5 - God's providence: things work out!
The church God showed me in the dream! It was a small non-denominational church. Not more than a dozen in attendance, if that many, when I walked in. Was not sure what I expected but the only thing I was thinking about was that God had showed it to me. It was enough. During the service, they had a time in which people could share things that were on their mind. I decided to share the story about God showing me the church in the dream and how I came to find it. Kind of amazing I thought.
During the service, I found an opportunity to stand up and tell everyone how I had discovered the church. After sharing my story, another man stood up who was similarly amazed. As it turned out, this individual was not only a pastor himself but was also the father of the pastor who had just accepted the role of pastoring this small church. He had been concerned that the church was too small to support his son and his son’s family. He was questioning his son’s decision to accept the position of pastoring the church. Here is his story.
Because of his concern, he prayed and asked God to give him a sign that God had called his son to pastor this small church. His request was that God would send someone in through his Spirit the very day I showed up; someone who had not known of the church and had not learned of it from another person. Then I showed up with my story. A coincidence? Not likely; I realized.
As I mentioned earlier on this website, God was beginning to become a reality to me. There was no doubt in my mind that I would be attending this church. That said, nothing else changed. Didn’t quit living. Still went to work. And still had to deal with the problem of the fear.
But, that said, something was clearly going on and I had questions. Having found the church that God showed me, I said to myself what better place to get answers to my questions. Check out the next page, “6 – My questions: God’s answer!” to see what happened.
Notes
A coincidence I said; not likely.
What happened was not a coincidence, this I could see with my own mind and reason. What I know now, but did not know then, is that God is a reality and the events and circumstances of our world are subject to God’s oversight and purposes…..and He is not sitting around idle. What does this mean….it means that God can, and does, intervene in our world.
But looking beyond words, how can we tell that? There are many historical examples to be found in the Bible of God intervening in our world. There are also many examples of God intervening in behalf of those who love him in our world. This website describes those present day examples of which I am most familiar; the ones I experienced as God revealed himself to me.
Here are two of the biblical examples. Consider the biblical story of Isaac, Abraham’s son, and Rebekah, his wife. Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac, his son, in Mesopotania from where Abraham had come. When Abraham’s servant arrived at the city of Nahor in Mesopotania he prayed and said to God: “…Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water. And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also, let the same be she that thou has appointed for they servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master. And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out…..” And Rebekah did exactly that; all in accordance with the servant’s prayer…including the servant’s camels. Coincidence; not likely.
Consider the biblical story of Joseph who, being in jail, interpreted the dreams of two of his cellmates foretelling their future…one of death and one of pardon. The cellmate who was pardoned was the pharaoh’s cupbearer and subsequently, being in the pharaoh’s presence, learned that the pharaoh had two dreams that were troubling him and no one understood them. The cupbearer remembered Joseph who had interpreted his dream while in jail and told pharaoh. The result was that pharaoh sent for Joseph who interpreted the dreams; an event that resulted in Joseph being set free from jail and elevated in the pharaoh’s kingdom; a position that permitted him to provide safety to his family at a later date. A coincidence; not likely.
Keep in mind that it was God who provided Joseph the interpretation of the dreams.
Or, as you read of the events described on this website, consider that many of those events have an outward appearance of a circumstance, but it is evident that they are not. Before moving on, there is another question that arises. Simply put, the question is this: does God directly control/intervene in every little event that occurs in our lives or in the world. The answer is that while God is fully aware of every component of the world he has created, he does not directly intervene in every little circumstance unless he chooses to.
God addressed this issue with me in one of the events described in this website. Check out the page entitled, “8 – God’s oversight: the bent blade of grass and the lost penny!”.
Here are the scriptural references for the two events described above.
The story of Isaac’s wife is found in Genesis 24 (KJV). The story of Joseph is found in Genesis 41 (KJV). And Romans 8:28 (KJV) indirectly affirms that God controls the events and circumstances of our world.