Every so often we hear a report of some strange happening that both boggles the mind and stirs the spirit: A frail woman lifts the front of a truck to free a trapped child. A terminally ill cancer patient is awakened in the night by a bright light and a warm sensation that passes from head to toe--and is instantly and completely healed. A sailor, lost at sea, is found and carried to shore by a dolphin. Someone prays for a loved one on the other side of the world, then finds out that that person was saved from impending harm at the same instant she prayed.

Are these simply coincidences of the most extreme sort? Could they be explained scientifically by someone, somewhere, if given all the facts and enough time? Are they supreme examples of the triumph of the human spirit, as some believe? Or are they indeed miracles--evidence of a loving God and His agents interceding and overruling His natural order on behalf of His beloved?

If miracles do happen today, what part are we meant to play in them? The Bible quotes God and Jesus as saying such things as "Concerning the works of My hands, command Me," and "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it" (Isaiah 45:11; John 14:14). Can these offers of partnership with providence be taken literally? If so, does God work His wonders only through nearly sinless saints, or can He work them just as well through ordinary people like you and me?

This issue of Activated offers some surprising answers to these questions.

Keith Phillips
For the Activated family