Miracles of deliverance

Jane^* was raped by her older brother’s friend at the age of fifteen. She told her dad about it. But though they had a special relationship, and he was a loving man, they buried the nightmare alive in the tormented place where it was born. Jane suffered. How does one climb the precipitous heights of adolescence with memories and emotions that threaten to shove one into free-fall?

In her early twenties, Jane confided in a friend who encouraged her to go for counselling with the pastor’s wife. The counselling went on... and on. Jane felt like she was digging up Mt Everest with a tea spoon. Would she ever be whole again? Sometimes, when she couldn’t sleep, she would go for a walk and find herself at the beach watching the waves. Drawn by the immense nothingness of the sea, she wondered what it would be like to wade in.... and swim.... until she could swim no more...

Jane went to a church that prayed for those with needs during the service. So one Sunday, she went up to the front for prayer. And God did a miracle. He put her down under the power of the Holy Spirit for some “deep surgery”, and when she came round, the pain was gone. No more staggering in the smelly sludge of low self-esteem. Instead of knowing what she was supposed to believe about God and herself, she now truly believed it.

Do you long to see more miracles in your life and church? Most of us have longed for a miracle at one time or another. Take away my desire for alcohol; make me feel loved; heal my wife’s body; give Johnny a job; change my husband. Such requests are often valid, under-pinned by real pain and desperate need. Yet sometimes God doesn’t do a miracle.

Within the space of days, James was decapitated, but Peter, arrested for the same purpose, was miraculously sprung from jail by an angel (Acts 12:1-19). God is capable of both. And He decides which is best in the case of each individual. Many of the “heroes of the faith” (Hebrews 11) were miraculously saved from dire circumstances – they “shut the mouths of lions”, “quenched the fury of the flames” and “received back their dead, raised to life again”. Yet others were not – they were tortured, stoned, flogged, imprisoned and sawn in half.

So what should we do when we find ourselves awash with waves and bailing furiously? I think we should ask for God to calm the waves but be prepared to weather the storm. God WILL deliver you, whether the deliverance is instant, worked over time or comes through death. We see examples of all three in Scripture. Peter was rescued from jail. But James was executed. Paul, however, found himself between both extremes: he was not spared the experience of going through a shipwreck, but God gave him a plank to hold. So in the end, he was delivered from drowning, but the deliverance took time, and it was a soggy, exhausting experience. Paul’s job was to hold on.

Most people and their circumstances seem to fall into Paul’s category of deliverance. God will get you through by supplying a plank: counselling, a good friend, just enough money for today, or one of the countless ways that God provides for your needs. But oh how we long for a flick-of-the-switch cure. It would be so much easier for us. But “plank” deliverances produce the fruit of perseverance, patience, empathy and character. Sometimes, we must accept that God is withholding the instant cure in order to make up for what we and those around us are lacking in godliness.

However, we should never forget that even if we do die (it has to happen one day you know), death will usher us into God’s ultimate deliverance, so we can’t lose. Nothing the world throws at us can win when “to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).

So ask for the calm but be prepared to weather the storm and in some cases to drown. The attitude of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is the apotheosis of what I am talking about: “if we are thrown in the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it ... but even if He does not...” (Daniel 3:17 and 18). God is good. He loves us. And He knows what we need most.

Cheers for now - Ian

^*Name changed – time of incident/location sufficiently far removed from the readers of this blog to conceal identity.