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This morning you are listening to a preacher that is completely convinced that God has done great miracles throughout the history of this world. I believe the scriptures are real, infallible, and absolute truth. I believe that God's Word will never change and that it is the ultimate revelation of God to His people. If God said it in His Word, then no matter how farfetched it may seem, I believe it has happened or will happen when we obey the conditions of His promise. Almost every promise of God is dependent upon a condition: if you will you do your part, then God will do His!

Every person in scripture that God has ever responded to God in faith has seen or performed miracles. I would like to begin today by pointing out some of the great things seen and performed by the men and women of faith of yesteryear.

God caused animals to file calmly into an Ark that Noah had built after Noah had preached His Word. God caused fire to consume Abraham's sacrifice and caused him and his 90 year old wife to be able to have a baby! Fire rained down upon the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah which destroyed them in one day! He appeared to Moses in a burning bush 80 years after He had guided his infant body down the river Nile into Pharaoh's palace! To convince Moses that He was with him, God caused Moses' rod to turn into a serpent and then back to a rod again. He turned Moses' hand leperous and then made it whole again. He used Moses to bring 10 severe plagues upon Egypt such as turning the river into blood and then when Moses and the Israelites were up against the Red Sea with mountains on both sides and the Egyptian army behind them, God parted the Red Sea and allowed the Israelites to cross between the rolled up waters on dry ground. When the Egyptian army tried to follow, the waters collapsed on them drowning every one.

I've heard some people who call themselves "theologians" propose some farfetched theories to explain this miracle. One guy told me: "well see, at that time of the year that part of the Red Sea just gets real shallow and the Israelites waded across." Do you know what my reply was? "Hallelujah, what a miracle then!" He said "what?" I said, "Hallelujah, it was even a greater miracle than I thought, because if the Israelites waded across through shallow water, then that means that God drowned the entire Egyptian army in that low place!" The scripture clearly says that God parted the waters and that they walked across on dry ground. It goes against nature and physics. It goes against human logic. That's why it was a miracle! A miracle of God is when God steps in and performs something that man can't do and has no explanation for. It doesn't matter if you can explain it or not. If you limit what you believe to what you can explain then you are not going to believe much. I can't explain all of God's ways, but I believe in Him. I can't explain to you exactly how a computer works but I use one every day. I can't explain the miracle of childbirth when a baby goes from being encased in a water sac to suddenly breathing on it's own, but as I look around, I can see that it has happened in the past! Get your doubt far away from here today: God can do miracles and they are not dependent upon your understanding or logic!

Moses saw a ton of miracles: He saw water flowing from rocks and manna fall from heaven. He saw the earth open up and swallow Korah and his rebellious bunch. The miracles did not stop with him. Joshua saw the walls of Jericho fall after obedient praise of God's people! The Judges saw hailstones fall upon armies that were coming to destroy them. Gideon destroyed an entire army when God caused the soldiers to begin to attack each other. Samson felt the strength of God come upon him and tore a lion apart with his bare hands and lifted up the gates of a city which weighed thousands of pounds and carried them UP the hill. When the Philistines stole the ark of the covenant from God's temple, God struck entire villages with hemorrhoids at once! Then came David and the guiding of a shepherd boy's slung rock toward the only unprotected place on the Giant's body, his forehead. Then came Elijah who performed 7 miracles including raising the dead to life and calling fire down from heaven. His servant Elisha was blessed by God to have a double portion of his ministry. Elisha performed many miracles but died one short of double at a total of 13. A few years later, a man died and his friends accidentally dug up Elisha's grave while preparing to bury him. Some soldiers began to approach them and it scared them so much that they decided to forgo the memorial service and tossed the dead man's body in Elisha's grave. When the bones of Elisha met the dead man's body, the man came back to life! There's your 14th miracle! Why did God do it? Because God's Word CANNOT lie and God had promised Elisha a double portion of Elijah's miracles! God is bounds to His Word! If He has made a promise, then He will keep it!

