What if He Answers No?

In my last post I tried to offer reassurance that the Creator of the Universe is indeed interested in the small things in your life - and delights in your asking, so that He might answer you. But what if His answer is no? And what if your prayer was not for something as small as a mowed lawn? What if it was to save a life, and He still answered no?

I'm having to ponder this question today. After losing one dear friend who was in my own fellowship, just a few short weeks ago, this past week we lost another. In both cases there had been vast amounts of prayer being lifted to the Father, and great faith in believing that He would do a healing miracle. Also in this past week I was joining my prayers with others in Kansas for a young woman with a newborn baby. Together we believed God would keep her from death, but He said no to our prayers and she died.

After all your many prayers over little baby Gemma on Thursday (and we thank you for them), the doctor came out to say that it had not worked. "A more complicated procedure is going to be needed in about two months when her bones are stronger," he told us.

What is going on? As I spent this Shabbat morning with the Holy Spirit, asking Him this question, I believe He showed me. First I heard in my spirit, "It is a season of testing - a season like Job went through. Will you still trust God even when He doesn't answer the way you expected?" I thought about that ancient, righteous man of the Bible named Job. In his case Satan made a bet with God that when things went bad for Job, he would curse God and turn away from Him. God agreed to this test of Job's heart; and when Job had suffered the loss of his wife, his children, his wealth, and his own health, he still proclaimed of his God, "He gives and takes away. Blessed be the Name of YHVH."

That is the song we sang at our dear friend Don's memorial service. What else would we sing? The test is of our hearts, to see if we will still give our Holy God all the praise, worship, and honor that He is due. He is sovereign and His will is perfect. We just don't always understand it! And I have come to feel that we haven't really understood death as healing either. Sometimes I think we pray so hard for healing in this life because we have so little understanding of the perfect life that awaits us. Yet, in Psalm 139 the LORD makes it so clear that there is nowhere - absolutely nowhere - we can flee from His Presence; not even the grave!

Last Erev Shabbat our little group went to camp out on the eastern Colorado plains, despite the fact that I had begged them all not to go. There were tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings over our area! But when I phoned people to warn them, each one of them said, "We're going ahead." I asked the Father, "What should I do?" He clearly said, "Go with them: you will be teaching the children to trust Me." Sure enough, in a few hours the sky turned black, and then a very strange, eerie "white wall" of cloud surfaced and turned in our direction, moving at a fast pace. We cranked up my emergency radio and heard clear warnings to get into a safe place of shelter. A tornado was headed straight for us!

We grabbed all the little children and ran for the three-sided picnic shelter. Some of them were frightened, but all the adults were very calm. In that small shelter we huddled together and we begin to sing worship songs that gave praise and glory to Yeshua. Then we all held hands and commanded the tornado to dissipate and move away. While we sang and praised, a big hailstorm beat down all around us, but in a very short time the storm moved away, and the sun came out! The children experienced what it was like to trust God to keep us safe, even in the midst of the storm. And yet sometimes His way of keeping us safe is to remove us from this earth, bringing us into perfect shalom, where there is no more crying or disease or pain. Sometimes that is His healing - and prayers that we felt He denied, He actually answered with His perfect mercy and love.

We are in a season of testing. Let us pray this psalm until we really begin to understand what the Holy Spirit is imparting to our hearts. I set these words to music many years ago - and now I am hearing the Spirit instruct me to "resurrect" that song and begin to sing it again. No matter how He answers us, He does not abandon us! His Right Hand holds us - and his "Right Hand" is Yeshua!

Psalm 139:7-10:

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your Presence?

If I go up to the heavens, You are there;

If I make my bed in the grave, You are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

If I settle by the far side of the sea,

Even there Your hand will guide me,

Your Right Hand will hold me fast.

Planted in the Heart of a Man

How interested do you really think God is in the small details of your life? How much attention do you feel He pays to your prayers, spoken or unspoken? Let me tell you a story that hopefully will reassure you of the Most High God's abiding interest in the smallest detail of your life - and His joy in answering the most "insignificant" prayer.

