131. This shows us that a faith caused by miracles is not real faith but only second-hand belief. It has no rational content, let alone spiritual content. It is actually an outer shell with nothing inside it. The same holds true of everything we do on the basis of this kind of second-hand faith, whether it is acknowledging God, worshiping him at home or in church, or benefiting others. When the only thing that prompts the acknowledgment, the worship, and the devotion is some miracle, then we are acting from the earthly level of our human nature and not from the spiritual level, because the miracle instills faith from the outside and not from the inside — from the world, then, and not from heaven. The Lord enters us only from the inside, that is, by means of the Word and by lessons and sermons based on the Word. Since miracles close this inner route, miracles do not happen nowadays.
