You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.’ (Jer. 29:13)

Many of us who have enjoyed singing Marie Barnett’s Vineyard song, ’This is the air we breathe, Your holy presence, living in me’ will have been struck by the way the quiet and grateful lyricism of the opening lines suddenly switches into deeply impassioned language that we wouldn’t expect to find in a traditional hymn: ‘And I’m desperate for You, and I’m lost without You.’

There is so often a significant testimony behind the songs that make a deep impression, and I recently discovered the story that lies behind this one. Surely all of us have known times of desperation, when we cry out to the Lord for Him to come and intervene in an otherwise hopeless situation. How wonderful when the darkness parts and light comes flooding in!

Although CS Lewis warned that, “God does not shake miracles into Nature at random as if from a pepper-caster,” He really does delight in sending signs and steering touches to make possible events and enterprises that will profoundly alter the lives of individuals and communities alike. Sometimes He does so in answer to strong prayer; at other times, He simply takes whatever action needs doing to fulfil His purposes – as when He spirited Philip away from his encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. (Acts 8:26-40)

I love stories of miracles! As a young Christian I was thrilled by Mel Tari’s inspiring books Like a Mighty Wind and The Gentle Breeze of Jesus telling of the extraordinary things the Lord did in the course of a revival in East Timor in Indonesia between 1965 and 1970. Every chapter was full not only of vibrant testimonies of remarkable miracles, but also with pointers for living in the dynamic presence of God.

Some of us will find it easier to relate to miraculous accounts, than others. There are some who go so far as to dismiss absolutely any report of supernatural events as false, just as there have been others who have mistaken natural happenings for the miraculous, and others again who exaggerate the extent of the Lord’s intervention in a situation to make it appear extraordinary, and perhaps enhance their own reputation in the process.

It was for such reasons that Tyndale House sent Don Crawford, an experienced reporter, to investigate the miracles being reported from East Timor. What he saw and heard convinced him that these things were genuine. He was not the only one. The German theologian and author Kurt Koch was likewise persuaded that the miracles occurring in East Timor during that revival season were akin to those recorded in the New Testament, including the dead being raised to life, and a well-attested account of someone walking across a river 300 yards wide.

Kurt himself witnessed water being turned into wine on two occasions, and, though he did not speak in tongues himself, he heard someone in a non-English village singing in perfect English about the return of the Lord!*

Today, many of us are familiar with stories of the miraculous, but neither Don nor Kurt were at that stage in their lives. It was not the miracles themselves that most impressed them however, so much as the evidence of the transformed lives of individuals and communities, as well as the release of entirely new and fervent new evangelistic efforts across Indonesia.

One of the loveliest stories in Don Crawford’s subsequent book, Miracles in Indonesia, describes how he came across a group of children singing a beautiful song. When he asked them where they had learnt it, they told him that they had heard the birds singing it. A little while later, he heard another group of children singing a song that they claimed they had learned from some stones! Perhaps there is more than we might at first imagine in Jesus’ declarations that the stones will cry out! (Luke 19:40, cf 3:8)

Most of us will have walked into certain churches and felt the prayers of the saints held in the walls? Perhaps it has not occurred to us to still our minds to listen further, so as to catch the song of the stones – but what might we hear if we did?

I too have occasionally heard the song of ‘inanimate’ objects. One day, a few years after leaving Shetland, we had returned and were staying in our former house, Ruach. As I woke up, I could hear the wind playing a distinct melody on the drainpipes! It was so remarkable that I ran down the corridor and picked out the notes on Sally’s grand piano.

What I heard in the wind became the theme of The Song of The Wind – the first piece of instrumental music that I ever composed. It is a beautifully pure sound, and the photographs that were taken at the time in Shetland are lovely too!

It is so precious to pause and reflect on times when we have seen the Lord profoundly at work in the events and circumstances of our lives, even from our earliest days, shaping and preparing the things He intends to do for and through us.

If godly influence and impact on communities most commonly comes through the suffusing and informing effect of faithful witnessing believers, there are times when God breaks through into hearts, homes and whole regions in mighty miraculous ways.

Lord, we are desperate for such breakthroughs. We long for You to be in the air that we breathe, and in the prayers that Your Spirit inspires in our hearts. Come deeper into the lives of our communities we pray, whether by Your mighty rushing presence or by Your still small voice. Let the air and atmosphere over our nations become infused with Your pulsating, permeating, infusing vitality, Lord, that causes people to bow the knee and to humble themselves, and to welcome You as Lord of every part of their lives.

Father, we live in a world where people are becoming increasingly worried about the quality of the air that they breathe, as well as the spiritual pressures that affect our atmosphere. Let Your fresh air, Your renewing touch come to people who are reaching out to You in every nation of the world today we pray.

Thank You that You are the Lord who fed Elijah by ravens before taking Him up to Heaven in a chariot, and who transported Philip in the Spirit once he had fulfilled the specific mandate that You have given him. May we too be in position and ready to reach out to those who are feeling stymied and stifled, binding up the injured and strengthening the weak. Continue Your work of searching for the lost, Lord Jesus, and transforming stray souls into faithful witnesses for You. (Ezek. 34:12,16, 1 Pet. 5:2)

Thank You that, just as You were able to enter a room through locked doors to reassure Your disciples that You really had risen from the dead, You are not even remotely bound by either gravity or distance, any more than You are by any man-made conventions. Thank You that You love to do things that to us seem completely miraculous, but which are of Your very essence.

Praise You for all the times when You have broken through in our lives, especially when You have made the impossible possible! Come and work in our communities too, as You did in East Timor and in have done in so many places and at so many times across the world. We welcome You here, Lord Jesus.*

*The powerful video series Transformations are a powerful reminder that behind most revivals lie a fervent and united calling on the Lord.

Photo by Hansjörg Rath on Unsplash