It's a Miracle!

Sometimes I think to myself, "Why doesn't God release his miracle power more often? If he really wanted to impress people, and win lots over in faith, why doesn't He just send more of his children out, curing all kinds of diseases, and prophesies over non-believers, and part the Red Sea again and burning some bushes or that kinda thing. That would really impress people and they would have no choice to believe!"
While I know that healings and prophecy still exists, (I've seen them) they are rarely covered by the media and are often explained away by non-believers. I just think if God sent a worker with a strong anointing on TV, and lots of people witnessed it… they couldn't help but believe. Right?
Well…er…no. Sometimes I talk myself out of my own good ideas
Many non-believers view ministers like these as quacks or frauds, and parts of the church teach that some gifts no longer exist. But even in the event of a major revolution of our American ideology, I see in scripture (sigh) that it still wouldn't be enough.
In John 12 we see Jesus riding into Jerusalem and the crowd comes running to greet him:
The next day, the news that Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem swept through the city. A huge crowd of Passover visitors took palm branches and went down the road to meet him. They shouted, "Praise God! Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hail to the King of Israel!"
…Those in the crowd who had seen Jesus call Lazarus back to life were telling others all about it. That was the main reason so many went out to meet him-because they had heard about this mighty miracle. (12-18)

They'd heard about his miracles and wanted to see him for himself. They waved their palm branches, and sang songs, praised him, and called him the Messiah. Sounds like they were believers to me!
But when I read on, I see:

But despite all the miraculous signs he had done, most of the people did not believe in him. This is exactly what Isaiah the prophet had predicted. (V.37)

The hype of the miracles was enough to capture their attention, but without the personal encounter with him, it was not enough to hold it very long. The crowd who hailed his arrival in the city is the same crowd who turned against him a few days later. It almost seems as though miracles made no difference to the witnesses at all. But upon close examination, I see a very different story unfold in the same book of John, just a few pages back.
In the story of the woman at the well, Jesus prophesized over the Samaritan woman, who then went and told just about every one in town. The people of the village came out to see him, and "They begged him to stay at their village." Similar beginning to the Jerusalem story, but…

So he stayed for two days, long enough for many of them to hear his message and believe. Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe because we have heard him ourselves, not just because of that you told us. He is indeed the Savior of the world." John 4:40.

What's the difference? They weren't just caught up in the hype and the excitement, the gossip or TV cameras, - they had a personal encounter with Jesus himself.
I'm seeing that the same hold true for mankind, 2000 years later. It is within the hearts of those who have had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ where faith grows. No amount of media hype, testimonies, miracle witnessing, or movie watching, will touch the spirit within us until we have experienced him for ourselves.