God is a miracle working God, that is a self-evident fact. Miracles, in and of themselves when manifested, produce wonder and amazement. Such is their nature. Many are familiar with some of the well known miracles in the Bible like splitting the Red Sea and Lazarus being raised from the dead. But, in the Bible there are other miracles that are not as well known but should be. These are miracles of the unusual variety. God did them through Jesus, through the disciples in the early church and by the hands of Paul (Acts 19:16). That pattern continues today. What you will find as you look at some of these manifestations is that God does extraordinary things through ordinary people. So, let’s look at a few of these unusual miracles.

Luke 4:24–28 (ESV)
24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.

• Where is the ‘unusual’ miracle in this account?

Luke 4:29–30 (ESV)
29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.

• The crowd physically grabbed Jesus and dragged Him to the edge of the cliff where they were going to throw Him off.
• The manifestation is as the Spirit wills.
• How come this manifestation occurred and not in the synagogue when they first grabbed.
• Jesus had to walk all the way back to town.
• Why did the miraculous begin to work at the edge of the cliff instead of in the synagogue?
• The question raises this point; Jesus is not in control of the manifestation, the Holy Spirit is.
• The crowd was able to start their intent; they were able to physically drive Him to the edge of the cliff.
• But, they were unable to complete their intent.
• As they attempted to throw Jesus off the cliff, He passed right through them all!
• How did that happen?
• We do not know?
• Maybe their hands, maybe their fingers all of a sudden quite working.
• Who knows for sure?
• How supernatural is that?
• The crowd could not grab Him at the edge of the cliff; they were unable to lay a hand on Him.
• He passed right through their midst.
• How did He do this?
• Luke 4:18 tells you.

Luke 4:18, 21–23 (ESV)
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

• The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Jesus said.
• Open your mind to the possibilities of the power of God.
• Open your mind to the possibilities of things unseen.
• The Bible says the Spirit of the Lord is upon you – Acts 1:8
• Do you think that anointing upon Him had anything to do with this relatively unknown miracle?
• The purpose of the miracle is obvious, preservation.
• Jesus cannot proclaim the good news if He is at the bottom of the cliff dashed to pieces.
• Here is an unusual miracle testimony.

The Miracle of Fire in my Furnace
The church I grew up in did not believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. One received all there was when one became converted. Speaking in tongues was thought of as emotionalism. My feelings toward Pentecostal people was that they thought that they were better than anyone else because of their noisy praying and worshipping, yet in the back of my mind I wondered “What if there is more than what I had been taught. What if there IS a baptism of the Holy Spirit?”

One winter day when I was in a desperate situation, God proved to me that His word is true. It was forecast to be one of those bitter Minnesota winter nights which make houses creak and pop with the cold. The morning weather forecast had said it would be 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit that night. Just as my husband was leaving for work, our furnace ran out of oil. We were in desperate financial straits. He was working full time at a print shop as well as putting in long hours trying to save our failing gas station business. (This was during the oil shortage of the early 1970′s when many gas stations went out of business.) We barely had enough money to put a little food on the table. There was nothing left over for anything else.
On Friday night when he got his paycheck from the print shop, my husband would buy two five gallon cans of fuel oil for our furnace, and that would have to last for the week. This particular week, we could afford only one. Now on Tuesday morning, it was all gone. The furnace sputtered on and off a few times, and then quit altogether. We would have to put oil in the tank and bleed the air out of the line before it would start again.
I went into the basement to start a fire in our wood burning stove, however we only a few pieces of wood left. We seemed destined to be left to the mercy of the weather that night. I knew that within a few hours it would be getting quite chilly in the house. How would I protect my children? I could beg from my folks or from my husband’s mother, or maybe I could ask for benevolence from my church, but I didn’t want to do either.
I was praying as I was putting in the last piece of firewood “God, we are entirely at your mercy. Maybe you could make it not get so cold, or you could give us tough hides to see us through this. I will not ask for charity! My help is in You. Jesus, you promised that you would never leave us comfortless. You promised that when you went away you would send us another comforter. IF I EVER NEEDED A COMFORTER, IT IS RIGHT NOW!

