Some people claim they can perform miracles like curing debilitating diseases like cancer, diabetes and HIV/AIDS. Watching tele-evangelical sermons on Sundays across Africa and the world, you will most likely see how some people will approach evangelists with alleged sickness and report back the following weekend that they have been completely cured after being touched and prayed for. Miraculously falling down after a sweep of the hand by the evangelists is also a common sight during these “divine healing” sessions. But the big question is: Have you experienced a miracle in your life or personally been eyewitness to an instance in your lifetime when a person, who has been dead and buried for some days, is brought back to life by a religious leader or any other person through commanding him to come forth from a grave? Among the greatest miracles in the New Testament is when Jesus resurrected Jairus’ daughter after three days and Lazarus who had he had been dead and buried for four days. Perhaps another great miracle is when Jesus feed ten thousand of people with five fish and a few loaves of bread. However, modern preachers cannot repeat similar feats, though there are many who say that they can perform miracles “if only one has faith.” In Matthew 24:24, Jesus warns: “For false priests and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” Another thing to note is that biblical miracles were also performed by a number of so-called wicked people, like Pharaoh. World over, there are people who have claimed that a miracle has happened in their lives, like being cured from terminal illnesses. However, there are others who believe that such cases should be attributed to the law of probability since actually out of many people who suffer from similar conditions, only a tiny fraction gets miraculously cured despite their faith, thus they shouldn’t be credited to miracles. John Gatera of Kimihurura says that though he’s a staunch Christian and believes in miracles that Jesus performed, he cannot say so of number of evangelists who preach that they can perform similar miracles. “There are many evangelists today who claim to perform miracles to gullible congregations by using people they pay so that they can be believed, though their main motive is to profit from the church. Christians should be wary of such preachers since only God performs miracles and not human beings. [There are] some who preach that they have divine power to do so. These are wolves in sheep clothing,” says Gatera. James Musomi of Remera believes in miracles and says their occurrence is a matter of faith and one’s belief. “If you believe that a miracle can happen to you, then it might just. “ But he adds that a lot of miracles claimed to be performed by people are outright lies meant to hoodwink followers that the performer has divine powers. “Life itself is a miracle and if you see how nature is organised—how things grow and how animals exist—then there’s no reason to believe that miracles no longer happen. There’s hidden hand of God in things that daily occur in our lives though we choose to believe that God doesn’t perform miracles anymore.”
