Miracles, warts and all.

Our God totally rules!
I hope you’re OK with me saying that :o) but He does, He’s awesome!

Easter Sunday I was healed!
Now you might be wondering if I was blind or deaf or lamb or something like that. No I wasn’t, sorry if this disappoints you. It was a rather uninteresting healing if I am honest, but it caused me to rejoice when I realised what God had done for me!

A while ago I did some plumbing for a colleague of my wife’s. Somehow I pulled something in my shoulder because ever since then it has not only been incredibly painful it has also been very weak (you should have seen me trying to open jars – I had to ask Ruth to help me!). Well, on Easter Sunday we prayed for the sick, not by having them come out the front but by each of us praying for ourselves – God’s authority was so present it was incredible. We prayed and I was healed… although not being all that courageous in my faith I didn’t notice until Tuesday morning as I realised that my shoulder had not been hurting.
It may not have been a headline grabbing miracle but it reminds me of one thing …
Great is our God!!!

Well, it actually reminds me of two things really; the other one is that God has the ultimate authority in my life.

This is not the first time God has healed me. But I’m afraid the previous time was no more exciting; He also healed me of a wart once [and for all]. I honestly wish I had a better story to share with you I really do!
It wasn’t a big wart it was just a small one on my index finger, but the trouble was that I kept knocking it when I wrote and so it was often quite painful. I did start to treat it by putting on this liquid that would burn it. This worked great but by the time it had nearly gone I would start forgetting to apply the liquid and it would grow back :o(
In the end I prayed for it during a church service. In my heart I felt God’s spirit convince me that I had been healed. I was so certain of this I was naturally disappointed when I looked down to still see the wart on my finger. I couldn’t believe it! But as my disappointment began to grow God gave me a picture; it was of the time that the priests [carrying the Ark] had to step out into the fast flowing Jordan. The water did not stop immediately although God had blocked its flow further up river, they had to just stand there waiting for the answer/miracle to reach them.
I therefore waited and each day rejoicing that God had healed me even though I was often accompanied by the wart which I was praising God for healing me from!
After about a week or even longer, because I easily forget these things, I realised that my finger didn’t hurt any longer. It was then that I realised that I no longer had a wart. I have no idea when it went or how God did it, but He did it.

God does not always do ‘impressive’ miracles but he still requires our obedience in these matters. Jesus’ first miracle, turning water into wine, went almost entirely unnoticed. Sure people thought that it was good wine but no-one suddenly thought that he was the Son of God because of it. Despite this he still required the obedience of the servants to fill the jars with water and then serve it up as wine.

Here’s the exciting news; you and I have a role to play in God performing miracles in Newport today! How awesome [and terrifying] is that! But we’ll discuss this more tomorrow…