John 11:20-22 – “So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary was sitting in the house.  ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  ²² But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will grant you.”

As I read, prayed, and meditated on the Word of God today, I was drawn to the Gospel of John.   The thought of the miraculous filled my heart and mind.  The miraculous is a rarity in most churches and among believers today (myself included), which troubles me.

As we read the account in John 9 of the healing of the man born blind, we see the challenge of faith.   It is an amazing miracle.   We tend to relegate it to Jesus and beyond our ability.   We forget that Jesus is our pattern.   Miracles are tools of evangelism.  Miracles get everyone’s attention.

In John 11, we have the raising of Lazarus from the dead.   That event is another amazing miracle.   Everyone’s attention was captured.   Martha and Mary demonstrated the same human reason we manifest.  First, they blamed Jesus for Lazarus’ death.  “If You had been here.”  Then Martha said, “But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, He will give You.” (v.22).

Mary and Martha moved from blame to hope back to human reason.  That process negates the ability to be used by God in the miraculous.   Jesus saw it as done.   Mark 16 and Matthew 28 record our commission.  It is not just evangelism but deliverance and healing.

Isaiah 61 gives us a list of things God’s anointing produces.   Included in the list is the miraculous.  We are to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, cast out demons, set captives free, and reach the lost.

Jesus said in John 10:27, “My own sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” In that discourse, He revealed that if we are His sheep, we hear Him.   In John 15:7 – “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you…” It is there that miracles become a normal part of our lives.  We have become a society that trusts the arm of flesh more than the hand and Word of God.

My cry is, “Lord, make me a vessel of Your power so that Your miracles will be present and light will shine forth.  I cannot be content with less.”

Don’t blame Jesus, trust Him!