“Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, ‘Look at us.’ So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, ‘Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.’ And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received their strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them — walking, leaping, and praising God.” — Acts 3:1-8

 

What a powerful miracle by Peter and John. The Book of Acts is filled with such miracles; so much so that they are almost commonplace, in Acts 19:11 it states that God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul.

Why is it that we don’t see more such miracles today? To answer this, we must first learn what enabled Peter and John, Paul, and countless other Christians down through the ages to allow God to work through them to perform the miraculous.

They were Holy Spirit-filled, possessors of great faith with a life of prayer, without fear, and they were men and women of action. These saints were not in any way dependent on material resources to accomplish their goals. “Silver and gold I do not have…”

I fear that the Church no longer possesses the desire; as a consequence, it is rare indeed to see any kind of miracle in our churches today. We have become too dependent on wealth, and less so on the Holy Spirit.

In the late 13th, or early 14th century, Pope Innocent II was counting a large sum of money in the church treasury, with Thomas Aquinas present. At one point the Pope said to Aquinas, “See Thomas, the church can no longer say silver and gold I do not have,” to which he replied, “Yes, and no longer can she say, rise and walk.”