INTRODUCTION

This week, I wanted to share a very interesting miracle that was wrapped in a ministry opportunity that I had back at the beginning of the year.

MAN ON THE CORNER

On December 22, 2005, I was in Binghamton, NY for an interview for a job. The interview was scheduled for 10AM, and I had arrived in town early at about 9AM. Since I had been to Binghamton before, I decided to take a short trip around and see if I could find some places that I was familiar with. Instead of finding what I was looking for, I got lost. I was praying that I would find my way, and God answered that prayer as I finally realized where I was and knew how to get where I needed to go. As it worked out I was about 15 miles from the facility and the time was 9:40AM. Plenty of time to get where I needed to go. As I sat at a stoplight figuring all this out, I noticed a homeless man on the side of the street with a sign that read, “Truly Needy, God Bless.” I immediately heard God tell me to stop and pray for the man. However, I was on a timetable and didn’t have time to stop. The light changed and I continued down the road. God continued to tell me to go back and speak with the homeless man. I continued to tell him that I didn’t have the time. Finally God asked me, “Are you going to continue to play around with follow me or are you ready to do my will?” Well, that cut me right down to the bone. There was no arguing with the creator of the universe on that question and I truly did want to do his will. So, I prayed for forgiveness as I turned around and returned to the corner. As I parked the van, being the human being that I am, I looked down and noticed that the time was 9:45AM. I knew that by stopping to speak with this man, I was going to be late to my interview, but also new that God’s will was more important to me and that he would take care of me. I had some money and some donuts in the minivan we had rented and took them with me as I got out of the van. I walked over and gave the man the stuff I had and asked him for forgiveness. I related the story about what God had told me and how I argued. The man listened intently until I was done and then with tears in his eyes told me that “About ten minutes before you got here, I had told God that if he was real he had better show up.” Well, you can imagine how my spirit jumped to know not only was I hearing the true voice of God as I thought, but I was at that moment in the exact place at the exact time doing the perfect will of God and affecting someone’s life. I had spoken and prayed for the man for a little while and gauged that it had probably been about twenty minutes. Saying my goodbyes, I got back into the van riding a Holy Spirit high that I had never experienced before that moment. I started up the van and looked down at the clock and my mouth hit the floor. The time on the clock read 9:45AM. All that time that I had spent with that man and not a single moment passed in real time. God stopped the clock while I was doing his will.

SCRIPTURE

God says that he will be there for all who are needy and all who cry out to him even if the person crying out is homeless and even if he needs to stop time achieve his will.

CONCLUSION

Bottom line, it is always a joy to do the will of God in our lives. I would encourage everyone to step out and follow what God would tell you to do.

Also, if you have a testimony to the power of God, write it down and email it to me. I will then pray and if God wills, it may show up on the Round Table Report.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

This week God has totally blown me away and I am even more amazed at him then I have been in the past. A good friend of mine totally reflected the love, grace, mercy and image of Christ to me that I am bursting at the seams to share what he did with you. However, before I can explain what happened and how God moved in my life, allow me to back up and explain the situation that happened. Beginning with a very relevant vision that God gave me a couple of weeks ago.

TRUST HIM

I was standing on a Spanish galleon (ship like the ones used in Pirates of the Caribbean) with my wife there and Jesus. We were in the middle of a terrible storm and I was asking Jesus to calm the storm. He then told me that I needed to climb up to the Crow’s Nest (a platform usually near the top of the main mast for seeing greater distance). I told him that I would be glad to AFTER he calmed the storm because the ship was being tossed back and forth with water coming over the bow and intensely hard rain and wind. Jesus told me that I needed to go to the Crow’s Nest. I looked up and saw the very wet rope ladder that existed between me and the Crow’s Nest and thought to myself that there was no way I could make it. Jesus speaking as if he had read my mind told me to trust him and that I could make it. I looked back at my wife and then began to climb the rope ladder. A couple of times I lost my footing or one of my hands slipped, but eventually I made it to the top. As I stood there, Jesus joined me. Here smiled and pointed off towards what I assumed to be west and could see a rapidly approaching clearing that overtook us having us sail on calm seas. The storm was gone as if it had never happened. Jesus then told me that I was going through the storm and the trial in preparation. He would not say what the preparation was for. And then the vision ended.

AND?

I am sure you are wondering how this relates to what happened. Over the past several months, my family has been waging a war in our finances. I will spare you the full details; however, I can testify to the fact that on many occasions the enemy stole money from us. How did he do this you might ask, the answer is very simple. He caused things to happen that were outside of the normal and expected which caused us loss. For example, my wife and I both separately looked at the bank online and verified that everything had cleared the bank and a positive balance was left. We then, knowing that my deposit went in soon, made some arrangements to have items paid using the balance from the checkbook coupled with my paycheck. Well, two things went wrong here. First, the arrangements went through the bank before my deposit, which is really not supposed to happen. Second, and more critical, the online statement that both my wife and I checked and double checked had an adding error in it that when it was corrected, we didn’t have the money we thought we would. If you then add strategic banking (the concept where the bank will put through all the big stuff first and then the little stuff so that if something is to go into the overdraft, it will have several little items and garner greater fees), we lost a bunch of money. If things like that were not bad enough, the enemy then throws in electric bills that are almost double (mostly due to rate hikes, which we are looking into switching about) and car troubles (and of course this would happen to be something out of warranty) and you begin to get the picture of the war we have waged. However, in each and every case, we praised God to the best of our ability knowing that he would see us through.

