04.07.10 - Being Part Of A Miracle

READ Acts 3:1-16

The miracle in that story is very different from the types of miracles we have been talking about as we have looked at Bruce Wilkinson’s book You Were Born For This. That was a very dramatic, visible, physical miracle. Praise God for it. And praise God when similar things happen today. And praise God for the times when we have the privilege of being involved in such a miracle.

But some miracles happen in a person’s heart and are invisible. If someone is saved by putting his trust in Jesus, that is a miracle. If someone is forgiven or is set free from a fear, that is a miracle. If someone, simply comes to know that God loves her and knows her current situation, that is a miracle.

But whatever the type of miracle, there are a lot of common features. Bruce Wilkinson talks about five steps to delivering a miracle. Last week we looked at steps one and two. And they are pretty obvious. If you are going to be involved in bringing a miracle into someone’s life, you need to identify the someone. That means being aware of God’s nudges; aware of God directing your attention towards someone because He wants to do something in that person’s life. We need to be awake to God saying, “I want to use you to do something special in that person’s life. Now go and start a conversation.”

The second step is to isolate the need that God plans to meet. In part, that means listening to what God is saying; what is on His agenda for that person. In part, it means listening to what the person says, or even the body language, and picking up the need that God seems to want to meet.

Peter and John had possibly gone into the temple hundreds of times before. The crippled man had been lame from birth and was carried to the temple gate every day to beg. Peter and John may have seen him on numerous occasions. But this day, their attention was drawn to him in a new way. God nudged them.

It wasn’t hard for them to discern his need. He needed money. He asked them for money. Obvious need.

But, in fact, that wasn’t the need God planned to meet that day. That man had possibly long ago given up hoping for a cure or a healing but God planned to heal him that day. The spoken need wasn’t the need. Peter and John had to be aware of what God was saying.

The third step is: Open the heart.

Many miracles happen in the heart. They are personal miracles – times when God speaks profoundly to a person and that person’s attitude or understanding or emotions are changed. It will be a wonderful thing and very liberating but before God can use you to touch that person’s heart, the heart must be open.

The heart is a person’s most private and protected place. Sometimes a person will share his/her heart straight away. She will be very open about the need she has. But, sometimes, that is not the case. In the story I used last week, Owen said everything was OK. He didn’t acknowledge his need. He was going to give up the ministry God had called him into. He had already decided, but he wasn’t yet ready to tell all the men in that conference. If he remained closed – if he wasn’t willing to talk about his own situation – there could be no miracle. It is only when we open up and acknowledge our need, that God can meet that need. There is a certain amount of vulnerability and humility required.

If we really sense that God has drawn our attention to someone and we believe God wants to do a miracle, how can we get that person to open his/her heart? We can’t force it and we shouldn’t try. People’s freedom and dignity must be respected. Trying to force it open is likely to make the person more resistant.

Having said that, Bruce Wilkinson’s approach with Owen was pretty direct! He went back to him a second time and told him he wasn’t telling the truth! I don’t think even Bruce would recommend that approach. You would have to be very sure that was what God was saying and, of course, sometimes God does take a direct approach.

But generally, to be allowed into someone’s heart requires a different approach – an approach that says that you care and that you can be trusted.

And, actually, even in Owen’s case, Wilkinson did a number of things to indicate that he cared and could be trusted. We’ll come to that in a moment but Wilkinson says that if he hadn’t sensed that this was a miracle opportunity he might have responded very differently. He might have encouraged Owen to reconsider his decision to quit or he might have asked all of the other men to remember Owen in their prayers. They would have both been caring, Christian responses but for God’s miracle to happen, it needed to go deeper; it required an open heart.

So, how can you open a closed heart? Hearts respond best to gentle and sincere invitations from one hearts to another. Wilkinson suggests some tips – in fact, things we already know and use all the time, and things he says he did as Owen talked.
• Maintain eye contact. There are wonderful people who, when they are talking to someone else, look at them with absolutely undivided attention.
• Soften and lower your voice. If we are talking about ideas or news our voice might be louder but when we talk about feelings we lower our voice in terms of both volume and pitch.
• Slow down and allow gaps. Leaving gaps invites the other person to carry more of the conversation and says, “What you have to say is very important to me.”
• Relax your posture. Our bodies speak volumes even when we are silent. Our bodies might say we are uneasy or aggressive or angry or bored. To encourage the other person to speak and feel safe, we need to look relaxed and open.
• Invite more heart sharing. Just saying “Hmmm” shows that you are paying attention and you care. If your head is tilted to one side it indicates that you are listening. A nod shows that you understand and care. Or you can ask questions like, “How does that make you feel?” or “What does your heart tell you at a moment like this?”
• Practise empathy. Empathy means you put yourself in the other person’s shoes and you know how he/she feels. A comment like “That must have been very frustrating” or “That must have hurt” shows that you understand the feelings.

