Although I have never personally seen the dead raised or a crippled man get out of a wheelchair, I think what I experienced this weekend was an even greater miracle.

When you read about the life of Jesus you can see that everywhere He went, He brought life. However, even the people that got to see His miracles and had devoted their lives to His service, were prone to fall into fear and begin to doubt. We see in Matthew 11 that one of the greatest and most powerful prophets of God, John the Baptist, found himself in a place of unexpected hardship and started questioning. Jesus didn’t go and fix his situation. Instead, He sent word to him that would remind him of the authority that Jesus possessed. He said go tell John, “The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

I find myself at times getting full of doubt and fear just like everyone else and this past weekend in Albuquerque I received the same kind of encouragement that John needed. I was reminded of how God is the one that continues to do these miracles of healing and he is continuing to invite me into partnership with him. Friday I saw a marriage that was hanging on by a thread get supernaturally jump started. A couple I love was in a place of despair but they knew that quitting wasn’t a real option so they needed a reminder of how to get up again and allow hope to be restored. I was so encouraged to see the shift as it went from talking about the problem to using the power of the Spirit to speak the Word over each other. This was more powerful and encouraging to me than seeing a lame man walk again.

Sunday we had our outreach service and I began to tell a bit of the story of this couple to illustrate an entirely different point but following the service a couple came up to me with their young daughter and with tears in their eyes said, “The story you told about that couple was for us, and we are in that place and we now know what to do” Hope is contagious!

Later that night I had dinner with another set of friends who divorced long ago and have had a long hard road that has left each of them wounded. For 4 hours I listened and watched as two people that have reasons to hate each other chose to show humility and love to one another. I don’t know for sure what this couple will do about their marriage but when faith, hope, and love are injected into any situation, life is inevitable! Regardless of their living arrangements, the most powerful thing they will ever do for their child is to love each other. If you ask me if I believe, I have to say, “Jesus is still resurrecting the dead and replacing fear with love! “