Expect a Miracle, Every Single Time

As Oral Roberts' healing ministry grew through the 1940s and 1950s, he noticed a pattern among those who received breakthrough and those who did not. It was rarely about the severity of the illness. It was almost always about the posture of the heart walking into the prayer line.

He began teaching congregations to expect a miracle before they were ever prayed for, insisting that faith had to be active rather than passive. Sitting quietly and hoping something might happen was not the same as standing up inside and declaring that God was about to move.

This teaching was rooted in his own testimony. Roberts often reminded audiences that his lungs were not healed while he passively waited in bed, they were healed after he was carried, in faith, toward a place where he expected God to act.

The phrase expect a miracle became so associated with his ministry that it appeared on his television broadcasts, his books, and eventually the seal of Oral Roberts University itself. It was never meant as a slogan alone but as a daily discipline of the mind and heart.

For Roberts, faith was less about certainty concerning the method God would use, and more about certainty concerning God's character. He taught that because God is good, His people can always expect good things, even in the middle of an impossible circumstance.