Friday, January 12, 2007

The Size of Your Miracle

The size of your God determines the size of your miracle. That is, how great and powerful and good you understand God to be will determine how big a miracle you will be able to believe Him for.

Little God, little miracle. Big God, big miracle.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:27 PM

    What does that mean?

    You are capable of believing in great miracles because God is great?

    What about the miracles actually taking place?

    Can your belief in a great miracle cause one or are your words only the words of a man?

    Jeff

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  2. If God is great, and His promises are true, then I can believe Him for every thing He promises. There is no need that is greater than His provision. There is no captivity that is greater than His ability to deliver. There is not sickness that is greater than His ability to heal.

    When Moses sent twelve men to spy out the land that God had promised, ten came back with the report that it was a good land, but full of giants. They saw themselves as grasshoppers in the sight of these giants, and assumed that that is also how the giants saw them. But the other two spies, Joshua and Caleb, saw that there were indeed giants in the land, but it made no difference to them, because they saw that God was greater. Because they believed that God was greater, they were able to believe God to bring them into the Promised Land, and that the giants would not be a problem.

    The ten faithless spies never entered the land because of their unbelief. Joshua and Caleb did enter because of their faith. So each man received according to what they believed and how big they saw God.

    My faith is not in a great miracle, but in a great God. But because I believe in a great God, I expect to see great miracles.

    How big is your God?

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  3. Anonymous9:50 AM

    So you "believe" God can actually save people. That is a great miracle. You must believe in predestination and the concept that God will save His people.

    Jeff

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  4. Anonymous9:53 AM

    You said;

    "The size of your God determines the size of your miracle."

    The first thing you need to be clear about is that God is GREAT no matter what people "believe".

    The second thing is......they are not YOUR miracles.

    Jeff

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  5. Yes, I believe that God can and does save people. I believe in predestination in the sense that all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. That is, God has predestined that all those who trust in Jesus Christ will be saved.

    How we view God affects how big a miracle we will be able to believe Him for. The Bible says, "Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6). Our faith does not cause God to exist; He exists quite well apart from it. But our faith actually pleases God.

    In order to come to God, we must first believe that He is. In addition, the Bible tells us that we must believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

    If we do not believe God exists, we will not be seeking Him. If we do not believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, we will have no reason to think that we would receive anything from Him.

    But if we believe that God exists, and we believe the promises He has made to us in Scripture, then we will receive what we believe. However, if we don't believe Him, we will not be in a position to receive His promises. Earlier in Hebrews, the author tells us that the children of Israel did not all enter into the Promised Land because of their unbelief (Hebrews 3:16-19).

    The miracles I am talking about are the miracles of salvation, provision, healing, deliverance, etc. that I need in my life. They are the miracles God has promised me. If God has promised them, I have a right to receive them and claim them as my own. So in that sense, they are mine--if I am willing to believe.

    Many people do not receive what God has promised because they do not believe Him and appropriate, by faith, what He has promised.

    How big is your God? How much are you willing to believe all His promises?

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  6. Anonymous8:12 PM

    Jeff Doles,

    Well, the problem with your POV is that you do not see your "faith" itself as a miracle from a Great God.

    I say that because you said;

    "There is no need that is greater than His provision."

    If people are in need of faith towards salvation and He does not provide it, He has not provided the great need.

    He has only provided an offer when the need is more than what He has provided in His offer.

    If the need is "faith", and He has not provided it...what can we say about your contradiction on His provision?

    You also said;

    "There is no captivity that is greater than His ability to deliver."

    According to your POV, people held captive in "unbelief" must be greater than His ability to deliver them from "unbelief".

    All He would have to do is "enable them" with His ability.

    So, what you see is GREAT people held captive in "unbelief", and a small God that does not deliver them from it.

    Of course with your POV "unbelief" must be much too great of a need for God to deliver people out of.

    If you think that faith is the fruit of your own heart, than your own heart is your GREAT miracle maker;

    19Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
    20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

    Good things (like faith) are NOT fruit of the heart........but fruit of the Spirit;

    22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, FAITH, 23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

    Hope that helps out.

    Jeff

    PS. Did you have any interest in going to;
    http://forums.crosswalk.com/Christian_Doctrine/forumid_50/tt.htm

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  7. You have not read me correctly, but have attributed to me a point of view that I do not hold.

    I do, in fact, believe that faith is a very great miracle. It is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). Its source is not in us but in God, and it comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). It is also, as you have pointed out, a fruit of the Spirit of God.

    This is what I have consistently taught at my website, throughout this blog, and in my books, and in various other forums and venues.

    [I checked out the Christian forum at crosswalk.com and found that the "one-stop" threads there, being hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of posts, all lumped together, makes for uninviting threads. Posts on prosperity, for example, get lumped the one-stop thread on "Word of Faith" and all its issues. If you would like to continue in discussion with me, come to Faith and Fellowship Forum.]

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