HAVE YOU RECEIVED YOUR MIRACLE

Hello again my most dearly beloved. I pray all is going well with you. Here in the States, you can almost feel spring in the air. What a wonderful time of the year when all of nature seems to come alive. Even the bugs...yuck. Let's begin in prayer, shall we? Almighty God, creator of all things, both visible and invisible, we humbly bow before You. Praise Your most Holy Name for giving us life. As we look around this most extraordinary planet, and even into the blackness of night arrayed with such marvelous lights, we understand that the Creator is much more beautiful. We praise You for Your beauty, for Your wisdom, for Your might and for Your love. Praise be unto You for sending Your dear Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sins. Oh God, help us to fall deeply, and passionately in love with You. Let that hope and love spill over to all those we meet. May Your Glory cover the earth. May all men know that You are God. May we all know of Your Love. In Jesus name..AMEN.

I say this might be a short message, but as we all know by now, the Holy Spirit usually has different plans. Together, let's see what wonderful adventure He has in store for us today. The other night I was looking up into the night sky and was spellbound, as usual. The stars seem so numerous and clear here in the non-polluted mountains of North Carolina. Have you ever just gazed heavenward on a clear winter night and found yourself literally star struck? Just think, other than our planets, each star represents a sun in a galaxy far, far away. Did you know that some suns are so far away, that even at the speed of light, their light began it's travel towards us in the days of Abraham. Simply incredible !!

From my back porch, which I call my "crow's nest," along with the stars, I could also see a most beautiful crescent moon on the westward horizon. As I gazed, I could see clouds, which seemed to glow with their own energy, race across the moon's brightness. Now, I am about to say something which may cause you to think I am weird, but that's cool. I am sure we all have the strangest, but fascinating, thoughts at times. Anyway, as I watched the clouds, I said to myself and God, "If You, oh God, would cause those clouds to take shape, and form the words, 'I Love You,' I would kneel right here and be at Your every beck and call. I was looking for a miracle. Have you ever done that? But instead of celestial writing being formed, I heard God speak. I guess that is even a better miracle if you think about it.

God said, "Kenny, believers walk in the miraculous, it's called blessing and fulfillment of My promises to you. Unbelievers are always looking for a sign, you are not such a person." He then began to bring into my spirit, a flood of miracles which have already touched, and continue to touch, my life. Father God raised up the gospel of Jesus unto me and gave me ears to hear. Ears to hear how much God loves me. So much, that He offered His Son, Jesus, to bear the penalty of my sins. The Word says that if I believe in my heart and confess with my lips that Jesus is my Lord then a miracle of epic proportions will take place. I will be born again. Even Nicodemus asked, "How can a person be born again?" But I chose to believe what God said, so now I have been born from above. God is now my Father and I can communicate with Him spirit to Spirit.

Let's go to the Word so we can see for ourselves this most wonderful event. Romans 10:9-13 is a good place to start. This verse is especially enlightening to Jew, Muslim and gentile alike.8 So what exactly was Moses saying? The word that saves is right here, as near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest. It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. 9 Say the welcoming word to God—"Jesus is my Master"—embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. 10 With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!" 11 Scripture reassures us, "No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it." 12 It's exactly the same no matter what a person's religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. 13 "Everyone who calls, 'Help, God!' gets help."

Romans 10:8-13 (MSG)

Nicodemus had a problem with something so simple as believing. Turn to John 3:1-22 with me if you please.

1 There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. 2 Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it." 3 Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom." 4 "How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?" 5 Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind hovering over the water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. 6 When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit. 7 "So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above'—out of this world, so to speak. 8 You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God." 9 Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?" 10 Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? 11 Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. 12 If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God? 13 "No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. 14 In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up— 15 and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life. 16 "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. 17 God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. 18 Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. 19 "This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. 20 Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. 21 But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."

John 3:1-21 (MSG)

I can almost hear you now..."Brother Ken, We thought you said this was going to be a short one!" I just can't help it my precious ones. The Holy Spirit blows where He wants to go. How can I dare tame Him? But it's all good. After we are born from above by believing, we then can talk to God one on One. Can you believe it? John 10:27 says, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." As a child of God we try not to sin, but did you know when we do, we confess our sin..repent and can receive forgiveness? Now that's good news. We find that wonderful promise in I John 1:9. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." We see this glorious news again in Psalms 103:11-12. "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." Now that's worth shouting about !!

The list of miracles, that the person born from above is privy to, is endless. Do you have time for just a few more? God cut another covenant with His Son and we are participants. The Word says that it is even more glorious than the first and full of better promises. Upon Jesus was laid the curse so we are redeemed even from that. Our sickness and disease was place upon Him so by His stripes we are healed. Jesus even went to hell so we wouldn't have to. Our names are written in the Lambs Book of Life and we will live eternally with Him. The Word is alive and able to renew our minds and transform us into the image of Jesus. God's very love and nature has been imparted to us. We have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit Who teaches us, directs us and empowers us.

So, with all these miracles which have already taken place in my life, by faith, I am able to say NOW, "Oh God, I bow before You and I am at Your beck and call !" I have received my miracle....how about you?