Expect A Miracle

With today being the official first day of winter in the northern hemisphere, our weather here in Oklahoma did not disappoint but greeted our morning walk with a frost covered golf course and temperatures in the low twenties!  And while I was bundled up with my thermals and cold weather insulated coat and gloves… Fiver bounded around like a kid at an amusement park!  With his thick Great Pyrenees coat, he thrives when the thermometer plummets!

He has a routine each and every morning that never varies.  After my morning coffee and Bible study time, I feed the dog and head for the shower… and as soon as I turn off the water and step over the tub… he appears at the slightly ajar door* and begins to dance around the bedroom and bark… knowing that our morning walk will begin as soon as I get myself ready for the day!

It's actually kind of funny and I play along with him by pretending to bark and say things to excite him even more.  I don’t think that I could find a better example of someone’s EXPECTATIONS bursting forth with the anticipation of an upcoming event!  And low and behold… if I should drop the leash after putting his harness on him to return to the kitchen to get my keys… he’ll literally stick to my side by pressing against me until I return to and open the front door!

The EXPECTANCY that Fiver places in me to take him on a walk each morning brings to mind the same EXPECTANCY that the angel of the Lord gave to everyone with whom he shared the joyful message of the birth of the New Born King… Christ the Lord.

From Isaiah’s prophecies some 400 years before the actual event, to the revelations given to Simeon and the prophetess Anna and his personal appearances to Zacariah, Mary, Joseph and the shepherds tending to their flocks in the fields near Bethlehem, the angel of the Lord presented to the world an EXPECTATION of the WONDER-FILLED, Prince of WHOLENESS coming to revolutionize the world’s way of thinking and bring eternal salvation to mankind.

In Isaiah 9:6 the Prophet lit the fires of EXPECTATION within the hearts of the Jewish people in Judah by declaring:

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government (rule/dominion) shall be upon his shoulders: and his NAME (singular) shall be called WONDER-FILLED, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of PEACE (Wholeness and/or Satisfaction).” (KJV/MSG) 

According to Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries, the word translated WONDERFUL literally means “MIRACLE, MARVEL or a MARVELOUS THING.” The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions defines it as an “EXTRAORDINARY, HARD TO BELIEVE (with the natural mind) thing.”

In one respect, the angel of the Lord was heralding to mankind a message of an event of the birth of someone through whose actions (on the cross and beyond) would open up a totally new horizon to the way we think, speak and act!  To get ready to activate the strength to believe and receive the EXPECTATIONS of God’s supernatural powers and abilities to live and function in our lives… and through our actions of faith in Him and the truth of His Word… positively affect the lives of people around us.

The world renown evangelist Oral Roberts coined the phrase “EXPECT A MIRACLE” that became the rally cry for all of us Charismatics during the 70’s and 80’s and is still heard today through Brother Robert’s books, at Oral Robert’s University here in Tulsa and the world-wide ministry of his son Richard Roberts.  I believe that it is the statement of faith and the way of life that the angel of the Lord presented at that first CHRISTMAS on that cold and starry night, around that tiny manger in the little town of Bethlehem a few thousand years ago.

I believe that it is the message of daily EXPECTATION that the Lord is still teaching us today as we listen to, learn and follow the teachings found in our Bibles and Christian study books and other aids.  It is the MIRACLE MINDEDNESS that He wants us to keep active in our lives 24/7… no matter where we are or who we are with.

I believe that it is the call that JESUS is renewing for us in THIS CHRISTMAS that we are celebrating right NOW in 2024.

It’s the message that the angel of the Lord originally brought to the world at the birth of the baby Jesus as he encouraged them and continues with us today, to live out our daily lives in such an awareness of being MIRACLE MINDED and NOT fear focused!  To believe for GOD’s BEST and fully EXPECT to see it in all that we do.

SO… what about you?  Will you yield to the call that we revisit each Christmas as we read the Christmas Story with our families? (See: Luke2:1-38) 

When you step out your front door today… will you EXPECT A MIRACLE?

I believe that you will!  Have a blessed, warm and meaningful Christmas… and continue to EXPECT A MIRACLE for the rest of this year and beyond into 2025 as well…!

 

*When Piper started having seizures back in 2009, I got in the habit of keeping the bathroom door slightly ajar when I shower because she had a seizure when I was showering one morning and I wanted to be able to hear her.