God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Most biblical miracles happened in three relatively brief periods of Bible history: In the days of Moses and Joshua, during the ministries of Elijah and Elisha, and in the time of Christ and the apostles. None of those periods lasted much more than a hundred years. Each of them saw a proliferation of miracles unheard of in other eras. Even during those three time periods, however, miracles were not exactly the order of the day. The miracles that happened involved men who were extraordinary messengers from God – Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Jesus and the apostles. Aside from those three intervals, the only supernatural events recorded in Scripture were isolated incidents.
There is no special honor in preaching, there is only special pain. The pulpit calls those anointed to it as the sea calls its sailors. And like the sea, it batters and bruises and does not rest. To preach, to really preach is to die naked a little at a time and to know each time you do it that you must do it again.