Little did I know what I was asking for? I think I was thinking in terms of a warm blanket or a “There-there, it’s going to be all right.”, but He sent The Comforter – The Holy Spirit. None of my religious upbringing prepared me for what happened next. I felt a surge of powerful energy flowing in through the top of my head, down my body through my feet, and back up again and out through my head. With my toes tingling, I felt myself being lifted to my feet by unseen hands as words in a language I have never heard flowed from my mouth.
With hands held high I began dancing around the house praising the Lord and singing songs I knew, and making up new songs of praise as I went. I tried to remember the few words I had spoken in that strange language. I wanted to say them again because of the power I had felt in them when I spoke them, but I couldn’t remember them. It dawned on me that maybe this was what those crazy Pentecostals were experiencing.
My heart and mind were filled with unshakable faith. I knew without one trace of doubt that Jesus would not leave me comfortless, that He would not let His little children suffer.
I continued through the day singing and praising God, I was so filled with praise and thanksgiving that I had to let it out. I think that my children must have thought I was going nuts, doing my housework singing and dancing and praising the Lord. “You are my Comforter. You will not leave me comfortless.”
Through the day, the house grew colder. I put the children to bed with their snowsuits on, and I piled on all the blankets I could find. It never occurred to me to worry that the water pipes in the basement could freeze up. I was just so filled up with the presence of the Lord. I was reveling in it.
My husband came home after closing up the gas station late that night, crawled into bed with me and promptly fell into an exhausted sleep. There was nothing else we could do about the heat. The little electric space heater would have to do, because that was all we had. About 2:00 AM, I woke to the sound of the furnace fan running. I got up to turn it off, since it would be senseless to let cold air blow about the house. I pushed the thermostat lever all the way down as far as it would go, but the furnace kept running since the house was already colder than the lowest setting. “This is crazy.” I thought. Next I went into the kitchen and placed my hand over the hot air vent. I really don’t know why I did that. To my utter amazement, warm air was coming out of the vent. With tears streaming down my cheeks, I cried out, “Oh my God, what are You doing!”  The furnace had been dead since 7:00 AM, and now at 2:00 AM, after we had been sleeping for several hours, it had started up all by itself. “God, I have never heard of anything like this before.  I knew that maybe You could moderate the weather, but to make an empty furnace run – that was a miracle greater than anything I have ever heard of.” Yet it was running. There was warm air coming out of the vents.
I went to the basement to check the gauge on the oil tank. Sure enough, it read empty, just as I knew it would. I tapped on the tank from the top on down to the bottom. It was hollow all the way. There was no oil in the tank! Warm air was circulating all through my house. “My God, You are so wonderful”
I remembered the old Sunday School song, “Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning” Here was a new twist, I thought “Give me oil in my furnace, keep me comfy.” I was laughing and praising. No one in his right mind would ask God for something so outrageous. I asked for the Comforter, and I got Him (although I did not fully understand, because I had never been taught), and I also got the fire of God in my furnace.
If I would have asked for fire in my furnace, I am sure I would not have gotten it. I asked for the Comforter, and I got both Him and physical comfort. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”
I went back upstairs and set the thermostat back up to 65 degrees. I sat on the floor by the warm air vent next to the patio door and looked out at the stars shining brightly in the cold winter night and continued praising and thanking the Lord.
The next morning we set the thermostat to a more comfortable 72 degrees. The furnace continued to run without fuel until Friday when we had money to buy oil again.
Have faith. God will take care of you too. (Fackerell 2013)

• What do you see in this story?
• The Spirit of God came upon this women and filled her and out of that came the miraculous.
• Here is another miraculous event in Jesus life in a similar vein.

John 6:16–21 (ESV)
16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

• Walking on the water is a tremendous miracle by itself.
• But there is another miracle tucked in with this one.
• Did you read that ‘immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going?’
• They were in the middle of the sea one minute and they were at land the next, instantly.
• What happened?
• They were transported.
• The entire boat was immediately at land in an instant of time.
• Transported, the entire boat with everyone in it, do you hear that?
• Open your mind to the miraculous.
• Now, this thought may creep into your mind, “Well that’s just Jesus’.
• Oh really, you think this happened just being Jesus is the Son of God, do you?
• The problem with that line of thinking is that this same thing happened in the book of Acts to someone not named Jesus.

