To recap: A cessationist acquaintance decided to try raising the dead, was unsuccessful, and uses his experience to argue against any supernatural experience. (Not the bible, ’cause you can’t argue anti-supernaturalism from the bible—unless you twist it a lot, as cessationists will.)
I think all Christians are agreed that God is not Santa Claus: He doesn’t grant our every wish. Heck, not even Santa does, unless you had some really immoderate parents. When we pray for things in Jesus’s name, we get our requests granted only when they suit Jesus’s will and timing. God has free will, and sometimes he can answer us with no.
And, like petulent children who don’t get what we want when we demand it, sometimes we’ll respond to God’s “no” with a slightly more sophisticated version of, “Then you don’t really love me. And I don’t love you either; I hate you.” Atheism, or switching to another religion, are just two types of the tantrums we throw when God won’t give us our way. To be fair, people also turn to atheism or other religions when other Christians won’t give us our way. God’s “no” tends to be far more loving than theirs. But it’s not just Christian misbehavior that drives people away from Christianity. I’ve met many ex-Christians who ditched God as a result of losing their jobs, their marriages, their children, their health: People easily make idols of these things, and when God smashes them, they respond in rage and rejection. Arguably they weren’t truly Christians to begin with. They expected God to never disrupt their lives so, but that’s not how the Almighty works. He does whatever he wants.
So when the cessationist asked God for a miracle, God’s response was no. ’Cause sometimes God’s response is no. Though God doesn’t like death any more than we do, sometimes it serves our best interests—and his—when someone dies. Could be that he’s sparing them, and us, from worse. (1Ki 14.12-13) Could be something God never wanted, like a murder or an accident, or an illness someone was meant to cure and didn’t, and he’s letting the consequences stand in order to work out justice. Could be God’s judgment on those who died, or on the family of those who died, although let’s never jump to that conclusion unnecesarily.
We don’t see the big picture as he does, and we don’t care about the big picture either. All we see is our own loss and misery. Somehow we have to cut through the fog of pain and emotion and trust God despite our clashing wills. But not everyone has that faith. Not everyone is entirely sure God knows what he’s doing. Not everyone is entirely sure he’s even here. They’re going through the motions ’cause they were raised Christian, but when the fire of experience threatens to scorch them, they won’t believe God’s made them fireproof, and flee the building.
Only by prayer.
Every miracle, save the ones God initiates on his own, is his response to a prayer request. We cannot cure a single soul unless we’ve first petitioned God, and God has answered yes. We cannot arrogantly assume otherwise. I can’t just walk up to a boy with a broken leg, exclaim “Be well in Jesus’s name,” and expect the boy to leap to his feet in amazement. If I haven’t first talked this over with God, and got his say-so to do any such thing, I am acting purely on my own initiative. It’s like using my father’s checkbook to buy a house: If Dad objects, and cancels the check, the transaction won’t happen.
Now, there are Christians who actually teach it’s okay to boldly presume upon God. They claim stepping ahead of him is some form of faith: Jesus said we could get whatever we ask in his name, (Jn 14.14) so they charge things with the full expectation God will pay the bill. And yes, sometimes God does act. But not because of their faith-filled presumption; despite it. God doesn’t want us going ahead of him (2Jn 9 ESV) any more than he wants us faithlessly not keeping up.
So when someone wants prayer for an illness, I pray. I don’t just pray, “Lord, please cure this person,” but “Lord, can I cure this person?” I’m asking permission. When I get it—when the Holy Spirit says, “Go for it”—then I can say, “Be well in Jesus’s name.” Never before.
My cessationist acquaintance didn’t do that. He doesn’t believe God talks back to us when we pray, so the idea of getting God’s permission never occurred to him. But he felt like maybe, just maybe, just this once, he could raise the dead. That’s why he tried it: He had a feeling. I’ve stated time and again: Humans can conjure up feelings when we want them bad enough. If you want “the healing feeling” (whatever that feels like—tingly? warm? full of energy? I dunno) you can psych yourself into feeling it. He doesn’t believe in faith healing, but he wanted it to be true, just this once, and so he made himself believe it could happen, and tried it. And failed, because he was trying to manufacture the power of the Holy Spirit out of dopamine.
Forget feelings. Pray. Make your requests known to God. Ask whether he’ll permit you—or someone else in the room—to perform a miracle. Be persistent: If it’s no, ask him to tell you no, and not to just do nothing; don’t settle for God’s silence. Often the reason stuff doesn’t happen is because Christians give up too easily. So don’t. Pray. Pray your knees off.
“Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?” Jesus’s students once asked him, and his response was simply,
Never try to get ahead of God. Pray. Get an answer. Then act.
Where faith comes in.
The hard part is when the Spirit doesn’t do the miracle immediately. We see a few examples in the scriptures of miracles that take a bit of work on a person’s part. Elijah had to pray over a dead boy a few times before God finally raised him. (1Ki 17.20-22) Elisha too. (2Ki 4.32-35) Even Jesus had to put his hands on one blind man more than once before his sight fully came back. (Mk 8.22-25) In the same way, faith healers today sometimes need to pray for a person more than once—sometimes many times—before something will finally or fully happen.
God may feel the need to stretch the faith of the healer, of the person with the illness, or any other witnesses. The healer needs to trust God’s “Yes, pray for that person” more than any failed first, second, third, or twentieth attempt. The healee needs to trust “God will cure you” more than what their doctors say, what their skeptical friends say, what their own doubts are shouting at them. The witnesses need to see patience and persistent faith pay off. Life is a struggle, and God doesn’t want us to get the idea that just because we can tap into his power, life isn’t still a struggle. We have to strive for the things of God as well.
My cessationist acquaintance prayed and was unsuccessful. That’s no reason whatsoever to give up. Okay, God hadn’t told him he’d raise the girl—but if God had told him so, nothing in the world should stop him from praying and proclaiming and pulling until she got up. Not the outraged family and onlookers, not his own doubts, nothing. Not when God says yes.
So when you’re seeking miracles, first seek God. Get his answer. And if it’s yes, hold onto that answer for dear life. You’ll shock the world with what follows.