“Now the Lord said to
Abraham, “Go forth from your country and from your relatives” (Gen.
12:1). “Your word is a lamp to my feet to my path. I have sworn and I will confirm it, That I
will keep Your righteous ordinances” (Psa. 119:105-106).
Lesson learned:
Divine guidance is not a spiritual luxury- it is a minimum necessity for
every believer! We cannot expect Him to guide us unless His will, not our own,
is the supreme purpose of our lives.
Hey Gang: A year
passed and nothing had moved an inch in Michigan, and yours truly was beginning
to have doubts, was this God’s will or a pipe dream of Kermit’s? Every day, when
I went to work, I passed the new facility that was in the final stages of
completion. This would house the
dependent-neglect program. It was a
state-of-the-art facility and I learned that my name had appeared near the top
on the short list for the directorship.
Now, put yourself in my place for a moment and considered
the following carrots that were being dangled before my eyes. First, I had a family of six to provide for;
second, it would have meant a very substantial increase in salary and benefits
and placed me in a position of prestige in the system; third, I was comfortable
in my home and community and fourth, it would not have meant rooting-up my kids
and bride once again and moving them back across country to who knows what we
would be facing.
Satan was relentless in his supply of carrots. Every time I went to work I could see the new
facility nearing completion. At work,
there was the frequent encouraging comments that since I was already in the
system I would, in-all-probability, have the first chance to accept or reject
the new position. And on the other side
of the ledger, what I would call God’s side, nothing was happening.
The heat was suddenly turned up several notches when the
contact person in Michigan informed me this was not going to happen, if I did
not come back and do the leg work needed to get it off the ground. That, my friends, was not music to my
ears. Soooo, again, I drove to work- by
that beautiful new facility that was now in the landscaping phase to beautify
the area around the building. The
message was, oh, so clear from the evil one that day: “You can do all that you
want to do to save children in that new facility and have all the perks and
fringes offered by the system without lifting a single finger.”
There was the growing question in my mind (notice in my
mind, not my heart), ‘Was this Kermit’s idea or God’s?’ I confess at that point, I did not have a
clue which. It was also one of these
times when I felt my prayers were like bricks that, when offered, they
immediately fell to the ground. I wonder
how Jesus felt when Father God said to Him, “I want You to leave the
perfection of heaven and go to earth and walk in the shoes of those I breathed
life into and break the bondage of sin that holds them captive on a hill called
‘Calvary’.”
And then, one day as I was driving by that new facility once
again, I pulled a Gideon with God. I said, “Lord, I have not seen one iota of
progress or even a word of encouragement from Michigan. I need a word from the Throne Room of Heaven
to give me the assurance that I am to up-dump the lives of my family and become, as
I my bride often said, “The unemployed director of a non-existent Boys Home.”
It was during this time of agony and pain and doubt that two
very special verses stuck out in very bold print from the writing of
Isaiah. He quoted God’s Word to him, “So will My word be which goes forth from
My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire,
and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. For you will go out with joy and be led forth
into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their
hands” (Isaiah 55:11-12).
Did God answer my fleece?
Turn in tomorrow and see!
Blessings,
Gramps
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