Praying for Miracles

God gives us many types of miracles. In all of them, God’s love and power are manifested and released through prayer.

1. Miracles

Many people who pray for healing don’t realize that God’s number one priority, by far, is the spiritual healing of our souls.  We see this in the healing of the paralytic in Mark 2:3-5:

They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.  Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him.  After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.  When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child your sins are forgiven.”

Jesus then followed by healing him physically.  That was great but is dramatically less important than the forgiveness of the paralytic’s sins.

A man was brought to one of our prayer meetings by his wife to be healed of drugs, pornography addiction, and other sins.  He looked at me with glassy eyes, clearly not wanting to be at the meeting.  After coming to many meetings, he resented being there. He didn’t believe in Jesus and felt totally lost.

Then it happened!  His eyes were opened and the “veil” was removed.  He saw Jesus for the first time as His Savior and healer.  He couldn’t get enough of Jesus and began reading the Bible and let the verses heal him and fill his voids.

The whole experience was incredible because, like the paralytic, once the spiritual aspect of his life had been healed, he was then healed of his addictions.  He had been out of work but then got a job and became a great employee.  He was going to lose his home but God’s miracle allowed him to keep it.

No matter where you are spiritually, God is bigger than your past and more powerful in His love and healing than anything you have done!  Make a decision to surrender your past, present, and future to Him.  You will never regret it!

2. Environmental Healing

There is a story from a church in the Midwest farm belt in an area that had a major problem: no rain.  The people were stressed and worried that their livelihood was going to be adversely affected.  The pastor asked everyone to get together on a Saturday morning at a local farm.  When they came together, before they began praying, the pastor told them to go home.  The people were shocked and upset.  What was going on?  Then the pastor spoke: “There was not a single person who brought an umbrella. Clearly, you do not believe that your prayers will bring rain.”  When they came back later, each person had an umbrella.  Rain did come soon after they prayed!  God is the God of everything around us.

3. Physical Healing

If anyone tells you they know the formula for healing, be very careful.  We know some things definitely.  When we sin and don’t confess it or don’t forgive, such things are clearly major blockages to healing.  However, God is God and we are not.  Even then, He can bring healing.  We also know that we need to pray in faith and be persistent, expecting God to act.  This is seen throughout Scripture and has been verified in my more than forty years of experience in ministry.

A man I saw in the hospital provides an example of someone who repented, had faith, and was healed.  His girlfriend called me and asked me to see him.  The man was totally paralyzed on the right side of his body. The doctor didn’t know why this was the case and believed that the man would never walk again.

I saw him and asked if he was Catholic.  He said yes but that he hadn’t been to church for thirty years.  I had a Rosary from the Holy Land in my pocket and asked him if he knew how to pray the Rosary.  His response was something I will never forget: “I don’t know how, but I want to learn!”

That openness and surrender to God’s love and the Blessed Mother’s intercession was critical.  I taught him how to say the Rosary and left it with him.  A few days later he was out of bed and shortly after that was totally healed!  God is so good!

4. Emotional Healing

We are to encourage one another when we are depressed and struggling.  Early in my life, I was very depressed over my actions and behavior.  I was sitting at Southern California Renewal Conference listening to the song, You Are Near.

Suddenly I saw my life flash in my mind, and I saw pictures of me praying over people, feeding the poor and evangelizing. Then I heard God say, “This is how I see you.”  I was healed at that point!

5. Family Healing

Three of the most important things to remember regarding prayer are these: “Don’t give up.  Don’t give up.  Don’t give up.”  This is especially true with family healing.

My family was in trouble.  My daughter was not speaking to her brother and my wife, and barely to me.  We persevered in prayer, and after years of pain and suffering, there was a breakthrough.  God healed us and is still healing us!

6. Miracles Through Intervention

One day, when I was at a meeting in a hotel, I decided to go to my room at the lunch break.  I almost never do that, but for some reason I decided to do so that day.  When I opened the door, the phone rang.  It was my friend in Paris who informed me that God told him to call me and reassure me that everything would be all right with my family.  I had just received bad news regarding one of my children that morning.  It was incredible!

A friend once related to me the story about when he was nine years old. He was walking on railroad tracks on a bridge at night and was in the middle of the bridge when he heard a voice that said, “Look behind you!”  He saw a train coming and held on to the side of the bridge as it raced past him.  God is so good!

7. Divine Encounters

When we pray, God can make incredible things happen.  I was at the church of the Miraculous Medal in Paris praying at a Communion rail when I heard a voice say to me, “I will give you the gift of poverty.”  I knew that it wasn’t my voice; I definitely would never say those words.  I rushed to the back of the church shaking.  I prayed fervently and told God that I would give Him everything.

I learned later that the “gift of poverty” was existential rather than financial: it meant putting Him first ahead of family, health, finances, job, desires and everything else in my life.  It was a critical point of growth in my life!

We are not alone.  God is with us.  We need to turn our lives completely over to Christ, ask for more faith, pray and praise God, ask for miracles, ask in His will to build His kingdom, and expect God to act!

After we pray, we should feel peace in our hearts.  Some miracles happen immediately, but most of them manifest themselves over time.  How many miracles did Jesus do in His time on earth?

John 21:25: There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.

Pray, expect, act, be thankful and see the world change right before your eyes!  Praise God now and forever!

Deacon Steve Greco is founder and president of Spirit Filled Hearts Ministry (www.spiritfilledhearts.org) and a permanent deacon of the Diocese of Orange, California.