You ask Elim experts the questions. This month, it’s Rajinder Buxton, a member of the pastoral team at Ealing Christian Centre.
Do we still live in an age of miracles?
Miracles confirmed Jesus as Messiah and the preaching of God’s Word so that people would believe that Jesus is the Christ and have life in his name (John 20:30,31).
Personally, my husband and I have witnessed many miracles over the years. For example, one couple was delighted that at last the wife had conceived after three years of waiting. Upon taking a scan they were given the devastating news that the wife had a blighted ovum (when a fertilised egg implants and a gestational, embryonic sac forms and grows, but the embryo fails to develop).
They were advised to abort the pregnancy or it could endanger the life of the mother. The couple refused and instead prayed and commanded a baby to be formed in the womb. Miraculously, after praying for four months, they went back to hospital and saw a healthy baby had formed in her womb.
On another occasion, a woman was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata, when large clumps of hair began falling out. She was encouraged to buy a wig because she would lose all her hair and it would not regrow.
After prayer, she woke to find the bald patch not only had new hair but it had grown full-length to below her shoulders, overnight!
Another time, whilst being prayed for, a woman who suffered from a fourth-degree prolapse of her uterus, saw angelic hands moving her uterus back into position. Following a subsequent examination the doctor was baffled because there was no longer a need for an operation.
In Mark 16:15-18, Jesus declares that seeing the sick healed through prayer confirms the preaching of the gospel. My husband and I have ministered in non-Western cultures that are familiar with the reality of occultic powers, who will believe the gospel only when they see Jesus is more powerful than the occultic spirits they believed in.
How can David be ‘a man after God’s own heart’ when he was a murderer and an adulterer (1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22)?
David opens up his life in the book of Psalms for all to examine, and hides nothing. He portrays a life of success and failure. He admits he had sinned against God (2 Samuel 12:13), going further by publicly repenting of his sin in Psalm 51:1-5. He had a deep desire to follow God’s will and do ‘everything’ God wanted him to do.
Sin always brings about terrible consequences. The price of David’s sin of murder and adultery was high, as he spent the rest of his life regretting it and experiencing the fallout from it (2 Samuel 12:10).
David was forgiven by God, who reconciled David to himself (2 Samuel 12:13). David was a man after God’s own heart because he demonstrated his faith and was committed to following the Lord and getting right with him.
May this be a warning to us too, to stay strong in the Lord and not fall. If we have sinned, God will forgive and cleanse us if we repent and turn back to him (1 John 1:8-9).
