Equipping Saints in the Miraculous by Gale Sheehan mir-a-cle \"mir-i-kl\ n 1: an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs

2: an unusual event, thing, or accomplishment 3: an event that seems impossible to explain by natural laws and so is regarded as supernatural in origin or as an act of God WONDER, MARVEL - mi-rac-ulous \m-"ra-ky-ls\ adj - mi-rac-u-lous-ly adv

This is a day when the Church and the saints are called to arise and be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ as a demonstration in the earth. A part of the demonstration that the Lord is releasing in the earth today is believers manifesting miracles through the name, power and compassion of Jesus Christ. We as believers can activate and experience the reality of receiving and releasing miracles on a daily basis. Jesus, being moved by compassion, caused miracles to happen when He walked the earth. Believers, being moved with compassion, will also cause miracles to happen today.

Gale Sheehan

I have seen more miracles in this past year than in over 20 years of previous ministry combined. Blind eyes seeing, deaf ears hearing, the lame walking, terminal cancer defeated, tumors disappearing and creative miracles have all been a part of these miraculous testimonies. This has not been because Jesus has changed, but because I have seen Jesus in a new way with a new revelation. This revelation has made me see that miracles are easy to receive and easy to release and Jesus wants us to be miracle workers. Many of us have made miracles a seemingly difficult thing. In actuality they are not, because we serve a miracle-working God.

He is the answer for every need and He has also given us power and authority to enforce His victory over the works of the evil one. May you arise to be one who not only receives of the miracle-working power of Jesus in your life, but may you also be a Mark 16 believer who preaches the "good news" of the gospel while the Lord works with you to confirm His Word with signs following.

When we think of the word miracle it may mean something different to many of us. I will use the Webster's definition given above for our discussion. It simply means that miracles are those events and manifestations that supercede and intervene in the course of natural laws. Therefore, when we talk about a miracle we mean something that happens on the basis of a higher law that supercedes and intervenes in the natural course of human or other affairs, situations and circumstances.

Faith in Jesus Christ Is the Foundation for Miracles !

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." Romans 8:28-29

In Romans 8:29 we see that we are to be conformed to the image of Jesus. We find the key to the miraculous is Jesus and the good news of the gospel. We find that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Everything that He did as He walked the earth as God's only begotten Son, He now desires to demonstrate and multiply through His Church, the Body of Christ. Jesus' promise to us today is that if we preach the gospel He will confirm His word with signs that follow. These include healings, deliverances, restoration, creative miracles and other signs and wonders that supercede the natural laws of the universe.

Sometimes we try to make things difficult, but Jesus confirms with simplicity. It is time to take the Lord at His Word because He cannot lie. Notice that Mark 16:20 does not say He confirms us, but that He confirms His Word. His Word is the source of miracle-working power. If our eyes are open to see in the dimension of the spirit, as we read, meditate and hear the Word of Christ our spirit man will be filled with tangible deposits of life and faith. The good news is that regardless of our faith level concerning the miraculous, our faith can increase by hearing the Word of Christ. This is the only way that faith comes to us. We are never told to pray for faith in the Bible, but we are told how faith comes. If we want more faith concerning miracles we have to take action to "hear the word of Christ."

Taking action and hearing the Word are two keys to receiving miracles. Let us now look at the four steps to appropriate miracles.

1) We must hear the Word.

The same way that the woman with the issue of blood had heard of Jesus (Mark 5:25) we must hear. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17). This hearing is the foundation for our faith action. Remember that the Word has a dunamis (dynamite) component in it.

2) We must believe in our heart.

Hearing the Word and meditating on it will cause faith to rise in our spirit. As we believe the Word in our heart (Romans 10:8), it has the ability to cause natural things to be changed. We must mix the Word with faith in our heart to have the right mixture for the miracle power that we desire. The good news is that this is not a difficult thing. It is easy in God because He is the one who has made us faith beings (Mark 9:23).

3) We must confess with our mouth.

We have seen that God has initiated our words to be vessels of power to change the natural realm even as He did at the time of creation. Speaking out the Word of God will release that same naturechanging power today (Romans 10:10).

4) We must take a faith action.

This is probably the greatest area where we have missed receiving in the past. Even as the woman with the issue of blood took an action to touch Jesus' garments (Matthew 9:20-22), we must take action once we have heard, believed in our heart and confessed with our mouth (James 2:17). This may mean moving what you could not move before or doing something that you could not do before. Whatever it is, take an action to match the faith in your heart.

We have been given the name of Jesus so that we can be miracle workers: casting out demons, laying hands on the sick, seeing them recover and seeing signs following the preaching of the Word. The author of all sickness and infirmity is Satan. We must use the power that Jesus has given to us to cast out the spirits of infirmity in order to see the sick made whole. Jesus has given us the authority to cast out demonic spirits and to heal every kind of sickness and disease (Mark 16:17-18). We cast out spirits of infirmity and disease by commanding them to go in the name of Jesus and then we release health to the person also in the name of Jesus. This may be in the form of a creative miracle, restoration, strength or anything else an individual may need. From this we see the two ways in which miracles are released: by the spoken word and by the laying on of hands (Mark 6:13).

Once we have ministered to an individual with the authority the Lord has given, then we must encourage those who have received ministry to take an action of faith. This would be to do something that they would not have been able to do prior to receiving from the Lord. This is a very important action in sealing the miracle for an individual. As we possess ground in the Lord, remembering that "the violent take it by force" (Matthew 11:12), taking action steps by faith helps

to seal the victory of health and healing. Obedience to the Lord is what causes miracles to happen. Preaching the Word and expecting miracles to happen is being obedient to what Jesus told us to do. Just desiring to be obedient and doing what Jesus said will break the power of fear and limitation and propel us to be the miracle workers the Lord has called us to be.

Now is the day to rise up and see the miracle-working power of God released by believers today. We are seeing and hearing great testimonies of this miracle-working demonstration in the earth. May you, Saints Equipped, miracle-working vessels, cause the light of the Lord to be made known to many in this day!