Believing God for Miracles

Do you believe in miracles? I mean the kind only God can provide. If you are like most people, I’m sure you would answer yes. So many of us have experienced those difficult situations when we cry out to God in the middle of the night: “Oh Lord, I need Your help! Oh God, where are You? I need a miracle.”

My first experience with a desperate plea to God took place just after I gave birth to our first son. He was born prematurely, and his lungs collapsed as he took his first breath. The nurse’s eyes told me something was terribly wrong. As she whisked him off to ICU, I cried out in desperation, “Where’s my baby? Where is she taking him? What went wrong?”

Over the next few hours, the doctor revealed the news no parent wants to hear: “We don’t know if he will make it through the night.”

I will never forget those words. They propelled me to exercise my faith and ask God for a miracle. Lying alone in the recovery room, I cried out to God as I’d never prayed before. I didn’t doubt God heard me, but I did wonder if He would come through.

I remembered an evangelist visiting the university I attended to teach about the discipline and exercise of faith. He used an interesting phrase that was intriguing yet confusing all at once. I never could get right—until I needed to. He said:

• Faith is believing it’s so…
• When it’s not so…
• In order for it to be so.

Faith is exercising your belief when everything around you tells you to give in because it’s impossible. Your faith in God propels you forward to believe you will see your prayer answered, you will see your miracle become a reality.

Alone in the recovery room that night, I heard that complex phrase coming back to me: Tammy, you must believe it’s so when it’s not so in order for it to be so.

That’s faith. That’s a miracle.

That night, I exercised my faith and cried out to God. I decreed and declared that my son would live. That whatever the doctor said would be temporal, but my faith would be eternal. That I would exercise my faith in the spirit realm, and God would grant my miracle.

God did heal my son. Today, he is a strong, successful businessman (and handsome, too).

Was it my faith? Was it a miracle? I would say it was both. It’s easy to give up and give in when our doubt is stronger than our belief. But that is exactly when we need to fight the good fight and believe God for divine supernatural healing and opportunities only He can bring.

Believing for Miracles

This story sets the premise for my new book, Fasting for Miracles. I’ve practiced fasting for many years. I believe it is not only biblical but also brings the breakthrough we need to see the divine disclosed. So when God prompted me to write this book, I had to go deeper. I had to research, study, pray and ask God to teach me more.

Does God still do miracles today? Can I exercise my faith and see a miracle firsthand? The answer is yes.

Fasting for Miracles will take you on a journey through a 21-day plan of biblical miracle stories and passages about fasting. You will begin the process of asking God for the faith you need to see your miracle become a reality.

It’s easy to look in the face of a newborn baby and tell the glowing parents, “It’s a miracle.” But what about the heartache of a husband who has just found out his wife has cancer? Or a young single mother who just lost everything she had in an earthquake? Or a timid wife who is afraid to stand up to her abusive husband? Can you look at those faces and believe for a miracle?

This is when we exercise our faith—when we can’t explain the hurt and heartache of a diagnosis, a loved one’s evil agenda or a natural disaster. Instead, we decree and declare that God is good, His ways are higher and yes, He is able to perform a miracle.

Most Christians today don’t take the time to study the miracles in the Bible. They may know a few Bible stories about miraculous encounters and even love to recite them, but what does it mean to expect to receive a miracle? Is it something we do or something God does?

We know from the Word of God that there are certain periods of outpouring of miracles, times and dispensations when we see a magnitude of supernatural occurrences. In Genesis, we see Moses and Joshua empowered to perform miracles, and later, we see the prophets Elijah and Elisha endowed with the gift of miracles. In the New Testament, Jesus performed miracles, and the early disciples were charged to perform them as well. So we know there are specific times when we see miracles en masse. We also know there were isolated incidents throughout Scripture when various people received miracles. I do not believe miracles have ceased, and I believe we are poised for another outpouring of God’s Spirit through signs, wonders and yes, miracles.

Why does God perform miracles? He does so for the manifestation and revelation of who He is. Yes, He desires to build our faith and answer our prayers, but the ultimate reason for miracles is to bring glory and honor to God.

We don’t stop asking, we don’t stop believing and we don’t stop expecting God to answer our request. We press in, push through, wait and seek a sovereign God who holds our destiny in His mighty hands.

One of my deep passions is prayer-walking. I grew up in the home of praying parents, a role model that has stayed with me throughout my lifetime. But I took up prayer-walking about 10 years ago. I love walking our community and our city, praying over houses and churches and businesses and asking God to send a mighty awakening.

I was on a prayer walk the day I noticed the Anaheim Hills post office was for sale. I stopped and prayed over the building. I asked God to open the doors for us to buy the building and move Influence Church into a prominent area in our community, which He did.

One of the first things God had me do after we bought the building was to put in a prayer wall similar to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, a place where people could place their prayer requests, pray and expect a miracle. We now have over 70,000 prayer requests in that wall.

So does God still work miracles today? Absolutely. I have often witnessed the supernatural hand of God acting on behalf of His children.

Testimonies from the Prayer Wall

Two Muslim women: On one occasion, two Muslim women came in. When they were invited to add a prayer request to the wall, one of them began to cry, explaining that her 16-year-old son had a brain tumor, and his prognosis was not good. She placed her request in the wall and returned with her friend in a few days to add another request.

