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.