Why Does God Perform Miracles?

I would like to present you with some miracles that have occurred in my own life, and ask you whether or not you would personally categorize them as miracles. Perhaps you would, and perhaps you would not, but I think they are miracles, so here they are.

This article seeks to answer the question, “Why Does God Perform Miracles?” so the first thing I want to do is establish the fact that God actually does them. I’m not only referring to the miracles that can be found in the Bible, but ones that he is performing today. Yet many will deny that he even does them today. So let’s find out if he does. The first of these happened more than 30 years ago. So let’s get started.

Protection

I felt led to pray for the safety of my car one night. That was highly unusual, but since the leading was clear, I knelt down and prayed that God would protect my car. The next day, as I was travelling to work (in Montreal), suddenly freezing rain came down. I would not have known that it was freezing rain except that when I looked in my rear view mirror, all of a sudden I saw a car crash into the side of the freeway (right into the cement). Wow! Then I knew that the road had suddenly iced over. Later I would learn that there had been more than 400 accidents that morning. It came suddenly, within less than a 15-minute window of time.

Seeing the car behind me slide into the concrete wall, I then tried to slow down by putting my breaks on, but my car just slid along — as though I was on a skating rink! The car just slid at about the same speed as I had been going all along, and I came up to another car that was then immediately in front of me. I was about to hit the car when something amazing happened. Instead of hitting it, it was as though an invisible sponge was put between the two cars.

The two cars travelled along essentially glued together, separated by about six inches of space. It even seemed that my car was pushing the other car, yet still separated by this distance. We travelled along like that for some distance (possibly 500 feet) and then our cars separated and I made it to my destination without a scratch. This was totally mind-blowing. What was amazing was that our cars were “glued together” but never touched! How amazing is that?!

I am a follower of Christ, so I know who it was who saved me from an accident that day: it was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The Bible says that every good and perfect gift comes down from the father of lights in whom there is no variance or shifting of shadows. And definitely the father of lights was watching out for me that day.

There is also an interesting passage in the Bible that says,

“For he will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you in all your ways.” (Psalm 91:11)

And by this, I am not trying to say that nothing unfortunate has ever happened to me. But on the other hand, I cannot deny that a miracle took place that day, and that God was indeed watching out over me.

The effect of this miracle more than 30 years ago leaves me in awe even to this present day. I suppose that might be one good reason why God performed the miracle — to leave me with a sense of awe at his greatness.

This miracle has strengthened my faith and encouraged me.

But notice how I was alerted the night before, prior to going to prayer. I suppose one of the purposes of the miracle might also be to strengthen my resolve to keep praying and to keep expecting God to answer my prayers.

Does God always answer prayers? Well, he certainly does not always answer with a yes, but the purpose of prayer, in part, is to help draw us into a closer relationship with the Lord. I’m not sure where you are in your relationship with the Lord, or whether you would even say that you have one. But I can assure you he is real. And if you don’t know him, I would encourage you to trust in him today.

Trusting him is indeed the first step, for at first, God may seem like a stranger knocking at your door, waiting to come in. A stranger you do not know, but once you open the door and allow God into your life, you will find out that he is good and only wants your best.

Our ability to know God is based on what Jesus did on the cross.

The Bible says,

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Jesus died on the cross to take our payment for sin. He wasn’t forced to do this, but laid his life down voluntarily.

Jesus said, concerning his life,

“No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” (See John 10:18)

It was his love for you and me that put him on the cross.

In another passage, the Bible says,

“But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

The death of Christ was a “big deal” and we need to trust Jesus from our heart in order to be saved. There is no one else who can save us.

Jesus said,

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.” (See John 14:6)

Jesus also said,

“Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” (John 5:24)

Have you passed from (spiritual) death to (spiritual) life? You have if you have put your trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. He is the one who bore our sins on the cross. He died, and then he rose again the third day, which demonstrates his power over the grave.

