Do You Need A Miracle?

Do You Need A Miracle?

Pastor Michael Frisbee, DD/DM
II Kings 4:1-7

We’ve all experienced those moments in our life where only a miracle would resolve the crisis at hand.  We have wrung our hands, hit our knees, and cried out, “God, I need a miracle!”  Maybe some of you listening today feel that now and that is why you are reading this today.

There is a separation between the two worlds we have to walk simultaneously within as a Christian.  There is a world all too familiar for us, a world of common sense and worldly values, a world we are born into and that world with its science and logic always seeks to drag us to its level and conformity.

When you accept Christ as your personal Savior, you become born-again!  Hallelujah!  Few Christians TRULY understand what that means or the value of that in the present.  It means you are born out of bondage to sin and degradation, of worthless and false doctrines and philosophies, and out of a world of limitations.  As a born-again Christian, you are now a part of a world of divine reality and endless opportunity that is in the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father.  You have become a new being, a child of royalty; the King of Kings.  You are born again by faith and now you may live and act by faith.

The world for which we must walk in, that of science and logic, of common sense, refuses to acknowledge the Truth of the Word of God.  The riches of God’s Kingdom are not even recognized by those lost, a common failure of all that live in the World.  The World tries to “fit us into their mold”, to comply and assimilate, a convince us to live by their delusions of what is logical and common sense.  Not only is this wrong – it is dead wrong.  Our supply source is not of this world.  All this world has to offer is pain, hopelessness, frustration, deceit, and fear.  Worst of all, a death eternally filled with anguish, and no relief.

If you are truly ready to say, “I need a Miracle God!”, then you must be ready to recognize Christ Jesus as your one and only supply source, your heavenly warehouse.  Jesus must be your “One Stop Shopping” center.  Jesus is never changing – for as He is in Heaven, He is the same within us. He brings Heaven’s fullness of divine wealth; emotional, physical, material, and spiritual wealth.  As a born-again Christian, the realm and reach of Christ Jesus is yours to live within.

No – I’m not about to launch into a prosperity message.  Our Heavenly Father has not promised to make us all financially rich, but does offer a life of restoration, sufficiency and ability to experience and live a life of fullness.  God will provide sufficient supply for every need and every situation we will face.

The Scriptures shares a story with us of a woman that discovers the true and sufficient supply for her life.  She had been widowed and was not able to pay the bills.  The creditor was threatening to take her sons into bondage for the debts.  With this crisis, her life seemed to be at its darkest, her need at this crisis to great, yet she discovered God’s plan for divine provision and sufficiency.

There are four things I want you to learn today.

1.  Thanking God for demands
2.  Praising God for desperation
3.  Practicing Dependence
4.  Living in anticipation of deliverance

You must learn to thank God for His demands.  Many of you needing a miracle today are at square one of this process – and at point of great demand.  The things you have depended upon so far have failed you and the opportunity is now there to understand this.  The widow in the story always depended on her husband for everything she received, she never really trusted in God.  Now she is a widow and in a place of tremendous need and must learn her only available, dependable source is God.  If God cannot meet the need, then the need would not and could not be met.

There is a law in God’s Kingdom regarding problems, needs, and demands.  God’s law of supply and demand is predicated upon our actions, and God only supplies when there is a need.  When we obey God’s commandments and laws, that obedience sometimes puts us in a position of need, and only then can Heaven’s resources meet our needs.

I have heard people say they want to experience the full power of God in their lives.  I ask you this – DO YOU MEAN IT?  What are you doing RIGHT NOW that makes a demand on the power and resources of God?  Can you succeed in your present activities on your own?  What supply support do you have to give?  What is there in your life that demands the power of God?  Nothing?  Are you well able to keep on going the status quo on your own without God?  I would call this “Ambivalent Christianity.

Back to the widow in II Kings 4:1, her great demand pushed her to seek the help from God’s prophet Elisha, stating “my source of well-being is gone!”.

Elisha encounters the widow whose cruse of oil and barrel of wheat was near empty.  What did he do?  He asked her to make him a cake from the ingredients shae had on hand!  When she obeyed the request of God’s Prophet, the oil and the meal did not run out, and together they feasted like royalty.  God was in the grain and oil business!  They had all they needed.

We need to learn to praise God for desperation.

