Why are miracles not happening in the church?
Question:
Hi!
I am a member of the church. One thing I never understood is this: There are movies, such as Breakthrough, a true story about a boy falling through ice, then being pronounced dead, and then his mother prays over him and suddenly he starts breathing again, and then he is perfectly fine with no brain damage or anything. Why do these types of miracles happen in other churches which don’t seem to follow the pattern of worship, and the miracle may bring tons of new people to their church, but you never hear of these types of miracles happening to people in the church? Why is that?
There have been several true stories about people being saved when they shouldn’t have lived and it is in churches that aren’t following the pattern.
Thank you
Answer:
A miracle is not an awe-inspiring event or an unusual event that you have a hard time explaining. A miracle is an event that goes against the laws of nature. For example, the sun standing still for 24-hours could not physically happen but it did (Joshua 10:12-14). When people were healed by Jesus, they were instantaneously made whole. There was no recovery period.
Someone drowning in ice water and then recovering is rare, but not unheard of. For instance, I found one account of a boy who drowned in ice water for an estimated period of 30 minutes who was revived after one and a half hours of CPR and had a full recovery. The boy in the Breakthrough story recovered quickly, but he still spent three weeks in the hospital and then went through physical therapy for several weeks. It was a marvelous recovery but not a miracle. The family believes it happened in answer to the mother's prayer, but it cannot be proven. And what do we do with the other cases of recovery where there were no prayers?
Events like these are highly emotional. It isn't surprising that some try to capitalize on the interest to gain notice. But for us, as people devoted to following God, we must look to what God has said about such matters. God will answer the prayers of those who follow His will (I John 5:14-15). But God sometimes will extend blessing on others (Matthew 5:45), and we are commanded to act in the same way: doing good to all people, but especially to God's people (Galatians 6:10). However, the miraculous gifts stopped along time ago, just as God said they would (I Corinthians 13:8-10). Fraudulent claims of miracles continue, but God said He allows them to see who truly loves the truth (II Thessalonians 2: 9-12). The "miracles" are not true miracles, but people will believe what they want to believe and not all wish to believe the truth. See The Age of Miracles for more details.
