Derek Prince - The Gift of Miracles
The next gift, miracles, can go further. Miracles go beyond healings, for instance, this is from an example that's occurred more than once in my ministry. If a person has what they call otitis media, which is inflammation of the middle ear, you can pray for it and it can be healed. But, if a person has had the middle ear removed by surgery, you can't heal a middle ear that isn't there. But, a miracle can restore a middle ear. I remember two different occasions in which that happened. Once a man came up to me and said, "Pray for my ear". Thank God I didn't ask him what was the matter with his ear.
So I prayed and he came back and said, "I got healed". I said, "What did you get healed of"? He said, "I had no middle ear and now I've got one. I went to the doctor, he checked and I have a normal ear". That's a miracle, you understand. That goes beyond the healing. The different also is this, that miracles are often instantaneous (not necessarily) and often visible. Whereas healings are often invisible. If somebody is healed in the liver, there's nothing immediate that you can see. And many times they are also gradual. That's important to understand because some people come to get healed. If they don't get a miracle they think nothing's happened. But it may be that they're receiving a healing. It's very important to understand this because if you are receiving a healing, a lot will depend on how you respond.
I tell people, "Now you're plugged into God's supernatural power. Keep the plug in". How do you do that? Basically, by thanking God. You say, "Thank You, Lord. You touched me. Your power is at work in my body". Every time you feel a twinge of pain or you see a symptom, you say, "Thank You, Lord. Your supernatural power is at work in my body". And as you respond that way, the healing is completed. But if you come up to be prayed for, God touches you but you don't get a complete healing and you walk down and you say, "well, nothing happened," what you've done is take the plug out. See? After that nothing more happens. So it's very important to instruct people on these things. A miracle is frequently, I would say, usually released by a simple act of faith.
You want to study a man who had a lot of miracles, the prophet Elijah. Almost every miracle that he performed was released by a rather ridiculous act of faith. For instance, there was a spring outside Jericho of which the water was corrupt. He took a vessel of salt, threw the salt into the spring and said, "Thus saith the Lord, these waters are healed". Well, everybody knows that salt doesn't heal water, you understand? But you can go to that spring today, more than 2,000 years later, and it's still healed. The salt didn't heal the spring but the little act of faith released God's miracle power into the spring. Another time the sons of the prophets were eating from a common pot of food and they discovered it was poisoned.
Elijah just took some flour into his hand, threw it into the pot and said, "Thus saith the Lord, the pot is healed". It was healed. The flour didn't heal the pot but the simple act released the miracle of healing into the pot. Another time one of his students went out to build something by the Jordan, borrowed an axe to cut down some trees and while he was chopping with the axe, the axe head flew off into the Jordan. If you've never been in the Jordan you might not realize how difficult that is. But the Jordan is a muddy river. There's at least two inches of just pure mud at the bottom. So, the axe head just didn't lie on the surface at the bottom, it went down into the mud and disappeared.
Elijah said, "All right". He took a little piece of wood, threw it into the Jordan and as it floated there, the axe head came up to meet the wood. Now, the wood didn't pull the axe head up but the casting of the wood into the Jordan released the miracle working power. You understand? See the principle? You usually have to do something silly to release a miracle. When a man born blind came to Jesus, Jesus spat on the ground. And everybody knows preachers don't spit in public! He made some clay with the spittle, anointed the man's eyes and said, "Go and wash in the pool of Siloam". Well, that's ridiculous!