By Heath Rainwater
The Vine Christian Ministries
I remember when my dad got saved; I was 9 years old. There was no person I admired more or wanted to be like than my dad. He didn’t go to all of my soccer games or help me with my homework and rarely threw a football with me, but at 9 he was everything I wanted to be. When he got saved he began to radically change and our family would never be the same.
We started attending church regularly – and I do mean regularly! We went from a family that never attended church to a family that went to Bible study on Wednesday, prayer on Friday, Sunday morning service, Sunday night service and the occasional saints meeting on Monday.
Every Sunday morning our church choir would come walking down the aisle clapping their hands and singing these words: “I’m looking for a miracle. I expect the impossible. I see the invisible. I feel the intangible.” Whatever happened to my dad was very real and he started devouring the word of God. He couldn’t get enough of it, whether listening to various preachers on an old cassette player in his room or underlining and highlighting in every paragraph and page of his soon to be worn out Bible. There was a transformation happening in my dad and it was abundantly obvious. He went from a quiet, stern, serious, quick-tempered man nipping on Southern Comfort in his shop to a loving, peaceful, laughing man speaking with profound wisdom and unshakeable faith. God was doing great things in my dad.
Eventually, at the age of 24, I too was radically saved and began to pursue God with all of my heart. I started devouring his word for myself. Now I know the meaning of that old song the choir used to sing. That song is about FAITH in the word of God! For years I sang that song, but I knew very little about faith and certainly didn’t expect the impossible to actually happen. I’m talking about faith hinged on God’s will and his word that doesn’t rely on what is possible, probable, logical, reasonable, visible or even rational. The kind of faith that caused the leper to believe he could be clean though there was no cure for his disease (Mt 8:2-3). I’m talking about the kind of faith that caused Moses to stretch his hand over the Red Sea looking for God to perform a miracle according to his word (Ex 14:21). In the book of Hebrews 11:1 Paul writes, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”
Faith can’t be reconciled with the facts of our circumstances or what we believe is possible. Faith is a reliance on the word being performed through God’s supernatural power. What is the last thing you prayed for that wasn’t possible let alone probable? Have you stopped believing that God could save your husband or restore your marriage? The word says, if God saves you he will save your whole family and that nobody can tear apart what he puts together. Have you started to just accept that you will never have anything or that you somehow were destined to lose? The word says that he will make you the head and not the tail and that if you love him all things will work together for your good. Have you felt like you are supposed to do something that seems way too big and fear has stopped you from getting started? The word says you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you and he has not given you a spirit of fear. Do you or a loved one have an addiction that seems like it can’t be defeated? Well, my friend, where is your faith? God’s word says in II Co. 10:4 that the weapons of our warfare are mighty, through God in the pulling down of strongholds. Your faith activates the word in your life. Do you believe God? Then stand in agreement with his word and pray for the impossible, looking for a miracle. God is glorified when he does what only God can do.
My dad is a man that God has gotten glory in his life. He is a truck driver who became a pastor and believed God at his word. He is still the man I most admire and want to be like even now at 39. He founded the church that I now pastor where lives are transformed daily. Now our choir sings that song, “I’m Looking For A Miracle” and I, for one, will never stop.
