Miracles happen, but not as they were told

This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”

2 Corinthians 13:1

The thing is you will never hear from this blog, statements such as “that preacher laid hands on me and my cancer is healed” or “I see angels dressed in white sitting in my car”. These fables are as unauthentic as they are claimed to be and similar gambits have been used by false preachers for centuries to deceive the public into believing that they are indeed spiritually supernatural.

The late Jim Jones was one such example. In his sermons, he often talked about seeing angels in all places and making claims to such that only those who trust his credibility, could ever decisively welcome his statements. In such cases, the claims are usually subjective in nature, spoken in a manner that makes examination or obtaining evidence to the claims fairly impossible. Recently, a local prophet in my town claimed that he visited his car mechanic, resulting in the other guy seeing an angel sitting inside his car. And the prophet’s wife hastily wrote on Facebook that what was being seen is his guardian angel. As always, these claims are commonly subjected to the truthfulness of the tellers themselves, and if you choose to believe them you have to usually do so by “faith”.

Okay, before I proceed, allow me to adjust my sitting position before I fall off my chair from chuckling.

But there were also numerous events recorded in the Bible where miracles were sighted and mentioned. But in these Scriptural examples, the miracles are seen by multiple witnesses and cross-examined by many. The miracles performed by Jesus Himself are such of those examples. However in doing or performing miracles Jesus never let Himself without witness, in all the good that He does (Acts 14:17).

Other examples include the deaths of Ananias and his wife Sapphira recorded in Acts 5. After Jesus ascended to heaven, the Apostles were regularly preaching at a location at the Temple in Jerusalem known as the Solomon’s porch. People came to them to listen to their words and they also brought the sick and the unwell to them to be healed.

The spiritual powers possessed by Simon Peter was undeniable that people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats in order for Peter’s shadow to fall on some of them as he passed by. Just his shadows casting over the sick is sufficient to heal them (Acts 5:15-15). That is how apparent his power was.

However, in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, they were accused by Peter of attempting to lie to the Holy Spirit by keeping some money from the proceeds of selling their assets and handing over only portion of it to God. The uncanny outcome happened, one after another, Ananias and Sapphira died after being spoken to and rebuked by Simon Peter.

Here is a man who treats righteousness a serious matter. And the powers of righteousness are clearly manifested in Simon Peter. On one hand, his deeds and his shadows could heal the unwell but on the other, those who sinned and tried to conceal their deeds were instead being cursed to dead. If at all I am alive 2,000 years ago, Simon Peter is most certainly one person I wouldn’t think of wanting to go near to. And indeed, the people were both fearful and astonished. People from all over the towns near Jerusalem came to see what was this commotion all about.

The point I’m getting at is this; the miracles mentioned, told and recorded in the Bible are always miracles or events that were performed in the presence of many witnesses and by the words of these witnesses, the account of such claims of miracles were established to be truthful and are of events that really took place.

So, if you are planning to make claims such as you have miraculously seen angels sitting inside your cars or you are healed by a prophet who touched you; to solidify and to make your story-telling credible, please bring along as many witnesses with you as possible, so that by the words of these witnesses, shall be established the truth in your claims when you start speaking about your miraculous accounts later on.