Miracles - #004

Why are some miracles hard to believe? And why do some feel undeniable? In this episode, we talk about how we can grow our faith and belief in God and what obstacles we may run into in the process. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hey, welcome to the Holy Work Podcast. I'm Ashley and I'm here with my co-host Carrie. And we are talking about miracles today. I'm excited about this conversation. We are in a series at church right now where our pastor is going through the different miracles that Jesus performed and different parts of his ministry and how he is still a miracle-working God today.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

And so what is a miracle? So we want to define that. It's a surprising and welcomed event that is not explained by natural or scientific laws and is considered to be the work of God. And Carrie, you recently told me that you talked to your kindergarten class about miracles. How did that go?

SPEAKER_01 0:56

So yeah, that was interesting. I am currently interim teaching one of our kindergarten classes until we find a teacher. And that's actually where I started teaching my first year in kindergarten during the year of the three hurricanes. So that's a good whole different story. Yeah. But we um have chapel a couple days a week for elementary, and then in class, every other day, we have Bible class too. And so our curriculum just lines up perfectly with what Jack has been talking about. I love it too, because it's totally God thing. But um we are wanting to build future disciples for Christ.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

I was gonna say, you guys are literally disciple, you are making disciples. Yes, we are in school.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

It's awesome. And we talked in our staff meeting a few weeks ago, like our goal is to get these kids to heaven. And yes, we want to teach them academically, but the biggest goal for us is that they have a personal relationship with Christ.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

And if we're not doing that, then we might as well just close the doors. What are we doing? Yeah, what are we doing? So, anyway, we're talking about miracles and teaching kindergartners about what a miracle is is very interesting because as adults, I don't know that we can fully wrap our heads around it. Um but we're still learning, correct, still growing, still working on our own belief. Yeah, yes, 100%. And so that is that's very interesting that you said that because I was telling them that God asks us to have childlike faith. And so these kids are enthralled by some of these conversations that we have, like feeding the 5,000. They're like, he did that with only five loaves and two fish. That's so awesome. And like, I think I don't know, we become just callous. Yes, callous. That's the word I was looking for. Yeah. That we just hear these girls, like if especially if you've grown up in church, you're like, yeah, I've heard that story.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

True.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

And you're like, eh, it's it's it's one of the stories I've heard. But it's like, that's a miracle. Why are you not being so more excited about that? And so I get to see it through the eyes of children that they're hearing these, maybe for the first time. There's some that have heard some of them, but for the most part, they didn't know Jesus walked on water and they didn't really know.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

They're just learning these things.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yeah. And Gyrus's daughter, that that people said she was dead, and Jesus was like, No, she's just sleeping. Oh, so they are learning about all of these people and Bartimaeus, who he was able to see, and so just seeing it through the eyes of a child and having that childlike faith is so important.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

That's been a prayer of mine, too, is like, God, give me my childlike wonder back. Like, I yeah, I want to experience you in that way again. Yeah, because you're right, like life comes at us full speed ahead. It really is, and we get calloused, we get bruised, we get knocked around, we get hard-hearted. Like it just it happens, it happens, but um gosh, he still meets us in those places with his kindness and draws us back in. So that is a prayer of mine is like, help me, help me have that childlike faith. That I I don't put all of my junk on top of it, but I can just believe you because you you are who you say you are.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

You do what you say you're gonna do, you follow through, you come through every time.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Um, and there is just something so beautiful about that with children that is that trust and that faith of like, yeah, like it's just it's really cool. I love that you get to do that.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

And see it firsthand.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Correct. Yeah. And um, it's kind of helped me too, because I've been struggling like, yes, I believe there's a God of miracles. And that God who performed all of those back in Bible times is our same God here today.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

And um so we are talking about miracles, and I I questioned recently um my faith because I was believing in this one friend that a little over a year ago, they had a miracle happen. And it was an amazing story, and it was one of those, like, I can't believe this. This is amazing. Only God could do this, and all of the intricate things that happened through it. Yeah. But and I totally fully 100% believe that. And then recently another friend of mine had, I'm not gonna say a more minor miracle, but it was it was a miracle, not as intense of a story, yeah, but it's still an amazing story in itself. And I'm like, why am I not believing this one?