I could spend the entire message telling you of miracles such as the axe head floating in the water and the three Hebrew children being thrown into the fiery furnace. I could tell of Daniel's stay in the "Lion's Club." I could tell you about a great fish that swallowed Jonah to give him a second chance. But I want to fast forward to the greatest miracle worker of all: Jesus Christ!

His birth was a miracle: the Holy Ghost overshadowed a virgin exactly 1,999 years ago and she conceived. Jesus burst upon the scene at 30 years of age by performing miracles. He turned the water into wine. He walked upon the water. He healed cripples, lepers, and issues of blood. He healed the blinded eyes, unstopped the deaf ears, and released the mute's tongue. He stilled the storm, raised Lazarus from the dead, and resurrected Jarius' daughter. In fact, every funeral that we find Jesus attending in scripture ended with a surprise ending with the dead person getting up! Jesus effortlessly cast every devil that He faced and fed four thousand men plus their families with just a few fish and loaves of bread and then did it again with five thousand men plus their families. He even paid Peter's taxes with a gold coin that came from a fish's mouth. He gave His disciples such a miraculous catch of fish that it broke the nets and almost caused the boat to sink!

This miracle worker faced death courageously. He died upon a cross for you and I and then was placed into a grave with a large stone. But this only set the stage for the greatest miracle of all: His resurrection! He got up from that grave with a glorified body and a promise of power to all who would follow Him! If Jesus would have stayed dead then we would just remember Him as a great prophet, but this prophet was more than just a man, He was God in flesh and when God mingles with flesh, there cannot help but have a miracle take place! Hebrews 13:8 says that Jesus Christ never changes and is the same yesterday, today, and forever! So Jesus Christ is still alive and Jesus Christ never changes! That means that Jesus is still in the miracle business today! God still performs miracles today!

People tend not to believe in miracles today because they have not seen much of them. The reason that we do not see miracles as much as we used to is not because God is limitation, but because of a dangerous doctrine of God being triune which causes confusion in people and hinders their faith. Believing in a trinity of persons in a Godhead always hampers a person's faith by confusion.

In our text, Jesus was teaching His disciples and was using terms such as "Father" and "Son:" Philip was confused and asked Jesus:

And Jesus answered him with truth so clear that it cannot be denied:

Jesus looked at him and said "Philip, have you been with me these many years and you haven't realized that I am the Father?" "If you have seen me you have seen the Father!" The Godhead is not hard to understand if you realize the truth of Jesus' words here. "Father" and "Son" are titles and not names. "Father" always refers to the invisible Spirit of God. "Son" always refers to the fleshly body that God became when Jesus was born of Mary. To redeem us, God had to come in flesh because a Spirit cannot be seen nor can it shed blood. Jesus Christ was Spirit within Flesh. That is why Jesus went on to say:

The "Father" was in the "Son." Spirit was in flesh. Jesus was God in flesh. Father and Son do not refer to two separate persons in a triune God because Jesus said "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." Jesus is the only image of God that you will ever see. That's why there is one throne in heaven and Jesus sits upon it (Rev 4:2)! Jesus is both the Father and the Son at the same time as being Healer, Miracle Worker, the Lamb, Redeemer, the Light, and many other titles! But his name is Jesus! I have many titles: I am Son, I am Pastor, I am Bible Study teacher, I am Husband, I am Citizen and one day I may even be a Father, but I'm only one person with one body and I have one name! That is why Jesus commanded His disciples in Matthew 28:19 to baptize in the "name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" and then the disciples obeyed Him by always baptizing "in the name of Jesus Christ!" Jesus is THE name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. There is only one God and He has revealed Himself in many roles and by many titles but He only has one body and He only has one name: Jesus Christ!

