What Is Your Part Versus God's Part in Getting Miracles from Heaven

Today, we are taking a look at miracles from heaven. With that in mind, consider the following miracle story. ‘In the U.S. Navy, the Seabees have a saying: “The difficult, we do immediately. The impossible takes a little time.” Author Jamie Buckingham shares this story from the missionary adventures of JAARS (Jungle Aviation and Radio Service—the flying arm for Wycliffe Bible Translators). We pick up his story about a pilot who was fighting to keep his plane from a fatal crash:

Never for an instant did Ralph believe they could live through the pending crash … He could feel his wife’s warm hand on the back of his clammy knuckles where he gripped the stick. “We do our best; God does the rest.” It was the motto of JAARS Jungle Aviation and Radio Service. During all the time of the emergency, he had not called upon God. Why had he waited? Why had he not cried out at ten thousand feet? Now, with death only seconds away, he gulped the words. “Father, if You still have work for my passengers and me, please bring on the engine.” It was a sensible prayer. He could have prayed for a giant hand to rise out of the jungle and cushion his fall. He could have asked for ten thousand angels to bear him up on down wings. But like Moses at the Red Sea, he was content for God to work in natural ways—not by sending a strong east wind to blowback the sea—but by bringing the engine back to life. He had a thought – the carburetor heat! It was used primarily to prevent ice from forming in the carburetor. But, there were no known instances of icing at this altitude. The carburetor heat! Again he tried to dismiss the thought, to spit it out of his mind. But it pounded against the inside of his temples. It rang in his head. And his hand was obedient. He reached down and jerked the carburetor heat handle and, at the same time, pulled back on the stick. The jungle had arrived. The only thing to do was flatten his glide just at the treetops, lose as much speed as possible, and settle into the foliage. Certainly forever. Suddenly there was a mighty roar upfront. The big prop, which had been slowly windmilling in the streaming air, roared to life as if they had never quit. The thousand horses were up and running again, straining at the traces and trying to pull the sinking old Duck out of the jaws of death with all of their might. Ralph’s Canadian dignity, shaken to the soles of his soggy socks, finally broke. It came forth like the sound of a shipwrecked sailor thrown at last upon a sandy beach.

From the very inner part of his soul, an utterance of thanksgiving came forth. “Praise the Lord!” he said with deep reverence and, then, repeated it. “Praise the Lord!” Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Practical Illustrations: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians (Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 2001), 96–97. Miracles happen all of the time. We have a part to play, and God has a part. Can you identify the parts of this eventful story? That’s what we will do in this week’s podcast – identify and assess the parts. What Is Your Part Versus God’s Part in Getting Miracles from Heaven? That’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

Set your heart on God’s miracle-working ability. Miracles have not passed away despite what the skeptics say. God is the same God as He has always been. He never changes.

Join the Conversation

Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome via the witness of our lips (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: I know there are miracle stories out there because that’s who God is – a miracle worker. Please share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

You can find additional information on the subject of Miracles in the resources listed below.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com.

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Podcast Notes

Miracles from Heaven: Who Has the Greater End

On the last day of 2021, I lay down to sleep.
That night I dreamed that I was preaching.
I have had multiple dreams where I was ministering.
The subject of my message was three words, “the greater end.”
In my dream, I was in Exodus 14, where God split the Red Sea, and the question was asked, when the Red Sea was split, “who had the greater end?”
In this night vision, I saw Moses pick up a stick and stretch it out over the massive waters of the Red Sea, and again I heard the question, “who had the greater end?

Miracles from Heaven: Moses and the Red Sea

Exodus 14:1–3 (ESV) — 1 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. 3 For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’

Exodus 14:8–14 (ESV) — 8 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. 9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. 10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

Miracles from Heaven: Lessons from the Red Sea

There’s a part here to this miracle in Exodus 14 of which you should take note.
The children of Israel were grumbling and complaining when they saw Pharaoh’s army bearing down on them.
They cried to Moses, and they said, Moses, why did you bring us out here to die? Is it because there are no graves in Egypt?
Look at Moses’ response to the children of Israel. It’s a vital lesson in the realm of faith.
Moses declared the end result.
He told the children of Israel precisely what would take place.

Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.

How did Moses know that?
He spoke in faith — he saw in faith.
He spoke the end result.

Romans 4:17 (NKJV) — 17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; That’s the first lesson in receiving miracles from heaven.

Confidence in God is necessary.
He then told the children of Israel that the Lord would fight for them in verse fourteen.
All they had to do was keep silent.
Keeping silent is an important thing. It’s a vital Bible truth.
What do you say when you are confronted with mind-blowing tests and trials?
If you don’t know what to say, don’t say anything. It’s better to be silent than to allow words of unbelief to come crawling out of your mouth.
Again, if you don’t know what to say, don’t say anything.

Exodus 14:15–20 (ESV) — 15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen” 19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.

Who had the harder part at the Red Sea with the enemy bearing down on the children of Israel? — Moses or God?
The Lord asked Moses to raise his rod.
Pick up your stick and point it.
God split the Red Sea.
Continue reading the rest of the story in Exodus 14.
Wasn’t it God who sent the angel behind the host of Israel to come between the host of Egypt as a barrier?
Didn’t the Lord cause a solid East wind to come all night long blowing on the Red Sea, parting the Red Sea, making it dry land, and dividing the waters?
It was God who made a wall out of the sea on the left hand and the sea on the right.
God’s power held the waters back perfectly — walled formation.
Wasn’t it God who knew by his great for knowledge and omniscience that Pharaoh would pursue Israel blindly into the cavities of water on the bed of the Red Sea?
What about the pillar of fire?
Wasn’t it the Lord who, in the morning watch, peered through the fire at the Egyptian forces throwing their formations all into a panic?
The Lord then said to Moses to pick up your stick a second time – stretch it out.
Wasn’t it God who caused the walls of water to collapse and overflow the enemy wiping them out?
It was God who gave the children of Israel complete peace and rest from their enemies.
No longer will they have to look over their shoulder in fear of what might come.
Now Israel can look forward.
They can look to the future and do so with their heads up and their shoulders back.
Now, with all of this being said, here’s the question.
Who had the greater end?
Who had the harder part?
Was it God? Or was it, Moses?
I think you can see quite easily who had the greater part.
You see, we think that miracles are so challenging to come by.
I was a young Catholic boy and thought miracles would only occur every hundred years or so on some island far away.
Or, some statue would start to weep, or some miraculous thing would take place as a sign.
But miracles happen all the time – not just every hundred years.
Our part of being involved in miracles is small.
It’s a little bit of obedience.
It’s a small part to play in all things God.
Now mind you, it’s a necessary part.
It’s a needful part.
God needs your cooperation.
He needs your obedience.
But God always does the heavy lifting when it comes to miracles from heaven.
His part is always the more difficult part.
He supplies the power; all you must do at His direction is pick up your stick and point.

Miracles from Heaven: It’s Time to Act

Now here’s a second thing that we all need to understand.
If you look at verse 15, Moses intercedes for his people.
They are facing this dangerous circumstance, and Moses is praying.
That sounds like the proper thing to do, right?
But, not in this case.
The Lord corrected him with these words, “why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.”
There’s a time to pray and not to pray but act on the Word.
Not even Moses’ intercession for the people of God was part of this miracle.
God had the greater end.
All Moses had to do was point his stick.
There are many such miracles from heaven in the Bible and not only in the Bible but in your everyday life.
Examine them – Take a look – recount the story.
Look at your end of it and ask yourself the question who had the greater part?