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

And I'm going, what's wrong with me? Why am I not? What is wrong? Yeah. And so I'm just like, why can I not believe this? And I can believe it for one, but not the other. Um, and so that was something that I was just struggling with.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Yeah. Yeah. I I think that kind of takes our conversation into that direction of asking those questions, like, why, what, what's going on? Yeah. Why can't, you know, why is it easier to believe one and not the other? And especially because I I do feel like we are so saturated in culture today with convenience. And so it's I don't know that we're that we're really asking God for the the miracles. Like, are we desperate enough to ask and to seek? Um or are we just in our comfortable little boxes, like complacent, complacent and and just well, I can handle that and I can do that. And I you know, you know what I mean? Like it's just crazy. Um, so when we were talking about this earlier, um, you had brought up some things about like strongholds and spiritual warfare, and like, could those things be in the way of of miracles happening? And um so for anybody listening who doesn't know what a stronghold is, I'm gonna give you the definition, but we are gonna talk about this in other episodes. We're gonna dive a little bit deeper into it, but just for some context, a stronghold is a deeply entrenched pattern of thought, belief, or behavior that opposes God's truth and acts as a spiritual fortress for the enemy. Now, when I read that definition, I was like, whoa, because just in my mind, when I'm like, okay, I can define a stronghold as just anything setting itself up against the truth of God, or you know, which is accurate. That tracks. Um, there's a little more in-depth deeply entrenched pattern of thought. I was like, oh my gosh, or a belief pattern. I'm like, oh, and I've just recently been on this journey with the Lord in the last couple of years of just getting really curious and asking questions without shame or condemnation attached to it, but like learning how to grow in that self-awareness and also um being like spiritually aware too, like just that I'm not discounting the spiritual side of things just because um I can't see it.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Um, and really it the Lord has invited me and challenged me in a lot of ways to like ask those questions of like, what am I agreeing with? What have I partnered with? What what belief have I have I attached myself to that isn't rooted in his truth or him at all? Right. Um and so I don't know, I thought we could maybe talk a little bit about how that could, you know, impact our belief in miracles and and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

And that second half of that definition, it opposes God's truth and acts as a spiritual fortress for the enemy. Yeah. It's like, ouch.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

I know what are we doing, contributing to part of the problem? We 100% are.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

We absolutely are. Yeah. So um, like Ashley said, we're gonna dive into that another time. But in the meantime, we do need to work on ridding ourselves of any strongholds um and recognizing any idols that we might have placed in our lives that have put a gap between us and God and really submit them to God and go, please remove these idols from us, because God wants a relationship with us and there cannot be anything else. That's one of the Ten Commandments. There cannot be any other idols before me.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

I um, as we're talking about idols, I even think the good things that we make into idols. Yeah. For me personally, just a little story. Um, I made becoming a mom an idol, which it's good, right? Like by design, I I wanted to be a mom and I wanted to have children. And uh my husband and I just had a really tough time building our family. I had um eight miscarriages. Wow. And the fact that I have four children living, breathing, just in the prime of their life right now is a huge miracle. Like it is the things that I've experienced in my health and and in that whole journey, like everything stacks up against me and says, no, like you shouldn't have these kids. And I shouldn't have been able to, but God, that statement, but God, like he saw fit. And here's the thing is it was not in my power. But I like I made it. I was so I was just not in a good space. I was, I was really struggling with uh obviously like just depression and anxiety and worry and and also this like white knuckling and controlling. I remember having conversations. I say conversations with God. I was basically just talking at God and telling him, like, I want to be a mom. I want to have these baby, I want to have a baby, I'm gonna go to these doctors, I'm gonna take this medicine, I'm gonna do these shots, and we're gonna do this and that. And I got to a point where I was just spiraling so bad. And I I remember the day, the conversation that my husband and I had, and I was like, I can't do this anymore. I was making myself so sick. Yeah, like I can't do this anymore in my own power. Like, if he wants us to have a baby, he's gonna have to make it happen. And it was like at that, I was so desperate, but I was also just so beyond anything. And I I literally did. I made that good thing an idol.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

And it wasn't until like I really released and really just like it was like all my hands are up, all bets are off. Like, I can't, yeah, I can't. I cannot do this. And if you see fit that we should have another baby, or and it was a it was a long period of time, and both of us questioned our faith often in that. Um but it we just released, and and and I'm not saying that I want to be careful even just sharing that because right I know that there are some women listening who are in that struggle and you're you're almost tempted to believe, well, maybe I just don't have enough faith, or maybe I don't have um, maybe I'm doing something wrong. That was something that I I really struggled with, but truthfully, like I I did have some idols. I had some idols in there, yeah, and um it didn't start out that way, but it rarely does, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:33

No, it rarely does, it does not.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

But yeah, that's that's just part of my story, but it's really helped me grow um in my relationship with God and and recognizing when things do start to take a place that they were never supposed to those things were never supposed to supposed to sit on the throne of your heart.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

And that's that seat is only for him. And um, man, it's it's crazy. But it really it those times when he reveals it, it's sobering and it's hard. But those those are pivotal moments of our growth if we allow them to be.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Right. And I think that is one of the things where um we need to strengthen ourselves spiritually, and one of those things is self-awareness. And we need to ask God, believing that he is going to reveal things, but he's also potentially going to perform a miracle, but we have to have faith of a mustard seed. Right. And you look at a mustard seed and you're like, that's so tiny. Surely I have that much faith. And they are like, wait, whoa, actually I don't. Yeah, exactly. So um, we've really got to focus about that and be self-aware and make sure that we are examining ourselves. What do we have that um idle in our lives? Or um, what are we giving brain space to?

