Date: November 8, 2018 ()

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What is going on in your life right now? Do you need a miracle? Have you been saying, in the last few days or weeks, “Lord, we need a miracle.” Is it for healing in your body? Is it for healing of your emotions? Is it in your finances? Maybe your children’s lives? What is it that you need a miracle? It is time for a miracle. Lord, You have to do it.

We have been doing a series on the Timing of the Lord and you know, a miracle is called a miracle because it is not ordinary. It is not something that could happen in the normal scheme of events. It is something different, something unusual, something out of the ordinary. God has done miracles since the beginning of time. Think about speaking, “Light be.” And there was light. That is an amazing thing. That is a miracle. He said it with His mouth and it happened with what we see now. From the very beginning, God has done miracles. He is never going to quit doing miracles.

Who does He do miracles for? When is it time for a person to have a miracle? God will do a miracle for anybody. People have to expect it. People have to look for it. I know of people who said, “We’re not going to give up until we get a miracle. We are not giving up. It doesn’t matter. We are not going to give up. We are going to wait. We are going to hang on. We are going to believe.” And they get it. Do you need a miracle today? God wants to do something big in your life. He wants to make Himself strong in your life. He wants to show people: “I’m the Lord and I care about this person and I am going to do something for this person.”

You never know who has been praying for you. You never know what they have been praying. God listens to the cries of His people. Let us just look at a Bible verse in a minute and then we are going to look at a miracle. I am going to show you the two pictures of a miracle I just saw. Recently, I was in Africa for the fourth time. I take teams of people with me. I took two women to help me do a women’s conference and then a man and his wife went to do a men’s conference. Everywhere we went, we saw God’s hand. We saw miracles. Sometimes it is the miracle of salvation. How did I see that? I was preaching and right in the middle of my sermon they say, “Betty, stop. A man was walking down the street, he heard you preaching and he has walked into the building and he is right here at the front and he wants to get saved, right now.” What did I do? You cannot stop God when He wants to do a miracle. We just stopped everything. I went down and prayed with a man right at the foot of the podium and prayed with him to receive Jesus. He got saved. He went on his way. We never saw that man again. Can you imagine, walking past a building, hearing somebody preach, hearing people in there talking about God and walk in and say “I want to get saved.” What was the miracle in that? That God could draw somebody so powerfully that they would walk in and get saved like that. Just a beautiful thing.

There is one of the men I work with in Africa and his name is Bishop Joseph Wambugu. Joseph Wambugu. He was educated here in the states, got a masters degree in divinity and went back to Africa. He is bishop over about 55 churches. Things are really moving in his life. He is a wise man. He has spoken so much into my life. The last time we rode in a car with him from Kenya to Uganda. It was a bumpy, bumpy road 8-hour ride. We let him kind of have a breather for the first two hours and then we started asking him questions. Here was our chance to ask him anything we could think of. On the way home, we asked questions all the way home. I said, “Joseph, are you getting tired of my questions?” He said, “I love it. I love it. This is so energizing to me. Keep it up.” We began to talk to him about miracles and we said, “Joseph, what do you have to say about miracles?” He said, “I’ve seen a lot of them. I can tell you that.”

He said, “I can tell you something I have noticed. People want a miracle but they want to wait until they are sure God is going to do everything concerning it. They want the whole situation to be right. They want to have all the answers and then, they want to go and God says, ‘no, don’t do that, don’t do that, just step into your miracle and let me work after that.’” You do not know how God is always going to solve something so you are going to have to just step into it as much as you can. Many times people will not ever take the first step into their miracle. If you think about it, many of the miracles that Jesus performed involved people stepping into their miracle. Like where the Lord said, “Take up your bed and walk.” He did not say get a job, make some money, pay off your debts or go tell all you family.” He did not do anything. He just said the first thing, take up your bed and walk.