You probably are asking, "preacher, what does this have to do with miracles." For one thing, salvation is the greatest miracle of all and for you to be properly baptized, you need to be baptized with someone saying "in the name of Jesus!" But notice Jesus' next words:

Jesus told His disciples that "you need to get this revelation of who I am" and "if you will believe in what I have just taught you, then you will do the same works, and even greater works than I have done shall you do!" The reason why is found in the next verse: because "I go unto my Father." In other words, Jesus was saying, I am no longer be walking around in bodily form upon the earth. But when you receive the Holy Ghost, you have received the Spirit of God within your fleshly body. Remember that it was the Holy Ghost that overshadowed Mary and caused her to conceive, therefore the Holy Ghost was the Father of the Son. And Jesus said that the Father that dwelt within Him was the one that did the miracles: not His flesh and bones, body. If the Holy Ghost is the one that caused conception and is therefore the Father, and you have received the Holy Ghost, then you have the same miracle working Spirit within you! That's why Jesus said: "you are going to do these miracles and even greater" because when a person receives the Holy Ghost their bodies become the fleshly habitation of God. That is why the scriptures call the true church, the "body of Christ!" We are the only fleshly representation that God has in this world! And Jesus said that you will do "greater" works than these. I looked up that word greater in the Greek because I was thinking how can you top the miracles that Jesus did? It simply means "more." Why will be able to do more miracles than Jesus? Because there are more of us! If you've got the Holy Ghost today, you need to realize the power that you have within you! If you've got the revelation of who Jesus Christ is, then you've got miracle working power available to you! When you pray for someone, you are the body of Christ for this day.

That's why Jesus said to pray "in my name." By calling upon the name of Jesus, you are not casting a spell or invoking a magic formula. You are saying "I stand in the stead of Jesus Christ here today and allow His Spirit to flow through me!" The seven sons of Sceva in Acts chapter 19 tried to cast out devils in Jesus' name without having the Holy Ghost. The devil possessed man stripped off their clothes and chased them naked down the street! It's not a magic formula, but when you have the Holy Ghost inside of you, you can ably stand and say "in the name of Jesus, be healed." You are the body of Christ! The power in the name comes from the relationship that a Spirit-filled believer has! If you've got a need today, then you are in the right place because there are many people here who know that Jesus is the Father and have that same Holy Spirit within us! We have all we need to have miracles here today!

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So we have everything that we need to have an environment for miracles to happen today. The only other ingredient that we must have is faith. In our other text, Jesus said:

These signs shall follow them that believe! Another scripture says:

You must have faith to please God and you must believe that if you step out in faith, believing, that He will respond to you! Listen to this scripture:

You may not have had much faith in God in the past. You may not have walked in here today with faith that God could do anything supernatural. But you have heard the Word of God preached and if you have heard it then you now can have increased faith! The preached Word of God has elevated us to a place where we can believe God for anything! We have a mighty God, we know His name, and we have the Holy Ghost, the only thing we must have is faith!

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Most people have more faith in the devil than they do God. If a preacher gets up and preaches that Satan can do miracles, then they are quick to believe. But if you stand up and say God performs miracles today, then ....! I'm here to tell you that Satan can perform miracles.

God sent Moses to Pharaoh's court with a miracle of throwing down his rod and it turning into a serpent. Moses walked in there with all faith and confidence and when Pharaoh asked "how do I know your God is real?" Moses answered by throwing down his rod and turning it into a serpent. Pharaoh was impressed and probably Moses was impressed until the court magicians all took their rod and threw them down, turning them into serpents also. I can just imagine what Moses was thinking when these guys did the same thing: "uh oh, what do I do now?" I'll tell you what you do Moses, let God take care of it and keep your faith in Him! As the court magicians stood there with a smug look on their face, suddenly they became shocked as Moses' snake swallowed up the other two! Moses then reached down and picked up His now full snake and it turned back to his walking rod! Moses stood there with his rod and the two magicians now did not have anything to lean upon!

