While every serious believer is open to God’s love, power and grace, some seem to experience nonstop miracles in their lives while others never see nor experience them. I think we all want this deeper connection with God, so let me offer you five keys to experiencing miracles: surrender, request faith, fervent prayer, ask for miracles and forgive.
- Surrender
We must give our lives completely to Jesus. In the Book of Revelation to the Church of Laodicea, we are told:
I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot… So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth (Revelation 3:15-16).
When we surrender, we put Jesus first in all that we do.
But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides (Matthew 6:33).
Put God first and it is the beginning of opening your heart to miracles.
- Request Faith. When we ask for faith, we will get it. We see this not only in Luke’s Gospel when we are instructed to ask, seek and receive (Luke 11:9-13), but throughout the New Testament. When we receive the faith for which we ask, we can move mountains.
If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you (Matthew 17:20).
Faith changes things. Most people who pray doubt that anything miraculous will happen.
- Fervent Prayer. The most important prayer we can ever make is fervent prayer, becoming one with God through prayer.
Fervent prayer reaches within our hearts to experience God so that we can unite with God through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Fervent prayer is praying with God not just with our human intellect, but in our hearts. The most difficult journey is 18 inches from our heads to our hearts.
When we pray fervently with our hearts, our hopes turn into realities. It matters not the length or kind of prayer, but only that we pray with a fervent love of God, desiring only to be one with Him.
The thief on the cross and the centurion are two great examples of miracles occurring through fervent prayer. The Letter of James reminds us:
The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful (James 5:16).
- Ask For Miracles. We know that we must ask to receive and to seek in order to find. As James also admonishes us:
You do not possess because you do not ask. You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions (James 4:2b-3).
By asking for God’s intervention in our lives each day, we are asking for miracles.
- Forgive. I have been praying for healing in the name of Jesus for more than 40 years. The fervent prayers of those who open their hearts to ask for miracles in faith are answered in the way that Jesus wants to heal them.
Besides lack of faith, the single biggest obstacle to answered prayer is lack of forgiveness. Mark’s Gospel clearly instructs us:
When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive your transgressions (Mark 11:25).
As Mark indicates, it is essential that we seek forgiveness for our sins —including our own lack of forgiveness — in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Thus forgiven, we enhance our ability to be open to miracles.
