It's not a miracle.

It’s not a miracle, and that’s okay.

A friend told me, not too long ago, that she had heard from another friend, that a man in Ethiopia got his sight back after another man prayed and touched his actual eyeballs with his fingers. 

A week later that same friend-of-a-friend told me that same story directly. But this time the men were in the Philippines.

Was I there? Nope. Was she there? Nope. Were the facts accurate? Didn’t sound like it.

If I were to believe her account I would have to put my faith in a third-hand, inaccurately told story. Why would I do that? Would my faith grow bigger and better if I believed that story? Would I love God more or could I expect my own miracle in my hour of need?

I’m sorry to break it to you, because I realize it’s so exciting to think God reached down and touched you personally, it’s fun and you feel special - and you are - but whatever it is, it’s still not a miracle. 

How can I be so sure? The first way to tell if a situation is a miracle or not is to ask yourself a few questions. My grandpa use to say, “God gave you a brain, use it.’ Most grandpas have said that.

Did someone else - a friend, relative, co-worker, or doctor help you?

Did you pay for that help? Were there medical bills involved? Did it take a long time - days or weeks in bed or in the hospital or rehab?

Did you or a anyone you know take any medication or have a surgery to correct their problem?

Chemo for cancer? Use a walker while getting back on your feet? Open-heart-surgery for artery damage? 

C-pap machine to sleep? Glasses to see? Combovers and hair plugs to cover bald spots? Makeup to cover zits? Chapstick or lotion for dry skin? Every day these “un-miracles” are happening.

We live in a sin cursed world. Look around, lots of things are going badly. Sometimes we can fix these things and sometimes we can’t.

I see two bottom lines. 

Bottom line number one:

I have never seen or experienced a miracle.

I have been a Christian for most of my life, going on 50 years. I went to church, Sunday school, vacation Bible school, Christian camp and over night camp. I’ve been on mission trips, I attended a Christian high school; I taught Sunday school for over a decade; I attended Bible conferences; I started a Bible conference, I married a Moody Bible Institute graduate…Oh, and the kicker: I have been at “healing services”… you know, where “men and women of faith” lay hands on people and declare them healed, but those people walked out still sick and some I know of have already died. If there were miracles to be seen, I would have seen one.

But never in all that time or all those circumstances have I witnessed a miracle. On the other hand, I have seen poverty, illness, death, and heart ache nearly every day. People I know have lost babies, children, parents, pets - no miracles. People I love and know have been devastated financially, losing jobs and homes. People eat the wrong food, become T2 diabetics, and have to go on meds for the rest of their life to remain only moderately healthy and sometimes they still have to have their toes amputated, and they are dependant on those drugs at great financial cost. 

People have cancer and go through treatments that can take years and thousands of dollars. They are sick and in pain, depressed, and struggling. People, myself included, have been through major surgeries to deal with serious health issues. Where are their miracles? Where was my miracle?

Don’t worry, “they” have an answer for that: It’s up to you. It’s either your goodness or your fault.

Your faith is what matters. You have to be “good”. That might include tithing, serving, for sure you have to be nice! And never swear. (Could that explain my heart problems and diabetes!?). Most of all you really, really, really, really (really…) have to have faith! Then, poof! You win the miracle lottery. Don’t you?

I never saw anyone win, but that was the theory going up and down all those church pews and around all those Bible studies I attended. If you just have faith… and go to a doctor, and take your meds, and do your physical therapy, then YOU COULD MAYBE, POSSIBLY, HOPEFULLY BE HEALED!!!  

But that’s a lie. At best it’s a misunderstanding of Scripture, but in its simplest form, it’s a lie.

It was no miracle that when I had quadruple-bypass-open heart surgery, my surgeon had been to med school. There was no divine intervention. Everyone I met from the ambulance driver to the nurses had been trained to do what they were doing for me. And it was expensive!

By the way, if you believe it’s a matter of faith you can’t tell how much faith someone has until its too late. Oops, she died - not enough faith apparently. Bummer, sucks to be him. Is “suck” a swear word? What’s that going to cost me, a hangnail? Is the opposite of a miracle a punishment? So many questions, so much confusion. 1 Corinthians 14:33 says, God is not the author of confusion. So it has to be us and our lack of understanding.

Another “church person” favorite: “She must have had sin in her life.” I’m not kidding! I have heard people question a person’s circumstances based on their faith. That only works when it’s NOT YOU. And someday it will be you.

Ever had a pastor get sick? Was it a cold or cancer? Does it mean he had very little faith if it was cancer, and more faith if it was just the flu? 

What then? Not enough faith? Should we be taking spiritual advice from this guy? Does he have hidden sin in his life? Or is the guy just a human being like the rest of us, and he got sick?

The bottom line, bottom line is always God’s Word. 

Bottom line number two is:

God’s Word does not teach us to expect miracles in this dispensation! In fact just the opposite.

A dispensation is a period of time, an economy, a set of divine instructions, to be carried out for a certain time.

We live in the “Dispensation of Grace”. According to the Bible, God is not healing people in this dispensation. See bottom line number one. Also see these verses.

Romans 8:18 says,

          For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

So we can expect suffering in this present time.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says

        For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

So our outward man is perishing - not being healed. Perishing. Which we experience and see all around us. There is nothing we can do to stop the aging process, then we die.

Rather than put our time and effort into trying to magically heal these dying bodies, renew your inward man, edify your unseen soul. This is not our home, and this is not where a Christian’s hope lies. The things we see are temporary. These bodies are not eternal and healing them would be useless because they will just die eventually anyway.

So, you can be happy, excited, share, and most importantly, be thankful for your good news - when you finish your chemo treatments, have a successful open heart surgery, or survive a terrible car accident, but you cannot honestly call it a miracle. 

That doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you or care about you. He absolutely does. He made a way for you to be saved. He loves you so much that His Son, Jesus Christ, was willing to live a sinless, perfect life and go to the cross, shedding his blood, and dying in your place, paying your debt for your sin, so you could live forever in heaven with Him. 

Believe and receive that gift of salvation and live as a new creation, not trying to fix the old.

Romans 5:8-11

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Is that not enough, you want more???

Great, because there is more!

When you trust that Jesus Christ died for your sins, you also get peace that passes understanding, joy and hope, you get His faith, that never fails and His strength that is never lacking. And you get all that now, so you can live through tough times, like car accidents, loss of loved ones and illnesses. You are saved by faith through grace - not your faith, rather the faith of Christ which never fails and is always enough. 

Someday our bodies will be healed - when they die and God gives us new ones. If you’ve already received that gift of eternal life then rest in God’s sufficient grace and peace, that’s the true miracle.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:9