Think about it. God’s love for you is so great, that Jesus died for you on the cross. This is something that is hard to fathom. What penalty did he bear? The Bible says,

For the wages (or penalty) of sin is (eternal) death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

The free gift God offers us is to first escape the penalty of sin (eternal death) and exchange that for eternal life (also known as “the exchanged life” — in exchange for his death, we receive forgiveness and eternal life). How good is that?

Receiving forgiveness means accepting that we need it. The Bible puts it this way:

“for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

In humility, we are to accept the fact that we have fallen short of God’s perfect standards. Our sin problem separates from God. But Jesus wills to bring us into a relationship with God. We are brought into a right relationship with God by receiving Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour.

The Bible says,

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name. (John 1:12)

Receiving Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior is the start of a beautiful, eternal, relationship with the one who died for you.

Provision

While the first miracle has to do with God’s desire to protect, the second has to do with his desire to provide. One day, my wife and I decided to take our children to a Wendy’s restaurant. As we parked in front of the restaurant, the Lord clearly spoke but not audibly, and told me find somewhere else to eat. Why would he do this?

I needed to be sensitive, and I clearly heard him telling me to find some other place, and not the Wendy’s. He had another plan. But what was it? I needed to walk by faith and so that is what I did.

I asked my wife, “Where else can we eat?”

She said, “There is a food court in the shopping centre.”

The shopping center was to our right. We got out of the car and walked there. While we were walking towards the food court, and after my wife and children had entered into the food court to buy some food, the Lord spoke to me and told me to turn around and walk back several paces.

I walked back several paces, and the Lord first told me to walk slowly, and then he told me to stop precisely at a certain spot. I then waited and did not move — since that was exactly where the Lord told me to stop. I was very careful to stop right at the spot he told me.

Being sure to remain at that precise location that the Lord had told me to stop at, being in the hallway of this shopping center, I gazed into the distance, clear into a store, and saw a woman who was looking at clothing on a clothes rack. I recognized her. She was a friend of the family. It became obvious that this was why the Lord wanted me to stand there, at that exact location, so I immediately left that spot and went up to her.

Upon seeing me, she said, “Oh, I almost forgot! I have to write you a cheque!”

She then pulled out her cheque book, and wrote me a cheque for $1000. As she handed me the cheque, she said, “Use this to paint your house.”

To be sure you understand this correctly, neither my wife, nor I, had ever asked for money from this woman. We did, however, know her. Later, she gave us more money. Each time she gave us money, she told us to spend it on our house. We never asked her for any of it. I did not keep an accurate account of all of the money she gave us, but I figure it was between four and seven thousand dollars.

The $1500 Loss

On one occasion, this same woman told us to spend $1500 of the money she gave us on improvements to our kitchen. At that time, I felt burdened by some debt and spent it on debt repayment. I did not trust the Lord for those expenses. Instead, I spent the devoted money on something that was it not devoted towards.

In the course of time, a roofer came by telling me he could put a new roof on my house. I knew I needed a new roof, and the price seemed to be quite low. Without consulting anyone, I decided to accept his offer. That turned out to be a bad decision. This man asked me for exactly $1500 in down payment. So I gave it to him in cash. Then, he walked off with all my money.

The money was now gone.

I never saw the man again — or the money. I reflected on what had happened, and said to myself, “God gave me $1500 to spend on improvements for our kitchen, but I did not honor it. Now this man has taken $1500 away from me.”

I went to the police, but they could not help me. I went to the court, but they could not help me. No one wanted to deal with this thief, because the man was from Quebec and we were living in Ontario. Yet had I not betrayed a trust by failing to spend the money on what this woman had asked us to spend it on? I repented (indicating that I was sorry in my heart to the Lord).

If we do what the Lord says, we will enjoy peace. But if we fail to do what he says, we open ourselves up to the enemy.

Jesus said,

“The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

After that, I took $1500 out of my own money (not the gift money) and added the improvements to our kitchen. However, I never saw that missing $1500 again. It was a lesson learned.

Why Did God Do It?

