Make Room for Your Miracle (15 page)
Elisha touched Habakkuk’s face. His heart constricted for a moment within his throat but then something else, that unseen Greater Hand on which he leaned, buoyed him. Then, like a memory of his own, the scenes of his old master came to mind. Scenes of another house and another boy who lay dead, the widow’s son in Zarephath whom Elijah had raised.
The prophet leaned his staff against the bedside. A surge of potent faith raised a vigorous head within his belly.
Hear O Israel! The Lord! The Lord is One!
Elisha moved. Up and down he strode, back and forth before the bedside. Sometimes his hands were raised in the air. Sometimes they clasped one another and wrung themselves out with the words of his inward prayer. Sometimes facing the boy and sometimes turned away, Elisha paced. But still the presence of death seemed a chasm that no man could leap across—at least not cross and come back again. In himself he knew he could not make that leap to bring the boy’s spirit back. The gulf was too wide.
But God is not a man that He should lie!
The prophet paced across the vermilion carpet and prayed again. His eyes closed as he turned from wall to wall. Sweat drops began to form on his brow.
Lord of glory, Thou art no debtor to any man!
He closed his eyes, brows furrowed in great effort searching, seeking, flying through the realm between that room and the chambers of the highest heaven.
Let me see Your glory!
prayed the man who had received a double portion of his master’s anointing.
Though he stood upright, within him the great servant of God was sprawled upon his face before that throne, that judgment seat where mercy triumphs.
Suddenly he saw. The room was filled. There all around him were a thousand fluttering wings of angels and the whoosh of living creatures so terrifying that if their voices were heard the earth would suddenly be still. The God of glory Himself came near His servant.
The image of his master in his mind’s eye, Elisha climbed upon the bed.
Eye to eye, hand on hand, his mouth on the very mouth of the child, the servant crouched like a lion over prey. And then Elisha breathed. It was not with force of human flesh he breathed that breath, nor with the will of human mind. He was simply a vessel, one with the glory. The small body warmed beneath the prophet’s touch. Elisha felt it and backed away suddenly, watching, waiting, looking to see the boy’s nostrils flare to life again. His eyes passed to Habakkuk’s chest.
Did it rise and fall?
Habakkuk lay still, but there was a blush of warmth in his hands.
The first time he crouched over him Elisha had had no great feeling of power. The surge of faith that came from the Presence and filled the room seemed to emanate from his belly more than from his mind.
But the intercessor had withdrawn too soon it seemed, for the boy’s breath did not return. Habakkuk was suspended somewhere between this world and the next. At that realization a sense of holy indignation at the powers of darkness that refused to let the child return filled the man of God. He crouched over the body again and pressed his head against Habakkuk’s head. Eye to eye, mouth to mouth again Elisha breathed. Dark rose the specter of a serpent, its head and mouth and eyes pushing back against the prophet’s as if to shriek: “You shall not have him!”
But the Spirit within Elisha simply breathed, exhaling life. In that moment Elisha seemed transported somewhere outside himself as if he had moved out while God moved in. And when the closed eyes of Habakkuk suddenly popped open and the boy began to sneeze, Elisha’s heart nearly burst with relief.
Habakkuk’s gaze lifted as if from a dreamy fog, eyes wide and innocent. The boy seemed not to recognize the friend who hovered over him.
There were no words of prayer or any other exclamation to be made in that moment of this great wondrous act of Jehovah’s supreme power. There was no reply adequate that could speak to what the prophet had witnessed. Life from the dead! The greatest miracle of all—right before his very eyes. It was unspeakable.
“Gehazi,” the prophet called low. The latch of the chamber door lifted, and the servant peered in.
“My lord?” Gehazi said.
Elisha’s voice cracked as the sound of it came forth. “Call the Shunammite.”
And We Listen . . .
Today, what dead thing are you lying on? God has this word for you and for your family, for your hopes, for your dreams, for all of the promises that you have embraced as your own. It is, in fact, even a word for cities and nations that are dying or whose economies are wilting.
God wants to resuscitate and restore and
resurrect.
Our God is a God of resurrections. He is a God of miracles, signs and wonders. If you make room for Him, you will activate the miracle glory.
This is not a science. As you have no doubt gathered throughout this book, it is an art. We do not step into miracles by chasing after them. We step into miracles by seeking with all of our hearts the One who comes with resurrection power.
We have authority in the realm of miracles only because of what Jesus has done. As we make room for Him and grow in our relationship with Him, we make that place for the miracle. The glory is there. Let’s look more closely at the art of getting into His glory.
Revival of the Full Gospel
Jesus’ ministry of Good News, which fulfilled all the prophetic Scriptures through the Old Testament, focused on healing and deliverance. It is very plain: The Bible says that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and . . . he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him” (Acts 10:38,
NIV
). Healing and deliverance from demons are two primary manifestations of the advance of the Kingdom of light.
It is also very plain that Satan has two opposing primary goals: to dominate the world and to receive the worship that belongs to God. And so as we see darkness increasing—strife, wars, conflict—we should recognize that we are in a wonderful time of opportunity for advancing the Kingdom of light.
And, in fact, today we are seeing a revival of the full Gospel— the Gospel is being proclaimed and signs and wonders are following. Truly it is wonderful to know personally and individually how significant our lives are in this hour. Believers in the Christ are the people who are capable of praying down revival, of bringing down the glory of God. The whole world is a stage that is set up for the Church of the living God to arise and let her light shine.
How do we get this victory? We step into the victory that Christ has already won for us. Colossians 2:15 states that through the cross, Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. Jesus ransacked them. He took away all their weapons and gave that victory to the Church. In the Great Commission, when He said, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel, and signs and wonders, miracles of healing and deliverance will follow you” (see Mark 16:15–19), He was basically saying, “Execute My victory.” We already possess the victory; now it is a matter of making it manifest on the earth.
