As I checked my luggage in at the counter of the airport terminal in Medan, Sumatra where I was to await my return flight to California, the immensity of the miracles that we had seen God do over the previous seven days began to hit me.
Go and tell John what you see and here: the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear . . . This passage of Scripture from Matthew 11 began to resound within my heart, and the tears of joy began to flow down my cheeks. I was given the privilege of returning to California with good news. All of the miracles that Jesus spoke of on that day when he addressed the disciples of John were witnessed among us in this seven-day period. And we saw them again and again and again.
Many blind eyes were opened. Here’s a picture of one woman just after she regained here sight:
The woman on the front right was blind and now sees, and the young man at the back was the one who prayed for her!
We also saw many deaf ears opened, many lame people walked, and many other miracles of various kinds.
God was truly walking among us as the God of Wonders!
But Why Not Here?
Whenever I share about the great miracles that we have seen God do in places like Indonesia, Paraguay, and Mozambique, people tend to ask me the same question: Why don’t we see those kinds of miracles here in America? My answer to that question is twofold. First of all, we do see those kinds of miracles here in America! And secondly, miracles don’t happen any easier in a foreign country than they do in America. Whether you are reaching for a miracle in the third world or in the first world, the same conditions apply and the same atmosphere must be cultivated.
The reason most Christians never see miracles has nothing to do with what country they live in. There are just as many Indonesian believers who have never seen a miracle as there are American believers. If you want to see miracles, you don’t have to relocate: you simply need to be willing to push through the dip.
The dip, according to Seth Godin, is that dark pit that you have to trudge through in order to make your way to the mountain top. The desert mystics of the middle ages called it the cloud of unknowing and spoke of the dark night of the soul. However you define that system of experiences, the truth of the matter remains the same: if you are willing to push through your unbelief . . . if you are willing to fight the good fight of faith . . . you will see miracles!
I spent many hours pushing my way through the cloud of unknowing. I like that designation because it describes so well the feelings associated with praying something through. I’m so tempted to feel that I don’t know . . . I don’t know if I’m praying right, whether or not God will actually do what I’m asking him or if I’m praying in vain, whether or not I’ve broken through . . . There’s so much uncertainty that attacks your mind whenever you set your heart upon getting an answer of any kind from God.
But faith requires the rejection of uncertainty with extreme prejudice. I cannot allow uncertainty to remain in my heart and at the same time think that I am walking in faith.
Faith, according to the author of Hebrews, is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what we do not see (says the old NIV at Hebrews 11:1).
Unbelief is the unmitigated assault on your certainty. Faith means standing your ground and continuing to pray in faith, even when the whole world seems to be against you!
A Crisis of Experience
At the beginning of this post I said that the immensity of the miracles hit me at the airport on the way home. The discerning reader will note that this means that it had not really hit me prior. This is because the most miraculous moments of our trip . . . the moments in which God was moving the most powerfully . . . did not seem to be miraculous our powerful in the moment. I spoke about this in my sermon last Sunday morning at Living Hope.
Standing on the grounds of the crusade sites, our teams were bombarded by a whole host of non-supernatural stimuli. The air was hot and humid and the sweat continued to pour down our faces. This was especially uncomfortable for me because I had to wear a full suit on all four crusade nights!
I was also being eaten alive by mosquitos. Apparently mosquitos love bald heads! I’m thinking of growing an afro for the next missions trip!
On one of the nights, the dogs were barking, demon possessed people were screaming, the deliverance team was singing over them in an attempt to cast them out, the islamic prayer chants were being amplified over the whole city, and in the midst of all of that, someone began releasing a full-on fireworks show in the air above the crusade site.
When the team began to pray for the sick, I didn’t fee the rush of the power of God. I felt the heat of the air, the drip of my sweat, the itch of my mosquito bites, the irritation of the sounds, and the overall chaos of the atmosphere . . .
Yet, in the midst of all of the mess, God was working his wonders. Isn’t that just like God? Mess doesn’t prevent him from working his wonders! He’s just God like that!
Out of the chaos, a great testament to the glory of God emerged from the soils of Nias, Tello, and Mentawai. And every member of our team, from the youngest (16) to the oldest (I won’t even ask him), saw God work miracles through their own hands.
This is good news. And if we can extract our minds from the chaos of our lives for long enough to let it sink in, it’ll change our whole perspective on mess. Mess is not the absence of God; Mess is God’s opportunity to reveal himself as the God of Wonders.
