Why Jesus Did Miracles

 

 

 

by Ester Wiens

A Conversation Recorded in Dec. 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus said in John 14:11 ”Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.”

I want to tell you a story about a miracle. Actually it was 2 miracles. In the Bible you hear about Jesus healing people in an instant and it happened. We think “Oh Wow!”, he did a few miracles, but if you really read the Bible, it says they brought all of their sick to Him and He healed them all. It’s like He must have healed thousands of people.

 

Matthew recorded in his gospel, Chapter 8 verse 16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.

 

Again Matthew recorded at 9:35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

 

And at Matthew 12:15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick,

 

And again at Matthew 14:36 and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

 

Mark recorded in his gospel, Chapter 6 verse 56 And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

 

And Luke recorded in his gospel, Chapter 4 verse 40 When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.

 

Again Luke recorded in Chapter 5 verse 15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.

 

Why do I tell this story? I tell it because, for the Christian, it rebuilds their faith. For the non-Christian they are faced with an eyewitness account reporting that God still does miracles. Jesus did miracles because He wanted them to see His power. They came to Him and believed in Him because of the miracles they could see. So that is why I tell this miracle story.

 

A lady named Hattie lived a number of years ago and Hattie was married. She had 2 children, a daughter 11 and a son that was 7. Hattie had some health issues that she had not dealt with. She finally went to the doctor and found out that she had terminal cancer and it had progressed so far there was nothing that could be done. This was in the 1940's so they didn't have chemo or radiation or a lot of things they have today.

 

After that news came to the family, there was a big cloud hanging over her house because of the cancer and she was also pregnant. The doctors were not sure if she would live to deliver the baby before she died, because there was nothing they could do at that point. So there was a huge ominous gray that hung over their house. Hattie’s church didn't pray for the sick. Hattie's mother had heard about a church in Seattle where they prayed for the sick and people were healed. Hattie was quite ill, but she got her husband to take her to church. At the end of the service they asked anybody to come forward who wanted to be prayed for. Hattie went forward and they prayed for her.

 

While they were praying for her, Hattie saw a vision. In this vision Jesus was walking by, He looked at her and said "My blood has yet to be shed for you." She said, "but Jesus I am a good person, I have gone to church my whole life." Jesus said "my blood has to be shed for your sins." And she said "I'm a sinner, I'm a sinner! Jesus come into my life!" She got it in an instant, like I think you do when you are in the presence of God.

 

She was so excited, she went home jubilant, just so excited, but she was still quite ill. In the morning she still could not get out of bed, but she believed that God could heal her. That night after her husband fixed dinner and sent the kids off to bed, he came into the bedroom and she said (she couldn't even figure out why she said this) “Go get me the newspaper.” So he went out of the room, got a newspaper brought it back and she laid it beside her on the bed. All of a sudden she felt this mass inside her start to come out. As the darkness came out and started rolling onto this newspaper, darkness filled the room. She could see it looked to her very black, but her husband couldn't see the darkness. Then she said “Take the newspaper out and put it in the furnace.” The room had turned dark, but as her husband carried that newspaper out the darkness left also and there was light in the bedroom. She praised God because she knew she had been healed. She was just praising God knowing what He had done; so much so that her children came running into the room to see what was going on.

 

She said, "I've been healed, I've been healed, I know I've been healed." In the next few days she went back to the doctor and she wanted to see the X-rays and wanted another X-ray taken. So they did another X-ray and she wanted to see the old X-ray and the new one next to each other. The doctor could not understand or explain why the cancer was gone. But she knew she had been healed and she was thrilled.

 

They were still quite concerned that the child might not be healthy. With the X-ray results, word got around the hospital staff and even to the doctors. There was a sense of secrecy concerning the healing of the woman in room XX and a lot of talk in the halls. On March 11, 19XX she had her baby girl and that I was that baby girl.

 

Those are the 2 miracles that God healed her and I was born, and born perfectly healthy.

 

God Healed Her, The Reasons

I think the reason that God healed her was because she was always faithful about telling people. If you sat next to her on the bus or the train or any other place she would tell you that story. She was very, very faithful in Glorifying God. My mom had such a relationship with God that she would be driving down the street and God would tell her that she should go see those people in that house. Maybe she wouldn't do it the first time or the second time, but eventually in the next week or so she would go back to that house.

 

Sure enough, one time the husband had lost his job, the electricity had been turned off, they needed help and my mom was able to help them.  Another time people had very little food left to eat and she brought food for them. Another time a family had been visited by Jehovah’s Witnesses and they had prayed to God to send them somebody who would help them know the truth, that is, if they should believe this or not. My mom came to help them in the midst of the confusion brought by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Another time it was an old couple, he had Parkinson’s disease, the wife needed help to understand God, and so my mom spent time with them explaining the Bible. Actually, she spent years with them; they were eager to know about God.

 

Her whole life after that was incredible. I could tell you many, many stories where mom took people into her house or brought food, but God would always tell her first, she would always know that He had something for her to do. It was not on her own initiative.  She used to go down to the rescue mission in Seattle and she would drag me along in my little pink dress and I would sing and she would tell her story. She would go to elder care homes and she would bring me along and I would sing and she would tell the story. I was probably 7 or 8. You are really cute when you're little.