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Why do we give all of our energy to those beliefs and those and and lies? Again, agreements that we've made that are it's almost like a blockage correct that we've created, you know. Um Second Corinthians 10 5. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And that is a daily thing. This isn't just, oh, well, I've demolished it. Like moving on. No, because I guarantee you something else is gonna come up and it's gonna challenge you, challenge your belief and challenge like we don't only have one thought a day.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

No, every thought needs to be held captive.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

It's true, yeah, it's so true. Yeah, and you know, I mean, the enemy is sneaky, and absolutely um all we have to do is sometimes just innocently crack that door. That's what I was saying earlier, is like it didn't start out that way. Right. That idol didn't start out like that. Yeah, you just wanted to be able to do it. It was a good thing. I wanted a family, I wanted to be a mom and have that experience. And um the enemy definitely did have a foothold in there, and it it really sent me on a spiral. But once he's exposed and and brought to light, the like that's when we have the authority in Christ to rebuke him. Right. Um, yeah. And we have that power through the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yes, and we need to remember that because um the Holy Spirit that Jesus put in the disciples when he anointed them for ministry when he was being sent up to heaven after he rose again, that same Holy Spirit is in us and we have that power, and we have the power to rebuke Satan on anything. And um, we just have to make sure that we search our heart and confess it out loud and let Satan hear that. And um, someone had told me once that we can't just say it in our head because Satan can't hear our thoughts. God can, but Satan can't. We have to say it out loud so he hears it and confess that we are not going to be a slave to him anymore. And we are going to bring him to the light and rebuke it in the name and the power of Jesus and send it to the feet of Jesus for judgment.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

And even when like Jesus was being tempted, yeah. What did he do? He didn't just spout off like pretty words, you know, like he he spoke the word of God. Correct. He went to repeat it. Yes, the enemy did too, and he twisted it. He did. But Jesus came back with the true authority and like the facts. Actually, you're wrong. This is what it says. And he had to flee. He had to flee. So yeah, I I think um like what I said earlier about sometimes we just we get in our own way of believing that uh he can still perform miracles today. Yeah. Um and I I just I I'm gonna say this the fact that you're here breathing, moving, that you have ability and that you're you're you're thinking and reasoning and all of that, like it's a miracle that he's given us another day to even be here um to do the things that he's called us to do. Yeah, it's really cool. But yeah, miracles are possible, people.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Correct. It's possible. Yep. And I think just along these same lines that um the agreements that we make with Satan can block a miracle. And it can be something as simple as it can happen for them, but not us, or that's our cross to bear. Um, it's just the way it is. We're just gonna have to live life like this. Those are so many things that you know we hear people say, but they are not true.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Yeah, and I've been guilty of saying that too because that's just how it is, or that's just how it's gonna be. And no, we kind of just lay down under it. And man, correct hopefully you have someone in your life that can uh turn the lights on there and let you, you know what I mean? Like expose that hey, you know, maybe that's not the right way to think about this and challenge you in that. I know I've been challenged in it multiple times.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

We need more people in our lives to challenge us with thoughts. Yes, yes, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

So bring it. It's how we get refined, it's how we grow, it's yeah, how we become more like Christ um in the everyday things, in the everyday things, the mundane things that we think that don't matter. It's like his eyes are on that. His eyes are on it.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Yeah. And we want to make sure that God, we know that God sometimes works through our weakness so he can be glorified. And I guess not sometimes all the time.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

And like you said, you were taking the control of you having a baby and you doing all the things. It wasn't God, it was you. So it wasn't working. It no, but in the weakness, now he can be glorified because it was only through him that you guys had those babies.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Absolutely. Like again, by medical uh history and all of that, yeah. It shouldn't be. Yeah, but it is because he is, because he it was his will to make it happen. And right. And I'm so glad that it was his will. And um, and now we're living in in the miracle, like every day. And it's I have to even remind myself of that in the times where it gets really hard or overwhelming, you know, it's that I am living in the miracles that I prayed for.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

And if we're not, if we're not careful, like we'll miss it. We'll we'll totally miss it.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