Miracles from Heaven: The Exodus

Go back over now to Exodus chapter 12.
Look at Israel celebrating the Passover meal.
God gave the people specific instructions.
They were to take of the Passover lamb and slay it.
God told them to take the blood and smear it on the doorpost of your house.
He told them to eat that meal that night roast it with fire, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs.
He told him to eat all of it.
Leave nothing until morning.
He gave them another bit of instruction.
When you sit down to eat the meal, make sure you are dressed.
Make sure you have your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, your staff, and your hand.
We told them to wolf it down — eat it quickly.
That was Israel’s part: prepare dinner, anoint the doorposts, come dressed to dinner.
Eat it fast — that means there wasn’t much talking.
When the children of Israel complied with these instructions, tremendous things took place.
As they complied with these instructions, stuff happened.
The Death Angel swept through the land of Egypt and took the firstborn son of every family in the land of Egypt.
The death of the firstborn was a massive blow to the nation of Egypt — the loss of an entire generation of men and livestock.
It would take them decades to recover from such a loss.
The impression the Lord made on the psyche of Egypt was so strong that future generations didn’t even think about coming after Israel again.
But that wasn’t the only display of God’s power that night.
A miracle from heaven occurred while Israel ate the Passover Lamb.
You don’t see it in Exodus twelve.
You must go to Psalm 105 and verse 37 to catch it.

Psalm 105:36–38 (KJV 1900) — 36 He smote also all the firstborn in their land, The chief of all their strength. 37 He brought them forth also with silver and gold: And there was not one feeble person among their tribes. 38 Egypt was glad when they departed: For the fear of them fell upon them.

The scripture declares that God let the children of Israel forth from the Exodus, and there was not one feeble one among their tribes.
No one stumbled because their legs were not working.
This is an astounding miracle from heaven.
We’re talking about an entire nation of people, young and old.
No one was feeble.
How could this be?
No geriatric conditions prohibited people from walking.
Everyone was ready to go.
Now you know how it is with people, right?
You know of life’s battles, journeys, and life tests.
You know that some of those people had diseases, had things wrong with their bodies, had situations that would prevent them from taking a long journey.
You know that the old the elderly would have a rough time.
What happened?
What took place?
Well, as the children of Israel partook of the Passover as they put the lamb chop in their mouth, God’s holy power swept through that entire nation of people — we’re talking hundreds of thousands of people come and heal them all at the same time.
Tremendous!
Wow!! What a miracle from heaven.
Again, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people that the Lord healed in a moment.
So that the testimony of the scripture might be true, there was not one feeble person among them.
God did a healing work; He did a rejuvenating work; He knit broken bones together and straightened up spines.
The Lord reinvigorated his people.
He re-energized and revitalized the whole nation in a single moment.
It’s astounding what the Lord did here.
We see the miracles of Jesus; we’re going to talk about one of them, but those are individuals in most cases.
We do have accounts where Jesus healed the multitudes.
But we’re not talking about multitudes here.
We’re talking about an entire nation of people that experienced God’s divine healing power.
Now ask yourself the question again, who had the greater part who had, the harder end?
What did Israel have to do to acquire health, healing, and deliverance?
They got dressed.
The Israelites cooked a meal.
They ate it fast.
Spread some blood on the doorposts of the house. That’s all they did.
And in a single night, 400 years of Egyptian bondage was wiped out.
Israel was free to go.
Miracles from heaven, that’s what we are talking about.
I want to ask the question again, who had the harder part — who had the greater end?

