Seven years ago, I wrote the blog below. As I reviewed it, I wondered what, if anything, I have learned since that writing….
June 27, 2012:
It was a few months ago when the Spirit spoke directly in one of our prayer meetings. He said: “…I am teaching you to ask for the miraculous…” and I have been meditating on it ever since. In the School of Miraculous Asking I am probably still in first grade, but I am thankful to be enrolled!
One thing I have learned about things of the Spirit, the older I get, the less I really know.
Sure, life’s experiences have been rich and educational, offering much to draw on, but there is always another facet of Truth that opens a new vista of certainty to explore and learn. Thus, here is my elementary foundation in learning to ask for the miraculous.
It’s called when zero is zero.
What can be more miraculous than true salvation? Nothing really! In a genuine born-again salvation experience the weight of sin is gone and life takes an about-face… instantly; old things have passed away and all things become new (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17). That is a miracle.
And in that miracle what was the backcloth in asking? Destituteness. When I asked for my salvation miracle I was so lacking, so impoverished, so destitute in my spirit, there was nothing left for me to personally look to or draw from. I was at rock bottom, when zero is zero and where there is nothing left. No “rainy day” fund, no secret stash, no cookie jar to break—there was nothing left. Now, 31 years later, I understand that feeling as foundational in asking for the miraculous.
In asking for miracles there can be no plan B, no hidden coffer to pull from, no fallback strategy; either the Lord answers the prayer, or it doesn’t happen.
It is simply practicing Matthew 5:3,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The word poor “…is very graphic and appropriate here, as denoting the utter spiritual destitution, the consciousness of which precedes the entrance into the kingdom of God, and which cannot be relieved by one’s own efforts, but only by the free mercy of God” (Vincent).
Thus, I ask,
knowing that zero is zero to my efforts,
but that my zero is infinity to Him.
July 23, 2019:
What I have learned since that writing:
The drawing of my zero is circled by the pen of His faithfulness and with the ink of His inspiration.
My “utter spiritual destitution” is matched with His “utter spiritual riches.” Then together, by His mercy, the miraculous happens. And it happens for His glory.
Wow!
Just maybe, after seven years, I have finally graduated to the second grade in the School of Miraculous Asking.
Rather,
just maybe, I graduated to kindergarten in being more like a child with my faith.
