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. I invite you to chime in on this, and please feel free to contact me at https://revivalfire.ca/contact/ (through the contact form) if you have any questions about these miracles, and I will do my best to get back to you. 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 were more than 400 accidents that morning. It came suddenly, within less than a 15-minute window of time (because when I had started driving on the road, there had been no freezing rain, and it was now less than 15 minutes later).

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 a mysterious protective barrier suddenly came between us. Was this an angelic force field? The two cars travelled along at identical speeds, separated by about a six inch 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. Can you fathom how incredible this was? It 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. Can you figure out why he might have performed this miracle that day? There is an interesting passage in the Bible that says to those who believe in God’s Messiah (who is Jesus Christ),

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

The Lord certainly demonstrated the power of that verse to me that day. God performs miracles for a reason, not only to demonstrate his power, but also to display his intimacy, which helps to build relationship and confidence in him as caring heavenly Father. You can trust in him.

How Do I Experience Intimacy With God?

How about you? Has God shown himself to be intimate with you? If not, I encourage you to find out why. Something must be getting in the way. First, do you know him?

Knowing him is indeed the first step, for at first, God may seem like a stranger knocking at your front door, waiting to come in. A stranger you do not know, but once you open the door to your life, and allow God into your heart, you will find out he is a good God and only wants your best. Letting him into your heart means he will no longer be a stranger to you. You will know him. But how well do you know him and how well do you want to get to know him? These are important questions.

His intimacy is amazing, and it is all based on what Jesus did in dying for you 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, KJV)

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

So it was love that put him on the cross, not nails. 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, only Jesus. 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. If we choose not to receive the free gift which God offers us, then we are abiding in death. It may not feel like death right now, but wait until you die. It will certainly feel like death then. That is not a good thing. We will perish (eternally in hell) if that is the case, and John 3:16, quoted earlier, does mention this. It mentions the word “perish” which means losing your soul (in hell). You do not want that. Jesus said,

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36, KJV)

Therefore, you do not want to forget about God. Your soul is eternal, and only Jesus has the power to save you from hell and give you eternal life, because only Jesus died and rose again, demonstrating his power over sin and death. Jesus conquered death, when he rose again. Forever more, all who trust in Christ can now say,

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55, KJV)

For they shall rise again at the resurrection of the righteous. This is a promise of God, because Jesus said,

“This is the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40)

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. God is glorious, and wants to develop an intimate relationship with you. Think of the alternative — bearing your own sin, a punishment which is too great for you to bear! It is not God’s will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (see 2 Peter 3:9). Therefore, trust in Jesus today.

If you already have a relationship with God, God desires to get closer to you, day by day. If you have already trusted in him, but your love has grown cold, or you do not feel that sense of intimacy with him, what barrier has gotten in the way? Are there fears, doubts or insecurities that you have that you want to share with God? Open up your heart and let him know what is on your mind. For more encouragement still, I invite you to watch my video, “Hand sanitizer dream,” in which God spoke to me one morning about my own need to wash my hands (in a spiritual sense), and draw close to him. You can find that at https://youtu.be/YVszrVCx-S8. It will encourage you!

Provision

While the first miracle that I shared has to do with God’s desire to protect us, the second has to do with his desire to provide for us. One day, my wife and I decided to take our children out to a restaurant (Wendy’s, which you may have heard of). As we parked in front of the Wendy’s restaurant, I heard the Lord speak to me, and tell me to find somewhere else to eat. Why had he not told me earlier? Well, probably because the place where he wanted us to go was right next door!

God did not tell me where to eat. He only told me to eat somewhere else. So I asked my wife, and said, “Honey, where else could we eat?” She said, “Well, there is a food court in the shopping centre.” Now the shopping center was immediately to our right. So we got out of the car and walked there. For the sake of brevity, I will not share with you all of the details, because I have written these elsewhere. But I will tell you that 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 hope you are getting the picture now. The Lord allowed us to drive to the Wendy’s, and probably even put the desire to go to Wendy’s on my heart, because he wanted us to be right next to where the Wendy’s was. You will see what happened next.

