I think the magical qualities available to us through our relationship with God are better captured by words such as "Healing, Miracles, Prayer, Love, the power of the divine, etc"

Magic or the power of magic is associated with dominance over things, or the power to command, against the natural order. This kind of power is mostly associated with the worship of the other guy.

When we work with the magical powers as made available from God we acknowledge that the power is from the creator. We are just commanding this power, but the timing is in god's hands.

With magic, there is more emphasis on the idea that the one performing or uttering the magical phrase is somehow "different" from the rest of the observers who are witnessing the magic. In commanding God's power through prayer or "ask & receive" (law of attraction), we are all equal, none of us is more powerful than the other.

I like the idea that God is magic.

And when you consider the phenomenons of nature - a catepillar into a butterfly for example - doesn't it seem magical?

Nature IS magical because it does things that we can't explain.

Does anyone know how to make a piece of sky (!) or a blade or grass or a rose?

Where would we even begin?

We don't even know really how we began. We have theories and ideas but we don't know.

If magic is inexplicable, seemingly random, quite wonderful and incredible - doesn't that sum up most people's idea about God?

If I had one wish for God it would be that the deity WAS magical because then all good things would be possible.

And anyway if you are going to believe in a God wouldn't you want this God to be magical?

Who wants an ordinary Joe Schmo kind of a God?

My God has got to be extraordinary or, in a word, magical.

From Illusions, the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach:

If you learn what this world is, how it works, you automatically start getting miracles, what will be called miracles. But of course nothing is miraculous. Learn what the magician knows and it's not magic anymore.

Someone had said that [to me] before...when I was a kid, learning magic-magicians say that! They carefully tell us, "Look, this is not a miracle you are about to see; this is not really magic. What it is, is an effect, it is the illusion of magic." Then they pull a chandelier from a walnut and change an elephant into a tennis racket...

god is a belief that not everybody shares , the same could be said of magick

If the first cause is God, the Divine Source - all that flows from that is that. There is a comfort in giving this source a personality that gives weight to the idea that this is better than that or magic is with the other guy, or miracles are from our team; however, this approach simply clouds the issue. The issue is we are, and there is a source within our understandng, even when we don't understand, and ALL is of God. Miracles and magic alike.

I'm assuming your talking about magic like warlock or witchcraft type of magic. If you study the dynamics or fundamentals of manifestation, you will find certain things are being utilized regardless if it is called magic, prayer, ritual, meditation. The principles involved are the same. The concept of God in the mind of man. The concept of a higher power be it male or female, both or just plain ol' intelligence. The concept of imagination, the concept of visualization, the concept of verbal declarations, the concept of prayer. The forces involved in maniestation are the same in magic as it is in putting your faith into God. You still have:

1.The Desire

2.The visualization or thought

3.The faith or allowing the desire to manifest

4.The perception or manifestation.

Ritual allows you to perform and put into words your desires, visualization puts yourself in the receptive state to manifest. Praying to God allows you to think, put into words your desires, and visualize your desires. I would say magic is just a different way to relate to a higher power, call it God, mother nature, etc...but no matter what, we still have to visualize, contemplate, and express our desires to this omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent intelligence to manifest anything.

Either way, Universal laws are exactly that. Universal regardless if you use magic, prayer, religion, meditation, any form of whatever you call it still have to use the universal laws.

This is a complementary answer to the one I gave as blubird two back in jan '11

Words mean nothing except when in the context of a story, just as an individual note of music takes on all it's value when it's in the stream of a musical harmony.

How does the "word" magic relate to God? I would say rather how does magic relate to God? And seen from from this angle I would say that they're identical, they both imply a natural higher power capable of fulfilling any wish that I truly desire. I could substitute the "labels" magic and God by;

power, all knowing, universal energy, mover, spirit, creator, and also magic genie as in the story of aladin's lamp.