Why did God direct us to eat at some other place beside the Wendy’s that day? I believe the answer is obvious. He wanted us to meet that woman, so we could receive the money from her. Why did God do it precisely in that way? Why not just let her contact us if she wanted to give us some money?

It probably would have been very hard for me to receive money from this woman had God not done what he did that day in leading me in the shopping mall. I might have doubted that God was really “in” it.

That might be one reason God did this — simply to let me know, “I have chosen this woman to give you some money, and I want you to be able to receive from her.”

On the other hand, we are invited into relationship with God. We were not created to be robots. So it should be expected that God would do things like this, as well, at least from time to time. Perhaps that is not your experience, however, even if you call yourself a Christian.

Yet in God’s word, he does promise to be close to us. One of my favorite verses is John 14:21, in which Jesus says that,

Whoever “has my commandments and keeps them, that person is [the] one who loves me.” And, the “one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.” (See John 14:21)

God’s Desire for Relationship

The Bible has a lot to say about God’s desire for relationship with people. Sometimes, we hold back and do our own thing and forget about God’s desire for relationship, and fellowship, and closeness with those whom he has created. Sin might creep in, and we end up doing the wrong things which pushes him away.

God is interested in relationship with people. How can this be accomplished? It can be accomplished by pulling ourselves away from those things which make us unclean. For the Lord says,

Therefore, “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18)

Being associated with unclean things is one reason why people do not sense God’s closeness. The presence of God will run from people who are unclean and he will not come close to them. Drinking, and fornicating, using God’s name as a curse word, stealing, and doing any of these types of things, will cause us to lose entirely the sense of God’s presence. And that is why people do not sense the presence of God. But if we will put these things away (meaning, if we repent), then God will come close. For God is a holy God.

God wants our good. He is gracious, loving, and kind. Jesus said,

“If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (See John 8:31-32)

The Lord has a great plan for your eternal life. His plan is both relationship with those whom he has created, and our ability to have meaningful, lasting, relationships with others whom he has created. And these others are our brothers and sisters in Christ, if we trust in him.

Jesus said,

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.” (See John 11:25)

In this passage, Jesus is talking about the fact that if we believe in him, we will one day be given a new body in which we will experience eternal life.

Jesus really is the life!

I point you to the God of the Bible, who seeks to be in relationship with those whom he has created. There is nothing greater than this. While the world is in turmoil because of many things, God is beckoning us to come to him.

In another passage, Jesus says,

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Can you hear him speaking to you? First, he calls us to trust him for our salvation. That’s the start. It is based on what he did for us on the cross. Second, he calls us to experience greater levels of joy, freedom, and relationship.

Long for God, for his goodness, and for relationship with him. If you do, you will be blessed. This relationship with God is called “fellowship” in the Bible. And in the Bible, John, who was one of the twelve disciples, wrote,

“That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” (1 John 1:3-4)

John knew was it was like to be in relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son of God. And you can enjoy that relationship, as well, if you will trust in him.

I have shown you a couple of miracles that happened to me, first, by way of protection, when I was driving on the road that day, when the freezing rain came down. Second, by way of provision, as God led me to that friend of ours, who helped us financially during a time of need.

What do these miracles show or demonstrate? I believe they demonstrate clearly that God is alive and well, and desires to have a relationship with anyone who will trust in him.

And of course, he is alive and well, and does desire to have a relationship with anyone who will trust in him. But many people are not seeking for him. Perhaps they have been disillusioned with what they have seen, but I can assure you my testimony is real, and God really is a good God who desires to have a true and genuine relationship with those whom he has created.

While I understand that what God did in my life, and continues to do in my life, is unique to my own particular situation, that is the point. God knows you personally, and seeks to meet you on a personal level. He invites you into relationship with himself, the living God. And this relationship is an eternal one. It begins today, at the point of exercising genuine heartfelt repentance and faith in him, and continues for all eternity —for whosoever wills to believe in him.

The question I think really is, will you come to him?

For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.” (Romans 10:11)