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A miracle is defined as an event not explicable by natural or scientific events. It transcends what is normally perceived as natural law. This means that for the average human, miracles are seen as fallacies, which are deemed impossible or more of a mirage than reality.
Miracle in the spiritual sense can be said to be a divine favour of God and one of the numerous ways in which God demonstrates to us His power as the Supreme leader of the universe.

Miracles in an etymological sense started from the beginning of creation, seeing that God created the world out of nothing. The Bible said in Gen1:1-2

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Over the years, scientists have tried so many times with lots of hypothesis, to doubt the existence of the divine nature of God through miracles. They started with the "Theory of evolution" to counter the story of creation but have failed most times to explain the inexplicable moments that comes with the divine miracles of God.

PURPOSE OF MIRACLES

Miracles are God's own way of reaching out to His people, to assure them of His love and faithfulness to them in times of need. When Jesus was doing miracles in his earthly sojourn, he did it to demonstrate that he is the son of God and people believed in him because of the signs and wonders that they saw and also because of the kind of life he lived. Apart from the occasional display of his divinity, Jesus also did miracles to teach his disciples about God's kingdom and the evangelical work they are to do in his absence.

NATURE OF MIRACLES

In the Bible, several miracles were recorded in which we can categorize into these categories:
1. THE MIRACLE INVOLVING CREATIONref
Like I mentioned above, this was the first sign of divine miracle because God did all those wonderful creation from the words of His mouth. God said and it was done and He saw that what he created was good.

2. MIRACLES INVOLVING NATURAL PHENOMENA
When Jesus calmed a ferocious sea of Galilee with his mere words (Matthew 8:23-27) and when he walked on water (John 6:16-21).

3. MIRACLES INVOLVING PHYSICAL HEALING
The blind was healed by the words of Jesus just like blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52) and the woman with the Issue of blood(Mark 5:25-34) and several other instances.

4. MIRACLES INVOLVING POWER OVER DEATH
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead even after 4 days in the tomb(John 11:43-44) and even Christ's own resurrection after 3 days in the tomb (John 11:1-45) and other instances.

5. MIRACLES SHOWING GOD'S SUPREMACY OVER DEMONS
When St Paul chased out the spirit of Divination from a girl in Jesus's name (Acts 16:16-24) and when Jesus himself cast out demons from a human that was possessed (Matthew 12:22ff) which demonstrated God's power over principalities and powers of darkness.

6. MIRACLES INVOLVING CONTROL OVER MATERIAL THINGS
The feeding of the 5000 by Jesus (John 6:1-14)
and the the turning of water into wine at the wedding at Canaan (John 2:1-11) which was the first miracle performed by Christ at the request of his mother.

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Most times, the manifestation of miracles tends to bring about the most skepticisms from unbelievers and atheists alike. They tend to argue about its authenticity. Seeing as miracle is a supernatural manifestation and display of God's power and dominion over all creation, it is more of a demonstrable fact which in fact clears all doubters. Just like Thomas doubted the resurrection of Christ, until Jesus appeared to him showed him his wounds (John 20:24-29).
When Jesus was doing miracles at the time of his life, even unbelievers(Jews and Pharisees) saw clearly the signs and wonders that he performed and they could not deny it but they tried to discredit it as coming from another source that is not divine.
There is no definite proof of whether a miracle is real or not but the instantaneous effect of divine manifestation of God's power can never be denied.

WHO PERFORMS MIRACLES

Miracles only comes from God and whoever that has the gift of performing miracles must have gotten the mandate from God. Divine manifestation of God's power can only come from those who are God's instruments. This started from the mandate Jesus gave to his disciples in Matthew 18:18

Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

From then, Jesus released the power to perform signs and wonders in his name and he manifested his power from then, through them.

MIRACLE CATALYSTS

In as much as there are no definite requirements for a miracle to occur in the life of a believer, but divine manifestation of God are fuelled by some Christian qualities.

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PRAYER
Prayer is the best way in which we can lift our mind and hearts to God. In prayer, we communicate effectively with our Lord and creator and we can tell him all our needs and problems.

FAITH
Fervent prayer is incomplete without faith. The word of God tells us that with a little faith, we can move mountains. The impediment from having our prayers answered as Christians comes from the fact that our faith can be shallow and not totally binding unto God. Jesus demonstrated that with his disciples when he calmed the raging sea, and he called them,

**O ye of little faith, why are you so afraid**

Faith is mostly what separates believers from an overwhelming miracle from God. It is a necessary requirement. A Christian with total faith in God always gets miracles from God even without asking for them.

GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

Having a perfect relationship with God helps a long way in getting favors from him. That implies that living our life in ways that pleases God. This is achieved by avoiding sin and everything that will lead us to lose our spirituality. This also means leaving a life that befits us as Christians in the same way as Christ did when he was on earth.

I'm conclusion, miracles is a divine gift of God unto the life of believers. The modern world might seem like a hard place to give testimony on God's blessings through miracles due to the advancement of technology in the 21st century, but God's grace is ever sufficient in our lives and if we continue to believe, we we always receive His divine favor and in turn, eternal redemption.

I will end my write up with the miraculous story of 10 year old Anna Beam who was diagnosed with pseudo-obstruction motility disorder an intestinal disorder which means that Anna cannot feed through the mouth anymore because her intestines can no longer pass on food.
This implied that she had a very low 10% chance of survival as the disease has no cure. Her parents were very devout Christians and prayed for her survival even in underwhelming circumstances.
On December 29, 2011, Anna despite her condition fell into a tree from 30 feet and survived with few broken bones.
Such was the magnanimity of the miracle that doctors said that there was no way, a child, never mind one with an ailment, can fall from such a height and survive.
Anna did not only survive the fall, but was declared completely cured from the illness that she has been suffering for 3 good years. Amazing right!!! I cried my heart out when. I first saw the movie Miracles from heaven which was centered on this true life story of young Anna Beam.

Anna then recounts with her parents the experience she had during the fall. She describes how her soul left her body during the fall, and God promised that she would be cured of her illness upon her return to Earth.

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