KNOWING GOD – THE GOD OF MIRACLES || Lesson 22 

KNOWING GOD – THE GOD OF MIRACLES – Lesson Twenty-two

The GOD OF MIRACLES is reminding us that miracles are brought about by faith, as the following passages show.

Matthew 9:22 – Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment.

Mark 2:5 – When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

1 Corinthians 13:2 – If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

The following passages instruct us on how faith is obtained.  Romans 10:17 – Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

2 Peter 1:1 – Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:

Note 1 Timothy 1:3-4 – ³As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer ⁴nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work–which is by faith.

Note also: 2 Peter 1:5, 10-11 – ⁵For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;

¹⁰Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, ¹¹and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 6:11 – We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure.

Hebrews 11:6 (KJV) – But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Hebrews 6:12 – We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised – Example: ELISHA – 1 Kings 19:19-21 – ¹⁹So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him.  ²⁰Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”

²¹So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.

See 2 Kings 2.  [V.12 – Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.

“My father!  My father!  The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” – CEV note: Or “Master, you were like the cavalry and chariots for the people of Israel!”

(It is to be noted that the same thing was said of Elisha – 2 Kings 13:14 – Now Elisha was suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”)

V.16 -“Look,” they said, “we your servants have fifty able men. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley.” “No,” Elisha replied, “do not send them.”

Perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley – A possible reason for this assumption is found in 1 Kings 18:7-12 – ⁷As Obadiah was walking along, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized him, bowed down to the ground, and said, “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?”

⁸“Yes,” he replied. “Go tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’ ”

⁹“What have I done wrong,” asked Obadiah, “that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death?  ¹⁰As surely as the LORD your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you.  ¹¹But now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’  ¹²I don’t know where the Spirit of the LORD may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn’t find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the LORD since my youth.

I don’t know where the Spirit of the LORD may carry you when I leave you – Note:  Ezekiel 8:3 – He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance to the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood.

Acts 8:39 – When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

V.14-25 – The Matthew Henry’s Commentary states that these verses show “The token of God’s presence with Elisha and the marks of his elevation to Elijah’s room.”]

Application:  Let us intensely desire to be elevated to Jesus’ room.  (John 14:12 – I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.)

General Application:  Let us ask the GOD OF MIRACLES to help us to trust and obey.