Entering into Your Miracle
As you embrace the truth of Jesus’ victory, do not let go if your miracle is not readily apparent. When the Shunammite reached Elisha, she did not immediately receive the miracle she was seeking. Elisha sent Gehazi ahead with Elisha’s staff and instructions to lay it across the boy’s face. Sometimes God gives a token in advance of His miracle. The token is the indicator that God is on the way with the final answer. Elisha’s staff was the point of contact with the glory to come. Like Aaron’s rod it was symbolic of life in the anointing.
Your token may be a prophetic promise, a Scripture quickened, a dream or vision you receive. It may be a partial breakthrough. Steward the token and realize the final answer is on the way. The Shunammite welcomed the token while remaining steadfast at the feet of Elisha until she saw her promise live again. Do not disdain the tokens God gives. They connect you to the glory until the answer comes.
This is what Bonnie and I did regarding Aaron’s birth, as we told in chapter 1. When she was pregnant with Aaron the Lord told her,
You will have a son. Name him Aaron for I will make
the rod of his life bud as I did Aaron’s rod of old.
This word came weeks before Aaron was born, at a time when there was no sign of life and Bonnie’s body was in continual distress.
From that word, that token, we embraced confidence that in the glory a dead stick can become a fruit-bearing tree! The moment Aaron was born, four months premature with major complications and disease, Bonnie said, “It’s a boy, isn’t it?” As the doctor nodded, a look of terrible distress on his face in light of the impossible state of the tiny child in his hands, Bonnie declared, “His name is Aaron, and he will live and not die.” She held on to the token that was given her before, and God honored His word.
Religion has given us the wrong perception of miracles. We have been trained to see ourselves apart from the problem, removed from the solution. But as Christians we are ambassadors of heaven. We carry the Solution Himself ! Jesus is our miracle. Alive, as seen by His disciples when He was raised from the grave, He indwells us by His Spirit. Carrying the Living Christ, we can enter the problem with the Solution. As you dwell in His Presence you become one with Him—one with your miracle. Scripture is a particularly powerful tool in this regard. God’s Word is eternal. It is living, active and filled with His power to create. God reveals Himself and His glory in His Word. The more you meditate on the Word of God, the more you become congruent with Him. The Word is true at every level. The night before Aaron was born Bonnie dreamed the Lord spoke words from Psalm 29 over her. The next day those words entered her body in a living experience and brought Aaron forth from her body. She and Aaron became one with the Living Word. The Word of God vibrates with the glory of heaven. As you pick up its vibration what is happening in heaven happens where you are on earth.
Our first child, Ben, was born with terminal kidney disease. When Ben was sick and dying, I, Bonnie, remember that Mahesh took his Bible and got a notebook and wrote down every Scripture he could find on healing. That notebook recorded our inheritance in Jesus, the promises, the prophetic words. God is true to His Word. When no doctors could help us, we—and the dear ones watching with us by prayer and fasting—held on to that lifeline of the Word.
One of the first verses we claimed was Exodus 23:25: “Ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee” (
KJV
). As we stood on that Scripture, we saw the glory of the Lord come around Ben in a miraculous way. The Lord healed him completely—his kidneys, his whole urinary system. Because we experienced it, we know it is true. We can possess it for those who need healing. Now when we pray for healing—particularly for children—that is one of the first verses we claim because of our own experience.
Wherever you have experienced God in the past, experience Him again. This is what the Shunammite did. God came and gave her a son. That showed her that it was His will to heal her, to bless her, to make her fruitful and productive. Then when the child died, she could go to Him and say, “God, I know who You are. I will not accept death here because You are the God of life.”
See Jesus More Clearly
God is shaking our circumstances so that we can see Jesus more clearly. It is as though you are climbing the mountain of His glory. People, agents of the enemy, will try to hold on to your leg so that you stay in the low levels rather than move higher where His glory is.
Childless Hannah is a good example of this. She had a husband, Elkanah, but she also had a rival—Elkanah’s other wife. That rival was the voice of the enemy in a sense. She provoked Hannah severely. She made her miserable. First Samuel 1:7–10 says that year after year, when Elkanah took his family up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her. Hannah’s heart was so grieved she wept and did not eat. She was in great anguish.
That is what the enemy does. He comes in the midst of your need to make you miserable. The question then becomes: When you are in the middle of the need, how intensely do you want to enter into the Lord’s provision? If you are serious about emerging with the miracle, this is when you make your relationship with God more intense. Some people would focus here on their battle against the enemy. The better choice is to become more intense toward the Lord, to praise and worship and welcome Him.
Jesus took His disciples up to the top of the mountain where His glory shone. It is as though they knew Him as Clark Kent, but then they saw Him as Superman! When the challenge comes, when the promise dies, do not get fearful. Do not listen to the thief, the robber, the destroyer. This is simply a setup for Jesus to become even more glorious.
See, the enemy is trying to play with your mind, to make you anxious and fretful. You need to go into the house of the Lord, into the house of prayer, into the house of glory. You will find that when you enter the heart of prayer you are setting yourself up for resurrection of the miracle.
What dead thing are you lying on? You may be the one to breathe life into a child, a dream, a ministry in an inner city. Become an agent of the miracle-working glory of God. This is the hour when cities and nations that have been considered dead are going to be revived because His agents are going to be there speaking life and glory.
We possess the victory; now it is time to make it manifest. Rise, shine, become a carrier of resurrection glory.
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered
into the heart of man the things which
God has prepared for those who love Him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9
The Shunammite Speaks . . .
The flicker from the lampstand was the first thing visible as the door swung open. Then, the feet of our son standing upon the floor and just behind him, the man of God.