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n case you have read Life Signatures for a while, you will have realized that I have made what I consider to be very controversial statements as far as God and miracles are concerned.

• I have emphatically said that God is more of a goal-setter than a miracle worker
• I have said that miracles are not the universal method through which we pursue and accomplish our goals
• I have even asked people to ignore their pastors or prophets on new year’s eve messages
• I have echoed controversially what my mentor normally questions: Is God really in charge? Is God in control?
• I have championed and argued that God himself has put systems in place that He subscribes to and honors in order to advance us to the next level

I can go on and on and on but I think by now you get the message. So why am I talking about this today? Well, there will always be a place for miracles in the pursuit of purpose. I heard the visionary TD Jakes say one day that in Africa, people experience miracles daily. When we zero down onto the purpose that God created you to do, there will always be a place for you to need a miracle or two.

What’s the Message?

Now, please note that I am not writing a contradictory message here. The message remains the same: Miracle works are not the predominant method that God uses to help us advance. He never instituted that to be the system for growth, development and progression. Miracles are needed in situations that are dire that need the intervention of the Divine.

• Who does not need a miracle when you are in debt and your very children will be taken into slavery if you never paid up?
• Who does not need a miracle when a loved one is terminally ill and only a miracle could save them?
• Who does not need a miracle when you cannot feed your family and are facing eviction?
• Who does not need a miracle when you have a heartfelt idea that you must bring to the fore and you are stuck in all aspects?

The common denominator in all miracles is the desperation that is brought about by a dire circumstance. IN other words, the miracle once it takes place, it is supposed to restore you to a form or a level in which the naturally ordained process of growth, development and progression takes place. God give you a miracle to deliver you and put you back in a position to operate naturally.

Where Miracles Would Have Made Sense

The point is that God did not ordain miracles to be the predominant way in which we grow and advance in life. A quick study will put this into perspective.

• Joseph did not deliver through a miracle: Perhaps the greatest goal setter (human) in the Bible was Joseph. The miracle was in knowing the dreams and interpreting them (7 years of abundance followed by 7 years of adversity). The deliverance though was not a miracle. It was use of wisdom, common sense, planning, management and strategic vision. These are the things that we need to compliment our prayer lives. What say you?
• David did not kill Goliath through a miracle: Well, I have heard very many preachers saying that God got a hold of David’s stone in the sling and directed it as a missile to sink into Goliath’s head. Well a brief read about David tells you that he was in the habit of killing crazy things such as lions and bears single handedly. Killing Goliath was not a miracle, it was the revelation of someone who was gifted to the world. He was already a skilled killer.
• Jesus Christ’s ultimate price for deliverance of humanity was not a miracle, although his ascension back to Heaven was. If you look at it carefully, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and the preceding suffering was no miracle at all. It was a natural process of obedience to the laws that had been instituted by God (this is deep and will need a sermon to derive).
• The preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, his ultimate mandate for his people is not a miracle more than it is a process that has to be followed. And this is perhaps the most important thing on God’s agenda today. How come He is not doing it miraculously? How come a preacher has to prepare, pray, pay the price and preach without knowing what will come out of his message?

Clearly, seeking of miracles as the predominant way of developing and growing from one level to another is not the way God structured life to be.

However, there comes a time in your pursuit of life that you will definitely need a miracle for the following reasons:

1. Purpose that comes from God is necessarily humanly impossible. The point is that when you get locked into what God wants to do through you to impact the world, there is absolutely no way that you could do it alone
2. The purpose for purpose is to glorify God. Now what that means is that God is acknowledged as the Supreme Being, the Supreme Source of benevolence through Him assigning us our purpose in life. Whenever purpose is fulfilled, if you check it out carefully, God always gets the credit. That is the way He has structured it, not because He is needy but because He is God and we are mortals.
3. God has the final say in everything. We can debate about it until we start living on Mars, but the point is that there is no one who has the final say over any life (both physical and eternal) the way God does. It is within this realm of total absolute eternal certainty that God prescribes our purpose on earth to fit in this overall plan. We cannot even begin to think about all this. We might not even have the brain capacity to fathom this.
4. However, the miracles that come on the way of purpose are not arbitrary. They are not without our input. Perhaps, praying is not all we can do. For example the woman in the Bible whom “God had shut her womb” after pouring out her heart to God, went back home and had intimacy with the husband. That is how she got pregnant. Even in the activation of miracles in our purpose pursuit, we will need to “give God something to work with”.

Following the process leads to miracles, not the other way round. Miracles in themselves require an input from us. I will leave you with this story that I have shared several times. This time round, I found it from Marcia Weirder’s book “Dream” as she explains it herself.

“I was speaking at a church near Portland, Oregon, when I met Wilson. A tall, bright-eyed eighteen-year-old, he confided in me that he was a Masai warrior from Kenya, Africa, and this was his first time away from his tribe. I asked what he was doing in Oregon and he told me this tale:

“When I was young, I became ill and my mother took me to a medical clinic. From that day forward, my dream was to become a doctor. But it was impossible since there was no training available and no one ever left the tribe. It just wasn’t done. “As I grew up, I shared my dream with anyone who would listen. Everyone, including my own family, told me it was a fantasy and to forget about it. But I never did. Recently, a writer came from your country to visit my tribe. He interviewed me and published my story. Perhaps you know the paper, The Washington Post?”

I smiled and nodded. He continued, “A couple from Portland read my story and within a matter of weeks I was invited to apply for undergraduate work at the University of Portland. A few months later, I was accepted.” I took a deep breath and said, “That’s extraordinary. You must have been so happy.”  His response startled me.

“Actually, it was one of the most painful days of my life. My family didn’t have the money or any other resources to send me off to America on what they considered to be a whim. I knew there was only one thing to do. I prayed for a miracle. And Marcia,” he paused, “that’s what I got. Four families each came forward to generously extend their hearts and hands. Each agreed to house me, to feed me, to buy my books, and to be my family while I was so far from home.”

I swallowed hard as my eyes welled up. But what he said next rocked my world.  “After hearing you speak so passionately about dreams, I now know what I must do. I must become a doctor, of course; that is my dream. But then I must return to my village as an example that no dream is impossible and that extraordinary things can happen when we gather together as a tribe.””