I started yesterday’s blog on falling iguanas as a bit of whimsy and to underscore the point that just because I haven’t heard of something doesn’t mean it’s not real. But the blog ended with this scripture:

And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” (Acts 19.1, 2, ESV)

I put it in as an example of “just because I haven’t heard of something doesn’t mean it’s not real.” These Ephesian believers hadn’t heard of the Holy Spirit. But there’s something bigger going on, and it ties back to the healing of the lame man in Acts 3 we’ve been looking at this week.

The question is, do we expect these kinds of things to happen today? Many of us don’t, or we might say, “Sure, they could happen, but they probably don’t.”

The fact is that miracles are happening today, and just because they’re not happening around me doesn’t mean they’re not happening. Look at this story from Dr. J.P. Moreland, distinguished professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology (a conservative seminary):

In the middle of nowhere, two Christians were driving in the mountains of Iran in a car that was full of Bibles. Without warning, the steering wheel jammed and they were forced to the side of the road. Suddenly an old man was knocking at the car’s window, asking them where the books were. Confused, they asked what books he was referring to, and he responded, “The books about Jesus.” Continuing, the old man said an angel had recently appeared to him in a vision and shared about Jesus, and the man later discovered that everyone in his village had just had the very same vision! They had all believed in Jesus. Now the old man had a village full of infant Christians who had no idea what to do next. The old man shared that in another dream, Jesus told him to walk down the mountain and stand beside the road, and someone would bring him books about Jesus. He obeyed and selected the spot where he would stand, and just as expected, a supply of Bibles written in their language was provided for his village.

— A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles: Instruction and Inspiration for Living Supernaturally in Christ by J. P. Moreland, page 1

Or how about this answer to prayer? Dr. Moreland moved to Southern California in 1989 to teach at Talbot, and they wanted to keep their two girls, age 10 and 8 at the time, close to them. So they turned their garage into a recreation room so that their friends would want to play at their house. Four years later, the girls asked if they could add a pool table to the recreation room. Dr. Moreland said they could have one if God provided one for free. Here’s the story from there:

The girls responded by saying that we should ask God for it, so we gathered in the living room, formed a circle, and held hands. We each prayed for the table, but I wanted a good one, so when it was my turn to pray, I asked the Lord, specifically, for a free pool table—like the good ones you find in a sports bar. And that was that. Allison was on a soccer team that involved about fifteen families we didn’t know very well. Two weeks after our prayer circle, a father I had never spoken with walked up to me during a game—literally out of the blue and for no apparent reason. After about a minute of chatting, he asked me if I could use a pool table. Only our immediate family knew we were praying for one, and when he asked me this question, I almost fell over! I was astonished, so I asked him why he had approached me—out of all the other people at the game. We didn’t even know each other! He responded by saying that he was a Christian, and he had simply sensed that the Lord was nudging him to approach me.

— A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles: Instruction and Inspiration for Living Supernaturally in Christ by J. P. Moreland, page 73, 74

I’m beginning to believe that there is power available whether I have availed myself of it or not. If you have a miracle story, please share it with us either as a comment, or you can send it to me in an email: bob@ewell.com.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1.8, ESV)

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us… (Ephesians 3.20, ESV)