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When the day of Pentecost had
come, they were all together in
one place. 2 And suddenly there
came from heaven a noise like a
violent rushing wind, and it filled
the whole house where they
were sitting.
Acts 2:1-2
And there appeared to them
tongues as of fire distributing
themselves, and they rested on
each one of them. 4 And they
were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak with other
tongues, as the Spirit was giving
them utterance.
Acts 2:3-4
ow there were Jews living in
Jerusalem, devout men from
every nation under heaven. 6
And when this sound occurred,
the crowd came together, and
were bewildered because each
one of them was hearing them
speak in his own language.
Acts 2:5-6
|hey were amazed and
astonished, saying, "Why, are
not all these who are speaking
Galileans? 8 "And how is it that
we each hear them in our own
language to which we were
born?
Acts 2:7-8
:ut Peter, taking his stand with
the eleven, raised his voice and
declared to them: . . . ³Jesus the
azarene, a man attested to
you by God with miracles and
wonders and signs which God
performed through Him in your
midst,. . . .
Acts 2:14 & 22
÷t is vital for us to
constantly live in the
understanding that
God is the God of
Miracles.
ot one thing has
changed since Jesus
sent the Holy Spirit to
fill the mouths of His
disciples with
miraculous speech.
After being empowered
through the baptism of
Jesus with the Holy Spirit
they went everywhere
preaching the gospel and
doing miracles in His
name.
÷n the midst of extreme
difficulty their prayer was
for God to demonstrate
His miraculous power as
they preached His Word.
"And now, Lord, take note
of their threats, and grant
that Your bond-servants
may speak Your word with
all confidence,
Acts 4:29
while You extend Your
hand to heal, and signs
and wonders take place
through the name of Your
holy servant Jesus."
Acts 4:30
And when they had prayed,
the place where they had
gathered together was
shaken, and they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak the word of
God with boldness.
Acts 4:31
Miracles are given to
demonstrate God¶s love and
care for us and to give the world
a chance to see God in action.
And they are for everyone!
mur God is
the God of
Miracles.
Jesus said we would see
greater works done through
us than He did while he was
on earth.
God intends for us to continually
live in His miraculous power. He
intends for us to have our lives
touched by the supernatural
power from on high. He intends
for us to see Him at work in our
lives in a very direct way every
second of our lives.
"|ruly, truly, ÷ say to you, he
who believes in Me, the
works that ÷ do, he will do
also; and greater works than
these he will do; because ÷ go
to the Father.
John 14:12
"And behold, ÷ am sending forth
the promise of My Father upon
you; but you are to stay in the
city until you are clothed with
power from on high.³
Luke 24:49
but you will receive power when
the Holy Spirit has come upon
you; and you shall be My
witnesses both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria,
and even to the remotest part of
the earth.³
Acts 1:8
God wants to manifest
Himself to the world by
providing, protecting and
giving His presence to His
children.
For the eyes of the Lm
run
to and fro throughout the
whole earth, to show Himself
strong on behalf of those
whose heart is loyal to Him.
2 Chronicles 16:9
For the eyes of the Lm

move to and fro
throughout the earth that
He may strongly support
those whose heart is
completely His.
2 Chronicles 16:9
God searches for those
who He can pour out His
miracle power upon. He
wants us to know that He
is our helper and that He
is strong!
÷n the parables of the
Mustard Seed Jesus gives
us some clues as to how
to see a greater
manifestation of His
miraculous power in our
lives.
1. Find out what it
takes to see
miraculous power
manifested through
you.
When they came to the crowd, a man
came up to Jesus, falling on his knees
before Him and saying, 15 "Lord, have
mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and
is very ill; for he often falls into the fire
and often into the water. 16 "÷ brought
him to Your disciples, and they could
not cure him.³
Matthew 17:14-16
|hen the disciples came to Jesus privately
and said, "Why could we not drive it out?³
And He said to them, ":ecause of the
littleness of your faith; for truly ÷ say to you, 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; and nothing
will be impossible to you.
Matthew 17:19-20
otice the disciples did not
blame the child or his father for
the lack of a miracle. |hey
sincerely asked why |HEY
could not drive the demon out of
the boy.
|hat is what the disciples did
and so must we.