Acts 8:26, 29–31, 36, 39–40 (ESV)
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place.
29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”
39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

• Phillip ministers to the Ethiopian eunuch and leads him to Jesus and all of a sudden the Spirit of God carried him away and he finds himself in Azotus which, get this, is approximately 21 miles away.
• The same thing that happened to Jesus happened to Phillip.
• This very thing happened in the ministry of John G. Lake.
• John G. Lake was invited to pray for a man who was in an asylum in Wales.

Testimony: When he was presented with the request, they were in a church in South Africa.
According to Lake’s words, “The Spirit of God was deeply present. I invited the congregation to join in prayer as I knelt on the platform to pray. As my heart went out to God in prayer, something transpired within and to me that I can describe only like this…
An unusual consciousness of God’s power and presence swept over me, and presently this seemed to take place, and I believe it did take place. In my consciousness, I observed that I was no longer in that tabernacle. The first place I became aware of was passing the city of Kimberly. Then I became conscious that I was at Cape Town, South Africa, one thousand miles from Johannesburg. Presently, I remember of the Cape Verde Lighthouse on the coast of Spain, and I remember distinctly of passing the shores of France. I entered the hills of Wales (I had never been in Wales), but as I went over those hills, presently I came to a little village, and a building that I recognized as the asylum. I went into that place, walked straight into the room where a woman was strapped to the sides of a cot, and as consciously as I stand here now, I put my hands on the woman’s head and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ rebuked the insane spirit that possessed her and cast it out. Her face became calm, and she smiled up into my face. I recognized in the look of her eyes the awakened consciousness. All the time I had been kneeling on the platform at Johannesburg, and my heart and my voice had been expressing my desire to God. 
As quickly as a letter could come from Wales, my friend received a letter saying, “A strange thing has happened. Our cousin who has been in the asylum was suddenly and instantly healed on last Lord’s Day, and she is well.” Beloved, I was there. I could tell you to this hour of the old-fashioned brass that was on the door and the pattern of that old Welsh knocker on the door. There was not a detail of the room that I didn’t see, and there was not a detail of the trip from Africa to Wales that I was not as conscious of as I was at a later time when I came via that route on purpose, to prove whether or not it were a fact.

• What have we been trying to do here?
• We have been endeavoring to get you to look at yourself differently than you have been.
• Now, here is another area that throws people.
• Just because God uses someone in a miraculous way does not mean they are spiritual or mature in God.
• In fact, God uses some people that if you looked at their life, you would say ‘No, way, how could God use that person?’
• It confuses people when things like this happen.
• People associate great moves of God with great Christians.
• Sometimes this is true and sometimes not.
• Understand that you cannot necessarily equate those two.
• We are going to look at this in the Bible so that you can know for certain that these things are true; the purpose of which is that we can get over the idea that we have to be perfect before God can use us.
• Let’s talk about…

Miracles and Maturity

• Maturity is not the open door to the miraculous.
• People have the idea that if we could spiritual enough God could use us in these areas.
• But, it is just plain to see and realize that if God had to wait until His children became spiritual before He moved dynamically, He would never get anything done.
• The Book of Acts proves this!
• The Corinthian Church proves this.
• Heaven proves this.
• Let’s look at how.

Miracles and Maturity in the Book of Acts

• Have you ever heard anybody say, “We need to get back to being like the church in Acts; we need to get back to the early church?”
• People think in this channel because of the abundance of miracles and power displayed within its chapters.
• They look at the pages of Acts and they look at their churches and nothing special seems to be going on so they say “Either we better get back to Acts or maybe it’s just all been done away with.”
• The bottom line to this thought process is that somehow we are lacking in spiritual power.
• They had it back then in the early church. But we seem as if we don’t have it today?
• Ask yourself, “Is this a valid thought pattern”?
• Are we really that anemic as a church today?
• Does God want us to copy Acts?
• Let’s look at that.
• Let’s go to back to Acts and see what we find.

Acts 1:1 (ESV)
1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach,

• The first book Luke refers to is the gospel that he wrote called the gospel of Luke.

Luke 1:1–4 (ESV)
1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

• Notice that these two books, Acts and Luke are written by the same person to the same person.
• They are written by Luke to Theophilus.
• Luke implies that the gospel that he wrote contains information about what Jesus ‘began to do and teach’.
• Acts therefore must contain information about what Jesus continued to do and teach.
• So we looked at some of Jesus miracles in the gospels.
• Let’s look at the continuation of His miracles in Acts.
• Here is the list.

