Distinguish yourself for the miraculous | By: J.O. Lawal | Date: September 22, 2024 | Series: From Pastor’s Desk | Number: Vol. 13, No. 21

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I gladly welcome you to the fourth week of the month of September 2024 and pray that God will equip you every day of the week with all that you need to receive and enjoy all His good provisions for you. Amen.

Now from what we see in Scriptures, those who receive God’s provisions for their lives in spectacular ways are often people who are ready to separate themselves from the crowd. Yes, they are often people who are ready to do what others will not do or what others are afraid of doing. Therefore, God will pass over others to perform astonishing miracles for them.

For instance, our Lord Jesus says this to us about Naaman and the widow of Zarephath:

“I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed — only Naaman the Syrian.”” (Luke 4:25-27NIV)

Did you see that? Even though there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha (in fact, four of them are mentioned in the bible in connection to a famine that occurred during Elisha’s time), we have no record that he healed any of them. Why? Did he not want to heal them? No! He would love to heal them. But none of them recognised him as possessing enough power of God to heal them. (Cf. 2Kings 7)

However, when Naaman the Syrian heard about him from a slave girl, he travelled all the way from his country to meet him. He did not look at the cost of doing so or the stress that would accompany it. He did not look at his position as a general or at the fact that the nation of Israel was subject to his own country at the time. Instead, he humbled himself and came to him. And when he did, he received an astonishing miracle of healing. His leprosy was cured. Why? He did what other lepers like himself would not do. He distinguished himself for the miraculous! (Cf. 2Kings 5)

What about the widow of Zarephath? Why did God pass over all the widows in Israel to find her during the three and a half years of famine that happened in Elijah’s time? It was because she distinguished herself as a cheerful giver. This woman was willing to share her last meal with the man of God, just because God had told her to do so. And because of that, not only were she and her son sustained with food during the famine, she also received a resurrection of her son when death came to steal him from her. (Cf. 1Kings 17)

What, then, is the point of all this? It is that if we are not willing to distinguish ourselves from others in zeal, in prayer, in meditating on God’s word and confessing it and also in giving, there are miracles that we will never witness in life. Are you, then, willing to distinguish yourself to receive unusual miracles from God?

Well, God is not going to force us to do anything to distinguish ourselves from others in order to receive from Him. But if we do so, He will surely pass over many to amaze us. And my prayer is that your heart will be strengthened to begin to do those things that will set you apart for usual miracles, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a lovely week.

Copyright © 2024, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministry.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)