We do a lot of this naturally but, if we want to deliver miracles for God, we also need to be quite intentional about it.

What opened the heart of the crippled man at the temple? It wasn’t actually a heart miracle. It was a physical healing but, all the same, the man had to want it. Peter said, “Look at me.” That got his attention but he still expected only money. When Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” I suspect hope flooded that man’s heart.

The fourth step is to deliver the miracle. Peter took the man’s hand and helped him to his feet. Instantly, his feet and ankles became strong.

The miracle is God’s work. We can’t do the miracle. We don’t have to know what God is going to do or understand how He will work. We can relax and leave that up to Him. But we do need to trust that God will act and we need to be open to what He wants us to do as part of that. While continuing to make eye contact, listen for the leading of the Holy Spirit. God might want us to say something or do something that we wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. Again, we don’t have to stress over it. Jesus has promised...
Matt 10:18-20 18 On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. 19 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

God might prompt you to give the person $50 or visit his grandmother or pray with him or quote a Bible verse that you didn’t even know that you remembered. It is about being open to God’s leading and willing to act. You might not even realise that what you say is significant but the other person will.

Sometimes you won’t know what to do and that is because God wants you to simply do nothing and give Him room to act.

I was sceptical that there really were five steps to a miracle or seven keys to a life of predictable miracles but ultimately there is no simple step-by-step formula. It is about our willingness to listen to God and obey. The process can look different in each different situation.

But Wilkinson says there is one constant: it is nearly always the recipient who first realises that a miracle has taken place. He might say something like, “Wow! That was an amazing breakthrough for me” or “How did you know?” or “That was a miracle.”

That leads to the fifth step: Transfer the credit.

The mission is not complete until we do everything we can to help the person shift his focus from the wonderful experience he has just had to the source of that experience. In other words, the job is not complete until we have helped that person realise that it was God who did the miracle.

In Acts 3, the man needed no help apparently. He went into the temple courts walking and jumping and praising God. But notice what happened after that. People flocked to Peter and John, amazed at what they had seen. There was the danger that they would credit Peter and John with the miracle. Peter was very emphatic. “Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?” And then later: “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.”

If someone is not particularly open to God, you want to direct their attention to Him in a way that feels natural, not “churchy”. On other occasions, it will be appropriate to be quite open about it.

Wilkinson suggests encouraging the recipient of the miracle to put into words what just happened. Help him to recognise that it was God who just showed up, but don’t tell him that. Let him come to see it himself. You might ask, “What just happened?”

He might respond, “That was God!” or “I can’t believe what just happened. It feels like a miracle.”

Wilkinson uses three steps
1. Clarify what just happened. “The fear has gone, hasn’t it?” or “Something just changed for you. What was it?”
2. Help the person express what he feels about what God just did. A good question might be: How do you feel about what God just did?
3. Help him put into words his thanks to God or his praise of God – like the crippled man, walking and jumping and praising God.

It might be a case of asking if he would like to say a short prayer of thanks to God, or offering to pray that prayer yourself. You might ask, “Don’t you think God would like to know how you’re feeling about Him right now?”

Transferring the credit is not optional. This is actually the completion of the miracle. Good people doing good works is not enough to accomplish what God wants. It is not about good works and helping people. It has to go further than that. God wants to reveal Himself. The point of the miracle was that people might experience God and know that He loves them.

But, if we can finish by ensuring that God gets the glory, then we have completed a whole miracle delivery and been part of God’s intervention in someone’s life. What a great privilege. God wanted to bless someone and He used you and the person was blessed and God got the glory.

We have been talking about this for 6 months now. Are we doing it? Does God have a miracle He wants you to deliver today?

We have talked about:
• Wanting to be used. Praying that God will use us.
• Being open to go to whomever God indicates – not just the people we like but whomever.
• Cooperating with the Holy Spirit
• Taking risks
• These five steps
   o Identifying the person
   o Isolating the need
   o Opening the heart
   o Delivering the miracle
   o Transferring the credit.

Are you willing to be used by God like this? Are you willing to be available and to listen to the Spirit and to take risks? I suggest that those nwho are willing, stand up - but only in your imagination! No-one else will know but you will know whether you are standing or sitting. Are you willing to say, “I am willing. I am available. I will be looking for the people God wants to bless.” If that is you, would you stand, in ytour imagination, as a sign to God that you want to be available to Him, and I will pray for you?