Spiritually Dismissing Heavenly Miracles
An all-creatures Bible Message

Spiritually Dismissing Heavenly Miracles
 
A Sermon Delivered to
The Compassion Internet Church
 
12 November 2017
 
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor

Scripture References

Joshua 24:4-10
Matthew 25:1-13
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Spiritually dismissing heavenly miracles is unfortunately the problem with most of the people living in the world today, because they are not spiritually attuned to the heavenly will of God.
 
Sometimes these heavenly miracles are so large that everyone can see them, yet only a relatively few truly see the hand of God in them and believe and have faith.
 
In other words, most people are really spiritually dismissing heavenly miracles, even the large ones, because they are living in the corrupt ways of this world and see only in worldly terms of natural occurrences or coincidences.
 
They do not see or think in spiritual terms, so they just dismiss spiritual things out of hand.
 
In Joshua 24:4-10, we are listening to God speaking to Joshua.

4. ‘And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and to Esau I gave Mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.

Esau, the first born son of Isaac, and a twin of Jacob, followed the ways of the world and was a hunter.
 
And even though we are told that God hated Esau, we can see that He blessed him with Mount Seir.
 
This and the adjacent mountains extend southeast of Israel and into the Horn of Africa.
 
Furthermore, we believe that Esau followed the ways of Ishmael who was the father of the Arab nations, and over time they combined with several of the other Moslem nations who are still fighting with their brother Jacob (Israel) to this very day.
 
This all happened because Abraham didn’t fully trust in the Lord to wait for the Lord to fulfill His promise to make a nation of people through His wife Sarah who was then past the normal age of child bearing.
 
Instead, Abraham had an affair with Sarah’s maid Hagar who gave birth to Ishmael.
 
And God went on talking to Joshua…

5. 'Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt by what I did in its midst; and afterward I brought you out.
 
6. 'And I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea; and Egypt pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.

These are some pretty big miracles that most of the people seemed to be spiritually dismissing, for they failed to fully believe and trust that God was able to do anything He wanted.

7. 'But when they cried out to the LORD, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them and covered them; and your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness for a long time.

They lived in the wilderness for a long time because they were spiritually dismissing heavenly miracles, and failed to trust in the Lord their God.
 
And God had the Hebrews stay in the wilderness for 40 years, because of their hardness of heart and rebellion against Him.

8. 'Then I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land when I destroyed them before you.
 
9. 'Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sent and summoned Balaam the son of Beor to curse you.
 
10. 'But I was not willing to listen to Balaam. So he had to bless you, and I delivered you from his hand.
NASB

God has the power to turn evil into good, but unfortunately most people don’t really believe that such things are miracles from the Lord; for as we see in the recorded Biblical history, most of the people were spiritually dismissing heavenly miracles, as they do to this very day.
 
In Matthew 25:1-13, Jesus was talking in parables, because most people who say they believe, or who are followers of Jesus Christ, didn’t understand things in the spiritual realm, as it unfortunately is today…

1. "Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom.

Listen carefully, for not all ten virgins are in the kingdom of heaven.
 
Furthermore, the virgins represent people who are believers in mind, but not necessarily in soul and spirit.

2. "And five of them were foolish, and five were prudent.

Those who are foolish are an example of the people who are believers in mind only, but the prudent ones are believers in mind, soul, and spirit.
 
Furthermore the foolish most often don’t utilize their God given common sense.

3. "For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,

To us the oil is also an example of the Holy Spirit within us, and the lack of oil represents those people who believe in mind only, but do not have the Holy Spirit within them.

4. but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.
 
5. "Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep.
 
6. "But at midnight there was a shout, 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.'
 
7. "Then all those virgins rose, and trimmed their lamps.
 
8. "And the foolish said to the prudent, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'
 
9. "But the prudent answered, saying, 'No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.'

No one can actually buy the spiritual oil, the Holy Spirit, for it or He is a free gift that is given by the Lord to all truly born again believers who live in the heavenly will of God and follow the teachings of Jesus and truly seek to free creation from its present corruption.
 
To us, this is also a way of being able to see the difference between the foolish and the prudent, for if they are continuing to contribute to the pain, suffering, and death in this world that is inflicted upon other humans, the animals, or the environment, they are the foolish ones who are spiritually dismissing heavenly miracles, and we should separate ourselves from them in our actions.
 
We are to be living and visible examples of peacemaking children of God, as witnesses to the world around us, in the hope that others will see, understand, and repent of their worldly ways, and truly seek to become children of God.

10. "And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.
 
11. "And later the other virgins also came, saying, 'Lord, lord, open up for us.'
 
12. "But he answered and said, 'Truly I say to you, I do not know you.'

The Lord said this because He sees the intent of the heart, and these people didn’t believe in soul and spirit, which is why they weren’t ready.

13. "Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.
NASB

People including most believers who live in the corrupt ways of this world are not on the alert, because they are more interested in living in the world with their friends and family than they are in the spiritual realm of heaven, where they can hear the Holy Spirit calling us to heaven.
 
In our last Bible passage for today, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, we are told about those who are truly believers in mind, heart, spirit, and soul.

13. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope.

Those who are asleep are really people who have died in our physical world, but who are only asleep in the spiritual realm.

14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

Those who have fallen asleep in Jesus are those who truly believed and lived in the heavenly will of God; these are the ones who never were spiritually dismissing heavenly miracles, but who always saw the hand of God at work in the world around them.

15. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.
 
16. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
 
17. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.

This is what people refer to as the rapture, when true living believers are translated directly into heaven without having to pass through death.

18. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
NASB

This is what happens with all true believers.
 
This is a miracle of God.
 
This is also what we believe will happen to all the animals.
 
Praise the Lord for all that He is doing.
 
Don’t be caught up like most of the people in the world who are always spiritually dismissing heavenly miracles.
 
See the everyday miracles that are all around us.
 
See through all the evil in the world to the heavenly promises of God.
 
Be a peacemaking child of God.
 
Amen

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