The Harder Part: A Man Born Blind

Now let’s go and look at one of the miracles of Jesus.
We’re over in John’s gospel chapter 9.
In this chapter, we see a man born blind.
I mean, this man had never seen anything.
This man had never seen a blade of grass.
He never saw a tree standing tall.
This man never saw a blue sky on a red sunset.
He never saw the eyes of a pretty woman or a head full of hair on the head of a young child.
This man was born blind.
As the disciples passed by, they asked Jesus about this man, “Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind.”
Jesus’ response? “I must work the works of God while it is still day.”
What did Jesus do next?
It’s amazing what He did.
Jesus spits on the ground, knelt, and made mud with that saliva.
He then took that mud and smeared it on the guy’s eyes.
This blind man had never seen anything in his life.
He was reduced to a life of begging because they didn’t have jobs for blind people.
To this man, Jesus gave this directive: “Go and wash your face in the Pool of Siloam.”
This man followed those instructions and returned from that pool with his sight fully restored.
He came back from that pool knowing what a blade of grass looked like — he came back from that pool knowing what a tall tree looked like — he came back from that pool knowing what a blue sky or maybe it was a red unset — he knew what the eyes of a pretty woman looked like — he knew what the blonde curls of a child with a head full of hair looked like.
Who had the greater part?
Who had the greater end? — glory be to God!
This man had his life restored to him.
His whole life is revolutionized now, and what challenging thing did he have to do?
Wash his face.
Who has the greater end?
Who has the greater part?

The Hard Part In Healing Sleep Apnea

This is a new year.
In fact, this year, I’m celebrating the 15th year of being healed from sleep apnea.
Fifteen years ago, the Lord delivered me from this condition in April.
I had the condition for seven years.
The year it all began was 2000.
That year was tough for us.
Life has its challenges.
Sharon and I were raising four children and were dealing with the effects of the brain aneurysm that almost took her life.
We were in the middle of pastoring.
So, here I am, a teacher of the Word.
Knowing that God said what things so ever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.”
Knowing that God said, “Ask, and it shall be given to you — seek and you shall find — Knock and the door shall be open to you. For every one that asks receives and he that seeks finds into him that knocks it shall be opened.
I knew these verses.
And, I know what it means to believe that you receive.
But I struggled. I’m almost embarrassed and ashamed to admit how hard it was for me.
The pull of having a good night’s sleep was so strong on me. I’m not making excuses.
I’m here to tell you today that God is a good God.
He had mercy upon me.
So on this special day in April, I’m standing in my bedroom, looking at the bed.
I felt terrible as I recounted all of what I just shared with you about my struggles.
All of a sudden, I heard a voice coming from behind me.
The voice uttered two words.
It was a voice I’d never heard before.
I don’t know who the voice owner is even to this day.
Maybe it was an angel? I don’t know.
Was it the Holy Spirit?
I don’t know if it was the Holy Spirit, God the Father, or the Lord Jesus Christ.
I know I heard these two words —’ you’re healed”
I knew enough not to examine the source of the voice because it’s not essential.
People get pulled off track because they want to examine the supernatural.
They want to know all the details — the who — the what, the when, and the why.
They end up getting over into the mental realm and lose the whole thing.
What’s vital is not who spoke the Word but what’s the truth being communicated.
It’s always the Word — always the Word.
When I heard those two words, ‘you’re healed, I immediately looked to the Word.
Is that in the Bible? —you’re healed?
Yep — sure is – 1 Peter 2:24.
I agreed with what I had heard.
I said to the Lord, “Lord, I agree that I’m healed.”
I looked at that CPAP machine and said, I don’t need you tonight because I’m healed.
And I am telling you today, and God is my witness, that I have never used a breathing machine again from that day to this.
I don’t even know what happened to that thing.
The Lord healed me that day, and I’m still healed all these years later.
Now, what marvelous thing did I do to receive this miracle from heaven?
Who had the greater part?
Who had the harder end?
All I did was agree with what I heard.
All I did was act on the two words that I heard.
And that easy thing turned into total freedom.

Miracles from Heaven: The Harder Part of this Message

Here I am today sharing with you this simple message.
Here I am just asking who had the harder part in experiencing miracles from heaven?
How did I get this message?
What great thing did I do to get this message?
How much study and hard work did I do to get this message?
All I did was go to sleep.
I think that says it all.
You guys have a great God week, and we’ll see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

Is God a Miracle Working God? See This Miracle Pregnancy!

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What Is Your Part Versus God’s Part in Getting Miracles from Heaven

Podcast: Light on Life Season Nine Episode Four

by Emery Horvath

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