Do Miracles Still Happen?

“Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes (Deuteronomy 10:21-22, NIV).”

One of the things that has made me doubt through the years is what seems to be the absence of miracles occurring today. Throughout the Bible, there seems to be countless miracles that happened to God’s people. Today, that just doesn’t seem to be the case. But upon closer investigation, I began to see that the Bible only gives us small snapshots of major events throughout history where God has moved powerfully. Most of the time, even between the events of the Bible, miracles occurred less. In Psalms, one of the writers probably was feeling the same way we do. He said: “I will remember the Lord’s works; yes, I will remember your ancient wonders…(Psalm 77:11, CSB)”

This Psalm was written long before Jesus had entered the scene, and the Psalmist seems to be saying that miracles were ancient. He is reminding himself to remember the Lord’s miracles even if they weren’t happening as much during his life. I think we can all relate to the what he said there. Yet, even as he wrote that, hundreds of other miracles were yet to come. The best of the Bible’s miracles hadn’t happened yet. We don’t see many of these obvious miracles today, but neither did the writer of this Psalm. Perhaps just like his situation, the best miracles are still to come.

God doesn’t usually use miracles just to provide us comfort, but to show the world that He is in control. He uses them to accomplish a greater goal and to bring glory to His name.

With all that being said, miracles still happen. I want to share a specific one that I know of. I grew up hearing about the story of my great grandmother being healed from cancer. Though I heard the story many times, being a couple of generations removed from it, it didn’t always seem real to me. A couple of years ago, however, I read her own account of the events. She had metastasized cancer, and medically, the doctors were just trying to control her pain. She had no hope to live at 26 years old. But God had different plans. These are her words:

Dear Friends,

I would love to sit with each of you and tell you the many experiences I have had with the Lord, before and after my healing.

Since I can’t talk to each you of personally, I will try to tell you just a little about my experience with the Lord through his healing power.

Praise God for divine healing. I know it is real. I am so glad to be a living testimony for God. I feel God has done no much for me. I want my life to be a living sacrifice for Christ.

Fourteen years ago the doctor found I had cancer. I went to the hospital and did all I could. The doctors did all they could, but everything failed. I had taken radium for 116 hours of 2400 units of deep therapy X-ray treatments for the first cancer, and it failed to cure me.

It wasn’t many months until I had the second cancer. The doctors said they could give me a few more treatments to ease the pain and help me a while.

Not knowing what was best to do, and being desperate and in need of help soon, I went to the hospital again for treatments. I was waiting to be taken downstairs for the treatment, when the doctor came in and told me I could go home for awhile. The machine they were to use had broken down, and it would take awhile to get the parts to fix it, as they had to be ordered from New York. I came home, and that night I had a dream, and God showed me in the dream that He didn’t want me in the hospital. I dreamed I was in the hospital ready for an operation. My bed was ready, and everything. But my dream changed and I was outside of the hospital, the windows were closed and the doors were locked. I couldn’t get in, although I tried. The next morning, I told my dream. I said I don’t think God wants me in the hospital. So it was then I had a talk with the doctors, with my mother-in-law sitting by. When asked if there was any hope of being cured, they told me I was beyond all earthly help as far as a cure was concerned, but that the treatments would ease the pain and maybe prolong my life a while. My mother-in-law said it seemed to her as if she was listening to someone getting a death sentence at a trial.

I went home with only the hope of living maybe six months, and prayed for God’s will to be done.

Oh, how I thank God for people who prayed. Our friends were praying, neighbors prayed, different ones prayed, and anointed me with oil for the healing of my body. I prayed and begged God to let me live and stay with my family, having a good companion and six small children I loved and wanted to stay with. But, I finally gave up my will to God and said, Not my will, but thine be done. I testified to the church that I was willing to go or stay if God could get glory from my life, and it would be the means of my children, brothers and sisters being saved. I became obedient to God’s will. I wanted to lead my people to God, and I am still praying that each one of them will give their life to Christ and live for him.

My companion had been called of God to preach but he had refused to go out and do God’s will. So on his knees he promised God if he would heal me, he would give up everything and go preach to a lost and dying world. Then he told me he was giving up his job and going out on faith to preach that souls would be saved.

He said we may not be able to go to the store and always get what we wanted, and things might not be so easy for us and the six children, but I promised him and God that I would be willing to live on bread and water if he would preach and do God’s will. Praise the Lord, God has always provided; we have had more than we deserved. As I sit here and write with tears falling from my eyes, I thank God, for all our dear friends and for all those that prayed a prayer for me.

When our baby was three years old, God healed me. I had made plans for my funeral. But thank God those plans didn’t have to be carried out. When God healed me I awakened Ernest from his sleep. It was 2:15 in the morning. I told him I was [either] healed or dying one. I didn’t have a pain, and oh how sweet the presence of God was in the room. I said if this was death I didn’t have any fear. We praised God and awakened the children. But now we had something to shout and praise God for.

The next morning I went to my neighbors and told them God had healed me, and I have been telling it ever since. Four years later I went back to the hospital upon their request and the request of the cancer association, for an examination. Two doctors examined me, took X-rays and gave me a complete check up, and said there was no trace of a cancer, and my healing is still good today after eleven years. Praise the Lord, and so many more wonderful things I could tell you that God has done for me, but time won’t permit to do so. But [one] of these days we are going home where we won’t live by time and I can kneel at the feet of Jesus and thank him for what he has done for me. I remember one night when he gave me this promise from his word, “Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like a shock of corn cometh in, in his season”- Job 5:26. I am still standing on the promises of God. Praising God for saving my soul from sin. I pray this will be a blessing to each one that reads these words. May God bless you.

Ethel Barley-around 1957

She died at 81 years old, and it was not due to cancer. My great grandfather, Ernest, became a preacher due to this miracle. During his ministry, I’ve heard that around 30,000 people gave their lives to Christ (not to mention around 6,000 funerals and 4,000 weddings). God used this miracle of healing to progress His glory. There’s no doubt in my mind that this was a modern-day miracle from the same God who parted the Red Sea, closed the mouths of lions, and rose Jesus from the dead. God is still active. At times we just have to be like the Psalmist and say we will remember what He has done. Rely on Him being in control.

Has God done miracles in your life? Let us know below.

Any thoughts on this post? Let us know those as well.