Blogging the Gifts – Miracles

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” 1 Corinthians 12:7-11

So far in my series on 1 Corinthians 12, I’ve got as far as “Gifts of healing“. It is interesting that next in the list is “miracles,” and it surely is the clearest proof that this is an overlapping rather than mutually exclusive list. Whilst it does raise the possibility of non-miraculous healings being works of the Spirit, surely a demonstrable clear healing that confounds the medics would also be called a miracle. I can think of a handful of examples of healings which are not of the “my headache went away” kind.

Just the other day I was reminiscing about an old example that I remember personally witnessing- it happened many years ago when I was a teenager. I was chatting with one of the leaders in the meeting, and he remembered things just as I did and, confirmed that this had confounded doctors and they had heard back from the boy after the meeting.

I will never forget watching as a boy came to the front of one of the teens meeting of Downs Bible Week wearing a significantly raised shoe on one foot. The platformed extension on the sole of his foot was obvious, and thanks to this he was able to walk normally despite the obvious fact that one leg was shorter than the other. We all prayed. We all then watched dumfounded as the shorter leg visibly grew to match the longer. Let’s just say the most memorable part of this miracle was watching the boy hobble back to his seat as he was still wearing his platformed shoe that he now very obviously didn’t need.

I wish I could say such events were commonplace, but they are not. You may well say, “I never saw such a thing. To which I would say, Martin Luther had never seen a church congregation that preached justification by faith alone, and yet God clearly called him to summon forth thousands upon thousands of such congregations. Ironically, it is often the cessationist that makes arguments from experience or rather from the LACK of experience. I have yet to see a single argument from the bible that supports the notion that God has changed and can no longer act miraculously. For those of us who refuse to put limits on God, we can say things like, “If I never see a genuine miracle in my life, I still believe that the Bible leaves it open for God to perform them.”

Actually, I fear that a theology that leaves no room for miracles makes God into an absentee watchmaker who is watching His universe tick away to His rules. I believe God intervenes in all kinds of large and small ways like miraculous calm in the channel on the day of Dunkirk, or on a smaller scale, miraculous financial provision received just at the right time. I suspect that, in fact, minor miracles are there to be seen all around us if we only open our eyes and look they are the answers to our prayers!