DAILY GUIDE TO MIRACLES from Oral Roberts Ministries
Sunday, August 21st, 2005
www.orm.cc
A Lifestyle Of Miracles
Richard Roberts
Oral Roberts Ministries
www.orm.cc
"The story found in John 2:1-10 of Jesus' miracle of turning common water into excellent wine
exemplifies the miracles God can bring to us when we put Him above all others in our lives and give our
best to Him.
When Jesus was ready to perform His first miracle, He asked the servants to
give what they had-water. In other words, He asked them to sow out of their need and give what they
had. In obedience, they poured the water into the stone jugs. When they poured out the liquid, it was
wine-not just any old wine, but the richest and the best wine! This was a miracle of
Seed-Faith!
Sure, there had been miracles in the Old Testament. In the covenant God made with Abraham and his
seed, the firstfruits of each harvest were given back to God as seed for Him to use, and through the
offering of seed He could multiply back His blessings. But through the years the people of the old
Testament began to drift from the law of seedtime and harvest, and miracles began disappearing from
their lives. Only in isolated instances did God find people who were willing to plant seeds of
faith.
But with Jesus' miracle of the wine at the wedding feast, all things changed. John 2:11 niv says, This, the
first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. The wine was not to be Jesus' only
miracle; it represented a lifestyle of miracles for each of us! God wants us to live in His miracle flow,
and when we plant our seed, we have a Bible right to expect God to pour out His blessings upon us!
(see Malachi 3:10)."
ON DOCTRINE NOTE:
Beginning with a false premise designed to support his teaching about
"Seed Faith" giving, originally created by
Oral Roberts, Richard Roberts pushes his explanation about the nature
of the miracle at Cana into the realm of the absurd.
Hoping that no one will read John 2:1-10 but simply believe what he says, Richard Roberts claims that
it was the giving and faith of the servants that brought about the miracle, and so he twists the
events of the narrative in order to conform to the Seed Faith teaching and makes statements that
not only contradict what is said in the Scripture, but also contradict the doctrine that he is trying so
desperately to support.
- He claims that the servants were the ones who had the need.
"He asked them to sow out of their need and give what they
had."
First, servants were not responsible for furnishing the food and drink for the wedding celebration.
They were responsible for preparing and serving what was provided and owned by the host. That is
why
they are called SERVANTS and not employers, owners or masters.
Second, What need did the servants have? Richard Roberts claims that they needed wine, but the
reality is
the need was in relation to the person who was responsible for providing the wine, who was the host of
the
celebration. The host was the bridegroom and he had miscalculated how much wine would be
consumed and
as a consequence the wine ran out before the celebration was over. When the water was made into
wine,
"the headwaiter called the bridegroom, and said to him . . . 'you have kept the
good
wine until now,'" vs. 9-10.
- He claims that the faith of the servants was the force that caused Jesus to perform the miracle.
"Jesus' miracle . . . exemplifies the miracles God can bring to us when we put
Him
above all others in our lives and give our best to Him."
In what manner did the servants place Jesus above all others in their lives? Their responsibility was to
their owner
and then to the guests at the wedding. Where is it stated that the servants had given their lives to Jesus
Christ or
they had given their best to Him? That is not in the narrative, but is simply Richard Roberts' addition to
the Scripture.
- He claims that the servants gave what they didn't own and it was considered to be sowing seed out
of their
need in order to obtain a miracle.
"He asked the servants to give what they had-water."
First, since the need was in relation to the bridegroom and not the servants, and the servants did not
own the water,
then they did not give what they had. A person cannot "give" what is owned by someone else and then
claim
that it is a gift of their own possession. Is it to be presumed that God honors "gifts" that are not owned
by the
giver?
Second, there is no consideration in the narrative regarding the servants "giving" anything. Again, they
are servants
who serve. In the context of what Richard Roberts is claiming, the servants are said to have given and
that presumes
ownership of the water which was not the case. They did not "give", they responded to
commands by "doing"
what they were told. They had no choice in the matter.
"His mother said to the servants, 'Whatever He says to you, do it,'" v. 5
"Jesus said to them, 'fill the waterpots with water.' So they filled them up to the brim.
And He said to them, 'Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.' So they took it to
him,"
vs. 7-8.
Neither Mary or Jesus asked the servants to make a choice to give or not to give. They both stated
commands to those who were servants and had no choice but to do as they were told. The idea that
the servants were giving by their own choice in order to express faith for a miracle is ludicrous.
Richard Roberts finds it necessary to twist the reality of just who had the need, who was responsible for
the
wine and who owned the water, because the person with the actual need, the person responsible and
the
person who owned the water did not participate in the miracle, had no knowledge that a miracle was
being
performed, expressed no faith that a miracle would be performed and provided no "Seed Faith"
offering in
order to assure that a miracle would be performed.
Changing the narrative to his version of the events that took place, the Richard Roberts Version (RRV), is
necessary because the story in its original form as found in the Scripture is not an example of his "Seed Faith"
teaching.
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