The word miracle may not be strange to many people, just as it may not be significant to them beyond its use as an everyday word, but to the Christian, it is definitely a word that carries a lot of importance. There is hardly any Christian that is not expecting an act that can be classified as miracle. Although, several Christian ministrations have been given, identifying the act of sleeping and waking up amongst several daily events, as some form of daily miracle that everyone receives, and for which they are expected to remain grateful, the average Christian, without doubting this, still looks unto God for that act that seems to be greatly desired, but seemingly out of reach, with the belief that the Almighty God will make it possible despite the person’s inadequacies. To the average Christian, this is the standard for what can be classified as miracle and there is always such aspirations in the life of not just the Christian, but anyone who is ambitious life.
An obvious fact about the desire for a miracle is a subtle acceptance of one’s inability to achieve the desired objective, mostly because such an individual has the conviction that ordinarily, he/she does not meet the criteria for achieving such lofty objectives. It will be expected that such negatives or inadequacies will be overlooked and the objective will still be achieved. In some way, miracle will come out as Grace of God defined, as it is still a form of unmerited favour from the Lord.
As unmerited as it may be however, some minimum requirements need to be met for such miracles to manifest in the life of everyone in general and the Christian in particular. Inability to meet these requirements may actually hinder the manifestation of the miracle even when it is made available through Grace. The following are some of those requirements, and a Christian who is desirous and in expectation of a miracle, especially from the Lord needs to do all that is necessary to meet up with them, so that the opportunity for a miracle will be met with preparation on the part of the potential beneficiary.
1. Requirements to be met by the people around the potential miracle beneficiary.
2. Requirements to be met by the beneficiary of the miracle.
3. The timeliness of the miracle and role of the miracle worker.
In discussing these three points further, two of the miracles of Jesus Christ will be used for guidance; the first being the catching of fish by Apostle Peter just before he was called by Jesus Christ (Lk. 5:4-11) and the second being the raising of Lazarus from the dead by Jesus Christ (Jn. 11:38-44).
In the first miracle, Jesus was standing at the lake of Gennesaret when he saw two empty boats. He got into one which turned out to belong to Peter and after his usual preaching, he told him to pull his boat into the middle of the lake in order to catch fish. Peter obeyed, but only after letting him know that they had been unsuccessful throughout the night trying to achieve the same purpose, but was willing to carry out his instruction. What followed was a miracle, as they caught more than they could handle on their own and had to seek help from friends who helped ensure that they were able to have the full value of the miracle safely. The second miracle was the case of Jesus been informed of the sickness of a friend of his called Lazarus. He eventually arrived at the location four days later, only to confirm what he already told his disciples, which was that Lazarus was dead. Lazarus had been placed in a tomb with a stone rolled over it. The miracle was however not going to commence until the people around Lazarus helped to remove the stone according to the instruction of Jesus Christ. This was done only after some protestations from the sister, and Jesus Christ followed their compliance to his instructions with the commanding words asking Lazarus to come out. The role of Lazarus was to come out and not remain there whilst the people around also had to help to remove the clothes used to bind him.
The article will be continued next week. Full download of this article is available on our site in the address below:
www.crossandcrownchristianministry.org.
You may also send your reactions to;
crossandcrownchristianministry@gmail.com.
