One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.             Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. (Acts 3:1-10)

This account of Peter and John healing a man at the temple gait contains a principal that we need to remember as we minister to the world around us. There are things that we can do for people in our own strength that will satisfy their apparent need but there are things we can do in the power of the Spirit that will go far beyond what they can imagine.

This is the story of a man whose vision for life was to accept his disability as inevitable and then to live with his limitations by getting bits and pieces of what the world could offer him. His view of life was that the best he could hope for was enough money to buy food and drink for a day.   He had someone, on whom he was dependent, carry him to the temple gate each day because he believed that his best hope for charity was from those who were going up to worship God. His view of that was correct but his view of what God could or would do for him was limited to the flesh. His hope was simply that God would touch a heart to share a little money for the day. Perhaps, he saw his hope that God would provide his daily bread every day for the rest of his life as faith pleasing to God and, perhaps, it was.   The problem wasn’t the faith it was the vision.

That is true for many of us. We have been taught that God will only work through natural means to meet our needs or to advance the kingdom. So we pray for doctors to do their best. We pray for a good job to meet the needs of our families. We pray for rain when the skies are already full of clouds. There is nothing wrong with these prayers except that we are asking God to guarantee what would likely happen in the natural even without his intervention. Sometimes our view of the miraculous is only one shade different from the natural. I don’t deny that God often works in the natural but I also believe he wants us to have a greater vision than that.

When Abraham and Sarah were told that they would give birth to a son in their late years they eventually defaulted to pursuing God’s promise in the natural. Growing impatient with God’s timetable, Abraham fathered a child with Hagar, a servant of Sarah’s who was a younger woman. When Ishmael was born, Abraham wanted to call God’s promise good but God rejected Ishmael because he was not the child of promise. In other words, the birth of Ishmael was not beyond the scope of what could happen in the natural. Older men had fathered children before. But what about a woman long past menopause? That would require a miracle and so in God’s timing Abraham fathered a son through Sarah. That was Isaac, the supernatural child of promise.

In the story of Peter and John, the man asked for a contribution to the poor. What he got was far beyond his vision of what God would do for him. Instead of a pocket change, he received a new set of legs. Peter and John’s vision of what God was willing to do set the stage for a miracle that brought praise to God because only God could have done what the crowds witnessed with their own eyes. Too many of us serve God in our own strength and ask him to simply bless what we do. That’s not bad but there is something much better. That something is to ask God to do through us what only he can do – something that is impossible for us to do in our own strength and in our own talents.

Even the world can do amazing things in its own strength – remember the Tower of Babel. Even atheists and worshippers of false Gods can build great buildings, feed the poor, fund research, and entertain us in amazing ways. Certainly followers of Christ should provide great architecture, feed the poor, and fund research but at the same time we should ask for more and ask God to do things through us that no man can do. That is what separates Jesus from every other name. That is what identifies Jesus as the only name under heaven by which men can be saved. Our view is that silver and gold given to good causes is a good thing but God is willing to go far beyond that when our vision goes far beyond that.

Today, lets ask God to not only empower men to do the possible with excellence but let’s ask him to do the impossible so that men will give him praise and the name of Jesus will be exalted.  Today’s word – Expect miracles.