Miracles are not accidents. Those in pursuit of accidental or coincidental miracles never live fulfilled lives. Worst of all they shape other minds with this debilitating mindset.
Many church leaders and Christians use miracles as an escape for living. Unfortunately many who have resigned from living to solely pursuing miracles have unconsciously developed a victim mentality. This chronic thinking has robbed many of their faith to get results. Miracles do not happen by chance.
Fulfilling Prophecies
2 Kings 7:3-5
3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?
4 If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.
5 And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.
When Elisha prophesied a 24-hour national economic turnaround it took thinking lepers to deliver this supernatural word. Their assessment and resultant action opened the door for God to deliver the impossible.
The rigorous thinking of these Old Testament lepers should challenge all who think miracles happen by chance. Their physical deformity notwithstanding, these lepers became agents of change through progressive thinking. Their thinking was linear – they considered the past, the present and the potential. Interestingly they were unaware of the prophecy of Elisha. They did not audibly hear Elisha’s prophecy, and therefore their thinking was clearly not influenced by the prophecy.
The lepers did not set out hoping God would do something for them. They did not talk about God in their conference. They did not pray. They probably were in an unintended fast due to the famine. But God, through their thinking caused the prophecy of Elisha to come to pass.
God honours thinking. In fact, His first task for man in the garden was mental – the naming of all the animals. Thinking is a necessary ingredient in man’s dominion mandate. Unfortunately rigorous thinking is fast becoming marginalized in Christianity in Ghana – and for that matter in Africa. There is an attempt to portray God as one who opposes thinking. Why did He make man with a brain then, if He was against the use of it? It is a carnal mind that is enmity with God.
When man takes his place, things happen. God responded to the Lepers’ thinking and action and made the Syrian army to “hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host…” (2 Kings 7:6)
Another profound example of the power of the thinking mind is the story of the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5:25. The Bible said she had suffered many things of many physicians and was not better but grew worse. Instead of getting all emotional about her situation, this lady went for fresh information. The Bible said she heard of Jesus. Information improves the quality of thinking. When she heard of Jesus, she said to herself, “If I may but touch the hem of his garment I shall be whole.”
She was clear in her mind regarding what she wanted. Her actions and her words were deliberate. She thought through her situation with the fresh information she had about Jesus. Her actions then resulted in her receiving the miracle. Jesus actually said to her, daughter your faith had made you whole. Your faith has made this happen. The woman did not just get healed. She worked that miracle by her faith. A miracle is a deliberate supernatural response to a deliberate persistent action.
Need alone does not constitute a demand for supply from God. When situations around you seem hopeless do not be caught up in self-pity. Think through the situation. Seek new information, including from the Word of God.
Thinking through – getting new information – results in action. Faith affects thinking. Where there is faith there is bound to be supply. Faith is not a mere wish for better conditions of life. Faith affects your thinking speech and action. Real faith is a statement of inner transformation that results in action.
Take dominion.
Rule and subdue the earth!