Here are the miracles of Acts

• The rushing might wind and the gift of tongues in 2:1–11
• The lame man healed in 3:1–11
• The shaking of the house where they were praying 4:31
• The death of Ananias and Sapphira, 5:1–11
• The apostles delivered from prison, 5:19
• The translation of Philip, 8:39, 40
• Eneas made whole, 9:34
• Resurrection of Dorcas 9:36–42
• Paul’s sight restored, 9:17
• The deliverance of Peter from prison, 12:6–10
• The death of Herod when he failed to give God the glory, 12:20–23;
• Elymas, the sorcerer, struck blind, 13:6–11
• The lame man at Lystra healed, 14:8–11
• The demon cast out of a women at Philippi, 16:16–18
• The jail at Philippi shaken, 16:25, 26
• Eutychus raised from the dead, 20:9–12
• Paul unhurt by the bite of a poisonous viper, 28:1–6
• The father of Publius and many others healed, 28:8, 9.
• You look at this list and it seems like quite a bit of the miraculous.
• Until you understand something about another important piece about Acts, date of authorship to help frame these miracles.

When was Acts written?

• Acts was written in the early 60’s.
• The reason you can have confidence in that date is because historians know the exact date that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans; that date was A.D. 70.
• Jesus prophesied of this destruction and Luke records it.

Luke 19:41–44 (ESV)
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

• But, there is no mention in Acts of this destruction.
• Why is this important?
• Because from that we can deduce that the entire book of Acts covers about a 30-35 year period approximately.
• So all of these miracles that we just looked at span a 30-35 year period.
• Those miracles did not happen all in one day.
• It didn’t happen in one week.
• It didn’t happen in one month, or one year, or one decade.
• How about three decades?
• Now, when you realize this, let’s go back to that thought, “We need to get back to Acts”.
• Now, ask yourself this question.
• What has happened in the church in the last 35 years?
• How many people have been saved in the last 35 years?
• Do we need to go back to Acts or are we doing okay?
• How many people have been miraculously healed in the last 35 years?
• How many people have been delivered during that time span?
• How many revivals have broken out on planet earth in the last 35 years?
• When you look at these miracles you realize that these miracles have occurred many, many, many, many times over throughout this span of time.
• You need to know that right now, today as we speak…
• Somewhere, in some part of the world, the Spirit of God is coming upon someone right now, right as we speak.
• What do you think are the possibilities of that?
• Someone, somewhere, right now, is being raised from the dead.
• Someone, somewhere right now is being healed of a deadly disease.
• Someone somewhere is giving an altar call right now and thousands of people are responding and being saved.
• Somewhere, somehow, some missionary is being supernaturally delivered by a move of the Spirit.
• There is revival breaking out somewhere in the world right now as we speak.
• The glory is manifesting somewhere right now.
• We don’t have to go back to Acts.
• We are Acts!
• In addition to that, let’s bury that thought a little deeper.
• While we are at it, do you realize that if we went back to Acts, we would be going back to a baby church?
• They were all babies spiritually in Acts.
• The 120 that came of the Upper Room did not come out mature.
• They came out empowered.
• There’s a difference, we will talk about that in a minute.
• Just two months before the 120 exited the Upper Room, Peter cut a guy’s ear off with a sword and on top of that denied Jesus three times.
• How spiritual is that?
• Peter didn’t grow up and fully develop in two months’ time.
• No one does that, you don’t do that and neither does anyone else.
• God did what He did in Acts because that’s what He had to work with.
• The Holy Ghost is the star of the show not Peter, not Paul, or John.
• What people don’t realize about spiritual realities is this: It takes time to develop.
• It takes time to mature.
• It takes time to develop in the fruit of the Spirit.
• It takes time to develop the love-walk; that is maturity.
• It takes time to grow.
• It wasn’t any different for the early church as it is for you.
• It took time for them to develop and it takes time for you.
• God did not fast forward the tape for those folks in Acts.
• He did not make an exception.
• It is not about making an exception; it is how things work.
• He used what He had because that’s what He had to work with.
• What you see in the book of Acts is God doing mighty works through a bunch of baby Christians.
• Power is not a measure of maturity.
• We do not need to go back to Acts.
• What we need to do is to allow the Spirit of God to change our perception of ourselves.
• There is nothing wrong with the Spirit of God.
• What’s wrong is our perception of Him!
• People saying that we need to go back to Acts is not a reflection of the church it is a reflection of how they view themselves.
• When these believers take themselves to the mirror, what do they see?
• They see themselves as lacking authority.
• They see themselves as anemic.
• They think that they need more power than what they have, has to be … maybe that is why stuff is not happening like they think it should.
• But let me ask you a question here.
• Who can God turn to and say, “Give so and so more power because he didn’t get enough when he got filled with me?”
• Who can God turn to and say ratchet up the power in brother so and so because when I came into his life by my Spirit, that wasn’t sufficient.”
• “When I overshadowed him with my glory in the new birth, it wasn’t enough’.
• Who can God turn to and say give him more?
• The Holy Spirit is the Great Counselor.
• The Holy Spirit is the Great Teacher.
• He is mover and the shaker in the earth.
• He is God and as God, He is not running a weak or anemic anything.
• Broaden your expectations for miracles.
• Know that you are not inferior.
• You have the stuff.
• You are not broken.
• You are not anemic.
• You are not messed up.
• At the very least, you are as mature as those coming out of the Upper Room.
• If God can use them, He can use you.
• Now here is another side of the mountain.
• We went up one side, now let’s go up the other.