÷ am called to believe God with
and for others. ÷f we don¶t see a
miracle it is me that needs to
find out what is wrong. ÷ do not
need to find someone to
blame«. Especially the one
suffering.
ot only that ÷ am to believe O

the one who is possibly unable
to hold on to faith because they
are overwhelmed with their
circumstances.
ow we who are strong ought to
bear the weaknesses of those
without strength and not just
please ourselves. 2 Each of us
is to please his neighbor for his
good, to his edification.
omans 15:1
÷f we are going to attribute a lack
of the miraculous power of God
in someone¶s life then let us first
attribute it to ourselves. Jesus
did not condemn those who
were suffering he healed them.
÷n answering the question they
asked about why they were not
able to see the miracle Jesus
told them two things that are
vital to build an atmosphere for
the miraculous.
First he said it was the littleness
of their faith.
|hen the disciples came to Jesus privately
and said, "Why could we not drive it out?³
And He said to them, ":ecause of the
littleness of your faith; for truly ÷ say to you, 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; and nothing
will be impossible to you. ":ut this kind does
not go out except by prayer and fasting."
Matthew 17:19-21
|oday ÷ am going to share with you an
interpretation of this passage that ÷ am
almost certain you will have never heard and
most likely never thought of. Yet ÷ believe it is
true. ÷n fact it is the most consistent way of
understanding Jesus¶ use of the Mustard
Seed.
÷ believe Jesus was telling the
disciples that they could not cast
out the demon because their
faith was not yet mature. ÷t was
very small but it had the
potential to grow. ÷t was a
statement of hope and not
discouragement.
For sure it was a statement of
truth. |heir faith was very small.
Jesus was certainly challenging
them to grow in faith. :ut it was
also a statement of hope and
encouragement that their faith
would grow like a mustard seed.
|he mustard seed has a growth
process. ÷t starts as one of the
tiniest seeds on earth but grows
to be a large shrub.
And He said, "How shall we picture the
kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we
present it? 31 "÷t is like a mustard seed,
which, when sown upon the soil, though it is
smaller than all the seeds that are upon the
soil, 32 yet when it is sown, it grows up and
becomes larger than all the garden plants
and forms large branches; so that |HE
:÷
S mF |HE A÷ can ES| U
E ÷|S
SHA
E.³
Mark 4:30
Jesus was telling them if they
would sow their faith they would
move mountains someday. :ut
he was also saying on that day
they were still developing their
faith.
÷t was an encouragement to
grow not a rebuke for something
they lacked.
÷ believe he was saying,

÷f you sow it you

will grow it.
|he point is that we are to be
continually growing in faith. We
may have almost no faith at all
yet if we sow what faith we have
± just like the little mustard seed
± we will grow in faith.
mne of the most wonderful
financial miracles ÷ have ever
seen grew out of God telling me
this secret.
÷ was a ³man of faith´ when my
sweetheart met me. ÷ had
committed myself to be debt
free and trusting God for my
provision. ÷ had lived this for
years and had seen marvelous
answers to prayer. ÷ had also
lived in some very difficult
circumstances.
When we were preparing to go
to ÷srael for a year we were
short on funds and ÷ told her that
we should get a one way ticket
and trust God for the return
flight. She was not happy with
my idea«.. |hat is actually an
understatement«..
As we were ³discussing´ my lack
of sanity and her lack of faith
God spoke clearly and firmly to
me. He said, ³When ÷ want to
teach her faith, ÷ will teach her
faith. You leave her alone.´
÷ had enough sense and enough
fear of God to do what He said. ÷
worked a few weeks longer,
fixed up and sold a car and had
enough money to get a round
trip ticket. |hat was a miracle
too but the greatest one was yet
to come.

uring our stay at the Kibbutz
Carie became pregnant. |hat
was wonderful but what was not
so nice was the fact her due
date was just about the same
time as we were supposed to
return home.
|hough we had bought flight
insurance the company we had
purchased it from had gone out
of business. When we appealed
to the airline company they said
÷ could fly home but she could
not and that they would not
exchange either her flight or
mine.
ow you might say that was not
much of a problem except that
you don¶t know how ÷sraeli¶s
have babies.
Any kind of anesthetic was
considered weakness of the
highest magnitude. Even
Lamaze is for wimps to them. Au
naturel with every pain
experienced to the full was the
true destiny and joy of one
bearing a child!
ot only that but the local nurse
loved telling Carie she would be
coming over on the day she was
to deliver and helping her out
with the delivery right there in
our little stone room.
÷ was amused«. Carie was
desperate« :ut ÷ was not the
one having the baby was ÷?
