Wednesday, March 25, 2020 Some Material taken from Miracles of Healing by Sam Nobles
If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. James 1:2-4
Miracle or Deliverance?
Some of us think we are looking for a miracle in our lives, but what we really want is for God to save us from our circumstances. We think that because God can do something, He should do it. Deep down inside we may even think we deserve it, that we are a little entitled to deliverance because we have been good and faithful for the most part.
Many of us have been guilty of wanting/expecting God to rescue us from some of the circumstances of our lives when it was our own sinful actions that caused the circumstances. For example, if we spend too much money, we expect God to provide for us to still be able to pay our bills, or better yet, bail us out completely. If someone speeds, and they get a ticket, they may expect God to somehow work some magic and get them out of this ticket. We make mistakes in life and God does actually rescue us from ourselves sometimes, but He doesn’t take the consequences away every time. That is where we get mixed up. We think God doesn’t work miracles anymore, but sometimes we are looking for deliverance from our sins and consequences more than we are looking for a true miracle.
When Hezekiah was king of Judah, the Assyrians invaded and were threatening to take over Jerusalem. The Assyrians had already defeated the northern kingdom of Israel and many other nations, and the king of Assyria was mocking Hezekiah for trusting in God. This was a crisis that Hezekiah was praying the Lord would deliver them from and it was going to take a miracle. They were about to be wiped out or starve because the crops in the land had already been destroyed. Hezekiah sent word to Isaiah, the prophet, and Isaiah sent word back to Hezekiah, reassuring him that the Lord had said that Assyria would not enter Jerusalem. The city would be spared.
In true miracle form, God answered Hezekiah’s prayer and kept His word. And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 2 Kings 19:35 The angel of the Lord struck down most of the Assyrians and the rest left in a hurry when they woke up and saw the dead bodies.
Hezekiah put God above everything. He could have fallen completely apart, and he did a little later when he got sick. This time, however, he turned right to God, trusting Him to deliver his people. God did deliver them and made a provision for the food they lost in the destroyed crops. God promised him that the seeds from the destroyed crops would fall and grow more crops. They ended up with more to harvest than they would have had from the original crops and by the third year they were fully recovered. God delivered them in many ways.
We don’t have to fear anything because our God is our Deliverer too. He doesn’t always rescue us from our circumstances, but He does do what is the absolute best thing for us and what brings Him the glory. He most likely will not deliver us the way we think He will, and often He uses what is already in place, like He did with the seeds from the destroyed crops falling to bring even more to harvest than they ever expected.
Sometimes we miss the miracle or deliverance He provides because we are only looking for Him to do things in a certain way, but He is always faithful and true, and every time He will prove to be faithful at every turn.
So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand
of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all his enemies,
and heprovided for them on every side.
2 Chronicles 32:22
