Tuesday, May 15, 2018

even the miracles are temporary



















A few weeks ago a friend called, he has diabetes really bad, has already had both feet amputated, and told me he was going to have his left arm removed on Monday.  He was shaken up, I didn’t know what to say, as it was early Sunday morning, and caught me off guard.  As I listened he told me he had come to terms with it, and mentally was preparing, but not sure about being one armed.  We prayed, and all I could think to pray was “God, we need a miracle.  NOW!”  We hung up, and I couldn’t get this out of my mind all day.  I kept thinking of how I would handle it, and realized I couldn’t, so kept reflecting back to God, “you need to deal with it, I can’t.”  Not sure what my friend was praying.  But as the hours passed, life interfered as it does, and the next day I woke up thinking today my friend is losing his arm.  Then got side tracked, until his time of surgery, when the phone rang.  It was my friend, seems the doctors did another test, found they could treat his wound with antibiotics instead, and he could keep his arm.  God gave us just what we needed, what we had asked for, a miracle, and we both rejoiced.  I am blessed to see many miracles like this, myself being one, and I can tell you, as much as I love hearing about miracles, there is nothing like being one. But miracles are only temporary...at least the physical ones.
Of all the miracles I have seen in my life, one constant remains, the person will die.  Death is 100%, we will all die a physical death, and some a spiritual one, the physical much different than the spiritual.  The apostles dealt with this, as many miracles were performed by them, just as Jesus had.  But even all the ones Jesus healed, gaining sight, walking, sickness healed, dead brought back from the grave, have one thing in common.  They would all go on to die a physical death, but had also been touched by the holy spirit, and now would not die a spiritual one.  Whenever Jesus healed someone spiritually, he always gave them a physical healing to prove he was there.  Physical evidence, as seeing was believing, and how else would you explain a man blind from birth magically seeing?  A lame man for over 30 years running and jumping?  Yet both claimed Jesus for their miracle, and even the hardest hearts could not deny the difference.  I have been on both sides, and I can tell you, God leaves his signature on your life after a miracle, for all to see.  My cardiologist, a tough man, told me after my surgery, the first and only case of its type, “it’s evident God intervened.”   He had no other explanation for my being alive, as he told my wife after surgery there was no reason I should be.  Six years later....I still testify.  And Jesus gave me a scar to prove it, and files to back it up.  But some day I too will die, and I look forward to that day in heaven.
Physical healing is temporary, we all will die.  But spiritual healing is forever, we too all will die, but not all will see heaven.  Yet we consume ourselves with the visible, the temporal, when Paul writes the things seen are temporal, but the things not seen are eternal.  God gets it right, do we?  Yet so many live by miracles, from one mess to another, yet never see God’s healing hand at work in their lives.  When we begin to see God’s hand at work in our lives, we grow in his grace.  We change attitudes, we see him as he really is, and a side many who only seek the physical don’t.  We see him as the great physician, the great healer, the almighty father, the eternal God who created us.  The proof is everywhere, but it takes a miracle called salvation for it to be revealed.  It takes faith, introduced and encouraged by his spirit to turn us to Jesus, then it takes repentance and turning to him, trusting him, no matter the situation.  If he can save your soul, he can heal you.  And if he can heal you, he can save your soul also.  And as scripture tells us, on that day many believed.  The question is, do you?  Or is your relationship with God all about the physical, seeing miracles, but rotting away inside?  What façade are you hiding that only God can see? 
All miracles are temporary, all God is eternal.  Let him perform the ultimate miracle in you today, that of salvation, of resurrection.  That which separates Jesus from all other religions, resurrection.  Something we can only believe by faith, but will see forever.  Some still seek only signs and wonders, pursuing God like he is a sideshow.  But when you seek the deeper things, when you are faced with a situation where you need a miracle, he is there.  The question is will you settle for a temporary miracle or an eternal one?  When faced with death, will only a physical healing do?  We have no promise of tomorrow, today has enough problems of its own.  But we can be assured of our tomorrow today, by trusting Jesus.  God wants to heal the whole man from the inside out.  The things not seen, we only care about what is seen.  Not what God sees....
Heaven will be filled with those who not only saw physical miracles, but spiritual ones too.  Hell will be filled with those only settling for the temporary, who never had a spiritual healing.  Both will worship at an altar bowing to God forever, one in pain, one in glory.  Temporary comes and goes, eternity is for a long, long time.  There are no do it yourself courses to heaven.  It takes Jesus.  I will be in heaven, hope to see you all there.  Now that would be a miracle worth bragging about!
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com