by Cathy Phillips

Created on: September 30, 2009   Last Updated: October 02, 2009

I am not going to try to convince anyone that miracles exist. I know they exist and I can share story after story of miraculous events in my life. How exciting to live a life a miracles! I wouldn't want to live any other way! However, there is a twofold problem with miracles today: 1) People do not know how to activate miracles. 2) People cannot or refuse to recognize miracles.

Please allow me to address problem number two first. Those who choose not to believe in miracles may dismiss the most blatant, miraculous events that come their way with words like 'coincidence' or 'luck' or...whatever. I'm not talking about just having an optimistic attitude here. I'm talking about really looking at some possibly miraculous circumstances through your inner-self, and letting go of all those unbent years of cerebral thinking with the most arrogant attitude that we are actually in charge in this universe. We all have the intellectual capacity to decide which category we choose to live in. Those who choose to believe in miracles are not letting go of their intellect, but they are probably looking for miracles in their lives and in the world around them. Of course, this means that they will recognize miracles when they happen because they are looking outside of their own understanding. It takes a kind of humility to recognize a miracle.

The Bible is full of examples of miracles, and I have experienced many of my own. In order to activate miracles, we must first begin with simple faith. I can point to many examples of this in the Old Testament. For example, Abraham, of the Old Testament, who obviously did not have a "Bible" to guide him, just believed what God told him. He traveled to a foreign land to live and he believed God for a son, even though he was about 99 years old and his wife was 90! Now, this simple faith did cause him to step out in obedience and he was rewarded with great wealth, and with a son. Through this one son, Abraham became the father of the entire nation of Israel. The New Testament the book of Hebrews says that Abraham was counted righteous because of his simple faith.

The best New Testament teaching would be Jesus' teaching on the faith of a mustard seed. He says that all we need is the faith of a small mustard seed, to move a mountain. He used the analogy of the mustard seed because it is small and insignificant, but it can accomplish great things. Ingredient number one: FAITH.

When asked why he was healing people on the Holy Sabbath Day, Jesus answered that he was only doing what he saw the Father doing. He was simply participating with God and allowing God to use him to bring His will to the earth. Ingredient number two: Participating with God.

In my own life, I was taught to believe the Bible because it was God's way of telling us about Who He is. It also tells us how we can get to know Him on a more personal level. As a child, I readily accepted these things in faith. Remember the faith of the mustard seed that Jesus referred to? I took Jesus literally. First, I put my faith in Jesus. I asked Him to be part of my life by being the Lord of my life. I somehow knew, perhaps by reading the Bible, that I wanted to participate with God just like Jesus did on this earth. So, I began to pray and God began to answer me. When I had some healing take place in my body, then that raised my faith level to pray for God to heal other people. I stood in faith (sometimes for years) to see God change my difficult circumstances, and now I have faith to see God work in the lives of others as well. Activate your miracles today!

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