Key Scriptures: Matthew 8:1-17 (NIV)

We’ve established that God is able. He is able to answer prayer. He is able to heal, set free, save, and deliver. He’s able to do more than we can imagine! This leads to an obvious question that so many of us would love to have answered, something along the lines of, “Ok, now what!?” Or put plainly, “What’s the formula? Tell us what to do to get the miracle and we’ll do it!”

Read Matthew 8:1-17. As you do, notice the differences in the four people (or groups of people) who were recipients of a miracle from Jesus.

As much as we would like a formula, these 17 verses show us that there isn’t one. In verses 1-4 a man with leprosy comes to Jesus and asks for healing. You could stop there and say that his faith was the formula. In verses 5-13 the centurion asks for healing on behalf of his servant. You could stop there and say that the faith of someone else is the formula. Verses 14-15 further complicate things as seemingly no-one asked for a miracle. Jesus simply saw Peter’s mother-in-law unwell and responded accordingly. Then, verses 16-17 throw any potential formula out the window as Jesus comes against spiritual opposition and drove out evil spirits from those possessed by demons.

There is one common thread woven throughout these four consecutive stories. The place where God’s power in Jesus collided with a real need, a miracle took place.

What do you see in this collision between need and God’s power?

How might this cause your faith to increase?

Perhaps you are facing a real challenge. Could it be that the pain, the heartache, or the impossibility is, in fact, an opportunity for God to move? Take a moment to share about this.

What situations are you facing that if presented to God could become the very space in which His power can be seen?

What else do you notice in these stories that encourages you about God’s ability to do miracles?

Take a moment in prayer to present your needs to God. Release the impossibility to Him and thank Him for His power. Thank Him that nothing is impossible.

We know that Jesus was fully man and fully God. Read Acts 10:38 and see that though Jesus is God, the miracles He performed were performed as a man anointed by the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 3:13-17 is the story of Jesus’ baptism and anointing by the Holy Spirit. With that in mind, what does Ephesians 1:18-21 mean for us today?

John 14:12 talks about people who believe in Jesus doing what He did and even greater things than He did because He was going to Father. That chapter goes on to include Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit to come. Perhaps you’d like to read all of John 14 and see how the Holy Spirit empowers us today.