We’re going through Galatians in our 5x5x5 Reading Program, and there’s a “skip over it” verse in chapter 3:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? (Galatians 3.1 – 6, ESV)

Did you see it? “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith…” I say a “skip over it” verse because that’s what I and most of the teachers in my tradition do. It’s a cardinal rule of teaching: “If you don’t understand something, skip it.”

We spent a lot of time in Acts looking at manifestations of the Spirit’s POWER – I wrote a retrospective on March 10. And the subject keeps coming back. Paul just mentions miracles matter-of-factly as he’s trying to make an argument against legalism. I’m trying to take it more seriously. A few days ago I visited a friend with stage 4 pancreatic cancer – not a good diagnosis. He’s getting chemo, and he remains upbeat, using every opportunity to share the gospel with friends and family. He expects to be healed, and he would rather it be by God’s miraculous intervention.

I prayed to that effect. I put my hand on his body where the tumors were and asked God to cast them out – “They don’t belong here.” We’ll see what happens. For sure, it can’t hurt to ask. Miracles do happen.

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. (James 5.14 – 18, ESV)

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (Matthew 7.7, 8, ESV)