An Abundance of Miraculous Can Be Situation Specific.

• What you see in Acts is environment related.
• What you see the Spirit of God doing is reaching out to a really really dark world through the miraculous.
• A world that as of yet, has no revelation of what just occurred 40 days before in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus.
• Mark this statement down, it is always true.
• You will find that in the areas where the light is dim that the miraculous will shine the brightest.
• Displays of God’s power manifest to a great degree when there is the absence of light.
• You have a greater degree of manifestation.
• You have more occurrences.
• And that is what you are seeing Acts.
• Because miracles, if they are anything, are signs.
• And signs point to things.
• Miraculous signs point to Jesus.
• Where the gospel is not known, where the message of the Resurrection of Jesus is not understood, you will see a plethora of miracles.
• Our God can do anything and there are times He wants to prove it.
• That is what you are seeing in Acts.
• And that is the reason that you do not necessarily see wall to wall miracles in America.
• There is a lot of light in America.
• In America, you have Bibles everywhere.
• They are in hotel rooms.
• In America, you have Bible teachers and Pastors and fully developed five-fold ministry ministers.
• In America, you have wall to wall teaching on the Word.
• It’s on the radio, on the TV, on the internet.
• The gospel is everywhere.
• There is plenty of light in America.
• God expects you to do something with that light.
• And here is the truth that we need to wake up to.

Luke 12:48 (ESV)
48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

• When light is manifest, God expects people to walk in its path.
• So says the psalmist…
• The word is lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.

Proverbs 4:18 (KJV)
18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, That shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

• He expects people to act on the light they have.
• He expects to act on the Word they have heard.
• He expects people to walk by it.
• God expects you to get your Bible and stand on it.
• Study authority and use it.
• Study healing and believe for it.
• If you were to get up and speak in front of your church and preach a message on the ‘Will of God for Your Healing’ and give an altar call what kind of results would you get?
• What if you preached that exact same message in an undeveloped nation what kind of results would you get there?
• Mark this down, there is nothing wrong with you or the church as you suppose.
• If we were to go to one of these dark places and preach, you would have miracles by the bushel basket load.
• Not because of you, but because of them.
• If you want to see a lot of light, go where it’s really dark.
• You are the light of the world.

Call to Action

God wants us to be open to miracles of any variety. He wants to use us to help reach others with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Are you open to Him using you? Make the adjustment on the inside of yourself. Pray this prayer constantly in your times of prayer, ‘Lord, help me to help other people.’ If you will be open to the Spirit of God, He will use you do miracles of an unusual variety.

Question: Please share a testimony of how God used you in an unusual way to help someone else? Please leave your comment below.

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References

Fackerell, Michael. 2013. “The Miracle of Fire in my Furnace.” http://www.christian-faith.com/the-miracle-of-fire-in-my-furnace/