Miracles: Are They Still Happening?

Those who have read the Bible are familiar with the concept of miracles. Miracles occur in various forms throughout the Old and New Testaments: from the plagues of Egypt to the parting of the red sea by Moses, from the healing of those ailed to raising people from the dead, and from prophecies to the casting out of demonic spirits. In spite of the frequency of miracles before, during, and shortly after the Christ walked the earth, there are many people today who assert that miracles don't happen. Alternatively, a number of people hold the belief that miracles happened "way back then" but that they no longer happen.
A number of questions are raised by this standpoint. The first question that must be addressed is, "What actually constitutes a miracle?" This question is similar to, and in fact relevantly equivalent to, the question, "What is a miracle?" Arguable the most frequent answer to this question is that miracles are any events that cannot be physically (or otherwise scientifically) explained. This may seem like a good answer, but I disagree with this as an answer: this only covers a subset of all of the miracles that occur. Rather, I (and others) would define miracles as being any event caused by either direct or indirect Divine Intervention. A lame person being miraculously cured is certainly a miracle, but so too would be the almost imperceptible Voice that speaks to the devout atheist and turns him to God.
The former case appears to be more impressive, and it is the one that certainly can't be explained physically. The second case appears less miraculous, and the Voice can certainly be explained away as the person's imagination. However, the miracle involved is actually greater than the healing of the lame man. The former is a physical healing which may lead to a increase in the man's faith, but the latter is a spiritual healing; but while the physical life will pass away, the spiritual one is for eternity.
Strangely enough, I do know quite a few Christians who hold fast to the belief that the former case no longer happens, but who at the same time argue that the latter case happens all the time. These people are often very devout in many ways (more about that in a moment). They have read the Bible, and have studied certain verses, chapters, and even books in the Bible thoroughly. Many of these are the passages that reveal miracles in the world during Old and New Testament times. These are often the people who assert most adamantly that the age of miracles is over. Yet in the Acts of the Apostles, the risen Lord tells the apostles gathered during his ascension that the power of the Spirit would come upon them, and that they would be His witnesses to the ends of the earth (See Acts Chapter 1). The significance of this is that the group assembled there certainly did not make it to the ends of the earth themselves; they did spread the words far and wide, but there were plenty of places not reached by these people. Thus, their descendants or disciples would then spread the word further: many of these likely also under the guidance of the Spirit. This guidance is certainly a sort of miracle, and certainly other miracles would be performed.
Now, I mentioned earlier that many of the people that I know who hold the position that miracles don't happen are in many ways devout Christians. A part of this devoutness manifests in prayer; I don't know when, where, or how long and frequently these people pray, nor is that for me to know. However, I am fairly certain that they do in fact pray. Certainly, there have been times when they have asked me to pray for them, for a variety of reasons. This brings up a point: what, exactly, are they asking me to do?
There are several "types" of prayers. These include praise, thanksgiving, atonement, and petition. The first three are, in effect, personal*: you glorify God on your behalf, you ask for the forgiveness of your own sins, and you give thanks to God for what He has done in your life. The fourth type, petition, is the one most frequently used for the behalf of others. When a friend asks you to pray for him, or to say a prayer for her, it is most often because he or she is going through a hard time in life: he or she needs God's help. Thus, he or she is generally asking you to petition God on his or her behalf.
But what is a petition to God on a person's behalf? It is merely a request that He do something for that person. Often it is a request that a friend be comforted in a time of sorrow, but there are also cases of people asking for God's help with a sick relative. Perhaps, though, the most telling thing here is the friends who ask for us to pray for their speedy recovery after an injury. This recovery is generally purely physical. In any case, they are asking me to petition God to intervene on their behalf- in other words, to pray for a miracle (even if a small one)**.



*This is a generality: for example, some people thank God for something He has done in a friend's life, or ask for the forgiveness of a dead or dying relative's sins. However, often in these cases a petitionary form of prayer is or was used: you don't apologize for someone else's sins, you ask God to forgive that person's sins and to bring that person closer to Him. In the case of the prayer of thanksgiving, more often than not you, the person will have asked for your prayers of petition, and the thanksgiving is done after those prayers have been answered, directly or indirectly. Prayers of atonement are in effect an apology to God, and thus would be most sincere if done by the person who has sinned. The petitionary prayers, on the other hand, are asking God for something: sometimes for your own sake, such as asking for patience to deal with a frustrating situation; sometimes they are for the sake of others, such as asking God to help them in a time of difficulty.
**Note that sometime the expectation isn't for a quicker recovery per se, but for a full recovery, etc. This is irrelevant: the ultimate request is a petition to God for intervention.

~As a final note, it should be mentioned that while miracles do occur, not all miracles are necessarily God intervening directly. Some may even be a placebo effect, though it can be debated that God is using this placebo as His medium... or it can be argued that God was not involved at all in these cases, or that the person wasn't really cured of anything (or that the problem was all imagined to begin with).