 

I remember when we went to the elder care home she would always say "Oh, I hope that I never wind up being in one of these places.” A lot of the people were strapped to their wheel chair and drooling out of the side of their mouth. I know that she always feared that it would happen to her. But God was very faithful to her even in death. She wasn't really sick, she was thinking about getting a pacemaker, but God just took her in her sleep. She never had a day in the hospital and I’m sure that she never looked back to say she never got a chance to say goodbye to us kids. I think that once she saw Jesus she said "I'm out of here." She loved God so much.

 

Some of my best memories of mom were of her sitting at the table and she would be reading her Bible and she would say "Oh, Ester come over here just look at this scripture." Then she would read it to me and she would be so excited about it. She was just a very faithful servant that God used in many, many ways.

 

Good Enough – What More Do You Want?

My mother, before she was healed, had been raised in a Dutch Reformed church. They lived in a little Dutch Reformed community. She had no idea about anything to do with having a relationship with Jesus Christ. When Jesus said ”My blood has yet to be shed for you.”, that is why she said I have been a good person, I have gone to church, like “What more do you want?” That was because she didn’t understand about a relationship with Jesus Christ. Of course this did cause a little bit of conflict in the family. Mark in his gospel at Chapter 3 verse 21 says When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind." and in the gospel of Luke, at chapter 12 verse 52, Jesus says “From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.“ My mom and dad left the Dutch Reformed church and it was very hard for the rest of the family to leave the church.

 

More Of The Story

There is a little more to the story and I hesitate to tell this part of the story because I think in some circles I am not sure this is always accepted. So many people want to believe that God is wonderful, but let’s not talk too much about Satan. If you read the whole Bible there is a lot about Satan. You can't just pick and choose the things you want to believe. When my mom knew she was healed and she was praising God in her bedroom and her 2 kids came running into the room she saw the form of Satan at the window of the bedroom. He was laughing and he said "You are not healed." He was taunting her. She responded saying "Yes I am." She had accidentally taken a song book home from that little church she was healed at and she picked it up and threw it at the window, but it actually hit the wall. She saw Satan ran down the street and she could see that he was running away. What is interesting is the following. I had heard that story many times, but I didn't realize until after she died [when I was 30] that my brother and sister also saw Satan at the window. They also saw Satan run down the street and around the Johnson's house. They actually saw that.

After my mom was healed, Satan would come and taunt my brother. He (Satan) would come in the room and he would chew paper, my brother could hear him. My mom would have to go in that room and she would have to rebuke the devil. I also experienced some of that. I would just feel this ugly presence in the room as a child and I would scream for my mom. My mom would come in and pray. Finally, it happened enough that she took me to church and the Elder’s prayed over me and it never happened again.

 

Understanding The Healing POWER

The power my mom knew that revealed things to her about the neighbor’s needs or the POWER to pray over people concerning the destructive work of the devil, that POWER was in the Holy Spirit.  See, when you ask God to come into your life, the spirit of God comes in, that is the Holy Spirit.

 

 Remember the night before Jesus died he told his disciples that he was going away and was going to die soon, they were afraid.  So to comfort them, Jesus say's, I do not leave you as orphans.  When I go away to heaven, I will ask my Father to send you another COUNSELOR just like me.  He is the SPIRIT OF TRUTH and He will replace me, he will live in you forever.  He will be your GUIDE when you need help figuring out life.  He will TEACH all things about life that you need to know.   HE will REMIND you of everything I have said here on earth.

 

That Holy Spirit that works within you is the same as Christ teaching his disciples. He had 3 years with them. The Holy Spirit lives in us for our lifetime. It is the POWER source you need to forgive someone you are so angry at that you can't forgive them on your own.  He reminds you of scripture when you’re often tempted to say or do things that you really know are wrong.  God speaks to you through the Holy Spirit, giving you answers to the issues in our lives.   It's the Holy Spirit that helps the Bible come alive as you read it and God speaks to you through it.  Jesus was the teacher, counselor and guide to his disciples, that is why he said I do not leave you as orphans.  I will send the Holy Spirit to you to live in you.  HE (the Holy Spirit) is our power source.  Many people, even Christians, do not know he lives in them, they have never been told of this awesome power source within them.  My mom knew that power.  God spoke to her often.

 

I also know that power source.  He is like "sitting on my shoulder" guiding me through life and teaching me.  He has often softened my heart toward others that have hurt me and I am able to forgive them, or guided me to make right decisions and to love people that I would not be able to love on my own.  That Holy Spirit reveals God's purpose and plan to me just like he did to my mom.

 

Jesus is talking to his disciples when He says: [John 14:16] And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another COUNSELOR, to be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth. The world can not accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.   Then in Verse 18, I will not leave you as orphans.  And Jesus continues in verse 24, All this I have spoken while I am still with you.  But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will TEACH you all things and will REMIND you of everything I have said to you. (emphasis added)

 

In John 16:13 Jesus was saying “....But when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, he will GUIDE you into all truth.”

 

In the book of Acts 1:1 Luke says “.... I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven.”

 

And Luke in Acts 1:8 recorded what Jesus said “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.”

 

Saint Peter says in Acts 2:33 “He (the Christ – Jesus) has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you know see and hear.” In verses 38-39 Saint Peter continues with, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of YOUR sins. and YOU will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for ALL who are far off—for ALL whom the Lord our God will call.” (emphasis added)