What Is a Miracle?

Do we still see genuine miracles today? Would you know one, if you saw one?

We see scoundrels in televangelism and so-called healing crusaders promising and pretending to perform miracles, but those just don’t happen. We hear of some remarkable coincidences; we hear of cancer remissions, which some might call miracles, but how many genuine miracles do people experience today? For the vast majority, they are precious few, if any at all. So people become jaded and unbelieving, many coming to the conclusion that, unlike in the days of the prophets, Jesus, and the early church, there are no miracles today.

Indeed, there seems to be such a scarcity of miracles that people doubt if there were ever such things in days of old. Many come to doubt the veracity of the Scriptures, though they may have believed Them before, because while they read of miracles in the Scriptures, they see none happening in their lives. They surmise that the Biblical stories of miracles are myths and allegories, if not deliberate lies to deceive the masses and gain power.

What is a miracle? A miracle is known as an unusual but desirable event that cannot be judged or explained by any possible means at our disposal other than that a Higher Power is responsible for it. A miracle defies what we know as the laws of nature and our knowledge of all things. A miracle, by definition, is beyond the ability of man to perform.

The timing alone can make a miracle. A miracle can appear as quite a normal event but in remarkable and inexplicable coincidence with other events. For example, there may be a serious specific need presenting itself, wherein those in need or those in behalf of those in need will pray, and behold, the need is wonderfully met in an unexpected, mysterious, yet uncannily timely manner. We have often experienced these kinds of provisions or answers to prayer. So, contrary to the opinions of the world, miracles manifesting themselves in this realm do still happen.

Are not visions, dreams, and prophecies from God types of miracles? We have had many of each of these in our community’s midst, many of which were prophetic in the predictive sense and have come to pass. Who can understand how a vision or dream will reveal that which is concealed from our senses, or predict future events symbolically, and lo and behold, it comes to pass?

Why is it that visions, dreams, and prophecies almost invariably come in allegories and symbolism, and that they are never understood until fulfilled? Is it not to show that we do not concoct these things ourselves? Is it not to demonstrate that there are higher powers guiding and controlling our destinies, or at least knowing the future? In any case, they are miracles, according to the definition we have given here.

Why do dramatic kinds of miracles not continue to happen in plenteousness and frequency?

While Moses delivered and led Israel, he performed many wondrous miracles. When Joshua succeeded Moses, miracles continued, but they were not as numerous. As time passed, we saw fewer miracles on record in Israel, though they did continue. By the time Israel returned to the land after the Babylonian captivity, there were very few dramatic miracles, if any. We then find a four hundred year stretch of relative silence from the last record of prophets to the appearing of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

When Jesus came in the flesh, His life and ministry were full of miracles of every kind, culminating in the greatest miracle of all – a Man raising Himself from the dead after three days.

Death is the final and invincible enemy to man; none escape their appointment with this great equalizer. Even taxes can be avoided, at least for a time, but when death comes knocking, that’s it; there is no negotiation or postponement, unless God changes His mind. Indeed, through death, we are no longer subject to taxes!

But one Man submitted to death and overcame it. We know that no other man has ever done so. This causes us to conclude that this Man was either God Himself, Who reigns over all, or someone in perfect favor with God. Either way, the resurrection is the miracle of miracles.

And it is this miracle in which Christians base the hope for their resurrection and victory over death. This hope is confirmed as valid by experiencing an inner life-changing resurrection.

After the days of Christ in the flesh, miracles decreased substantially. As the early church continued, they decreased even more. Why is this? Is it because succeeding generations of believers had less faith? That is one explanation. Another is that miracles were only meant for a certain time, in order to establish the Church. Either of these explanations can be valid, but there is a further reason.

“Then Jesus said to him, Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe” (John 4:48 MKJV).

We must grow up. Consider how a parent provides so readily and amply for a newborn. Consider that all it has to do is cry, and someone comes running. Consider that all its needs are met simply by “asking.” So it is with believers in Jesus Christ. As a child grows and develops, it learns to take care of its own needs. As we grow in Christ, we learn to do things ourselves and learn not to depend on others to do things for us.