We live in a time where occultism and witchcraft is increasing in what, to some, is increasing proportions. The number one selling children's books of all time are the current Harry Potter series which are nothing but subtle introductions to wicca and sorcery. The devil does have some power and many people are devoting their lives to learning to yield to it. Some of you would rather me not even mention it because it scares you. But I'm here today to declare that Satanism and the occult does not scare me in the least bit! Does Satan have some power? Yes, but he is only a fallen angel. I serve the God that created the angels! I serve a God that is much powerful! Satan may try to do miracles to match the miracle working power of the true church, but I'm here today that the rod upon which we stand will devour and be greater anything that Satan can do! Those who trust in the devil's power will be left without anything to lean upon, but my God will never leave you nor forsake you! And I not only serve the God who created the angels and the world, but I have His Spirit living inside me!

The scriptures say that as sin grows and abounds, that God's grace and power will "that much more abound." That is, no matter how much power the devil manifests in this end time, God will increase that much more! It's time the true church of the living God rises up in power and realizes that we are the ones that God has given the power to! As Satanism increases in power, so should the true church of the living God! If they can see miracles, then the church's miracles ought to swallow up those damnable acts! Satan is no match for the Spirit-filled church of God and he knows it! He trembles when He thinks about the fact that there is only one God:

Satan is scared to death of the power of a Spirit-filled believer who knows who Jesus Christ is who realizes that God wants to perform mighty acts! So he brings fear and doubt to try to get us to trust in our own devices! But I'm here today to proclaim "greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world!"

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Most states today have what is called a lottery. The odds are millions to one. In fact you have a better chance at getting struck by lightening today than you do to win the lottery. You have better odds of taking a five dollar bill and throwing it out the window and someone picking it up, going to the bank and depositing it in your savings account than winning the lottery. I don't think that a child of God has any business playing the lottery because it is being a horrible steward of what God has given you. Put that money in the offering or toward helping someone in need and God will give you a better return for your money!

Most of you have played the lottery at one time or another. Probably all of you did not win the jackpot the first time. Yet, most of you played it again. And again. And again. You had faith in a system that you have never gotten a positive response in. You had faith in a jackpot of millions of dollars that you have never seen and have only somebody's word that it is there. And yet you acted in faith toward that lottery time and time again.

Today I am preaching to some of you who have prayed for the sick and nothing's happened so you don't believe in any miracles at all! Our prayers are in subject to God's will. Will God heal everybody that I pray for? No. But will He heal some? Yes, if I pray in faith. I'm not going to lose my faith in Him just because He chooses not to heal one person. He may do it later. He may never do it, but He will heal some people! Therefore I will be like the loser that continues to buy lottery tickets, I will pray in Jesus name with faith believing just in case that this is the moment that God wants to act. If it is God's will, then God just may answer my prayer. If it is God's will and I do not pray, I am guaranteed that He will NOT answer my prayer. So I'll keep praying because I've got more faith in my God than this world has in jackpots, slot machines, and lotteries! My God's Word cannot fail so I will continue to pray!

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I close with this: There are four categories of miracles that God has performed and will perform today. They are:

1. Physical healings.

2. Mental healings.

3. Acts of nature.

4. Salvation.

I have seen all four take place. You have come too late to tell me that God doesn't do miracles today.

When I was 7 years old I became very sick with chronic migraine headaches. For days I thrashed in a bed literally hurting so bad that I was going out of my mind. The doctors did not know what had caused it or what to do. But my father kept praying. One night he read James 5 where it said that if you anoint with oil and pray in Jesus' name that the prayer of faith would save the sick. My parents anointed me with oil and prayed and God instantly and completely took away the headaches. That was 20 years ago and I have not had a migraine headache since!