Think about the time He went to blind Bartimaeus and all the blind people He healed in the Bible and He said, “What do you want?” They said, “Lord, we want to see.” He said, “Okay, you can see. Your faith did it.” Another time He told someone after He healed them, “Go see the priest and tell him you are healed.” First step, not go back to your family, not rent a building and tell everybody, just first step. Step into your miracle. Go and tell them you are healed.

Another miracle that occurred was when they were feeding the 5,000, when they fed the 4,000 and they ran out of bread. They had already had a miracle once with it and Jesus said, “You feed them.” They said, “Lord, where would we ever get enough food to feed this many people?” Lord did not say anything. They had to look and think. How did they do it? They stepped into their miracle. Jesus gave thanks for the food and it started multiplying. It is so important to expect a miracle in your life. You want to be a person that you expect a miracle.

I remember many, many years ago, Oral Roberts preached a sermon and he said, “God is doing miracles every day. He wants to do a miracle every day in your life. It might be a little one. It might be a giant one, but learn to expect a miracle every day. Look for it.” I want to encourage you to do that. Look for it. If God sends one your way every day, look for it.

How do we know that God wants to do miracles for everybody? Look at this scripture. Jeremiah 29:11. “I know the plans I have for you.” “Plans,” says the Lord. There are plans for good and not for disaster. They are to give you a future and hope. You have to take that kind of a verse and you have to think what all happened in the Bible. In God’s plans for people and just about every story of the Bible, there was some kind of a miracle that occurred, was there not? Even with Adam and Eve. After they messed up so much, one of their children murdered their other child. Oh, how terrible. What was the miracle? God gave them Seth and he was the joy and a delight to them. Miracles are in the Bible from the very beginning of the Bible to the very end of the Bible. When you read Revelations, it just sounds like miracle city, does it not? It sounds like, “Whew, it is going to be difficult and people are going to have to really trust the Lord, but there is going to be so many people saved who find the Lord. There is going to be all kinds of miracles.

Signs and wonders and miracles and we are living in those last days. We are not there to Revelation yet but boy are we ever on our way. All you have to do is read Matthew 25 and read in 1st Thessalonians. It talks about the end of time. What it is going to be like. It is really interesting. You could get today’s newspaper, set it down here, get the Bible and set it here and you could go, “The Bible says this and the newspaper says this. The Bible says this, the newspaper says this.”

One of my favorite things to do is read when they tell about miracles in the newspapers. Every so often, they have to do it. They just cannot get around it. Or they tell about it on the news. I get this thing on the internet everyday called “Breaking Christian News.” At www.elijahlist.com there is a link where you can sign up for Breaking Christian News. Oh, it just inspires you. It is full of miracles. I was watching one recently that the link within the link the BreakingChristianNews about a doctor raising somebody from the dead. I went to that link. It was the television station’s link in Florida. A secular television station and they interviewed the doctor, they interviewed the man who was brought back from the dead. They interviewed both of them. I was pretty amazed. Are you pretty amazed that a real miracle of that magnitude, somebody would report with truthfulness on the nightly news? It happened. This doctor was working doing emergency duty and the man came in. I think he had a heart attack and he started dying and they worked on him for about 45 minutes and he died. He was turning black and they said, “Well, go get the doc and get him to come declare him dead.” This doctor happened to be a praying doctor. He went in. The man was black. He was dead. As he went to go back out the door, the Lord said, “Go back and lay your hands on him. I want to bring him back.” He said, “Lord, he is dead. He is black. He is dead. Everything has turned dark.” Lord said, “Go back.” So he went back to the staff and he said, I want you to shock him again and they looked at him like he was crazy. He’s dead. He has been dead a long time but they had to do it because he was a doctor. The next thing you know, the heartbeat started again. They interviewed the man and he said, “I wasn’t saved. I would have gone to hell and God had mercy on me and I am going to spend the rest of my life serving the Lord.” It is a pretty amazing story and there are a lot of them like that, going on today. All over the world, right this very instant, God is doing a miracle for someone. He is so faithful. He has to be faithful to what He says He is.

