Expect A Miracle
It was a set up.
The front of the building was covered in gang graffiti, the store fronts were covered by grates. My driver said, “Go through that door, and up the steps. I’ll watch to make sure you get in before I park the car.” The door led to a set of naked wooden steps lit by a single naked bulb. The steps led to a second floor store front church in a really bad part of the South Bronx.
Every year I receive several calls from Bishop Nathaniel White. He wasn’t a “Bishop” when he drove me up to the church his mother inherited after his father died. Nor was he the hero of Nine-Eleven that he would become after he pulled seven people to sheltered safety as the towers came down. But he was, and is, a good man with a heart for God, and we bonded over what happened in his mother’s second floor storefront church.
Miracles happened that night, and again on the next. One person testified that she had nine teeth filled supernaturally. A visible tumor the size of an egg disappeared instantly. A person who had had several back surgeries suddenly found flexibility that the doctors said was impossible. Impossible. I like that word because God has never heard it.
I wondered at the response. I wasn’t doing anything differently. I had, (and have), my daily hour of prayer, read my scripture, and followed my daily routine. (Okay—it’s NYC! I was staying in Midtown Manhattan so I spent some time shopping and eating in good restaurants, neither of which is known to bring miracles!) Then I discovered the set up.
After the second scheduled service was over the pastor invited me to sit in her study, an area partitioned off by a curtain. As I sat at her desk I saw an advertisement in the local Christian paper for the meeting, it read—“Apostle Leon Stutzman, The Miracle Man.” I knew in that moment why we had seen that wave of miracles—they expected miracles. Expectation always brings manifestation.
You may think these reminiscences from days gone by, but you would be wrong. In the next few weeks I’ll be traveling back to Savannah, Georgia to a large church pastored by another Bishop. When I was there last year, I was re-reading the Gospels and it struck me that I had seen every kind of miracle in my ministry except the healing of a withered hand. That evening a young woman presented herself, asking for prayer for an upcoming surgery on her hand. She reached out and it was obviously drawn up and immovable—withered in the KJV. I asked her if she want a miracle. Duh? But the question had to be asked. Expectation had to be created. In her. I already had mine. I gave her some instructions. Spent a few moments praying and told her to stretch out her hand as the healing manifested. I have the results on my cell phone. Her hand was perfectly whole. She testified. Her mother testified. Miracles will happen in my next meeting there. Expectation has been created.
The late, great Ralph Hart was rough, tough, and played golf with, (reportedly), members of the local Mafia several times a week, saying, “They’re the only people on the course that early in the morning.” His church, Liberty Temple, was the premier revival center in America during the late Sixties and early Seventies, and he invited me in for a meeting. Before he ever said “Hello” he said, “Brother Stutzman, expect miracles here, because we expect miracles here.” He didn’t need to tell me that—I already expected miracles. Miracles happen when you expect them to happen. And miracles happened—not the least of which is that he took me out for dinner after every service! I had been told by his nephew, “Ralph doesn’t entertain his guest speakers, if he really likes you, he’ll take you out to eat once.”
What do you expect?
When you join me “Behind The Door” I’m going to share some insights that will help you with your expectations. I’ll show you some things that will make miracles reasonable. I’ll tell you about a secular miracle that gives insight into the supernatural—because a miracle is simply something that happens outside of the laws of general physics. And let me remind you—“God has never seen a miracle!”
SOW A SEED! Before you go “Behind The Door” let me encourage you to sow a financial seed into this ministry. Sowing creates expectation. Expectation creates money miracles. I’ve seen it happen too many times to doubt it now. Perhaps you’ve never sown a seed with expectation Maybe you’re of that poor, (generally literally), pitiful group of non-believing believers that has been taught that you should give without expectation. Alms are given without expectation—offerings should be given with the expectation of “Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give to your bosom.” I didn’t say that—Jesus did. Sow with expectation and remember—“What you sow is what you grow!”