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, because that is exactly where the Lord told me to stop. I did not want to lose the blessing, so I was very careful to stop right there.

From my vantage point, I was able to see into one of the stores in the distance. I saw a woman who was looking at clothing on a clothes rack. I recognized her! She was a friend of the family. I knew this was why the Lord wanted me to stand there, so I 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, still. 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 (it was between 4 and 7 thousand dollars).

On one occasion, she told me to spend $1500 of it on our kitchen. At that time I felt burdened by some debt and foolishly decided to spend it on debt repayment. That was wrong! I did not trust the Lord for those expenses. Instead, I spent the devoted money on something that was not devoted. 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 else at all, I decided to accept his offer. That turned out to be a bad decision. This man asked me for exactly $1500 in downpayment. So I gave it to him in cash. Then, he walked off with all my money.

Gone! I never saw the man again — or the money. I thought to myself, “God gave me $1500 to spend on my 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 I was living in Ontario. Yet had I not robbed God by failing to spend the money on what he wanted me to spend it on? Therefore, I too had been a thief. I repented, and told the Lord I was sorry. I had made a big mistake.

If we do what the Lord says, we will enjoy peace. But if we fail to do what he says, we will 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 repaired my kitchen. However, I never saw that missing $1500 ever again. It was a lesson learned.

Why Did God Do It?

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. 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, God simply loves to be intimate with his people. We were not created to be robots. We were created for intimacy. So it should be expected that God would do things like this, as well. For he is an intimate, caring, God.

The Bible has a lot to say about God’s desire to be intimate with his children. Sometimes, we hold back and do our own thing and forget about God’s desire to be intimate. Sin might also creep in, and we end up spending money in the wrong way. In some cases, we would rather watch an unclean movie, engage in unclean acts, speak unclean words, or engage in unclean partying or unclean drinking. However, God wants our heart. He is truly interested in having a loving, intimate, relationship with his people. And that is why we read in God’s word (the Bible) the following words:

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)

Could this possibly be one reason why you may not be sensing God’s closeness? If so, then it means you may be engaged in something that is not pure or holy. Could it be doubt? Fear? Anger? Bitterness? Jealously? Disobedience? 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, ultimately, is intimacy, and it is life. 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 you believe in him, you will one day be given a new body in which you will experience incredible, eternal, intimate, life. Jesus really is the life! I point you to the God of the Bible, who seeks to be intimate with his children. There is nothing greater than God’s intimacy. While the world is in turmoil because of many things, God is beckoning us all, “Come close to me, and I will bless you.”

Are you in need? Are there any fears in your life? God wants to be intimate with you. Share with him your deepest troubles, because he cares for you. Jesus said,

“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 intimacy.

Long for God, for his goodness, and for his intimacy. If you do, you will definitely be on the right track. Keep it biblical — keep it according to God’s word (the Bible).

While life on this earth has plenty of challenges, and is temporary (prior to the resurrection), in the end you will live forever in a new (resurrected) body, which can never die or suffer again. That’s the promise for all those who truly love Jesus.

Are you lacking peace or assurance? You will find that life will roll along much smoother when you are properly aligned with him. Cast all your cares upon him, for he cares for you (see 1 Peter 5:7). Are you tempted, discouraged, downcast? The Lord wants to lift you up. Are you unfulfilled? He wants to fulfill you. The Bible puts it this way:

… delight yourself in Yahweh, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

For some, like the apostles Peter and Paul, this may mean hardship and sacrifice. For others, like king David or Samson, it may mean battles and victories. Whatever it means, God has a destiny for your life.

This destiny is eternally wonderful if you will commit your life to Christ. I encourage you to do that, for whoever trusts in him, as the Scripture has said, will not be disappointed (see Romans 10:11).