What is required for a miracle in your situation? One thing is desperate need, is that not right? Not a miracle if you are not desperate. It is like, “Lord if you don’t do it, it isn’t going to happen.” What helps you believe for a miracle? Spending time getting to know God, getting to know the ways of God and getting to know the heart of God. It is pretty hard to believe in anybody if you do not know very much about them. You can hear about how nice somebody is but the only way you are going to know what a person is really like is if you spend time getting to know them. Is that not right? God is not any different. You have to spend time getting to know the Lord and getting to know about His miracles. Those people in the Bible were real people. If we could talk to them today, they would just be real people. How do I know that? In the book of James, it talks about Elijah, the Prophet, who did those incredible miracles. What does it say about Elijah? Elijah was a man just like us yet when he prayed for it not to rain, it did not rain for 3½ years. Later when he prayed for it to rain, it rained and the flowers came out. Elijah was a man just like us.

If you look at 2nd Corinthians 6:2, it talks about today is the day. “For God says at just the right time, I heard you on the day of salvation (and that could be any day, not just your salvation from your sins) I helped you.” Indeed, the right time is today. It is now. Today is the day of salvation.

What is the next thing God needs from you? Boldness. Some people will say, “I just wouldn’t ask God for anything. He is busy and He is running the world. Why would He notice me?” I want to show you a Bible verse you need to know if you feel that way. Look at Hebrews 4:16. “Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” You are beginning to think, “I could have a miracle. God could do it for me.” You also need to be walking in the right path. There are people who have miracles and they are just living the wildest life you have ever seen. Why live that way? You are the people of the Lord. You would not be watching this show if you were not interested in knowing God, interested in getting closer to God and understanding His ways better. Get right with God. If there is something in your life and it is sin and you know it is sin, God is against sin. Get it out of your life. Just admit to the Lord, “I am so sorry. This is wrong and I’m tired of doing it and I am not going to do it any more. Lord, forgive me and help me.”

Also, it is very important to forgive people. You say, “Betty, we’re talking about miracles. Why are you talking about forgiving all of a sudden?” Because forgiveness is like a dam in your life. It stops the flow of God. There is someone watching this show right now. You are looking at me and you have your jaw set and you are thinking, “No, I can never forgive, never.” The Lord said, “Yes you can. I can touch you with my Spirit, and you can forgive the unforgivable.” When you do not forgive people, it stops God.

I heard about a man who had a healing ministry and every single person he prayed with to get healed, the first thing he asked them was, “Who do you need to forgive?” He said it was amazing how many people were there asking God for a miracle. They were not willing to extend the miracle of forgiveness. You see, forgiveness is a miracle. Maybe you think, “Now God, I thought only miracles were like healing or money or something.” There are people who need your forgiveness. They need it and you need it. You need to be free of that binding power of unforgiveness so that God is free to run through you. You know, God wants to use you. He wants to use you to help people. He wants to use you to do a miracle. He just does not want to do one for you. He wants to use you to do them. It is the last days, folks. In the last days, I am going to pour out my Spirit on all flesh, your men and your women, will prophecy. Your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. I am going to do signs and wonders in the earth. Well, who is He going to do? Who is He going to use? He is not going to use preachers. He may use some, but listen to what that said. It did not say, “I am going to pour out my Spirit on preachers.” It said, “I’m going to pour out my spirit on all flesh.” That is you and me. You have to be ready. We have to be primed for a miracle. We have to be expecting a miracle. This is the time to hang on to God like you never have in your whole life.

Look at Psalms 62:8, “Oh, my people, trust in Him at all times. Pour out your heart to Him for God is our refuge.” Right now, I want you to begin telling the Lord, “Lord, this is where I need a miracle, right here.” If it is a part of your body, hold up that part of your body. If it is something inside you that has devastated you, hold that up to the Lord. If it is a financial miracle you need, tell the Lord. “I need a financial miracle, God. Tell me what to do.” It is also the time to praise the Lord before you get the miracle. I believe that many, many people have praised God and thanked God a long time in advance for their miracle. They have said, “It is coming. God told me it is coming. He is faithful to His Word. I praise Him. I praise Him to the highest heaven because He is a miracle-working God and He is working miracles in my life.” Do not say He is going to work a miracle. Say He is working a miracle right now.