TITHES AND OFFERINGS

Many people have informed us in both nice and not so nice terms that our belief on this subject is wrong. However, my belief on tithing and offering seems to be what the Bible supports and that is what is important. Each time I am to get a paycheck, I immediately get a money order for the tithe and set that aside until Sunday when I can put it in the offering. Then I pray to God asking him what he would like me to give as an offering. A couple of times it has not been anything and several times it has been a large amount. Whatever God tells me to offer, I give that Sunday in the offering designating it as the Lord leads. My belief has its root in Malachi chapter 3.

I do not want to be under a curse and I certainly do not want to rob God, but God clearly says that in verse 8 that in answer to how can we rob him was in both the tithes and offerings. I know many people have different interpretations on this, but I simply went to God and got the following revelation. Giving your tithe out of all your income (and this is on what you get paid not what you take home) is a command and this just gives you membership into God’s Reward Zone. However, to really activate the rewards, we have to make deposits into the Reward Zone account and these are the offerings above and beyond the tithe. Please do not get me wrong, I am not advocating that we give to get a reward. We should give for the sole reason that we love God and want to follow his command. That said, God does say that when we give he opens the floodgates of heaven. Giving offerings is not a command and one can easily ignore it, but I really believe that to get the full potential of the blessings of God we need to be offering above the tithe as well. I believe this concept is revealed in the book of Mark.

If the poor widow was giving out of her poverty and it was all she had to live on, then she was offering above and beyond the tithe and yet Jesus himself made a point of singling her out. This was not to admonish her, but to point out that from God’s point of view it was more important to him that she gave so much.

A CALL FOR PRAYER

Being in this position and realizing that it was as much a spiritual attack as it was anything else, I did what any Christian would do. I followed the scriptures.

I put out and email for prayer explaining my situation to my close friends. I also put out an email to many I know just asking for prayer. I got some interesting responses, but there was one that really reflected the image of Jesus Christ that I just have to share what he did.

REFLECTING JESUS CHRIST

I have a good friend named Kevin (a mighty man and brother in Christ) who lives about a four-hour drive from me. Because he is my closest friend, I sent him a detail email asking him for prayer. Specifically, I asked him to pray on my behalf and ask God if there was anything that I might be missing. His response email honestly shocked me so much that I just stared at it praising and thanking God for what must have been a good ten or more minutes. Allow me to share an excerpt from his email.

After my shock wore off, I emailed him back and then we got on the phone together and determined the best way to get the money to me was in cash so that I would not lose it immediately to some fees at my bank (my account is negative). What we had come up with was to meet half way between here (Dallas-Fort Worth Texas) and his home in near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Since gas was a concern, Kevin’s wife, Kim (a mighty woman in Christ), suggested meeting in Gainesville, TX. My wife and I sold some of our DVDs to get the gas money and were off to meet my friend. I was excited for two reasons, first God had answered our prayers and second I was going to get to see my friend for a while.

We met at the Gainesville Factory Outlet Shopping center for all of you who may know where that is. My family and I arrived first and my three year old immediately saw the little playground they had there. As my friend arrived, I could just feel the love of God emanating from his presence and it made me praise God all the more. This man is a great friend, but he is not overflowing in wealth (yet). He has a wife and son and yet took the time to drive two and a half hours one way to bring us some much needed money following what God told him to do. I tell you the truth when I say that Kevin is truly a man after the heart of God because many of us would like to think we would do that, but when the moment comes and God says to go, we back down and don’t. I praise God for Kevin and Kim in our lives.

Well, if I was amazed at my friend’s unwavering faith and submission to God to get us the money, I was blown away by the fact that he also bought my family dinner at Applebee’s and filled my car with gas. He told me that these were non-negotiable parts of the deal and to be honest I just kept praising God for all that he was doing. At one point, I almost burst into tears, but I held my manly composure. Not that I needed too, but it is a guy thing.

Kevin handed me enough cash to make it until my next payday and carry my family through this rough patch. Of course, we are not completely out of the woods yet, but when God shows himself so strong like this it is a lot easier to face what is left to come. When all was said and done, Kevin spent close to three hours with us helping us in more ways then he might be aware of and I praise God for him and call down blessings a hundred fold on him and his family.

SCRIPTURE

There were several scriptures already mentioned, but I wanted to highlight one in particular.

Kevin did not just read this word, but he wrote it on his heart and more importantly followed God in putting this verse into action. God gives us money to live on and to share with others. That sharing could be helping a fellow brother or sister in Christ or it could be buying a homeless man a meal and sharing Jesus with him. However it is used, it is to be used for the glory of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Kevin reflected the heart and desire of Christ by following what God told him both in the scriptures and in prayer. I thank and praise God for men like him.

CONCLUSION

Walking the Christian walk is not always easy, but it truly is the best and we walk it with God at our side. God tells us that he works all of his plans for our good. I encourage you to reflect Jesus today just like Kevin did by following whatever God is laying on your heart to do. He will never forsake you and the rewards are literally eternal.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.