Category Archives: Hearing from God

Test of Faith

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CancerWhen a life-crisis comes, it can test a person’s faith. Such is the case with the crisis of Mary’s cancer diagnosis 5 days ago. The Bible tells us, “You will have trouble.” (John 16:33) And yet when it comes, we’re never prepared.

Or are we?

In that same verse Jesus is talking, and just before his warning that we’ll all have troubles, he says that even while we’re in the midst of them, he wants us to experience his deep inner peace. He says he makes “his glorious power” available to us to produce endurance and that we’ll be given as much as we need. (Colossians 1:11)

Even though Mary hasn’t known about her cancer for very long, I’ve glimpsed that “glorious power” at work within her already. I look back at texts from Saturday, that long, frustrating day she and Bervin spent in the emergency room, and see how she was suffering: high fever, a bad belly ache, and the sudden onset of jaundice.

CT machine

As doctors began a string of tests and hinted at what might be wrong, Mary sensed the day wasn’t going to end well. The two of us were texting off and on, and midday she wrote, “Don’t worry. Just keep praying.”

 

As the diagnosis came closer, she knew it was more than just a bad case of the flu but wrote, “‘Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.’ I’m glad God is near.”

Between those words I could hear the Lord’s strength growing within her and knew he was preparing her for what was ahead. Three hours later she texted, “The Lord is near.”

Hours after that, just after she and Bervin had heard the words “pancreatic cancer,” she texted this: “I’m sorry for how this will affect you and yours as I walk down the same road as Nate. I know this is hard all around, but amazingly I’ve been at peace all day.”

Those were the words of a woman who had been supernaturally prepared by God to stand strong even in the face of cancer. One of Mary’s last texts on that awful day, coming after the diagnosis and well after midnight, was, “God is good.”

God is good.How can someone who’s just been told she has cancer actually believe God is good? The only reasonable answer is that he had personally prepared her ahead of time by strengthening her faith in him. Though she may not have felt it while it was happening, it was. She has always trusted God to do what was best, so he readied her for Saturday’s events.

That’s not to say Mary’s “trouble” isn’t going to be hard. The enemy of faith, the devil, is going to do all he can to make her miserable and shake her trust in God, but I believe he’s going to be sorely disappointed. This faith-test is only going to polish her into brightly shining faith-gold.

“I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” (Psalm 16:8)

Good Editing

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When I got the chance to write a book two years ago (at left), it was a dream come true, and the long process of thinking, organizing, and writing was pure pleasure. Secretly I hoped for the chance to repeat the experience. Now that possibility is coming into focus.

Looking back to the first book, I see how critically important it was to be partnered with a good editor.

A hard working editorHer name was Miranda, and I learned more from her than I did in all my college writing classes combined.

Although writers and editors all work with words, they use completely different skill-sets, and Miranda’s meticulous critique was invaluable to my little book. If I do get to write another one, my highest hope will be to team up with her again, because expert editing makes the difference between a mediocre end-result and a memorable one.

All of us need our words edited once in a while, for example in our prayers. God knows that, so he makes two supernatural editors available to us. The first is his Holy Spirit and the second Jesus Christ. These two have never made, nor will they ever make, an editing mistake.

We should be deeply grateful for them, since they take the prayerful petitions we make to God and edit them into viable, acceptable requests he will hear and answer. Theirs is an awesome duty that benefits us daily. Scripture says the Spirit edits with sounds that are actually too deep for words but that God understands his specific groans on our behalf. And Jesus bridges the natural gap between us and God.

We edit.So why can’t we edit our own prayers? The truth is, we do, but it’s not positive. Let’s say he asks us to obey in a specific way and we respond with, “Ok.” But then we edit: “You know I’m only human, Lord. How ’bout if I obey half of that and let the rest go.”

Unacceptable editing.

In another example we might think, “God doesn’t really mean what he says. He meant to say…” and we fill in the blank in a way that doesn’t require too much of us.

More bad editing.

A good editor like Miranda will take the first draft of a book and raise questions with the author about words and concepts, listening to her rationale but sometimes insisting on changes. God does that too, as his Son and Spirit commune with him about us. Their editing makes our imperfect requests perfect to his ears.

An editor's workI hope I can work with Miranda again, but that won’t be up to me. Working with God’s Son and Spirit, however, is left completely up to us.

“There is one God and one Mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus. […and] we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (1 Timothy 2:5 & Romans 8:26)

Coincidence?

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Bathtub drainToday I was the recipient of a personal touch from God.

I began as I always do, by filling the bathtub, but after sealing the drain and letting the water fill 2”, I noticed a grit across the bottom as if the bather ahead of me had stepped in with sandy feet. So I flipped the lever to let it drain, but it was a slow-go. This drain has been clogged for many weeks and by this time was down to a trickle. Waiting impatiently because I had a morning appointment, I looked at the clock to see how late I would be.

Those 2” of water took 9 long, annoying minutes to drain, reminding me I couldn’t put off calling a plumber much longer. Finally I filled the tub, planning to return later to rinse the soap scum away.

But when I had finished my bath and flipped the lever to open the drain, something incredible happened. The deep water in that tub whooshed out with force. Minutes earlier it had only trickled, but suddenly 13” of water was gone in 2 minutes!

Swirling drainI would have labeled it “just a lucky break” if it hadn’t been for one important factor. I share this with you, blog readers, knowing that “going public” might negate something valuable, but here goes.

In recent months I’ve been praying with passion about a stubborn problem that’s remained unchanged, and recently God reminded me that occasionally we should couple our prayers with fasting. Though I have little understanding of how fasting works, Scripture tells us two things: (1) the Lord sanctions fasting, and (2) it adds power to our prayers.

FastingThough the Bible says we’re to keep our fasts private, I’m sharing this story for one reason: to testify to what God did. These many months my specific prayer request has been for the Holy Spirit to “unclog” the thinking of a certain person, asking for a “breakthrough”. Then I committed to a one day fast, and on that very day an unexplainable rush of water “broke through” a “clogged” drain.

Coincidence?

I think God wants us to continually watch for him. He’s working all around us, and to catch a glimpse of him is a spiritual high like no other. Though I risk losing the benefit of my fast by way of this post, I can’t keep quiet about God and his ever-present activity. As a result of this morning’s whoosh of water, I believe he’s going to specifically answer my requests. I don’t know when or how, but you can be sure I’ll be carefully watching for him.

“Pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance.” (Ephesians 6:18)