Two weeks after that, they came back and gave our prayer team member a report of praise and thanksgiving. A visit to the doctor and additional tests revealed that her son’s tumor was gone. They gave praise to Jesus for the miracle of the prayer wall. They explained that, as Muslims, they could not attend our services, but we assured them they were always welcome to pray here and experience the miracle power of Jesus.

Ariel: Ariel, a 26-year-old mother of three children, was diagnosed with a brain tumor the circumference of a grapefruit. I felt, as did all who gathered around Ariel to pray, that this was not how life should be. This was not a cleverly designed plot of the Father to strengthen her faith or to punish His children. Sickness is contrary to the way the kingdom is supposed to work. It is our job to release all the promises of God on earth. Only then will the world understand that God is good.

During this time, I truly began to understand both the goodness of the Father and the power of hope. From here, I will let Ariel tell her own story:

I asked God, “Please make me a miracle. Lord, I have three babies and one with special needs; they need me.” The next Sunday at Influence, I met with Pastor Phil, Tammy and many other amazing people who prayed over me. I felt something supernatural happen that day.

The next week, I met with the neurosurgeon to discuss the results of my latest MRI. The doctor walked in and said very nonchalantly, “Well, the tumor is barely visible.” He had no explanation as to why the tumor had shrunk. But I do. God can do anything through faith.

Susan: Twenty-five-year-old Susan, who joined our church during its first year, also shared her story with me:

On Sept. 26, 2012, my bladder stopped functioning. My urethra closed up completely, making it impossible to do one of the most natural voluntary bodily actions. After surgery No. 10, I was ready to give up! It was then that members of the Influence prayer team prayed, asking God to rid me of all the physical and emotional pain from my past and present. God answered my prayers. He heard my cry!

The doctor confirmed my faith—he looked at me with confusion and a smile. He shook my hand and said, “I don’t know how you did it, but you did. Let’s go take the tube out. Congratulations!”

I immediately covered my face and cried. Overwhelmed with happiness, I said out loud, “Thank You, Jesus!”

Lucy: Lucy was just 3 ½ years old when she was diagnosed with a malignant skin cancer on her scalp. Her parents recalled:

Our first response was to have Pastor Phil and Tammy and the Influence prayer team pray for her complete healing. On July 2, 2014, we received a call from the doctor saying all signs of the cancer were gone! This is yet another testimony that Jesus still heals people. If you have a need that only God can answer, we encourage you to connect with the prayer ministry of Influence Church.

Seeking God for Revival

Part of our struggle lies in understanding that God does not always answer our prayers in our time frame. I often wonder if God will say to us when we get to heaven, “Look here, see what I had for you if you had just waited a little longer.”

God is in the wait. God is in the struggle; God is in the test. Not every miracle comes immediately. Most come when we are ready to receive them.

Are you ready to receive your miracle? In my book Fasting for Miracles, we will walk together for 21 days to see God work and perform a fresh anointing in your life.

I am asking God to move in our nation, our churches and our homes. We have launched a corporate national fast and are asking churches, Bible study groups and community groups to join us in believing Him for miracles and breakthroughs.

Whether with your church body, a small group or as an individual, will you consider joining us in this endeavor? Together we can seek God for revival and renewal.

But what if He doesn’t answer our prayer? What happens when we don’t receive our miracle?

This question yields a difficult response. Yes, there have been times in all our lives that we did not receive the miracle we asked for—hoped for, prayed for—and yes, possibly even fasted for.

Where are You, God? Can You hear me? Is it something I have done or something You just won’t do?

The truth is, we don’t always get our miracle. Does that mean God is mad, or perhaps worse yet, indifferent—He just doesn’t care?

Maybe we try to make it super spiritual and use the verse that says, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). We brush it off as though He is doing something for our good in our deeper core. Do we just say, “Wait, rest, believe and have faith?”

Something my husband once said changed my life: “Simple answers to complex questions are bound to be wrong.”

I can’t give you a simple answer to a complex question. I don’t know why God doesn’t always give us our miracle—especially to people who walk with Him and love Him, those who exercise faith and even fast and believe. God is God, and His ways truly are higher than ours. Maybe some of these experiences will only make sense in light of the full healing all of God’s children will experience in the end.

I have been praying for a miracle for close to two years now that I still haven’t received, and I am not giving up. I’m seeing evidence of my ask, evidence of my prayer and evidence of my faith. And I am still fasting for my miracle.

If you haven’t received your miracle, it’s OK to ask God why. I would even go so far as to say God is in the journey with all our questioning. He is in the discovery and the process.

It’s OK to have the hard conversations with God. He loves you and will always be there to hear your deepest request. Never stop asking; never stop believing. Never stop expecting your miracle.

I encourage you to take a spiritual journey through Fasting for Miracles, and I also encourage you to read the first volume in this series, Fasting with God. You can find the book on Amazon or on my website, TammyHotsenpiller.com.

May God richly bless you as you believe Him for your miracle.

Tammy Hotsenpiller is an author, speaker, life coach and leader of a national women’s movement. She is president of Total Life Coach LLC and founder of Women of Influence. Hotsenpiller and her husband, Phil, are co-founders of Influence Church in Anaheim Hills, California. They live in Orange County and are blessed with three children, who have equally incredible spouses, and seven grandchildren.