Don't Miss Your Miracle

Miracles are everywhere, you only need to open your eyes.

Everyone wants a miracle until you are asked to put yourself in a position where you may require one.

"Oh I would love to see miracles in my own life, people tell me." And then I offer, "then take more risks!" To which nearly 90% of the time they flinched back and say "oh I couldn't do that! I like my security."

Security... ah yes, the downfall of miracles. Everyone is over here wringing their hands over the downfall of America and while yes, that is a legitimate concern, worse yet- the gross lack of the presence of miracles breaking out in our Western society.

"17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Mark 16:17-18 TPT

As believers in Messiah, I think it is a hard thing when we pose the question, "what did Jesus mean by that?" Chances are in this case, He meant we would all cast out demons, (mentally sick people, hello?) speak in tongues, take up serpents should the need arise, and if we accidentally drink something poisonous, we're all set. Oh, and lay hands on sick people and they will recover.

A few of those items are conditional, by the way. But not in the way most think. There is this thing called freewill and if someone is particularly fond of their demon, or depression/anxiety/etc or let's say they just don't really want to get better, then all our prayers are for not. Freewill- the Lord doesn't want a family of robots. He wants us to come to Him freely, in total surrender and belief.

If the bible is true, and if we believe it's for today, then why would we question what Jesus meant by this statement?

So we have the desire to see more signs and wonders in our lives, rightly so since our Lord said just one passage before this one "and all these signs will accompany those who have believed. Yet from the amount of people I talk to about this topic it would seem we are a nation devoid of such happenings.

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Let me ask you something, when was the last time you allowed yourself to become comfortable with being uncomfortable? Or better still, when was the last time you put yourself in a position to require a miracle, one that the task wouldn't be accomplished outside of a miracle. I'm not talking about reckless behavior, driving down the highway figuring the angels of heaven have got your back. I mean, a stepping out in great faith. Taking risks that you sense the Lord has called you to- without concern or worry of the how portion. Or, the logical side of it all.

Did you know we were put on this earth to live a fantastic and miraculous existence? We weren't meant to live a life of day to day- we were given specific gifts and talents to use and be mountain movers, world changers.

All of us.

In my line of work I meet far too many people who are ridiculously talented at something and yet work in a field that is not in line with that gifting. It usually has to do with earning money.

If you are not working within your God given gifts and talents, number one, you're stealing someone else's job. And number two, you will not see the miraculous as much because it doesn't require too much faith to work in something that earns an income in a typical way.

In my line of work, I see a lot of moms working for their children and missing out on their own miracles, having logged an untold amount of hours on a sporting event field. While these are delightful experiences for the whole family, and you'll see the big game won, you might just be in such a big hurry to get to practice, to get to the games that you cannot pause and be quiet long enough to position yourself to receive a miracle. Seeing these miracles often and powerfully requires us to be still and know that He is God.

Boy Facing Ocean-wix

What if you took a risk that included being different from the world around you?

What if you chose daily to walk in a different path, one that was less traveled?

These two examples are not unrelated, by the way. Many a mother sits at the ball field totally neglecting her God given gifts all so her child can fulfill their dream.

Imagine you gave someone a valuable gift, one that was meant to be used and shared. And what if that person just set it on the shelf, deeming themselves too busy to use it, or saying it was a waste of their time? I imagine you'd feel put off by that. If your God given talents are not being used daily, I will bet you are not seeing your daily miracles. Please hear me- this is not an either or scenario. If you are the queen or king of carpool, that doesn't exclude you from walking in your gifts and callings. It's just so many think they cannot do both. How are our children suppose to learn to be all that God created them to be when we don't lead by example? If all they see is us living our existence to shuttle them here and there yet never carve out time to do the very thing we were put on this earth to do, how will they ever know it's acceptable to pursue their own dreams and visions? How will they ever be able to take risks and see the miraculous provision of their God?

One thing I never want my kids to lose sight of is that God is ever calling them to walk into deeper waters with Him. In the deeper waters is where they get in over their heads and have no where else to turn but to Him. Not themselves, not the world, not a self help book- HIM.

I started this article before my husband died, it got shelved because I think it was around the time he was diagnosed. I still believed for a miracle of healing. I prayed over my husband and all the things. He still died. He still left me to finish the raising of our crew. He left my kids without their dad. So as I began to write today, I stumbled on this, read the first portion and tears filled my eyes all over again. Seriously, when does that stop? In any case, I have been so focused on my kids losing their dad, our current living circumstances, needs we have that God is taking His sweet time on getting to, that I have lost sight of the possibility that miracles can still happen for me. When Mark died that all kinda slowly faded. It was like, man, my husband couldn't even stay alive, how can I believe for anything now, guess we're all done with the miracles? To quote my fav disciple in scripture, "May it never be!" Finding this partially written article slapped my face back to reality.

It's like words to myself- "if you sit and focus so much on their needs, taking them to work, to practice, to this, to that, how will you ever step back into your calling? How will they ever know there is life DURING grief?"

Me back to me said, "well ok, that's fair I suppose."

Sometimes I laugh at how ballsy my writing is, even through all I had walked through before Mark passing. Because the faith I walk in, His faith, is strong and frankly, ballsy. And so when you're like me, met with some pretty incredibly hard and beyond challenging circumstances, you have that moment (many moments) of, well sis, you gonna walk the talk today? Each passing day has gotten harder to believe and walk the talk. If I'm honest.

When c-vid hit and everyone hunkered in, we had choices to make. Continue to have the masses over to do their thing so we could do our thing with them and get them healed up and living that miraculous life- or, hunker down with humanity away from humanity. When the brief discussion of what to do was over, the boys who lived with us said "wow. You guys really live out what you preach!"

So just like then, I'm sitting here, talking to me saying, well, sis, you gonna keep moving forward and get it done so that miracles can flow or are you going to be a poor pitiful Pearl? During any other time of hardship in my life, I had a partner to look at and say, "well, what are we going to do?" It's not like he had perfect answers, in fact, most of our marriage was me trying to convince him to step out of that freaking frozen chosen box his parents stuffed him into. But at least it was an adult face to look at and be all in together or all out, together. The solo gig is tricky when your raising people.

I'm publishing this article to share with those really wanting to see the miraculous in their lives but are gun-shy. Gun shy because it can be scary to trust and believe again. It can also be infuriating for others who are not in your shoes to tell you just have faith and believe. Yo, guys, even Jesus met up with a fella who cried out "I do believe, help me with my unbelief!"

So if you're like me, in seemingly impossible and hard circumstances, don't lose sight of what He's called you to. I know it's hard. I know it's tempting to go get that job at Target- you know you wouldn't look good in a red vest, friend. Stay the course, believe with me just one more day, come on- He is faithful.