÷ had never heard her pray such
prayers of desperation. She
wanted to go home. |he
problem was we did not have
any money to do so. We had
spent it all on a round trip ticket
that was now worthless.
After several weeks of struggle
she did what all of us have to do
if we are to see miracles. She
asked God to show her what He
wanted. ÷t was that simple.
She said she was willing to stay
and have her child in ÷srael if
that was what He wanted. She
wanted to go home and if that
was what He wanted she asked
for a tangible sign by the end of
the week. She said that if He did
not show by a miracle that she
was to go home she would stay.
÷ challenged her that if she really
wanted to know that it was God
that we should not let others
know about our need. She
agreed that we would let our
Father who knows what we
need be the only one who would
know.
At the end of that week, shortly
before sunset the leader of our
team met her on the road and
said that God had told him to
give her one hundred dollars.
She had her first miracle.
mver the next month it
happened just like that. Money
begin to come from many
different sources all unsolicited
and each saying that God had
put it on their hearts to give.
We had found a flight that was
very inexpensive but had to
make arrangements to purchase
by a certain date. ÷f we did not
have the money by that date in
spite of the miracles we had
seen we still would be staying in
÷srael.
|hat day came and we were still
$60 short.
o one knew«.
|hat morning before we went to
work Carie and ÷ prayed
earnestly that God would
provide but again surrendered
ourselves to stay in ÷srael if it
was His will.
|hrough the day we were in a
state of expectancy«.
Especially when the mail came.
We thought perhaps someone
would send us the rest of the
money. :ut it was not to be«.
|he day was coming to an end
and we did not see the miracle
we thought we would. She
accepted it so graciously. As we
prayed before we went to our
evening meeting with our team
she told the Lord that she would
follow where ever He would
lead.
|his is what God means when
He asks us to have faith in Him.
|his is true faith. ÷t was the faith
Jesus demonstrated on the
worst day of his life and the
worst day in history.
|his is what God means when
He asks us to have faith in Him.
|his is true faith. ÷t was the faith
Jesus demonstrated on the
worst day of his life and the
worst day in history.
He went away again a second
time and prayed, saying, "My
Father, if this cannot pass away
unless ÷ drink it, Your will be
done.³
Matthew 26:42
:ut that night of surrender to
God¶s perfect will for his life did
not lead to abandonment but to
the greatest miracle of history«.
the resurrection.
At the end of our meeting a
visiting parent of one of the
young people on our team came
to me and shook my hand. He
said he felt God had told him to
give me what was in his hand to
me. ÷t was $60!
|hen he put his hand in his
pocket and said ÷ have some of
this funny money (÷sraeli money)
|hat ÷ won¶t use so ÷ want to
give that to you as well. ÷t was
enough to buy several presents
for her relatives«..
o one had known that we had
any need much less the specific
amount we needed that very
night. Carie had her miracle!
My sweetheart learned faith
from God and not me. ÷ am glad
because ÷ have watched in
wonder and awe since that time
as she has prayed for miracle
after miracle and seen them
happen.
With each new experience of
believing God for these miracles
÷ have seen her grow in faith.
Like a Mustard seed«.. ÷t
started out very small. ow it
has grown to be strong and
often moves mountains.
÷t was a process.
When he was very little ÷ used to
let Ariel play my guitar as much
as he wanted. His earliest music
was not what the world
expected for him to be the next
Canadian ÷dol« but to me it was
the sweetest music ÷ could ever
hear. ÷ knew a secret«..
÷ knew that if he loved playing
that instrument and continued
playing it«. o matter how it
sounded«. He would one day
play beautifully from his heart.
Like the Mustard Seed, He had
the essential element to become
a skilled player but it had to
grow.
Growth in faith happens by
sowing it for a miracle.
He presented another parable to
them, saying, "|he kingdom of
heaven is like a mustard seed,
which a man took and sowed in
his field;
Matthew 13:31
and this is smaller than all other
seeds, but when it is full grown,
it is larger than the garden
plants and becomes a tree, so
that |HE :÷
S mF |HE A÷
come and ES| ÷ ÷|S
: ACHES.³
Matthew 13:32
Like a mustard seed ÷
have seen that for
miracles to come it takes
a certain kind of ³soil´ for
our faith to grow in.
When we sow it into good
soil our faith grows and
brings forth the fruit of
miracles.

erek Axford knows about
the effect of the soil on the
crops he grew up planting
on his father¶s farm.
