MAKE MY LIFE A MIRACLE

Make My Life a Miracle

One billion starts with the number one. That’s us. We've got to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ because the days are short. We need His knowledge for stability in these times. If you don't know who you are in God, you will not make a difference and won't be able to stand. There's a storm coming into this world that will be beyond anything we've ever seen.

God promises that if we hear His words and obey when the rain and floods come and the wind beats on our house, it won't fall. It will stand. We can't be taken down because Christ is the cornerstone of our lives. We are destined to be miracles in His hands. Christ died and rose again from the dead, took captivity captive, and gave salvation and gifts for us to be, as scripture says, "That people wondered at." We are to be as they were on the day of Pentecost, with people asking, "How do you get a relationship with God like that, and where did you get the ability to do the things that you're doing?" This desire is God’s purpose for His church. We're led to demonstrate the reality that He is alive. Like the apostle Paul, God wants to make our life a miracle.

Our Background Doesn’t Matter to God

In 1 Timothy 1:12, Paul says, "And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord who has enabled me." Paul says God didn’t call me because Ihad certain skill sets. He didn't call me because I had a history of faithfulness or certificates on my wall or I had achieved things in the religious world. He enabled me to become the person I became because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.The one thing Paul knew was he had a heart for God, and God would use it. Paul said, "I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and then an insolent or a violent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus." I believed in God, and I knew that He loved me. In verse 15, he says, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. However, for this reason, I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long-suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe in him forever lasting life." Paul is saying he was the worst of the sinners, but God called him, and His love was shed abroad in his heart, showing others how miracles are possible.

Our background doesn’t matter to God; He's willing to use us for His glory. This redemption is His purpose for our lives. Paul's life was made an undeniable testimony to the power of God, and it either had to be accepted or rejected but never ignored. Many people knelt when they heard Paul's story, others raged, and even rulers trembled because here was a man fully surrendered and gripped by the presence and power of God. A Sunday school teacher once said to a 15-year-old D.L. Moody, "The world is yet to see what God could do through a vessel that was fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit." Moody replied, "By the Holy Spirit of God within me, I shall be that man." As Paul said in Galatians 2:20, "It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." We are called to abandon ourselves and give our rights, plans, and ambitions into the hands of God. We are to ask for His view of our life and the giftings we need to do what we’re called to do in this world.

God Makes Us New

We have the third person of the Godhead living in these earthly bodies; He is not just a fuzzy concept. The Bible says, "The spirit of God within us intercedes for us with groanings." It’s the groaning of God to bring us in line with His will for each one of our lives. The verse that won me to Christ is 2 Corinthians 5:17: "If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Behold, the old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new." I knew I was a fool and where my life was heading, and I was powerless to stop it. In 1 Peter 2:9–10, Peter says, "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light." I knew God was calling me to the light and His wondrous power to transform me, and that’s what He wants for us. Verse 10 says, "Who once were not a people but now are the people of God who have not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”

We live in a generation that needs to see and hear from people whose lives have been miraculously changed by God’s power. We are His plan A. In the book of Ephesians 3:20–21, Paul says, "Now to Him who's able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.” Think about the best plan you could ever have for your life, and the Bible says God can do more according to His power at work within us. God desires to lift us in our infirmities, struggles, trials, and weaknesses. Paul said, "I go first to show you how long-suffering God is." Ephesians 4:7–8 says, "But to each of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, he says: ‘When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.’” When Jesus rolled from the grave, He took the power of Hell and destroyed it. He took everything that the Devil would have to bring us into chains. God broke them, opened doors, and gave us life, light, and the giftings we need to do what we're called to do.

In 1 Corinthians 12:31, Paul says, "But earnestly desire the best gifts." They have to be desired. If somebody gives you a gift, and it's all wrapped up and has a pretty bow, a desire comes into your heart. The same is true in the Kingdom of God. He's not going to impose it on us; there has to be that desire in the heart to unwrap it. In 2 Timothy 2:15, Paul says, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God. A worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." We've got to get into the Word of God and find out who we are in Christ and what our giftings can do. Once we unwrap the gift, then we embrace it. There are no gift receipts, no returns, or exchanges.

Embrace God’s Gifts

When we embrace His gift, our life becomes a miracle. The Church of Jesus Christ is a supernatural body and doesn't ever settle for anything else. Don't let yourself become just a natural person governed by your reasoning, sight, strength, and feelings. No—we are governed by the Spirit of God, led by His Word. We should never end our journey thinking we did it all ourselves. Our song should be that only God could have done this; He has been merciful. We should be able to say to our friends and families, and strangers, “Follow me as I've followed Christ. God took me out of the ashes and made a miracle.”

In Matthew 11:23, Jesus says, "If miracles which can only be attributed to the power of God had been present in or part of the fabric in Sodom, it would've been spared." He said, "Capernaum, if the things done in you, the miracles done in you, had been done in Sodom, it would've remained to this day." We're living in a decadent day of rampant and ever-increasing immorality. Confusion abounds on every side. If ever there was a time for the church to rise, it's now. If ever there was a time for the power of God to be displayed through ordinary people, it's now. May we say we’re not willing to be ordinary or ignored? God, I'm going to walk with you from this day forward.

There was a man in Sodom named Lot, and he was living so far beneath his inheritance. He was related to Abraham, through whom God said, "The whole world is going to be blessed through you and those that are part of your lineage." But Lot chose to live so far beneath his inheritance, so mixed in with the city where he was living, that his life and voice made no difference. Don’t let this happen. Jesus said, "If miracles had been there, it could have been spared." That means this decade and generation can still be reached if the power of God is found in His people one more time.

In Philippians 3, verses 13 and 14, Paul says, "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Paul is saying I'm not everything yet that I feel God wants me to be, and I know I've still got a way to go. I'm leaving everything that needs to be left and moving forward to this incredible calling of God on my life in Christ Jesus. Paul did not know he would pen the New Testament and that his life would guide hundreds of millions for 2000 years to come. All he knew was that pressing on would bring glory to God’s name.

One Billion Starts With One

We can make that choice today. Don't get overwhelmed with what I will do or have to do. Just start with the first thing. The Holy Spirit will speak to you. You begin to learn what to leave behind. Then suddenly, you're reading the Word of God, and it starts to unfold, and you see what the future could have—and you start moving towards it. There’s a whole new realm that opens. God begins to share words that all things are possible. God specializes in miracles. He takes nothing and makes it into something remarkable for His name. Remember I said one billion starts with one. It’s a heart that says, “Here am I. I don't feel worthy. If I were God, I wouldn't use me, but if you want my life, I give it to you.”

Paul said one of the perils of the last days is going to be people who "Are always learning but never able to be brought to the knowledge of where that truth is taking them, and they deny the power of God, and in a sense they just resist it. They resist what God wants to do. They learn but deny his power." I don't want to be among them. I've been asking the Lord to increase the borders of my tent to help me so that I can help others. All I can do is deliver God's heart and let the Holy Spirit make it real. God, would you give us the grace to yield and believe we can be used for your glory? We come before you and say, “Make my life a miracle.”