All believers can live in miracle territory, David Horton says, but being in the right place for a miracle has less to do with geography and more to do with spiritual condition.
During a chapel service on September 23 at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, the president of Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute, located in Henderson, asked students if they were in the right place for a miracle. Teaching from the text of one of Jesus’ well-known miracles — the feeding of the 5,000 in John 6 — Horton said all believers want to be in miracle territory.
SEBTS photo
David Horton speaks to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary students during a recent chapel service.
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“We want to be in the right place to see things happen. Any place we go can be miracle territory,” Horton said. “Miracle territory is not defined by geographic location so much as by the spiritual condition of people, if they have the faith to see what God can do.”
Horton outlined four ways people can know if they are in “miracle territory.”
He said, “You know you’re in miracle territory when God sees your problem before you do.” Just as Jesus is positioned on top of a mountain in John 6, seeing the need of the thousands who had followed him, Horton said God is still positioned to see the needs of his people before they recognize them. “Even though we don’t see problems coming, God does and he’s ready with a solution.”
The situation must also be humanly impossible to fix, Horton said, requiring a God-sized solution. Looking at verse five of the chapter, Horton said that when Jesus asks a question in the Scriptures (as he did of the disciples), he does not do it for his benefit but for ours.
“Jesus already knew what he was going to do. For this miracle to take place, one of the first things that had to happen was for the disciples to realize it was humanly impossible.”
Just like the boy who offered up the little food he had, Horton said believers must also offer up the little bit they can to be part of the miracle solution. “Little really is much when God is in it,” he said. “Are you willing to take what little is in your hands and put it in the hands of God?”
God blesses beyond imagination when he performs miracles. In the example found in John 6, Horton said God provided enough food that all of the people were filled, with some still left over. “In the end, they had more than in the beginning. Never lose sight of that fact that though you feel inadequate, you serve an awesome God and nothing is impossible for him.”
Horton said God’s blessing beyond imagination is what he thinks Paul had in mind in Ephesians 3:20, when he said God is able to do “exceedingly more than we ask or imagine.”
Most importantly, though, Horton said the value of being in “miracle territory” is not to see miracles happen, but to see the one behind the miracles.
“We shouldn’t just be excited about the sign, but about the savior behind it.”