Jeff Powers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Thank you Michael,I didn't mean to question your faith,
Michael D: No sweat, Jeff. My comment about stirring a brew should have been followed by a smiley. ![]()
It was not a serious one. I thought it was a very good one which touched on an important principle (which I offered in my response).
I only wanted to know what you would do when the "fat hit the fan". For reasons we may only learn when we stand before the throne God does not always answer our prayers as WE want them answered. I don't want to open this can of worms, but I know from experience God does answer all our prayers as He sees fit.
Michael D: I would have to say yes and no to that one. Often God is only able to answer our prayers as we allow Him. Remember it is Jesus who said ...be it unto you according to Your faith, not His power etc. When Jesus came down from the mount of transfiguration and the father pleaded with Him to heal his son in this manner '...but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and, help us. Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth...' Mk. 9:22-23.
Not to be harsh, but often we excuse faith failures by relegating them to God's will holding sway against what we desired in prayer. I have found that when we allow God's word to speak, often it convicts of unbelief.
Now, I do agree that we don't always get what we want, but there are sometines reasons for that. James says we pray amiss. We didn't take time to find out God's will/mind.
My point is we ought to be very careful about branding things as God's will when we didn't get what we wanted.
Next writing I might share a hurricane experience with you similar to the question you asked.
And sometimes, due to selfishness, we fail to see that He gave us the result we wanted. In which case some never see that God answered their prayer in the affirmitive, and others see it only later.Jeff----- Original Message -----From: michael douglasSent: Friday, August 20, 2004 6:14 PMSubject: Re: [TruthTalk] Christians' authority over natureHi Michael,I see that Slade has giving the forcast and coordinates so I will not bother. Weather of this nature is of concern to me as I have several friends and aquaintences in Florida and the surrounding Gulf states. Also, currently my travels are keeping me in the Gulf region.You mentioned your source, CNN,etc., its too bad they don't use the software I recomended! But then the lyrics to a song just came to mind, I think it was Glenn Frey who wrote,"People like it when you lose, they like dirty laundry..." the song really points out how networks like CNN sell airtime by sensationalizing the news.Unfortunately, I can imagine those cities facing the same again. I can also see the complacency of those very same people when it comes to taking storms of this nature seriously. It doesn't seem to impact people's minds that they could be the next ones this happens to. And you are right, too many are fatalistic about it. I'm happy to see your confidance in the power of prayer, but I have to present a scenario and see what your action would be: Suppose that a storm like Hurricane Charley is only about 12 hours from hitting your location and all the weather forcasts for the past 3-7 days repeat this imformation. Local authorities prepair for the worst and have issued mandatory evacuations of coastal areas. Now your home is maybe 1.5 miles from the coast and maybe 6 feet above high tide. And the storm surge is predicted to be 13-18 feet high. Keep praying that God will change the path of the storm, I'm not being a jerk Michael, this is just what I would be doing. But the clock is ticking. Oh, one more thing, in a storm of this intensity your home is about as sturdy as an empty Pepsi can. 10 hours to landfall now and the storm STILL has not changed direction (but it was just upgraded from a cat. 3 storm to a cat. 4 storm). Michael, your family is looking to you to make a decision, they know that you are a man of strong faith, WHAT WILL YOU DO?JeffMichael D: Well, Jeff, you sure do know how to stir a brew...In the type of scenario you painted, I will have to do some quick spirit checks to try and sense the witness of the Spirit to me. In that process, I will also be asking the Lord if we are on course for victory. If I am not getting that clearance or witness, then I will try to find out why. I will ask God to show me what is the problem.{Where there are (potential) faith failures, I believe the problem is with me/us and not with God.We know that God is committed to His covenant and cannot lie.}I have found that God is committed to giving us insight and wisdom where we lack it if we would really ask in faith. Sometimes I also find that I don't really want to hear what God has to reveal to me. Crucifixion might be involved...I have found that often we have faith failures because we haven't appreciated how willing God is to give us 'liberrally' and not 'upbraid' us when things aren't working for us (though we are sincerely trying). I've often found myself encouraging believers to stand firm on that promise in faith dilemmas. It can avert many defeats, and save us from accusing God wrongfully for not keeping His word, or for it not being His will to keep His word in a situation.
Please bear with me for an example, Jeff. A close brother in Christ was going through some devasting business failures for seemingly no reason (for the scale involved). I constantly encouraged him to do what I am saying here. After a couple of years of pointing him there over and over, the Lord was able to show him the root which was planted some twenty years ago. He was stunned when the Lord told him about it. He could not believe something so seemingly insignificant could have caused so much distress and faith shortfalls in his life.Anyway, back to the main question: that was quite a digression. Personally, if I can't discern the mind of God as to why the threat is not letting up, and with the impending danger drawing closer, I'll have to get out of there. Thank God he has been very gracious and faithful over the many years that I've had to countenance the various situations that presented themselves.
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