{"id":22709,"date":"2026-08-10T14:44:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=22709"},"modified":"2026-08-10T14:44:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:44:54","slug":"millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/08\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence.html","title":{"rendered":"Millions of Americans Claim Miraculous Answers to Prayer \u2014 Here\u2019s the Evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_3558\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3558\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2018\/08\/faith-christian-bible-reading-hands-woman-prayer-light_credit-shutterstock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3558\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2018\/08\/faith-christian-bible-reading-hands-woman-prayer-light_credit-shutterstock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3558\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>How many Americans have experienced miraculous answers to prayer? A new survey from the American Bible Society (ABS) reveals the results of this thought-provoking question.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. John Plake, editor-in-chief of the State of the Bible series and chief innovation officer at ABS, told CBN News that 48% of Americans believe that they have received a miraculous answer to prayer.<\/p>\n<p>And the fascinating results don\u2019t conclude there, as 35% also said that they have witnessed or experienced a divine healing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were really trying to get at, not just, \u2018Do you believe that these things are possible?\u2019 but, \u2018Have you had some kind of an experience where you\u2019ve prayed for something that you believe was answered in a miraculous way, or have you witnessed or experienced a divine healing or a miracle?&#8217;\u201d Plake said. \u201cSo on the prayer side of things, what we noticed was that practicing Christians, nine out of ten of them, say that they have prayed for something that was answered in a miraculous way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CJsmoDm7HKw?si=rrFCCnMl4hq_yxIA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The researcher said the level of one\u2019s faith participation has a lot to do with how they view the miraculous.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople who are practicing their Christian faith, I think, have a worldview that allows them to see that there\u2019s more to life than just the naturalistic world around them,\u201d Plake said. \u201cAnd so they are more likely to pray, and they are more likely to have these experiences of saying, \u2018Hey, something supernatural, something miraculous happened in response to that.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even among non-Christians, though, he said a fifth of these individuals report praying for something that they believe was answered in a miraculous way.<\/p>\n<p>Plake also shared some of the findings he found most surprising, including numbers on beliefs about the current state of miracles in the modern world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was a little bit surprised. I think there are actually parts of the church that take the theological view that miracles were for an earlier age,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe they ceased when the time of the apostles ceased and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind, he said it is a \u201clittle bit remarkable\u201d to see 58% of evangelical Christians report that they have \u201cactually witnessed or experienced a divine miracle.\u201d The same is true of 58% of Black Protestants and 33% of Mainline Christians.<\/p>\n<p>Even among people with non-Christian faiths, 40% reported experiencing or witnessing a divine healing or miracle. Watch the video above for more on this study.<\/p>\n<p>These topics are at the heart of CBN\u2019s \u201cInvestigating the Supernatural\u201d film series. The first movie, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/cbn.com\/miracles\">Investigating the Supernatural: Miracles<\/a>,\u201d deals with miraculous healing, and the second film \u2014 \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/cbn.com\/supernatural\">Investigating the Supernatural: Angels and Demons<\/a>,\u201d which was released in March \u2014 explores the reality of angels and demons.<\/p>\n<p><em>Article originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faithwire.com\/2026\/08\/06\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence\/\">Faithwire<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How many Americans have experienced miraculous answers to prayer? A new survey from the American Bible Society (ABS) reveals the results of this thought-provoking question. Dr. John Plake, editor-in-chief of the State of the Bible series and chief innovation officer at ABS, told CBN News that 48% of Americans believe that they have received a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":3558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Millions of Americans Claim Miraculous Answers to Prayer \u2014 Here\u2019s the Evidence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How many Americans have experienced miraculous answers to prayer? A new survey from the American Bible Society (ABS) reveals the results of this thought-provoking question.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/08\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Millions of Americans Claim Miraculous Answers to Prayer \u2014 Here\u2019s the Evidence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How many Americans have experienced miraculous answers to prayer? A new survey from the American Bible Society (ABS) reveals the results of this thought-provoking question.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/08\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-10T18:44:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2018\/08\/faith-christian-bible-reading-hands-woman-prayer-light_credit-shutterstock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Billy Hallowell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Millions of Americans Claim Miraculous Answers to Prayer \u2014 Here\u2019s the Evidence","description":"How many Americans have experienced miraculous answers to prayer? A new survey from the American Bible Society (ABS) reveals the results of this thought-provoking question.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/08\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Millions of Americans Claim Miraculous Answers to Prayer \u2014 Here\u2019s the Evidence","og_description":"How many Americans have experienced miraculous answers to prayer? A new survey from the American Bible Society (ABS) reveals the results of this thought-provoking question.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/08\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence.html","og_site_name":"Inspiration Report","article_published_time":"2026-08-10T18:44:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2018\/08\/faith-christian-bible-reading-hands-woman-prayer-light_credit-shutterstock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Billy Hallowell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/08\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/08\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence.html","name":"Millions of Americans Claim Miraculous Answers to Prayer \u2014 Here\u2019s the Evidence","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/08\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/08\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2018\/08\/faith-christian-bible-reading-hands-woman-prayer-light_credit-shutterstock.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-10T18:44:54+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-10T18:44:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79"},"description":"How many Americans have experienced miraculous answers to prayer? A new survey from the American Bible Society (ABS) reveals the results of this thought-provoking question.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/08\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/08\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/08\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2018\/08\/faith-christian-bible-reading-hands-woman-prayer-light_credit-shutterstock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2018\/08\/faith-christian-bible-reading-hands-woman-prayer-light_credit-shutterstock.jpg","width":768,"height":576,"caption":"Shutterstock.com"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/08\/millions-of-americans-claim-miraculous-answers-to-prayer-heres-the-evidence.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Millions of Americans Claim Miraculous Answers to Prayer \u2014 Here\u2019s the Evidence"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/","name":"Inspiration Report","description":"Inspiration News, Life Advice and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79","name":"Beliefnet Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6f7\/6f77b66a3e683e8aeba5be93e4ae3e04x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6f7\/6f77b66a3e683e8aeba5be93e4ae3e04x96.jpg","caption":"Beliefnet Staff"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/author\/skirk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22709"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22721,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22709\/revisions\/22721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}