Unity Talk – May 2013
My question for you today is What is a Miracle… What really is the miracle? How do you know if you are in the presence of a miracle? And If you pray for a miracle, how do you know if you received it? What is the purpose of a miracle?
Granville Oral Roberts was born into poverty in Beebe, Okla., on Jan. 24, 1918. He began stuttering as a young child and then, as a teenager, contracted a potentially deadly case of tuberculosis. Bedfast at 17, he was carried to a revival meeting by his older brother, where a healing evangelist was praying for the sick.
On the way, he clearly heard God speak to him, saying, “Son, I am going to heal you, and you are to take My healing power to your generation. You are to build Me a university based on My authority and on the Holy Spirit.”
Roberts was miraculously healed of tuberculosis and stuttering at the revival meeting. His healing ministry was born several years later.“
The actual impetus for the founding of the Unity movement came from Myrtle Fillmore’s remarkable healing of tuberculosis. Myrtle Fillmore was healed because her thinking was changed. She had a deep-seated belief that her illness was inherited. From a lecture on metaphysics, however, she suddenly grasped the idea that she was a child of God and did not inherit sickness. She prayerfully applied her new insight with great success, and her health instantly began to improve.
In describing her experience, Myrtle writes: “I have made what seems to me a discovery. I was fearfully sick; I had all the ills of mind and body that I could bear. Medicine and doctors ceased to give me relief, and I was in despair, when I found practical Christianity. I took it up and I was healed. This is how I made what I call my discovery:
1997 and I worked for the health department as the nurse in charge of Tuberculosis Control. I travelled to another county for some training. They had old x rays from old time treatments of TB. Pretty gruesome and barbaric, actually. One of their current patients was coming in for an evaluation. I was told, she faithfully took her medicine for 9 months. Back in 1997 a TB patient was put on a 4 medication regime for 2-3 months and then only have to take 2 medications for 6-7 months. If you had a drug resistant form of TB, you were in for a much more complicated regime.
The patient was Hispanic and brought her translator with her. The doctor beamed at the “ before and after” x rays of her lungs. “ Well”, he said, ” you did really well, you took your medicine everyday, and your lungs are healed.”
There was a brief exchange of smiles, and some Spanish conversation between the patient and her translator. The translator took a breath and said, ” She ( the patient) didn’t take any of the medicine.” “ None?’ the doctor asked. The translator shook her head “no.”” God healed her.”
When the patient and translator left the office, just imagine the medical discussion that ensued. “ And what did she do with all that free medicine that we gave her?” “These things happen, they are not miracles.”” When there were no drugs for TB( before 1950’s), people often got better without drugs. They lived in “ Tb resorts “in upper New York or in the desert of Tucson, AZ. Rest, relaxation and good nutrition was the cure of TB.
My my… didn’t that doctor sound informative as well as defensive.
Oral Roberts, Myrtle Filmore and a Hispanic woman from a northern Illinois county, all had a TB miracle healing. What is a miracle?
Miracle ( Wikipedia)
A miracle is an event not ascribable to human power or the laws of nature and consequently attributed to a supernatural, especially divine, agency.[1] Such an event may be attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that God may work with the laws of nature to perform what are considered miracles.[2] Theologians say that, with divine providence, God regularly works through created nature yet is free to work without, above, or against it as well.[3]
The word “miracle” is often used to characterize any beneficial event that is statistically unlikely but not contrary to the laws of nature, such as surviving a natural disaster, or simply a “wonderful” occurrence, regardless of likelihood, such as a birth. Other miracles might be: survival of an illness diagnosed as terminal, escaping a life-threatening situation or ‘beating the odds’. Some coincidences may be seen as miracles.[4]
This past week, after the Moore, Oklahoma tornadoes hit, you heard the word, ”miracle” People saved, pets rescued, horses flying thru the air, landing untouched.
One video showed the bathroom where a mother and her son hid out during the tornado. It was the only room untouched by the tornadoes path. The person doing the video said this was proof of God’s miracle. He wasn’t just thanking God, he was saying this is proof of God. Is this a miracle?
I love the words from the Song:
HOLY NOW
When I was a boy, each week
On Sunday, we would go to church
And pay attention to the priest
He would read the holy word
And consecrate the holy bread
And everyone would kneel and bow
Today the only difference is
Everything is holy now
Everything, everything
Everything is holy now
When I was in Sunday school
We would learn about the time
Moses split the sea in two
Jesus made the water wine
And I remember feeling sad
That miracles don’t happen still
But now I can’t keep track
‘Cause everything’s a miracle
Everything, Everything
Everything’s a miracle
Wine from water is not so small
But an even better magic trick
Is that anything is here at all
So the challenging thing becomes
Not to look for miracles
But finding where there isn’t one
When holy water was rare at best
It barely wet my fingertips
But now I have to hold my breath
Like I’m swimming in a sea of it
It used to be a world half there
Heaven’s second rate hand-me-down
But I walk it with a reverent air
‘Cause everything is holy now
Everything, everything
Everything is holy now
Read a questioning child’s face
And say it’s not a testament
That’d be very hard to say
See another new morning come
And say it’s not a sacrament
I tell you that it can’t be done
This morning, outside I stood
And saw a little red-winged bird
Shining like a burning bush
Singing like a scripture verse
It made me want to bow my head
I remember when church let out
How things have changed since then
Everything is holy now
It used to be a world half-there
Heaven’s second rate hand-me-down
But I walk it with a reverent air
‘Cause everything is holy now
Some say human beings are a miracle…the fact that we hold together so well… Our human form is built out of five of them — oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and calcium.
Others, like phosphorous, potassium, sulphur, sodium and chlorine, occur in very small quantities but are vital for life. These building blocks are known as the chemical elements.
On a start trek episode humans were called “ ugly bags of water”
That doesn’t sound too miraculous…
It is said Jesus performed 4types of miracles
Miracles Over Nature: water into wine, walking on water,
Miracles of Supply: feed the thousands with fish and loaves of bread.. with leftovers
Miracles Over Demon Powers: cast out demons aka exorcism
Miracles of Healing: raising the dead, curing people of blindness, lameness, leprosy, things like that
I really don’t think it matters what the miracle or defiance of natural law is.. its what the miracle does. Defying natural law, changes all the time, depending on the year and our evolutionary consciousness.
At least 95% of the world believes the world is round, we can fly like birds in the sky, we can swim like whales in the ocean, we can raise the dead, walk on water and part seas and land on the moon. We cast out demons of the soul with a change in habit, going to AA meetings or taking medicine.
Many years ago I was in the mood to make Vietnamese spring rolls. Before I knew it, 10 or so people were coming over. At 2 eggrolls a person, I didn’t have enough. So I asked God, “well… you fed thousands with a little bread and a little fish…could you help me out ?” Everyone had enough and there were leftovers. Instead of saying, “thank you God” I said” What, they didn’t like my cooking?”
It doesn’t matter if the miracle presents itself in a physical healing, surviving the tornadoes in a bathroom, walking on water, turning water into wine, raising the dead, or feeding 10 people on a next to nothing budget. The miracle is: did this event change your perception, by shocking your senses and then opening up to a greater good and more possibilities on how to live.
Miracles are about taking a leap , a jump, a small step past your perceived limitations.
May you have, perceive and be part of miracles this week.