Miracles Happen Today
By: David Martin
Recently I prayed with a woman whose husband was in an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) program. We prayed and believed God for His divine intervention into her husband’s life.
Two weeks later, she sent me a text saying, “David, a great testimony happened tonight. My husband was at the AA meeting, and there was a shooter that came in, shot, killed four or five people….” The tragedy was in Tulsa. And her husband ran out of the meeting, running for fear like everyone else, and came face to face with the shooter. And he just looked the gunman in the eye. Now what was happening was not his faith at this point. It was the faith of his wife. It was the prayer of agreement that we had, that God would get hold of him. The gunman that just shot five other people didn’t shoot him! He ran away.
When you know who you are, you have access to the supernatural. Earlier I told you the story about Terry Mize and how his wife said, “We can’t get married because the doctor is saying I’m going to be an invalid and that I can’t have children.” He responded, “Who told you that?” Because it was man’s knowledge, man’s wisdom, man’s ability. Terry chose to believe in something bigger—the authority of God and the Word of God.
Some years ago, Terry Mize wrote a book called More than Conquerors. I remember one story: Terry was in Mexico and a shooter approached him at point blank range and attempted to rob him. Terry said, “You can’t have my money, and I command you to put that gun down.” The man said, “You don’t understand. I’m going to shoot and kill you if you don’t give me your money.” And Terry said, “I dare you. Try. You can’t. In the name of Yeshua, you can’t.” So the man shot, and nothing happened.
The authority you and I have, that is the power of God, the working of miracles, the gift of faith, whatever you need in any given moment, you have it. It is your right as a child of the most High God. You have dominion on the earth and no weapon formed against you can prosper. Now what happens when you do something repeatedly in the supernatural? The more you do it, it becomes established in your life. The more you gain experience in some of these things, the more natural it is going to be.
A testimony from our congregation in Tulsa, from a team that went to Hawaii some years ago, shows God’s ability operates well outside of our box. They were doing a praise and worship conference and the leader of our praise and worship team had the unction of the spirit to pray in the Holy Ghost more than usual. There was this unction, “Pray, pray, pray, pray.” Every free moment he had in between teaching sessions he was praying not knowing why. But that night after they finished the conference and were coming down the mountain, and as they were coming around a bend, they encountered a truck that was in their same lane. He and three or four others from our fellowship that were part of the team, they all braced themselves for a head on collision. But what happened is they literally went right through the other car. And literally they went right through the other people. I know that the guy sharing the testimony is not weird. The three or four other people, I didn’t know them well, but they all had that same testimony: they went through the other car.
Heidi Baker tells a great testimony from the mission field that is similar. Terrorists were chasing her while she was in her jeep, going through a town in Africa, and suddenly there were cement barriers in front of her. She said, “God what do I do? Terrorists behind me and barriers in front, what do I do?” God said, “Just drive right through.” And she did. She went right through the barriers. What is the point of this? What Yeshua did, what we see the apostles do, what we see in Bible stories, is what you are able to do by the power of God, by the gifts of the Spirit. You need to know these acts of the supernatural are examples for you. It doesn’t matter which miracle, which operation of the gift, or if God’s got some other plan. What’s important is that in your heart you know no weapon formed against you can prosper. You are the head, you are not the tail. Everything Yeshua did, every sign, every wonder, every miracle, all the gifts of the Spirit, are for you to accomplish God’s will on the earth. What’s more important is you have the bigger picture—you win, the devil loses.
Your five keys to the supernatural are, number one: sensitivity, hearing the voice of God; number two: obedience, whatever He says, do it; three is humility, that means you are humbling yourself, you know you are not the healer, you are not the miracle worker but you have the Healer, the Miracle Worker on the inside of you; number four is knowledge, and with knowledge is the certainty that you know the will of God, you know the plan of God, you know the ability of God, you know the nature of God, you know His character, so that you operate just like Yeshua did here on the earth. And key number five is motivation. Why do you want the supernatural? And the inner key to motivation is compassion.
We commonly refer to the gifts of the Spirit as the nine gifts of the Spirit, a reference from 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, where we see gifts of the Spirit identified. But as we look deeper, we can identify 21 gifts, although we often focus on the nine operational gifts. I want to briefly introduce the other gifts, which are not specifically listed in 1 Corinthians.
First Corinthians chapter 12:1 says, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware.” God is saying here, “I want you to be more than just a hearer of the Word, I want you to be a doer.” God desires for you to operate in the gifts. Not to just know about them, but to operate in them for His glory, to accomplish His will here on planet earth. Verse 2 continues, “You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Yeshua is accursed”; and no one can say, “Yeshua is Lord”; except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Lord.”
Then in verse 5, “There are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.” Here we are talking about the five-fold offices, or the administrative gifts, and then verse 6 says, “There are varieties of effects,” or more literally, operations, “but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
These seven operations, or gifts, are called the motivational gifts. This expanded group is described in Romans12:4-8. “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Messiah, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly:”
“…if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith…”—number one is prophecy. “…if service, in his serving;…”—number two is serving. “…or he who teaches, in his teaching;…”—number three is teaching. “…or he who exhorts, in his exhortation;…”—number four is exhortation. “…he who gives, with liberality; he who leads with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”—which are gifts five, six and seven.
These are known as the motivational gifts and each one of these is an attribute of something you have. You specialize in one of these seven. You can operate in more than one, but God has given you one of these very specifically.
Now let’s return to1 Corinthians 12:5. Here we see varieties of ministries, or diversities of administration. These gifts are what are called administrative gifts, or typically what is referred to as the five-fold ministry gifts because there are five. Verse 5: “And there are varieties of ministries and the same Lord.” These are described in Ephesians. Ephesians 4:7 says, “To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Messiah’s gift. Therefore it says, ’When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, He gave gifts to men.’ Verse 11 gives us their specifics: “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers….”
Looking back to Romans 12, seven gifts are motivational. Five from Ephesians are for the administration of the corporate body of believers. These were broadly referenced in 1 Corinthians 12:1-7 before the nine operational gifts described in verses 8-10.
To recap, the nine operational gifts are word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, working of miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits, tongues and the interpretation of tongues.
The seven motivational gifts are prophesying, serving, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership and mercy.
The five administrative gifts, or five-fold ministry gifts, are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
We are going to break down each of these gifts, define the gifts, and help you know how to operate in faith with the gifts for the glory of God. Too often the body of Messiah, the body of believers at large, looks to the pastor or the evangelist, the apostle, the teacher. They look to the administrators to do the work of the ministry. But their job is training you to do the actual ministry. The work of the signs, wonders and the miracles does happen in congregations. But where it belongs is on the street. It belongs in your home, in your car, where you work, where you shop. The supernatural operation of the gifts of the Spirit is for everywhere.
