Are Miracles Gotten Through a Formula?

Having said these things, He spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva.  Then He anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam.”  John 9:6-7

    Each of us desires a supernatural experience with God.  We have areas in our lives where we long for God’s touch.  Healing, comfort, rescue, instruction, these are sought each day in our prayers.  When we hear that someone we know received the miracle of their lifetime, we rush to hear their story.  We want to know how it happened; when it happened.  As they tell us all about it, we wonder if their story holds the secret to our own breakthrough.

I have been curious as to why Jesus varied His methods of healing.  Once, Jesus put spit on a man’s eyes.  Another time, he just touched them and the man could see.  This time, in John 9, he put mud on them and told the man to make the journey to the pool of Siloam, to the southeast corner of Jerusalem, to wash the mud off.  Why keep changing the methods of healing?

If Jesus consistently sent blind men to the pool of Siloam to wash their eyes, every blind person would have attempted to travel to the ‘miracle pool.’  The power of Jesus would be obscured by the grandeur of the tales about Siloam.  God will not share His glory with another.  It is suggested that he varied the methods of healing so that no ‘formula’ could be derived.  The whole point of a blind person receiving sight was that he had had an encounter with Jesus Christ.

For any who has ever waited on God, we know how hard we work for our miracle.  We pray more, read more, trying to clue in to the secret of getting God to move on our behalf.  If such miracles were dependent on a ‘to do list’, we would all get our breakthrough much sooner.  But on the other side of it, what would be our testimony?  “I did this, and then this, and finally there was a miracle.”  Breakthroughs by means of self-effort erase faith, erase trust, and erase God’s glory.

I have known moments where mud was put on my eyes.  I fell to my knees in gratitude and knew that whatever God had done was undeserved.  I rejoiced with many tears.  Why did He wait so long?  I don’t know all the reasons but in the waiting room, wisdom was learned and my faith was strengthened instead of destroyed.

Like you, I am still waiting for other breakthroughs.  They may come in this lifetime, they may not.  In the meantime, I fix my eyes on the Healer and know that if He chooses to stretch out His hand yet again on my behalf, it will only be because Jesus is glorious and all powerful.

Save me from formulas.  My life’s story is all about Your gift of grace.  Amen