Why Are We So Surprised?

In a Sunday morning service, my pastor will often have a spontaneous prayer time where he opens the floor for prayer (he always provides the topic rather than open it for whatever anyone wants to pray). When a church is used to praying together regularly, there is a greater spirit of expectation among the people.

Though we often pray for the nation or God’s Spirit to do a greater work among us, one Sunday in July, he shared two very urgent needs related to several members. One was about Eddie, the son of Susan, one of our older members. He had been in a terrible auto accident and was in a coma. We knew that already, but our pastor said he did not have brain activity and it did not look good. We started praying. One member prayed boldly that “just like Jesus called forth Lazarus from the grave, I call, ‘Eddie come forth’!”

A report came the next day that Eddie came out of his coma! I bet most of us were a little surprised.

Here’s my question: Why does a miracle surprise us? If we believe Scripture, shouldn’t that be the norm? I mean Jesus Himself said “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).

My intent is not to make us feel bad and chastise us for the lack of faith in modern, Western believers. Rather I want to say that I believe we will start to see more and more of these types of miracles as we get closer and closer to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Why do I believe that? For a number of reasons.

First, because the darker things get in our world as we head to the end, the more powerful the light will be! God will show His power through believers in greater and greater ways. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). I believe God will reveal Himself through signs and wonders as the darkness gets stronger—even in the skeptical Western world.

Second, as the safety of being the dominant culture we have experienced as American Christians disappears more and more, we will actually have to rely on our faith, not on the power of our vote or voice. As that happens and every human thing we have trusted in is removed, many believers will begin to walk in the strength of Christ alone. And then, when we pray, “greater things” will happen.

Finally, I believe that before the end comes, there will be the greatest spiritual awakening and revival the word has ever known. Why? Because God is bringing into His kingdom those remaining who will be saved before Jesus comes. A part of that great awakening and revival will be many miracles that we can only attribute to God!

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

–Jonathan Graf is the publisher of Prayer Connect and the author of Praying Like Paul and The Power of Personal Prayer.