God is creating us in His image. We are meant to be like Him. Don’t all sons and daughters mature to the stature of their parents? So we mature to the stature of God. One day, when man is fully developed in God’s image, he will be as God, able to do all the things God does. Sons and daughters of God grow up to be God, that God may be all in all.

What is a miracle? God’s creation, and the maintenance and development of it, is an ongoing miracle. Billions of miracles are happening around and within us at every moment. Consider these words of Jesus:

“Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black” (Matthew 5:36 MKJV).

Isn’t that amazing? Though man has been able to do so much, he is still unable to create something from scratch. While God made all that He made from that which is not seen, man cannot make so much as one of those things, not a hair or even its color! This is even though he has the originals to copy from. While all things are original with God, nothing is original with man:

“That which has been is that which shall be; and that which has been done is that which shall be done; and there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9 MKJV).

Even Jesus, as Lord and Savior, and as an example of how man will one day live, said this:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do. For whatever things He does, these also the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all the things that He Himself does. And He will show Him greater works than these, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and makes alive, even so the Son of Man makes alive whomever He wills” (John 5:19-21 MKJV).

All things are of God the Father. By Him all things consist. Scientists continue to discover that whether they go micro or macro, the process is endless! And the smaller things get, the more sophisticated and complex they seem to be. How marvelous! Creation is a miracle, established and operating!

So miracles abound everywhere; we only take them for granted. We are an existence of miracles, and God is our Creator, Who does all things we cannot do. From the flight of a bird to the crawling of a worm, from the highest heights of the heavens to the lowest depths of the earth, day and night, air, light, fire, and water, all are miraculous.

“Things just happen,” say the evolutionists. That is the statement of a lazy, ignorant fool who refuses to answer to his Creator. To him, there are no miracles. “Miracles are impossible!” he says, while claiming to believe the greatest miracle possible even beyond death - that everything came from nothing and formed into myriads of perfect designs completely by chance or accident.

Of course, there is no such miracle; it isn’t a miracle; it is a fool’s opinion, a myth, an evil imagination that will soon enough be discovered to be a piece of perfect madness, the madness itself a mystery and miracle in its own right. Who could have conceived or planned such a thing as the mad thought of evolution?

Christians are given to see miracles above all others. This is because they have come into contact with the greatest Miracle Worker of all. King David of Israel, by miraculous revelation, marveled at God’s works:

Psalms 8:3-9 GW
(3) When I look at Your heavens, the creation of Your fingers, the moon and the stars that You have set in place-
(4) what is a mortal that You remember him or the son of man that You take care of him?
(5) You have made him a little lower than Yourself. You have crowned him with glory and honor.
(6) You have made him rule what Your hands created. You have put everything under his control:
(7) all the sheep and cattle, the wild animals,
(8) the birds, the fish, whatever swims in the currents of the seas.
(9) O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name throughout the earth!

We see miracles in our lives every day. We see the weather governed to remarkably give us the time and opportunity to do our work. While hail, floods, storms, drought, insects, and weeds plague others all around us, we see God protecting us on every side in every way.

We see people coming and going on our behalf.

We see retribution on every side for people who have done us wrong and reward for those who do us good.

We see that we are granted health to carry on, whereas many others are sick and dying.

We see us pushing ourselves for long hours every day, hurried and harried, yet surviving and even thriving.

We see battered and collapsed markets, failing economies with fortunes in savings, retirement funds, and business earnings greatly diminished or lost, while we are kept and prospering.

We see people everywhere robbed, disenfranchised, lost, hurting, confounded, fearful, and deceived, yet we are thriving and confident, provided for in every way. Not because we are clever, skilled, knowledgeable, or lucky, but because the hand of God is helping and blessing us every single hour of every day.

When we have a problem, we call on God our Father, and He answers us in due time. He protects, guides, informs, blesses, and provides for us, much in every way. He gives us the faith and hope in Him, and the knowledge that He is with us all the way.

All these things are miracles of the first order. Of these things does the resurrection life consist, the greatest, realest miracle of all.

Victor Hafichuk