Waiting On Your Miracle

Most miracles are forfeited
because we give up too soon!

We have been exploring A Crash Course In Miracles for the past three weeks. This past Sunday, I shared with you the concept of Waiting. As a church that holds the Pentecostal experience as valued and treasured, we have been focused on Acts 1 and 2. Allow me to remind you of a couple of observations. First of all, we cannot, individually or corporately, experience the Pentecost of Acts 2 without the prayers of Acts 1. Acts 1:14 says, "They all joined together constantly in prayer...." For ten days they met in prayer. On day 10, the miracle of Pentecost occurred. I am encouraging our people to join together, pray, and seek God for our local church to experience a revival of God's Spirit at HVCC.

Secondly, let's be careful to not box God into our paradigm of Pentecost. Remember, until Acts 2, the word Pentecost had a totally different meaning than we, this side of Acts 2, usually infer. Before Acts 2, Pentecost was a Jewish Feast. But God totally redefined Pentecost on that day in the Upper Room. Wouldn't it be amazing, if He did something so extraordinary that it would again redefine Pentecost? Don't limit His creativity or His power!

As we moved into this third week of understanding Biblical miracles, the thought that has challenged me over the past few weeks is this: What if the disciples in the upper room had quit praying on day 9? Would the early church (and us today) have missed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? What if Joshua and the people of Israel had quit marching around Jericho on the fourth time around? What if Naaman had only dipped five times? What if Elijah had only looked for rain twice? Would they have missed their miracles if they had not been willing to wait? I can't prove it, but I think most miracles are forfeited because we give up too soon.

2 Peter 3:8, 9 says, “Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises as some understand slowness.”  We usually use the analogy of a day is like a thousand years when we are trying to comprehend the days of creation; but, the analogy is actually used concerning God keeping His promises. The truth of this great passage is this: God may seem slow in answering our prayers with the miracle that we need; but remember His slow is not our slow!

So let me encourage you today...Don't give up! Don't quit praying! Don't quit marching! Don't quit dipping (you know what I mean)! The Lord is not slow in keeping His promises.