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and her condition deteriorated steadily until she was not even able to eat. She also developed a deformed forearm. She went to a healing meeting, where she felt that she had been healed. In particular, she found herself able to stand and walk for the first time in years. A doctor later confirmed that she had been completely healed, including the deformed arm. She and her husband then became believers.18
Near Death Experiences
Another category of evidence that supports the existence of the supernatural, is near death experiences (NDE). Thousands of people claimed to have remained conscious after entering a state on the threshold of death. Many report visiting an afterlife environment, where they encounter deceased relatives and supernatural beings. In some cases, patients’ brain activity ceased, yet the patients were able to remember vivid details of events in their surroundings. For some, the details are so numerous and so specific that the only possible explanation is that the patients’ consciousness left their bodies.
One of the more dramatic cases involved a thirty-five-year-old woman. During her surgery, it was determined that an extraordinary secondary medical procedure nicknamed “standstill” was necessary. The blood was drained from her head, her body was cooled down to sixty degrees, her heart was purposely stopped, and her brain waves totally flattened. Cardiologist Michael Sabom attests that her brain was dead, as indicated by three different medical tests—a silent EEG, no brain-stem response, and an absence of blood in the brain. She was in this later state for more than an hour. After surgery she reported an amazing array of details regarding about a half-dozen points, including both occurrences and their timing, that were later corroborated from the medical records kept during the operation. Then she claimed to have visited a heavenly location where she had discussions with several deceased relatives. On an NDE scale developed by University of Virginia psychiatrist Bruce Greyson, she scored what Sabom termed “an amazing depth” of NDE.19
My Personal Experience
There have been numerous times that I have witnessed an act of supernatural healing or an answer to prayer that was undeniably a result of God’s intervention. I’ve seen blind people see and deaf people hear after prayer. I have watched as people who were lame or incapacitated begin to walk as well. The most common experience is to see people recover from an illness or an accident after doctors have given up hope. Even some of my own family members have recovered miraculously from serious illnesses.
At the same time, there are just as many cases, if not more, where there was no healing or miracle. Numerous times when I or others prayed, the person was not healed and passed away. Those moments cause one to pull back and feel tempted to stop praying for others in order to avoid the disappointment of not seeing a prayer answered. At such times, I remind myself that my job is not to heal anyone or to second-guess why situations do not always work out the way I desired. The real failure is not to pray in the first place. Usually nothing happens if we do nothing.
I am convinced that it is never too late to come to know Christ as Healer and Deliverer. All it takes is a little faith, the size of a small seed, and mountains will move. Each person has been given that measure of faith. The more we step out in faith, the more we will see it grow.
Without question, the greatest miracle happens when a person puts his or her trust in Christ and is born again and transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God. It is my experience that all the other supernatural phenomena and signs God performs are ultimately intended to bring about this kind of change of heart.
LIVING BY FAITH
Before leaving this subject, I need to offer some practical thoughts on how to handle this powerful idea of the reality of a God who works miracles today and the balance of how we should then live on a day-to-day basis. As real as miracles may be, we are not called to live by miracles but to live by faith.
This means that we live in the tension of believing in miracles but not basing our lives on whether they happen when we want them to happen. In fact, to live by faith means that we trust God and His truth regardless of our circumstances. Faith is believing in God because of the overwhelming objective evidence He has already given, not the subjective experiences of what has happened to us lately. “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith’ ” (Romans 1:17).
Many maintain the mistaken notion that to have faith means to live in this constant flow of one miracle after another. As soon as trouble or tragedy comes into our lives, we conclude that God has abandoned us or we have done something wrong. I draw enormous comfort from the fact that the great men and women of faith in Scripture had to face times when it seemed that God was nowhere around. They served God faithfully regardless of their circumstances. The apostle Paul knew this all too well. Even though he had seen Jesus and performed multiple miracles, Paul suffered severely because of his faith. When he penned that inspirational verse, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV), he was actually in prison with a chain around his leg.
As you move forward in the life of faith, it is vital to stay focused on Christ and His Word. If you look around at all of the volatile, uncertain circumstances, you can tend to feel overwhelmed. At such times, remember the apostle Peter when he stepped out of the boat to attempt to walk on water. He began to sink when he focused on the wind and the waves, but he recovered when he reached out for Jesus’ hand. The secret to not being tossed like the surf of the sea is to determine to live your life by the principles of Scripture and keep your eyes on Jesus.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:1–2).
SUMMARY
The central thesis of this chapter is that because God is real, miracles are real.
The existence of a supernatural Creator means that the supernatural dimension exists, and thus the possibility of miracles exists as well. This reality became most clear when God became man in Jesus Christ and exhibited authority over disease, demons, and the environment. He then rose from the dead, which verified His identity as the Son of God and gave ultimate proof that a supernatural event had occurred.
We are called as believers to preach the good news of this resurrection from the dead and the hope that comes from the knowledge of the existence of God. We also remind believers that God cares about us and the world we live in, and He has promised to act on our behalf as we pray and reach out to others in His wonderful name. In the final two chapters we look at practically learning to follow Jesus, growing in our faith, and being able to reach out to others effectively and confidently. There’s not a minute to waste.