Please enjoy the following excerpt from our new book
Ten Questions from the King!
The Miracle
from Chapter 3
Jesus actually performed three miracles when He healed the paralytic: He forgave the man’s sins, He knew the thoughts of the Scribes, and He instantly cured the man of palsy and made him whole again. The external miracle proved that the internal miracle had taken place. All of the miracles of Jesus testified that He was sent from God.
Did Jesus perform the miracle before the Scribes and Pharisees had a chance to answer? Sometimes an answer isn’t necessary with a good question. Just getting a person to think can be the purpose of asking a question. Make sure to use questions in this way when talking with others. Get them thinking! I always say they have to first think about eternal matters before they can ever become saved.
Notice that the miracle was immediate. The sick man got up and walked. The healing of your sins is immediate, too. Sins are completely washed clean and gone the moment you become born again!
But think about this for a second: When this man picked up his bed, it was proof that the physical miracle had taken place. So when the internal miracle of salvation takes place in someone’s life, what is the proof that it has actually occurred? That is right; it is a changed life. It is a life that is lived for the Lord. It is the life that repents of sin. God is the Potter, and we ar
e the clay. He is shaping and molding us into the men and women He wants us to be, and we want to be pliable in His hands. When people look at you, do they see a life that is being lived for the Lord? Do they see an abundance of God-fruit all over your “tree of faith? The miracle of a life lived for the Lord is a great thing for the world to behold!
Once when I was speaking in Los Angeles, I got sick. God was gracious to me and let me get through my speaking schedule. By the time I arrived at LAX to return home, I was dreading the four-and-a-half-hour plane flight. I didn’t want to talk with anyone; I just wanted to sit down and relax. When I sat down, I looked at the man seated next to me and basically said, Hi, my name is Mark Cahill. I believe in Jesus, and here is one of the books I wrote. Have a nice flight! Okay, that wasn’t exactly what I said, but that is what I meant by whatever I did say! He replied, “That is interesting. Oh, no! I didn’t want that to be interesting; I wanted to be left alone! I said, why is that interesting? Well, as you have probably guessed, I didn’t get much rest on that flight! He happened to be the director of a TV series called The Vampire Diaries. He was flying to Atlanta to film one of the episodes. As we talked, he said he started out as a cameraman and worked his way up to becoming a 
director. He was a very interesting man. But then he told me that one of the other cameramen he worked with became a Christian and began witnessing to him. He had listened intently to that cameraman, but he had not made a commitment to Jesus. Then he said that the cameraman could not film certain things anymore because they went against his beliefs.
Psalm 101:3
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
That cameraman was a man of conviction. He didn’t want to set any worthless thing in front of his eyes. That really spoke volumes to this director. That cameraman eventually left the film industry and is now a missionary in Kenya. But don’t forget, he was a missionary in Hollywood before ever becoming a missionary in Kenya!
1 Corinthians 3:6
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
It was nice to come along and water the seed that the cameraman had planted in that director’s life. It made it so much easier to talk with him because he had already met a watchman with conviction.
1 Corinthians 10:31
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
Until the nets are full,
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Ten Questions from the King
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