Could we still pray for miracles?1
Yes, most certainly.
God continues to be active. Miracles
do occur.
Christian apologist Sean McDowell
mentions two recent2 instances of the miraculous. The first instance,
published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, was that of a 23-year old man who was miraculously healed
from gastroparesis – a condition
he was suffering for 16 years. Sean writes: [Emphasis Mine]3
Last week as I
was teaching on the topic of miracles in my Resurrection class at Biola
University, one of my students shared a remarkable instance of a miracle story
from a peer-reviewed medical journal. He is working on a documentary of modern
miracles and also spear-heading a movement to document recent miracle claims in
peer-reviewed journals.
The journal
article is available online with public access, so you can check out the
details for yourself. Essentially, the case is about a 23-year old white male
who experienced intermittent cramping and projectile vomiting at one week of
age. He was soon was diagnosed with gastroparesis (a chronic, lifelong
condition that is known to significantly impact the quality and length of
life).
Maximal
medical treatment was administered, but ineffective. For the next sixteen
years, his symptoms remained severe and refractory and he was dependent on a
feeding tube.
Intercessory
Prayer
Yet in
November 2011, he experienced “proximal intercessory prayer” (PIP) from an
evangelist who reported his own story of having his life spared when his
intestines were severed in a serious car accident. With the permission of the
family, the evangelist prayed in the name of Jesus for the healing of the boy.
Halfway through the prayer, the boy
described experiencing a shock throughout his body. That night after the
prayer, the boy ate a meal for the first time without any complications.
According to the article, this kind of sudden, lasting recovery from
gastroparesis is unique in the scholarly literature. The journal authors write:
“For 16 years
the patient was totally dependent on j-tube feedings and could not tolerate any
form of oral feeding. After receiving PIP, his intolerance to oral feedings was
completely resolved. He was able to tolerate oral feedings and was completely
taken off of the j-tube feedings one month after the PIP experience” (p. 291).
Regarding the prayer in the name of
the Lord Jesus - a means to the miraculous healing, the journal authors write:4
This case
report 15 examines proximal intercessory prayer (PIP) as an
intervention to resolve symptoms related to gastroparesis when maximal medical
management was administered but not effective. PIP, as described by Brown and
colleagues16 refers to direct-contact prayer typically less than
15 min, frequently involving touch, by placing hands on the recipient and
sometimes embracing them in a hug, keeping the intercessor’s eyes open to
observe results. The prayer is typically done in “soft tones”. The intercessor
may “petition God to heal, invite the Holy Spirit’s anointing, and/or command
the healing and departure of any evil spirits in Jesus’ name.”16
The
journal article also mentions the testimony of the person who was
miraculously healed: [Emphasis Mine]5
“Living with
feeding tubes was a struggle, to say the least. Growing up being an active
child, it was difficult to get the hydration and nutrition necessary with a
drip feeding process. During the prayer,
I felt an electric shock that started from my right shoulder traveling down
through my stomach. That was the moment that I knew I had been touched by the
holy spirit. Since I have been healed of my illness, I have had more energy
than ever before, and have thoroughly enjoyed the new adventure of trying all
different types of foods. I have entered into the medical field in search to
help the sick and needy, and to give back the great care I received as a
patient.”
The second instance of the modern miraculous
mentioned by Sean is that of a blind
woman receiving sight:6
Last summer a
student of mine in the Talbot M.A. Apologetics program sent me a remarkable
case of a modern miracle that was peer-reviewed in a medical journal.
Amazingly, he just sent me another modern miracle case from Explore: The
Journal of Science & Healing.
This case is
about a young woman who was legally blind, but after receiving prayer, had her
vision restored immediately and permanently. You can read the journal article
directly, but here are the relevant details.
Receiving
Sight after 12 years
The young
woman was diagnosed with Juvenile Macular Degeneration (JMD) and lost her
vision over three months in 1959 when she was eighteen years old. Initial
reports show that her vision was 7/200 in each eye.
