MIRACLE
Have you ever noticed the churches which have a spirituality abiding in them?  Or places where Christians have prayed, which have a spirituality on them?  They don't seem to be the rule among churches, but the exception.  Why is that?  What makes certain places spiritual but not others?

  Well, I imagine many answers could be given which are not answers but reactions.  We might say certain churches are so focused on social works that they never contemplate the presence of God in their midst.  Social justice is certainly a large part of the kingdom of God, but when such work emaciates other aspects of the kingdom of God then we have a ministry not a church.
  This is true of an evangelical emphasis on knowing God's Word to the exclusion of belief in the Sacrament and a sacramental emphasis on how precisely the priest performs the Eucharist to the exclusion of the sermon.

  But then, when we step into a prayer chapel or certain churches, we immediately become aware of the Spirit of God.  These places are not always know for their social works or great budgets or numbers of missionaries they support or even their reputation in the neighborhood.  So what do they have?

  First, let's turn to a familiar verse, which has a phrase we all know:
  Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.  For when two or three are gathered in My Name, there am I in their midst of them, Matt. 18.19, 20.

  Here we have the promise that if two or more are gathered, the Son and the Father are there with them.  This can only be said through the blessing of the Spirit, which is what we notice in certain places where Christians worship.
  What this means is that what makes a place spiritual is when the people believe in the miracle that the Father and Sn are there with them.  This miracle can mean that the people believe God is with them in the Sacrament, the Word preached, or the works of the Spirit.  The tradition to which one belongs has no special hold, it's the belief in the miracle that God is here, which is the presence of the Spirit we notice.

  Once I was in a Baptist church in which the Sunday School classes were studying John 17.  After those classes, we all went to worship in the sanctuary.  I've never experienced such worship, such holiness in a Baptist church.  They aren't known for their emphasis on liturgy, so why was it so holy?  I think it was because the wonderful people there really did believe in what John 17 said.  God came down because their belief went up.

  The second reason for holiness in a certain places is the wishes and hopes and prayers of the people.  Wherever the hopes of the people are taken up, that place is special.  When the Spirit of God moves on a group of those praying to seek what God is giving, then those  hopes and prayers sanctify a place.  By that I mean not just that hopes and prayers cleanse a place but that those hopes and prayers remain there. 

  We can easily imagine a sports arena where the fans have hoped for a championship for years--their hopes and wishes remain in that place.  These places feel different than a hotel lobby or a bank.  When saints have prayed in such earnest in a place that God answers them, that place will have the atmosphere that God is there.  God seems to excavate a place for Himself in us and in our churches so that we enter into Him.
  This is the miracle of His presence.  We might become aware of Him through the Sacrament, through praying, through gathering with one mind, through serving one another, but He is there in us and for us and around us.  We abide in Him through our prayers, He abides in us through His Word, His Sacraments, His Spirit.

  The church is certainly not infallible, but it is the miracle of Christ among us.

  What this means is, our hopes and prayers sanctify a place, they dedicate a place unto God.  While we have our ceremonies of dedication, they are no more than asking God to come.  It is our prayers and hopes in the Spirit which draw Him and bring us into Him.   The United States was founded by those who had prayed for many years, they had hoped for religious freedom for generations.  So when they stepped upon these shores, all their hopes and dreams had been realized in this land.  God blessed America.

  When I was a boy I watched Oral Roberts in his crusades.  While his theology might be objectionable, the environment of faith was overwhelming and obvious.  He created the atmosphere in which people believed God.  The level of spiritual desire was unusually high, coming after WWII.  The people had almost nothing materially; Oral had great faith; God moved among them under the tent.
  Today many churches promote many things. 
  Do you believe God is in your midst?
  In Him was life and the life was the light of men, John 1.4.