Blessings and Miracles

It’s true that we serve a God of miracles. But brace yourself, because what I am going to say about that will come as a total shock to some of you.

The Lord’s preference is not to meet your needs through a miracle.
Now before you think I’ve lost all my faith, hear me out. I define a miracle as the suspension or superseding of natural laws, and personally, I’ve received many. There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord performs miracles and uses them like a bell to draw people unto Himself.

But let me ask you, would you rather receive a miracle of healing or live with the blessing of good health? Would you rather have the Lord perform a miracle to pull you out of bankruptcy or be so blessed financially that He wouldn’t have to? I think the logical answer to both of those questions is obvious.

It’s always better to avoid problems, which is the result of living in blessing, than it is to be delivered out of them, which requires a miracle.
There are three important reasons for receiving from God through blessings rather than miracles. First, blessings prevent crises, while miracles deliver from crises. Second, a blessing is always a more abundant supply than a miracle. And third, miracles are a temporary fix, while blessings are permanent solutions. Therefore, if you’re living from miracle to miracle, it probably means you’re living from crisis to crisis.

God’s original intent for His creation was to function under His blessing instead of a miracle. If sin hadn’t corrupted God’s creation, there would be no need for miracles. Everyone would be healthy, everyone would be prosperous, and strife, the cause of broken relationships and wars, wouldn’t even exist.

Unfortunately, there is corruption in the earth, and there will always be a place for miracles. However, Jesus not only forgave us of our sins, He redeemed us from the curse and placed blessings on His followers.
Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”

If we will believe we are blessed and act accordingly, we can avoid many of the problems that make us candidates for miracles.

Let me illustrate. Some believers pray for financial miracles but aren’t practicing the principle of giving and will not work. They know God loves them, so they’re counting on and believing for a miracle. And that’s just what it will take. They aren’t obeying God’s Word in faith, so they can’t receive the blessing God has spoken over them.

The Lord told us to work so that He would bless the work of our hands and that if we would give, it would be given unto us.
We read in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”
Deuteronomy 28:12 reads, “The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.”

Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
If we don’t obey Him in these commands, it’s either because of ignorance or we don’t fully trust His promises. That doesn’t mean the Lord hates us, but it means our unbelief is stopping the blessing He has spoken from coming to pass in our lives.
So, lack of faith in God’s blessing causes us to enter into crisis, and right before disaster, if we continue steadfast in our belief for a miracle, we receive just enough to get us over the hump. Then next month we need another miracle. I know this drill from experience.

One of the greatest mistakes of my life was believing that to be a full-time minister, I had to quit working a secular job. It wasn’t that I minded working; I’ve been a hard worker all my life and I enjoy it. I honestly thought I had to make a choice, that I couldn’t do both.
It took years for the Lord to get through my stubbornness and teach me I could work to supplement my income until the ministry grew. In the meantime, Jamie and I suffered a lot of financial crises, unnecessarily.
Because the Lord loved us, He kept us alive with a lot of miracles . I remember the week before our first son was born. We didn’t have the money to pay the expenses.

Miraculously, a Bible study group from nearly 100 miles away sent us all we needed to pay for the birth, just in time.
The day of Joshua’s birth, I ran out of gas and pulled into a service station. Without any money and not knowing what to do, I started filling my tank believing God would perform a miracle. (Please don’t do this—I’m not recommending it; it’s just what I did.) Continue Reading.