I was invited to preach in a Episcopal church 3 years ago because of my friendship with the priest. After I taught, they asked for those who were sick to come to the front and the priest asked me if I would help pray. As I listened, I quickly realized that he was not praying in "Jesus' name" as the scriptures taught. I stepped in and began to lay my hands upon their head and prayed that healing might come in Jesus' name. Two weeks later one of the ladies saw my wife in Taco Bell. She came over all excited and asked "are you the wife of that young preacher that preached at so and so church last month?" When my wife said yes, the lady grabbed her arm and said "I had been diagnosed with cancer and the doctors had said that it had spread through my body to the point that they did not even know if radiation would help." "The day after that service I went to an appointment and the doctor's couldn't find anything!" "God healed me that day in that service!"

At my parent's church earlier this year, a doctor met someone who offered her a Bible Study. The doctor came and was baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost. The person teaching the Bible Study made the "mistake" of telling the doctor that God would do "anything" that she asked in her name, even raise the dead. Three months ago the doctor was trying to treat a young patient that was dying. I don't remember what the disease was but the situation seemed hopeless. As the family gathered around the young man, the heart line went straight and the doctor checked his pulse and shook his head and said "I'm sorry, he's gone and there is nothing more that we can do." Then something brought to remembrance the scripture that a Bible Study teacher had said. The doctor cleared her throat and said "well there is something that we can do, I have a God who is able to raise him up." The doctor prayed for the boy in Jesus' name and to her and the families' surprise, the boy woke up and got up from the bed! When they checked him out, the disease was completely gone! He and his family are now the ones in a Bible Study trying to find out more about this God that could do the miraculous! That happened in 2003, in Alexandria, Louisiana. You've come too late to tell me that God doesn't do miracles today!

I have seen God remove tumors, cause legs to grow, deaf ears unstopped, and seen people throw away crutches and wheelchairs. God has performed miracle after miracle in my life and I have not even gotten to my wives' stories! I have seen God also perform mental healing. I have seen the Prince of Peace step in and heal marriages and relationships and bring calm to the worst storms of life.

I have also seen God affect the elements. We lived on Caddo lake across the road from the church. One day, we had a severe tornado alert and so we went into a closet in the middle of the house and listened to the radio. The radio news report said that their was a huge twister coming over the lake toward the park. My dad jumped up and said that's right were we are! We all ran to the back porch of the house and I will never forget seeing the funnel cloud coming right at us across the lake. It was headed in a path of devastation that would have destroyed our house and the church which was directly behind us. My parents did the only thing they could do: they prayed. As we watched, the funnel cloud lifted up and went directly over us and the church and touched down about 2 miles past us tearing up many homes and businesses. We didn't wish it upon anyone else, but God delivered us! Coincidence? I don't think so.

My best friend's brother-in-law was an immigrant from Poland. He eventually got naturalized and joined the Marines. Before he left, someone had been witnessing to him about the Holy Ghost and the power of Jesus. He was shipped off to Beirut before he had a chance to be baptized or anything. He was stationed in the headquarters building that blew up. But for some reason, His companies' commanders had decided to leave the building and camp outside two days before the bombing! Right before he came home, he said that they were clearing out some land for a temporary military base. They were using huge sickles which were basically like a long blade on a stick. Darius was taking a break and watching some of his friends work when as he watched from a little distance away, the head of one of the sickles slung off and headed right toward his head. He only had time to scream "Jesus!" He said the blade stopped in mid air and dropped at his feet and for a few minutes all of his friends just stared at him! The moment that he got back to the United States, he found a church, was baptized in Jesus' name and received the Holy Ghost. He married my best friend's sister and is still living for God today!

The greatest miracle in that story was his salvation! And it is available to you to day! God still performs the miracle of forgiving your sins when you Repent, washing away your sinful past when you are baptized in the name of Jesus, and filling people with the life changing Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in another language as the Spirit teaches them just as the disciples received on the Day of Pentecost! You can experience the life changing power of the baptism of the Holy Spirit today! Our God is still a miracle worker!