Miracles of Jesus part 5

 

Miracles of Jesus Part 5

Jesus Heals Peter's Mother-in-law Matthew 8 vs 14-15

When Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw Peter's Mother-in-law lying sick with a fever, He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him.

No-one asked Jesus to pray, but it says that he saw her, and we see again the great compassion that Jesus had for the sick.  He touched her hand and the fever left - what a beautiful picture of the love and gentleness of his power.

Many times, I hesitate to reach out and pray for someone because I don't know how they will react or I'm not confident enough.  But I am praying and asking the Holy Spirit to teach me to have the eyes to see and the compassion to reach out. Do you ever read these scriptures and think "Why are we not seeing these things happen today"?  Remember it is written "Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever" - Could it be that faith is not being preached?  Could it be that people are more concerned about what is going on around them than they are for hearing about Jesus?

 What we must remind ourselves is that we cannot do anything in our own strength but we are the ambassadors for Jesus on the earth and we are called to take the message of the Gospel everywhere we go, and as we go with and in his love and his power working through us - then we can reach out to those who need to know his love and his power.  We are simply vessels that he can flow through.

Matthew 8 vs 16-17 tells us that evening they brought many who were demon oppressed and sick to Jesus.  And that Jesus cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.  

The Word or testimonies were spreading to the people of the miracles that Jesus had done and the people came to Jesus because of what they had heard, they came expecting and many came because they were desperate. 

If you heard about miracles happening today - would you believe it? would you bring the sick? or would you just dismiss it?

One thing I love to do is to listen to testimonies of what God has done for people, I will look through you-tube and online and read and listen to the wonderful testimonies and sometimes I am just in awe and wonder at the great things God has done.  It builds faith and encouragement when we hear about Jesus and his great power.  Just last week, a customer was in our shop and told us about a man in his church who had a brain tumour and was given no hope by the doctors, and very little time to live, but that the man turned to Jesus and the tumour disappeared.  We were rejoicing together at how great our God is.

One thing I have discovered about the testimonies, is that God always does things his way - not man's way, so we cannot reason in our own understanding how or why he did something in a particular way.  It is easy for our minds to kick in and say -"I don't know if I can believe that" or to question in some way "Why, did that happen for them and not for someone else".

  I don't have all the answers, I just have learned to refuse to entertain doubt or to question God.  Because he has already told us in Isaiah 55 v 8 and 9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. 9“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."

Instead of questioning and wondering why and how and who - I have discovered a great peace in the realisation that God is so mighty that he has unlimited ways of answering my prayer and I would never be able to work it out anyway - so instead of trying to understand how he will do it, I choose to rejoice that he has a great plan and trust him that he is working it out.  I have learned to step out of the way and Let God Work on my behalf.

I challenge you today to begin talking more about what God has done for you, to remind yourself of his goodness to you, and the things that you have experienced already in your life.  Instead of talking about what is going on around you or focusing on the problems - Let's talk about Jesus, let's encourage each other along the way about how great our God is.

 Preaching the Word and sharing the Gospel, is not just about standing inn a pulpit. But let us not forget the power of our testimonies - we can bring hope and light into someone's life, wherever we are.  We are not drawing attention to ourselves - but rather we are lifting up our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I have taken a few moments from Sunday's service, to share with you an old time chorus called "Let's talk about Jesus" written in 1977.

Let's talk about Jesus the King of Kings is He

The Lord of Lords supreme thru all eternity

The Great I  AM, the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Door

Let's talk about Jesus more and more