Regardless of where you are when it comes to following Jesus, I can guarantee that there have been many moments in your life where you have desired to see God move in an unmistakable way. Who doesn’t want to see a miracle? I remember as a kid praying that God would do some random things just to prove He was real – I seem to remember asking to see a dinosaur – it never appeared by the way. As I got older, I would pray for more specific miracles in my own life. Now, as someone who follows Him, I have what I like to call a ‘matured’ desire to see Him do the most incredible miracles! It’s maybe not that mature, but it makes me feel better to call it that.

I have to say I have been blessed to see God do some incredible miracles in my life. Here’s just a few. I’ve watched His spirit move in a room of around a thousand teenagers, which left us in floods of tears for no apparent reason. I have seen a woman who was blind receive, not full healing but peripheral vision. I have seen legs grow out, all sorts of healing of backs, arms, shoulders, and heads. I even watched a throat cancer sufferer who was far from Jesus declare that their tongue halved in size after prayer. I have felt God’s power on me in wonderful ways, I have seen miraculous provision in terms of finance, and watched many, many people give their lives to Jesus, which might be the greatest miracle of all. All of these things have been wonderful, but they have left me hungry for more. They have also taught me something. It’s entirely possible to experience a miracle from God and completely miss Him in the miracle. This can happen in the moment of the miracle or perhaps more often occurs after time has passed and we reflect back on the miracle. Often there is a rationalization that takes over, and we erase His role from the miracle we experienced.

You see it’s okay to desire miracles, but if we don’t desire the God of the miracle, those miracles won’t change us. The goal of miracles is a mystery that belongs to God. Why does He visibly move in power on some occasions but at other times He ‘appears’ unmoved? Does He only do it when it is really serious? Does He do it to prove Himself? Does He do it to reveal Himself? We can rule some of those out from knowing His character, but the fullness of His why and when isn’t always revealed to us. What we do know is that His desire is that His creation would return to a right relationship with Him; that we would repent from the kingdom we have created and join the Kingdom of Heaven in all its fullness. That requires a change in us. So, I can’t help but conclude that some of the reasons why God moves in power through us and for us is because He wants to see us move closer to Him. Therefore, miracles should move us. But so often, like I’m saying, we manage to miss this in the midst of the miracle.

If you haven’t ever witnessed a God miracle, you are probably thinking I’m crazy, but the Bible is full of case studies, both in the Old and New Testaments. I found another one of these case studies in the midst of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. This is what I read today in the book of Numbers.

They set out from Mount Hor along the Red Sea Road, a detour around the land of Edom. The people became irritable and cross as they traveled. They spoke out against God and Moses: “Why did you drag us out of Egypt to die in this godforsaken country? No decent food; no water—we can’t stomach this stuff any longer.” Numbers 21:4-5

Let me repeat something again.

Every miracle, every intervention of the kingdom of heaven on the kingdom of earth, should teach us something. It should alter something in us. Even Jesus warned His disciples of this truth when they were on the boat after a storm on Lake Galilee. When we see God move, we lean in and ask God what He is revealing about Himself—what is it about Him that He wants us to know? The Israelites with Moses have witnessed God do incredible things up to this point. They have watched the 10 plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea, the destruction of an entire Egyptian army, water coming out of rocks on two occasions, the ground opening to swallow people, snake bites being healed by a bronze statue, manna produced on the ground that spoils or doesn’t spoil depending on the day, meat being provided from the sky, and many, many other things. But from this passage, it seems like these miracles have taught them very little; they have not been reshaped by God’s interventions. They are still complaining, grumbling, and desiring to return to slavery under a false god in Pharaoh.

Let’s do a quick review. What were some of what they saw meant to teach them?

The Plagues – each of the plagues in Egypt was not random. Each was an attack on one of the many Egyptian gods: the sun god, river god, fertility god, etc. These ‘miracles’ were not meant to be entertaining but to teach the Israelites that their God was more powerful than any other god that any other nation worshipped.

The Red Sea – The sea for the Israelite people spoke of chaos and evil spirits; at least it certainly did later in their history. The water existed before God brought order, and it was water that killed the entire population of the planet bar Noah and his collection. Bodies of water were seen as chaotic, mysterious, and evil. When God shows His command over this chaos and evil, it is a sign to them that God is all-powerful, even over the unknown chaos and the evil of this world.

Manna/Quail/Water – any supplies the Israelites brought with them wouldn’t have lasted too long in the wilderness. In the end, they spent 40 years there, so even the longest life can of tuna isn’t going to make it that long. The wilderness itself was a wilderness for a reason; it would have been arid, unforgiving, and difficult to sustain growth and life. It wouldn’t be easy to survive there. However, God is a God of provision. God can bring water out of dryness, food out of emptiness, and meat out of the sky! Time and time again He proves this, showing that He provides. The people lack nothing for the time they spent in this unforgiving wasteland.

The lessons of provision, power of chaos, other gods, and nations were lessons that the Israelites were meant to grasp and know (heart and soul) so that when they faced future challenges, they had a track record. Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy, reminds them of what they have witnessed.

GOD, your God, is leading the way; he’s fighting for you. You saw with your own eyes what he did for you in Egypt; you saw what he did in the wilderness, how GOD, your God, carried you as a father carries his child, carried you the whole way until you arrived here. But now that you’re here, you won’t trust GOD, your God— this same GOD who goes ahead of you in your travels to scout out a place to pitch camp, a fire by night and a cloud by day to show you the way to go. Deuteronomy 1:30-33 (MSG)

What we find out is that, time and time again, most of the Israelites failed to see God in the miracle. Thanking God for a miracle is one thing; understanding and seeing God in the miracle is something entirely different. I’m preaching to myself here. Every breakthrough we see God make in our life should make a mark that helps us for the future. It should change how we see God, how we see ourselves, and how we move in faith. Taking the time to see God in the miracle is a discipline we must invest in, and I can nearly guarantee that it will lead us to see even more miracles in our lives!