I was feeling utterly overwhelmed. Because our fellowship, David's Tent, was sponsoring a Retreat weekend, I had company coming to stay in my home. I worked a very long day on Friday and then shopped for groceries to be certain I could provide lots of good meals for them. My eye caught sight of my overgrown lawn and all the high weeds around the house. I knew there would be no time to do anything about it.

On Saturday morning my dear friend David came and we spent several hours in the Word, collaborating on what we would teach. By afternoon my company arrived and the weekend was in full gear. We walked outside and I felt so embarrassed by my unsightly lawn. We climbed into separate cars and I let out a desperate cry to the Lord for help: "Abba, where are the men? I need help with my lawn! There is no time, Father! Would you plant it in the heart of a man to help me? I just can't do it all by myself!"

Sunday was our Retreat. It was a truly blessed day in the Lord. We spent many hours feeding on his Word and also enjoyed a picnic in the park together. Then Monday rolled around and I had invited a man from our fellowship to join myself and my company for dinner on Monday evening. When he arrived he walked out with me to my shed to get the charcoal and lighter fluid. Halfway through the overgrown yard, he stopped and looked at me as if totally perplexed. "What's the matter?" I asked him. "I'm just remembering this dream I had," he mused. "I was sleeping in my chair just before I came over and I dreamed that I was mowing your lawn!"

My heart stopped. I remembered my cry to the Father, "Would you plant it in the heart of a man to help me?" God had given this man a dream in response to my prayer. It was incredible! I wondered if he would just laugh it off; but instead, he urgently asked me, "Where's your lawn mower?" I tried to tell him he could wait until morning when it was cooler, but there was no stopping him. The dream had indeed planted it in his heart to do this for me, and before we sat down to enjoy our steaks, my lawn was cut and trimmed and looking like a well-manicured garden!

Is the King of the Universe really interested in something as small as getting your lawn mowed? Test Him! He is your Abba - your Daddy. He knows your needs before you ask - but He takes great delight in your asking.

Casting our Lot With Israel

I imagine those on my e-list are familiar with the Gaza-bound flotilla incident in Israel this past week - and also familiar with the smear tactics used by the worldwide media to "demonize" Israel and distort the truth. This is not a new story. In fact, it is a very old story. As Solomon so often said, "There is nothing new under the sun." Israel has always and will always be singled out as the nation that has no right to defend itself. We must remember that the prince of the world hates the God of Israel and the people who are in covenant with Him.

In this week's Torah portion we read again the story of the 12 spies being sent into the Promised Land to bring back a report. We know that 10 spies bring a terribly negative report, filled with fear, lacking all trust in their God. But two men display a "different spirit." Two men - Joshua and Caleb (interestingly one from Judah and one from Ephraim) - look at the Land through spiritual eyes, not worldly eyes. They see what the other 10 men could not see! They see the Beautiful Land that was promised to their forefathers - they see the future of a people belonging to God. Why could they see it and the other ten could not? I believe it is because these two faithful men valued their inheritance. They believed their Covenant-keeping God would surely conquer the "giants in the Land" and defeat all their enemies. He had promised them this - and they believed Him.

Here is what Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem had to say in making a thought-provoking comparison of this story from Numbers 13-14 and this past week's flotilla incident in Israel:
"When God subsequently tells Moses that the entire generation will die in the desert due to their faint-hearted response, save Joshua and Caleb, it wasn't intended as a reward for the two, but in recognition that only they possessed the very faith and the courage necessary to inherit the land. This week's episode of the terror flotilla that set sail for Gaza has afforded all the world's illustrious notables yet another opportunity to cynically and shamelessly trash Israel. Precisely today, when the entire world is clamoring to slander the nation of Israel, and speak ill of the land of Israel, and behave disparagingly toward the God of Israel, it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to take a stand and speak boldly and forcefully, as did Joshua and Caleb, on behalf of the people, the land and the God of Israel. Only those that make their voices heard now, and cast their lot with Israel will make their mark in history, and likewise be noted by God, that they too, like His servant Caleb, are 'possessed by another spirit,' worthy of God's deliverance."

Amen! Shabbat Shalom!