Navigating Life's Challenges with Faith

When God Works in Ways You Cannot See

If you had a time machine, what moments in history would you travel back to witness? The beginning of the world? Noah's flood? Jesus healing someone right in front of you? Sharon Edmundson opened her talk at Crowd Church with that question, and it is a good one — because the Book of Acts is essentially a look back into history. Real people, real events, real miracles.

But Sharon's talk did something more interesting than simply retelling the spectacular bits. She held up the miraculous alongside the ordinary, the dramatic healings alongside the prison sentences, and asked a question that most of us wrestle with more than we admit: if God can do miracles, why does he not always do them?

The Apostles and Their Authority

The passage is Acts 5:12-16, where the apostles are performing signs and wonders among the people. Peter's shadow is literally healing people as he walks past. Crowds are gathering from surrounding towns, bringing their sick, and "all of them were healed."

Sharon explained the role of the apostles clearly. An apostle is someone sent on a mission with a message, carrying the authority of their sender. Jesus himself was an apostle — sent by God the Father. He then chose twelve men to continue the mission after he left.

She addressed the obvious questions head-on: why were they all men? Why all Jewish? "I don't have time to get into all of this," she said, and then offered a quote from Belleville explaining that the twelve Jewish males represented the twelve tribes of Israel — a symbolic arrangement rather than a permanent template for church leadership.

Signs That Point Somewhere

Sharon made an important distinction between signs and wonders. Signs are things that point us in a direction — like road signs, which she admitted she has a habit of missing. "In my worst example, I turned a journey of one and a half hours into a journey of four and a half hours because I was distracted and missed the crucial signs on the motorway."

The signs in Acts were supernatural events designed to point people towards God. The wonders were spectacular miracles that revealed his power and produced awe.

But then she asked the uncomfortable question: "Does this mean that every time we come up against problems and life is hard, we can expect a miracle and for everything to be great?"

When Miracles Do Not Come

Sharon walked through the evidence honestly. Even within the Book of Acts, miracles are not the whole story. Peter and John were arrested, imprisoned, and beaten. Stephen was stoned to death. Christians were persecuted. James was executed.

Even Jesus himself prayed to be spared from the cross: "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." The answer to that prayer was not a miraculous escape. It was the power to go through it.

"Sometimes God works through miracles," Sharon said. "But sometimes God works through the natural and moral laws that he has set up."

She illustrated this with an unexpectedly personal example. After a lifetime of being naturally slim, she had developed a case of middle-aged spread. "The numbers on the scales just kept going up. My clothes were tight and the stairs were starting to feel like hard work." So she changed her diet and increased her exercise. No miracle required — just cooperating with God-given physical laws.

The God Who Works Behind the Scenes

Sharon's third category was perhaps the most important: God working behind the scenes in ways we cannot see. She pointed to the Old Testament story of Joseph, sold as a slave by his brothers and wrongfully imprisoned, with God quietly manoeuvring him into a position of authority the entire time.

"Sometimes God doesn't answer our prayers how we want him to. Sometimes we have to go through some really tough stuff that just doesn't seem to make sense."

She quoted Philippians 4: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Then she added a line that landed firmly: "God is not Father Christmas. We don't just get to write out our wishlist and get everything that we want. God is about relationship."

Dave Connolly's Story on the Welsh Coast

Sharon then handed over to Dave Connolly, who shared a story that brought the whole talk to life. While walking along the coast in North Wales, Dave offered to take a photo for a family of five. As he left, he said, "God bless you."

The father asked why he said that. Dave explained he was a Christian. The family revealed they had been Christians until recently, but terrible things had happened and they felt abandoned by God.

Dave asked if he could share some things. What followed was extraordinary. He described three specific images the Holy Spirit laid on his heart — details about the family's private experiences that he could not possibly have known.

"The first thing was this: I shook you and I woke you from your sleep and I told you that I was carrying you and I was there with you." One of the teenage girls said aloud: "That happened to me."

The second image was about the father's wife feeling God's presence while walking the dog. The father confirmed it had happened. The third was about the family feeling guilty for not sharing their individual experiences of God's comfort with each other.

The father's response: "This changes everything. What you said changes everything. I see — I understand now. God was there."

Two Responses

Sharon noted that in the original passage, there were two responses to the miracles. Some people joined the believers. Others did not dare to join, even though they thought highly of the apostles.

In Conversation Street, Chris Holcombe — a cancer surgeon — reflected on this pattern in his own life. "Most of my life, most of my working life has been very much in that space of natural laws and God's wisdom. But it doesn't mean that God isn't interested in that."

He shared a miraculous answer to prayer from his time in Nigeria, where friends prayed for his wife to go into labour and the entire delivery was transformed. But he was equally passionate about the daily, unglamorous work of being a good surgeon and letting God's wisdom operate through that.

Dan Orange reflected on the temptation to fill every moment with noise and distraction. "I'm now consciously making that effort to either have a bit of quiet time or listen to something I can learn from."

Are You Missing the Signs?

Sharon's closing challenge was personal and direct. "Whether you are a follower of Jesus or not — are you like me on some of my car journeys? Has God been trying to get your attention but you have been distracted from the signs with other things?"

She shared her own confession about filling background time with TV during Covid, constantly bombarding her brain with noise until there was no quiet space left for God to speak. She has since changed that habit.

The talk left us with a picture of a God who works in multiple ways — through dramatic miracles, through natural wisdom, and through quiet, unseen movements behind the scenes. The question is not whether he is at work. It is whether we are paying attention.

Sometimes the miraculous is a shadow that heals. Sometimes it is a surgeon's steady hand. Sometimes it is a stranger on a Welsh coastline who says "God bless you" and changes everything.

What signs might you be missing today?