Welcome to week 2 of our BORN4THIS series.

In last two weeks we have learnt that we were born to walk out of our door each morning expecting God to use us to deliver a miracle.

We saw that God wants us to live in the Land of Everyday Miracles – where we regularly deliver miracles to meet people’s needs so that God can enter their lives.

We defined a miracle as acting on God’s nudge to meet a need in someone’s life.

We are exploring keys to delivering miracles – we have looked at 4 keys so far.

Key Number 1 is the Master Key: You were born to be sent on a miracle mission. (1) Enter the throne room, (2) Volunteer to be sent by God, (3) Pre-Commit to act when God nudges you and (4) Expect to be used by God – believe that He will actually use you to deliver a miracle!

Key Number 2 is the People Key: You were born to share God’s heart for people.

Key Number 3 is the Spirit Key: You were born to partner with God’s Spirit. Now we use the Spirit Key to align ourselves with our heavenly partner, the Holy Spirit, to do God’s supernatural work through you every day. We pre-commit to cooperating with the Spirit at every opportunity to accomplish God’s work.

Key Number 4 is the Risk Key: You were born to take risks in dependence on God.

Testimony Time: This is your chance to talk about your experience with learning how to deliver miracles in the past week. Testimony Time

Steps: Today we are going to learn about the five steps that lead to the delivery of a miracle.

1. Identify the Person – God wants to meet the specific need of another person through us – so we have to find and connect with them. As a delivery agent we ask: “Where am I taking this package? Who is it for?” We can figure out who to deliver a miracle to by keeping our eyes open for someone God is leading us to.

2. Isolate the Need – The person may have many needs so we have to identify the need that God wants to meet through us at this time. When we have the right need identified we will have a sense of peace. We can ask the person if we have identified the correct need and change our focus if necessary.

3. Open the Heart - We can feed the hungry and clothe the naked but we don’t stop there – we want to partner with God to get into their hearts. We don’t just want the person to feel warm and fuzzy about what we do for them – but for them to see it as God meeting their need. Sometimes people throw their hearts wide open as soon as their need is isolated but other times it seems closed. This is how we can open hearts: (a) Maintain eye contact; (b) Soften and lower your voice; (c) Slow down and practicing pausing to invite the person into the conversation); (d) Relax your posture to express openness and security; (e) Invite more heart sharing by listening and asking gentle questions; and (f) Practise empathy to put yourself in their shoes and show that you understand their need.

4. Deliver the Miracle – Now we actively partner with the Spirit in the miracle delivery. Here are some guidelines: (a) Believe that God will guide you by His Spirit. (b) Look out for anything that limits their belief. (c) Speak to their heart as God guides you. (d) Give God time to act – slow down, pray silently and depend on the Spirit.

5. Transfer the Credit – Our mission is not complete until we have aimed the spotlight at what God has just accomplished. If they have just received a miracle we should let them put into words what just happened and get them to recognize that it was God who just showed up. We can ask a question like: How do you feel about what God just did? Let God guide you as to what you need to do next.

The 5 Steps in Action: Philip’s encounter with an African official is a great example of the five steps in the delivery of a miracle (Acts 8:26-39):

(1) Identify a Person (26-27a) - Philip is sent by God to a specific location so he could meet up with the Ethiopian official.

(2) Isolate the Need (27b-33) – Philip sees that the man is religious but he does not understand the Bible that he is reading.

(3) Open the Heart (34-35) (Philip sits with the man and explains to him what he is reading.

(4) Deliver the Miracle (36-28) – Philip leads the man to Jesus and baptises him.

(5) Transfer the Credit (39) - Philip leaves the man rejoicing in what God has done for him.

Signals: As we follow the steps in delivering a miracle there are some signals to look out for that will help us!

1. The God Nudge (How God gets your attention and directs you) - A nudge is a signal from God that suddenly turns out attention to something, or someone, we weren’t thinking about. They can be visual where we see someone or something and sense the need to take action or they can be non-visual where the person we are thinking about is not around. God does use dreams, visions, angels and other people to communicate with us, but most often it is this kind of a nudge which is a small, interrupting thought that gets our attention.

2. The Revealing Cue (How people reveal a need God may want to meet through you) - The nudge comes from God but the cue comes from people. People communicate, through words or by body language, how they are feeling, what they want and what needs they have. It is often a quick signal that we have to reach out and capture. We must train ourselves to read people’s verbal and visual clues so that we can know what they really need. Just looking at people more closely will help us get an idea of what is going on in their world.

3. The Clarifying Bump (How you use a question to clarify a person’s need) - A bump is something you do to the person to surface or confirm a need. It is usually a question that cannot be answered with a yes or a no – and it invites the person to share more helpful information. The purpose is to gain more insight into the person’s need that God wants us to meet in partnership with Him. It is best to base the bump on information you have already gathered through observation or careful listening. Here are some sample questions: How may I help you? If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be? What are one or two of the biggest problems your family is facing these days? If you could ask God one question, what would it be? What, if anything, has discouraged you lately?

4. The Spirit Prompt (How God provides you with insight during the delivery of a miracle) - A prompt is a signal from God to you that comes as a sudden insight about the person you are helping. God often reveals information that we could not otherwise know to help you deliver the miracle. They normally happen while you are talking with the person (unlike nudges which happen at the beginning and help you identify a miracle appointment).

5. The Fear Alert (How we signal ourselves when to go forward in faith) - A fear alert is a signal you receive from yourself. It is an indicator from your emotions that you should exercise your faith and move through your feelings towards your miracle. It happens because you are out of your comfort zone and are taking a risk of faith which will result in a miracle. Normally fear is used by the mind to keep us away from danger – but here it is a confirmation that we are moving in the right direction (towards a miracle) and it is an invitation to overcome fear with faith.

Combining the Steps and the Signals

Review: Combining the Steps and the Signals

Roleplay: Have two people enact a miracle delivery scene and interact with the audience along the way as the steps and signals become visible.

What Next? Use the Handout; Visit the Fan Page; Use the Steps and Signals; Record Your Miracles

Next week we will be learn more about more steps to miracle delivery.