Mind Miracles

We are observing and living miracles every day, says Dr Sven Ostring.

So, have you ever seen any?” She stood there, waiting expectantly, wondering if I would be able to give her an honest answer.
I gulped.

It’s always the question you really do not want to hear as a Christian: have you ever seen God actually do anything? Have you ever personally seen a miracle in real life? You always hear about miracles happening for people in Africa or out in the Pacific islands but if you have grown up a regular Adventist kid in Australia or New Zealand (or, in my case, Hong Kong) and did the normal Adventist thing of going to church every Sabbath with your parents, the likelihood of you having a big miracle story so people can go “wow!” is not very high.

The truth is, I have never seen what I would call a spectacular miracle, so what could I say to her? My mind kept wandering back to her question over the next few weeks, and it was only over time that it slowly dawned on me. I had actually seen a miracle. In fact, I had seen many of them and one was standing right there before me that day.

While neither of us recognised it for what it was, there was a miracle standing there. That miracle was her.
It is almost cliché to say that life itself is a miracle but it is something that blows atheists away, too. The fact that we are eating, walking and breathing creatures, aware that we are alive, is truly amazing—something that is well described as being a miracle.

The catch, of course, is that as Christians we say that God did it (create life, that is). The origin of life is a supernatural miracle in our eyes, while for atheists, life is just something natural— miraculous as it may seem to be.

There is a supernatural miracle staring at atheists in the mirror that even they are not truly aware of. This miracle actually pulls the rug out from beneath the feet of scientists who believe God never got involved in creating life and, particularly, us humans.
The miracle I am talking about is the miracle of the mind.

Within each one of us is the capacity to observe, think and reason, which is something we call our “mind.” The reality is, it is a miracle that we are able to think as well as we do. It is amazing to understand that our brain is made up of more than 100 billion neurons, yet they are connected in such a way as to allow us to think and reason properly. Ask any electrician, AV technician or hardware engineer what an incredible challenge it would be to connect all those neurons up correctly.
The fact that we have such complex and intricate minds undermines what scientists try to tell us when they say we evolved.

The way evolution is supposed to work is that it shapes animal populations depending on how well they can survive.
This means faster and stronger animals are more likely to have offspring that survive than slower and weaker animals.

Unfortunately, there are no processes in evolution that can accurately shape the human mind in complex scientific areas such as theoretical mathematics, deep-space cosmology and even evolutionary biology.
In contrast, if God created our minds, we have good reason to accept that the human mind is well designed and very capable. Hence, when a scientist demonstrates their mind is working well, they expose the fact there is more to life than just the process of evolution.
The scientist is actually giving us evidence of the work of God! Or in other words, we are observing the results of a miracle.

Even though we may be able to solve difficult maths problems, send rockets to the moon and decode DNA, the sad damaged.
We can do all of these amazing scientific things, yet we end up starting wars over non-existent weapons of mass destruction, killing our neighbours and family with homemade bombs, and destroying ourselves with drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

The tremendous promise of the Bible is that another miracle is waiting around the corner for each of us. It tells us God sent Jesus into this world to live with us, die for all the terrible things we’ve done and be resurrected as the promise we can have eternal life.

When we accept what Jesus has done for us, God promises He will give us the mind of Jesus through His Holy Spirit. As Paul tells the church in Corinth, when we have the Spirit of God, “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16, ESV). This is how Paul put it when he wrote to the Christians in Philippi: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8).

Another time, when he was writing to the Christians in Rome, Paul wrote: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

You are a miracle—an incredible act of God! May you accept and experience the greater miracle that God wants to offer you. God wants to transform you so you live, act, walk and think like Jesus did—close to Him.

 The Bible on miracles

Many miracles performed by Jesus can be found throughout the Gospels and include things like restoring people’s sight, raising the dead, turning water into wine and curing people’s illnesses— from leprosy to demon possession. Jesus also instructed His disciples to keep on keeping on with working miracles.

“He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan. He divided the sea and led them through; He made the water stand firm like a wall. He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night. He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas; He brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers” (Psalm 78:12-16, NIV).

“‘Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,’ Jesus told him, ‘you will never believe’” (John 4:48).

“Jesus replied, ‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me’” (Matthew 11:4-6).

“Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know” (Acts 2:22).

“We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will” (Hebrews 2:1-4).

“He [Jesus] replied, ‘Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there” and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you’” (Matthew 17:20).

“As the crowds increased, Jesus said, ‘This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation . . .’” (Luke 11:29-30).

“He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing’” (Luke 4:16-21).