Look at Psalms 34:1, “I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises.” There is somebody watching this show right now and you are in a hospital waiting room. You are waiting for the diagnosis from the doctor. Begin to praise God. Begin to trust God that He loves you, it is going to work out fine. It is going to be better than you thought it would be. Tell that to the Lord. Just say, “Lord, thank you that it is going to be better than I thought it would be.” You have to fight your flesh, do you not? Because your flesh is saying, “How do you know that is going to happen?” You know, you have to trust your God. You are either going to walk with Him or you are not going to walk with Him. It is time, if you are going to have miracles in your life, you have to begin to expect for your future to be good.

Look at Psalms 102:13. “You will arise and have mercy on Jerusalem and now is the time to pity her. Now is the time you promised to help.” I am going to tell you about the miracle I just saw. It is an amazing thing. As I told you, I just got back from Africa. We were doing women conferences in four different countries, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and England. We were in Malawi. Instead of doing the conferences in a big town, we went out and we did the conferences in villages. One day we went to this village, a dusty village, a very bumpy, dusty road to get out there and yet, those women had been praising God for hours. Think about what I just said. Praising God. Really praising God and by the time we got there, they were on a high roll for God. They were expecting great things from the Lord. I was, too. I was going along preaching and teaching. Just as I was really starting to get into it, a woman was brought and laid down right by my feet. A lady laid her down there carefully and then she began to pour cold water on her feet and rub her feet. Then she began to put soft cloth under her feet for her feet to rest on. The woman had such a look of pain. (There she is right there. Look at her face. Can you tell. We were praying for her to be healed and saying, “Can you stand? I believe the Lord wants to heal you.” Look at that look.) She was trying so hard to have faith for God to heal her. Look at that look and here we are, just normal people, out there trying to hear God, believing for a miracle. What happened? We kept praying for her and she would get a little bit better so we would pray for her again. What can you do now that you could not do before? She would get a little bit better and we kept doing it and doing it and doing it. (Now look at the next picture. The same woman worshipping God.) If I had time I would show you the movie I have of her standing there dancing on those feet. Those women were so excited, they said, “We have seen God move today.” We went on to London and we were working in a church right outside of London for about an hour, an hour outside of London and again, we began to pray for people to be healed. So many people got healed, it was exciting. A woman came up and she said, “I’ve got bad eyes and can’t see. I want God to heal my eyes.” He did. A lady came up with an ingrown toenail and she said, “You know I am embarrassed to come up with an ingrown toenail when people have real serious needs but she said, my toe hurts so much.” I said, “Well, God doesn’t care, He just wants to heal you. Let’s pray.” We prayed for her toe and it was healed.

I want to pray for you right now. What kind of a miracle do you need? What do you need God to do? God wants to help you. God wants to answer your prayers. He wants to answer your cry. Right now, if you have a physical infirmity, touch it. Lord, heal in the name of Jesus. Heal these body parts, Lord. Heal them. Make them whole right now. Begin to move that thing, move it, move it. Do something you could not do before. Trust God. Begin to praise God. Begin to thank him. Do you need a financial miracle? Right now, Lord, we pray for the money to come and Father, we pray for the wisdom that needs to accompany this kind of a miracle. Wisdom can never get here again. Oh, Lord, we love You. We praise You, God. We thank You, thank You for these miracles that You are doing right now in the lives of people. Father, we thank You for these answers. We bless Your name. We honor You, God. You are who You say You are and we love you so much, God. Amen

Get your miracle.

QUIET TIME QUESTIONS:

1. Who can have a miracle?
2. What is required for a miracle to happen in your life?
3. How does praise help miracles to happen?
4. What is meant by “stepping into your miracle?”
5. What miracle from the Bible speaks to you and why?

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