In 1972, after
being legally blind for over a dozen years, she received proximal intercessory
prayer (PIP) from her husband, which is a kind of direct contact, petitionary
prayer that often lasts over fifteen minutes. They went to bed at midnight,
which was later than normal for them, and he read her two Bible verses and then
began to pray. Although he had never heard of a miraculous present-day healing,
and he did not speak in tongues, fast or perform other common spiritual
practices associated with Pentecostal or Charismatic circles, he began to pray
boldly for her healing.
According to
the authors of the article, “At the close of the prayer, his wife opened her
eyes and saw her husband kneeling in front of her, which was her first clear
visual perception after almost 13 years of blindness.”
In 1974, her
visual acuity was 20/100 without correction, and then in 2001, she vision had
improved to 20/40 in each eye. Except for common age-related problems, her
sight has remained intact for the past 47 years.
Find below an excerpt from the
journal article about the healing prayer, which the husband prayed over his
blind wife:7
When the
couple went to bed later than normal (after midnight), her husband performed a
hurried spiritual devotional practice (reading two Bible verses) and got on his
knees to pray. She describes that they both began to cry as he began to pray,
with a hand on her shoulder while she laid on the bed, and with great feeling
and boldness he prayed: “Oh, God! You can restore […] eyesight tonight, Lord. I
know You can do it! And I pray You will do it tonight.” At the close of the
prayer, his wife opened her eyes and saw her husband kneeling in front of her,
which was her first clear visual perception after almost 13 years of blindness.
The couple
were not cessationists (i.e., believing that spiritual gifts such as
glossolalia, healing, and prophecy are not for the present age), but they had
never heard of anyone receiving a miraculous healing in the present day. The
patient reported, “The only healings we knew about were in the Bible”. She
indicated that her husband had never before prayed for someone who subsequently
experienced a remarkable recovery. Their only prior experience with prayer for
healing seems to be when the patient and her husband had briefly visited the
meeting of a well-known healing evangelist, but they left before the time in
the meeting when the healing practices began. The patient and her husband were
involved with a Baptist church at the time that did not practice the laying on
of hands while praying for the sick. They also did not practice glossolalia,
nor fasting, which are more commonly associate with Pentecostal or Charismatic
sects that believe miraculous healings happen in the present age as opposed to
only in the ancient world.
Here’s the testimony of the woman
who was healed of her blindness: [Emphasis Mine]8
“What people
need to understand is ‘I was blind’, totally blind and attended the School for
the Blind. I read Braille and walked with a white cane. Never had I seen my
husband or daughters [sic] face. I was
blind when my husband prayed for me- then just like that- in a moment, after
years of darkness I could see perfectly! It was miraculous! My daughter's
picture was on the dresser. I could see what my little girl and husband looked
like, I could see the floor, the steps. Within seconds, my life had drastically
changed. I could see, I could see!”
Please observe that these are not
random reports of the miraculous without credibility. These instances of the
miraculous are credible because they have been published in peer-reviewed
medical journals. So miracles happen in our time and age.
As prayerful Christians, let us
continue praying in Jesus’ name for the miraculous healing of our relatives and
friends. If God so wills, HE will heal. Meanwhile, let us keep praying without
giving up (cf. Luke 18:1-8).
Endnotes:
1Dr.
William Lane Craig defines a miracle as, “So a miracle, I think, properly
defined, is an event which the natural causes at a time and place cannot
produce at that time and place. Or, more succinctly, a miracle is a naturally
impossible event – an event which the natural causes at a certain time and
place cannot bring about. It is beyond the productive capacity of nature…” (https://www.reasonablefaith.org/media/reasonable-faith-podcast/when-is-It-rational-to-believe-in-miracles/)
2The
term recent refers to the date in
which the healing was published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
3https://seanmcdowell.org/blog/a-remarkable-case-of-a-peer-reviewed-modern-miracle
4https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965229918313116
5Ibid.
6https://seanmcdowell.org/blog/the-blind-receive-sight-a-peer-reviewed-modern-miracle
7https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550830720300926?fbclid=IwAR0tgsnm-fRTDImK5eGZSndVW1bNzfijdyIiqF9pkZo07ywT3wHyFWfkr-Y
8Ibid.
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last accessed on 25th April 2020.
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