So and um I I do want to preface this whole thing by saying that if you are praying for a miracle, don't stop.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Um, and maybe it's not that you have a stronghold or you are dealing with spiritual warfare. Maybe it's God's will that you remain as you are in what you're dealing with because he is using your weakness and being able to testify to others. And he's gonna make you whole in heaven one day. Yeah. And that's something we need to look at too, that we may not get our miracle on earth. Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Yeah. And that I mean, Jesus even says, in this world you'll have trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world. And that is it's the action of the taking heart, I think, that continues to draw us closer to God, um and and hearing his voice and being near to him, uh, and knowing that even in suffering, he's not gonna leave us, he's not gonna forsake us. And even if it doesn't happen the way that I think it should, he's still good and he's still God.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Over my life, he's sovereign. And and and I mean that is also a challenge too, that we have to, okay, I'm I want this thing, I'm praying this thing, I want it to look a certain way. But when the miracle happens in a way that we don't expect, I think sometimes that's jarring. Yes, you know, but um, but if not, like he's still good, he's still God. And it doesn't change who he is. We have to remember too that he's not a genie in a bottle that we're just like, let me give you my three wishes. Like it just doesn't work like that. And I think that uh I think we've been sold this watered down prosperity thing of like, well, if you just ask, if you just yes, we do need to ask, we do need to seek, we need to knock on some doors, turn some, turn some doorknobs and and do, you know, do the thing, but ultimately. Ultimately, at the end of the day, he is God and we are not.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

So I my friend has a saying. She's a mentor of mine, and she's been saying this one to me for the past couple of years, and it's stuck with me. But she said, at the intersection of suffered enough and learned enough, Jesus waits.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

And that's a journey just getting to that intersection right there.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

My goodness. When I have done all the things and I've I've done all the research and I've tried everything, white-knuckled it all, and done everything in my power, when I have learned enough, and when I have suffered enough, and I finally come to that place where I've got nothing left but you. Like this is it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Raise your hands. I'm done. This is it.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Everything else behind me is an oblivion. And this is it. It's just you and me, God. Like he gets us to that desperate place. Um, because that's where he really can't use his power when we stop trying to do the miracle on our own.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Right. Yeah. Um, and so we just want to close today with talking about how Jesus can make you new.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

It may not be the miracle you're looking for, but it's a miracle that he is a savior.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

And we, like Jack's been saying in all these sermons, the greatest miracle is the miracle of salvation. Amen. And that right there, you can't even put words to it. This man who came to earth died for all of us idiots who are sinning left and right. And he said, you know what? This is keeping you separate from my father in heaven. And so I'm gonna die for you. Yeah. And take away all that sin so that you can have that relationship with God. But that is a like I was this is something I was talking about with kindergarten, that this is a gift. And it's like on Christmas morning, that gift is under the tree, and you choose not to open it. Who doesn't open a gift that was given to them? Why? Yeah, and you just let it sit there. Oh, that's a nice gift.

unknown 24:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

No, we actually have to open that gift and we have to accept that gift of salvation. And that is the miracle right there.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

We work it out our whole life. We will be working out this salvation story. Correct. It's not uh it's not just something that's like, oh well, now now I'm saved and everything's perfect. Oh no, no. Oh no. That's where the I I believe that salvation, like that's where the real work begins. Because now he has a softened heart that he can work with. Whereas before we were separated, we were hard-hearted, we were stubborn, you know, a stiff-necked people, like we were just not having it. Yeah. But now, now that he can really get the work started on refining us. And and I would just encourage you, be praying about this, be praying for his clarity and his wisdom and his discernment in your in your salvation walk, um, in your beliefs. Something that I like to do is uh, and I don't do it all the time, but every once in a while I just like to get a piece of paper out and I just like to write, journal, um, and and just kind of get some stuff out. And if you do it a long enough, stuff will come out that you'll be like, oh, that's not that actually doesn't track. That's not true. And then you're you're challenged to line it up with the word of God, taking those thoughts captive and everything. It doesn't mean you're wrong for feeling a certain way. It just you're you're shedding light on it. You're you're allowing him the space to take that and heal it. Um yeah. So yeah, he can make all things new.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

He can.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

All things new, even your beliefs.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Absolutely. And I encourage you to really just pay attention to what he's saying to you. Spend some time in the word so you know what truth is, and then spend some time thinking about what he reveals in you and really take those thoughts captive. Is it from God? Is it from Satan? And align your will with his. That's most important because when our will becomes his will, then things fall into place a whole lot quicker instead of us fighting for it to happen.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Yeah. Well, this was a great conversation. It was. Good. I I'm excited for the next few that are going to be coming out. Yes. We're gonna dive in and and go a little bit deeper. But thanks for joining us today. We hope this uh episode blessed you, and we'll see you next time on the holy work.