Good soil does not just
happen. ÷t has to be
worked into a substance
that will give life to the
seeds planted in it.
|he developing of the soil
that will cause our mustard
seed faith to grow is the
second thing Jesus said to
his disciples in his answer to
their question about why they
could not cast out the demon.
":ut this kind does not
go out except by prayer
and fasting."
Matthew 17:19-21
God made it very simple
for us. ÷f we want to see a
miracle we need to ask for
it and to have the proper
motivation in our asking.
You do not have
because you do
not ask.
James 4:2b
You ask and do not
receive, because you
ask with wrong motives,
so that you may spend
it on your pleasures.
James 4:3
Jesus told his disciples
that to see the kind of
miracle that was needed
they would have to pray
and fast.
Praying is asking.
Fasting deals with our self
motives.
|hese are the soil
conditioners that create
the kind of soil where faith
grows.
Prayer and Fasting are
the soil conditioners that
create the kind of soil
where faith grows.
÷ have seen the power of
prayer and fasting to bring
God¶s miracle working
presence into my own life.
÷ have seen it in history as
well.
÷ would be so bold as to say that
÷ do not believe there has ever
been a move of God without
believers doing their part by
praying and setting aside their
earthly preoccupations (fasting)
in order to call out to God for
Him to show Himself through
them to the world.
|hat is exactly what the
disciples were continually doing
in the days before the dynamite
(dunamis) power from God fell
on them in the upper room.
|hese all with one mind were
continually devoting themselves
to prayer,
Acts 1:14
:ut our prayer needs to be one
of expectancy.
When we pray to God we need
to expect Him to answer. ÷f we
don¶t we may not even notice
that He did.
When my sweetheart and ÷ were
first dating she had her bike
stolen from her sister¶s house in
|ulsa mklahoma.
What made it really bad was it
was a gift from her grandmother
and had strong sentimental
value.
When she told me what had
happened ÷ said we should pray
that God would show us where it
was. ÷ believed that He would.
We prayed and ÷ had a vision of
the bike in a park under a bush.
÷ knew the park and so we went
there to find the bike.
÷t was there under the very bush
÷ saw it under. |he nice part of
this story is that my sweetheart
is a woman of great integrity.
She can tell you that this
happened exactly like ÷ am
telling you. ÷t is verifiable and
could not have happened
without God showing me.
÷n the summer of 1854 mhio was
in the midst of a prolonged and
severe drought. A pastor in a
local church called his people to
pray for rain.
As his church gathered for worship on a
Sunday morning in 1853, Charles Finney
walked into the pulpit, carrying an
umbrella. Setting his umbrella down by his
chair, he began to pray, ³Lord, we do not
presume to tell you what is best for us. You
invite us to come to you as children to a
father and tell you all of our wants. We need
rain. Unless you give us rain our cattle will
die and our harvest will come to naught. ÷t is
an easy thing for you to do, m Lord, send us
rain.´
As he preached his
sermon that morning it
began to thunder and the
rain poured down from
heaven.
:ut notice one very important
aspect of his behaviour
around this incident. |hough
he told everyone that they
were going to pray for an end
to the drought, he was the
only one who brought his
umbrella.
He expected God to do a
miracle and God did.
|he apostles said to the Lord, "÷ncrease
our faith!³ 6 And the Lord said, "÷f you
had faith like a mustard seed, you
would say to this mulberry tree, ':e
uprooted and be planted in the sea';
and it would obey you.
Luke 17:5-6
Let the request of the disciples sink into
your heart for a moment. Why did they
ask for their faith to be increased? Was
it because they felt condemned for not
having enough?
o you think they were
consumed with themselves and wanted
God to make them rich, healthy and
keep them from ever having any
problems?
mr was it that they saw
Jesus doing the miracles
for others and wanted to
see the same
themselves?
|hey knew what he could
do because they saw him
do it with their own eyes.
Would seeing this
amazing man heal the
sick, raise the dead and
tell people the deepest
hidden secrets of their
hearts not make you want
to do the same?
And that is exactly what
Jesus wanted. He wanted
them to ask«
When they did Jesus told
them once more that they
would see what they
desired if they sowed their
faith as a mustard seed
with expectancy of the
miraculous.
What a tragedy it is when we
lose our expectancy of God¶s
working through miracles in
our life. God wants us to ask.
God wants us to have proper
motives and God wants us to
expect Him to work
supernaturally in our lives.
÷t is our destiny to live a life
filled with His power
manifested in supernatural
works.
He is the
God of
Miracles.