Has God given you a task you cannot do? Great!  God always provides what is needed to finish what He started.  We only must obey.  Remember the widow, her source of income was gone, creditors threatening to take her sons, and her desperation drove her to Elisha.  Her desperation drove her to realize that the world could not provide her what she needed.

As long as you depend on yourself or what you can do, you won’t turn in desperation to God.  Must God take away what we have in order to teach us to trust only in Him?  Sometimes that is the only way we can see. !  Is it so terrible to be brought to a place of having to trust God in order to begin living an abundant life?  Churches sometime become dry and stale as a result of the growing savings account hoarded away.  They are content on the ability to meet any need; prepared for that "rainy day."  God desires His people to use everything He gives them to God's glory.  When we give, He gives, and on, and on.  There is no faith in hoarding for a rainy day.  God just may give us what we are saving for.

Look at verse 2.  She admitted there was nothing she could do.  Her own resources had failed.  Desperation can help us abandon pride, and our own wisdom and worn-out solutions that have failed.  God's miracles happed when we are at the end of "us."  Her desperation brought her to an act of what seemed like blind obedience to what Elisha commanded.  He said to go, and borrow vessels, and "borrow not a few."  Her miracle depended on how much she was willing to receive. 

This widow may have felt somewhat silly.  Imagine borrowing vessels when it appeared there was nothing to put into them.  It must have seemed all the more strange when Elisha told the woman to shut her door and then pour the oil out of her nearly empty jar into these borrowed ones.  Her desperation drove her to obedience.  She began, and the oil did not run out.  Are you saying "God, I NEED a miracle."?  Well, are you ready to obey His word?  Are you ready to live by faith and obedience to God?  If this sort of life generates great need, then God supplies great provision.

Practice dependence.  The widow's miracle began with her dependence of Elisha.  She could not yet see what Elisha saw, that it was God who was in the oil business.  Elisha knew though, and he was looking to the Kingdom where the oil is stored.  John 1:1 tells us that in the beginning was the Word, which is Jesus, and that Jesus is the creator of all things.  Well, if He created it, then He has all we need.  Have you ever said, "God, it would take a miracle to meet MY need."  Well, He can!

God started this widow on the road to living the abundant life by multiplying what she had the least of.  Pay attention to this secret: the woman had to relinquish what she had in order to receive.  Give this life up to Jesus, and He gives you back an eternity.  He multiplies faith.  Elisha watched the needs of this widow being met by the riches of heaven.

Are you ready to start depending on God?  Will you be ready to depend on Him for all you have?  For all you give?  For all you do?  For all you may accomplish?

What about the young girl who threw away her virtue?  Can God perform a miracle and give her a new start?  What about the husband and wife who's marriage and lives are empty?  Can God fill them up with a new happiness?  God will provide the miracle if you provide obedience and exercise your faith in Him. 

The widow's demand led to desperation.  Her desperation led to dependence.  Her dependence led to deliverance.  God gave her the miracle she needed.  The woman obeyed the word of God that came from the man of God.  Many of us spend a lot of time worrying about "acts of sin."  Look at the widow.  She committed an act of faith.!!  When she put the verb of faith into action, God released His power.  She did more than merely believe.  She acted, in faith.  When she did, she entered into a new dimension of living, the Kingdom dimension.  God's power was set in motion by an act of faith.  The woman had to relinquish in order to receive. 

When you choose to obey, and place yourself in a position where you are totally dependent on God, then His deliverance and His miracles will abundantly fill your need.  The power of God fills the life of any believer or repentant sinner at the point of obedience.  You can't just pray, and wait.  You must act on faith.  Remember, the woman was told to borrow a lot of vessels?  That when she closed herself in, and shut the door, all the vessels were now there?  She had closed the door on how much oil God could give her.  God had a lot more oil!!!!  The woman had no more vessels to hold more oil. 

Jesus said, "according to thy faith, be it unto you."  Are you ready to say, "Lord, be it according to MY faith."?  Her miracle depended on her obedience.  God provided oil for all the vessels the woman borrowed.  God gave her enough oil to pay her debts, redeem her children, and to future provision.  She had whatever she needed, because she relinquished all she possessed. 

What do you need?  What are you willing to give the most of?  Is your budget tight?  What are you giving God?  Is your time so full you don't know what to do?  How much are you giving God?  Is your mind in constant turmoil?  How much devotion are you giving to the will of God?  Is your body tired and achy?  How much are you serving God?  Are you ready to say, "I need a miracle God"?