Predictable Miracles

Whenever Jesus performs a miracle, it’s inherently and infinitely mysterious. Again, he is God, and we are not. From our perspective, his miraculous rescues are uncontrollable and unpredictable. But that’s not entirely true, and community is a good example of why. The miracles that happen in community are, on some level, quite predictable indeed.

Jesus promised that he’s uniquely present when we gather in community. “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matt. 18:20). When Jesus said these words, he was perhaps explaining how to restore relationships that had broken, but it’s just as true in every other context too. Jesus is uniquely present when his followers gather because he is uniquely present in each of his followers’ hearts. His very Spirit dwells there.

So if we ever want to encounter the supernatural, he’s told us exactly what to do: gather. “No one has ever seen God,” wrote John the apostle (1 John 4:12). But when two or three brothers gather, we get to experience him—“if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12). When two or three brothers gather, heaven and earth collide. God and man interact. 

“When I go to my brother,” wrote the brilliant minister and mutineer Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “I am going to God.” When two or three brothers gather, we encounter the genuine and miraculous presence of God himself. And we see miracles happen.

We won’t know when or where, but we never need to wait long. The specifics of the miracles are unpredictable, but the fact that rescue will happen at some point is inevitable. Men will find acceptance and belonging. Wholeness and wholesomeness. Men will get free from lies. From unhealthy attachments. From unhelpful beliefs about God and themselves. Men will get free from substances and circumstances and sins from which they never thought they’d get free. Men will discover peace and joy, rest and optimism. They will find a God they never dreamed actually existed.