Walk In The Spirit

What an amazing spirit-filled week we just had as a family. God preparing the way for our whole family to come together and study His Word, and then to be reminded of a humble prayer, and a door that we also heard about Sunday. In the sermon I was reminded of my prayer when I heard the statistics of what happens when a man is the first to turn to God in his household, I thought I would share a story from our lives.

Struggling Faith

Shortly after I asking God to forgive me of my sins, there were several struggles that challenged my faith. God was healing my marriage, and my family although I couldn’t see it at the time. I had started to think about where is the joy that God promises, and all kinds of thoughts came to me on why I was having these struggles. It seemed as my thoughts grew, my faith decreased, and into that is when I started hearing Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him, and he with me. I started quoting this verse to a brother at work several times. Then one Sunday, this brother comes down to Bloomington, and just by coincidence the sermon preached went into Rev 3:20. I couldn’t quite figure out why I kept hearing this verse though.

What did early Christians look like

I started thinking about how did early Christians look like, were they all happy and smiling all the time, or were they more sober, with the difficulties they had? We started going into VBS that week, and each day these thoughts just kept growing. I had reached a point, where every thought was about getting this joy, and why didn’t I have it? Did I not do something right, was God judging me? I needed it to rain, right now in this spot even though I didn’t know it at the time. We had just sent our son off on a church’s mission trip to Tennessee, and that Sunday after church we started doing the convert class study in our living room. I started to quote Rev 3:20, and then I noticed a smudge on our patio door. Thinking maybe I am just seeing things, I asked everyone what they saw. They all saw the same thing.

A Humble Prayer

The girls were beginning to get a little scared at what they saw. I started thinking about Rev 3:20 again, and went up to the door and stared at the smudge. I then opened the door and said a humble prayer to God, to come into my house and save my whole family. After a while I thought I should take a picture of this smudge. Tried a couple times with the camera, but the battery died every time, so I thought I hadn’t got the picture.

What did you see

About a week went by, and my son had just returned from the mission trip. We started to tell him what we had seen the week earlier, then he shared with us something he had seen that week on the mission trip. Anyway, come to find out the camera did actually save the picture of what we had seen in our patio door.

He is Mighty to Save

To wrap up the story, 2 years later two of our daughters are on a mission trip to Jamaica when I get this call from the oldest daughter saying she got saved. I started praising God that night, and was reminded of a prayer I had 2 years ago, almost to the same day when I asked God to save my whole family, and here what an amazing coincidence he saved one of my daughters. I thought about the joy back then, and the joy now. What God has done in our lives, and was just so thankful. Then the next day, the second daughter calls and says she got saved. We were just overwhelmed.

Jdg 6:17 And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.

Jdg 6:22 And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.

Jdg 6:36 And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said,

Jdg 6:37 Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.

Jdg 6:38 And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

Jdg 6:39 And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.

Jdg 6:40 And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

Conclusion

Whenever my faith is struggling, and Satan is trying to draw me away from God, I am reminded of the the story of Gideon asking God to make the dew On the fleece only, and even still later making the dew dry and the earth are full of dew. God reached out to us, not because of our faith but our lack of it.

Jdg 6:13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

Act 11:13 “And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, …”.