In bringing Israel across the Jordan, the Lord taught them that He was with them as He was in previous generations. They could with confidence know He was the living God and could confidently go forward with Him in faith (Josh. 3:10; 4:21-24). Have you gone forward with God by faith? May our brief personal account of the Lord’s faithfulness encourage your increased confidence in Him (1 Tim. 4:10).
Stepping Out in Faith Strengthens Prayer
Since we began reducing our working hours twenty years ago, the Lord has always provided for us. Sixteen years ago, He directed us to move with our three young children to a new area. The purpose was for God to raise up a new assembly there, which He did six years later. With the planting of the new assembly, our heavenly Father arranged for us to leave full-time employment in order to have more time to invest in the Lord’s work. These steps were taken as part of the body of Christ, seeking the local assembly leadership’s agreement so that we were not acting independently (Acts 13:1-4). When spiritually or financially challenging times have come, we have been thankful to confidently remind our God that He led us forward.
The Lord Provides Well-timed Gifts
We have trusted God to provide for our needs without soliciting funds because we see this direct trust in God practiced in Scripture. He sometimes has provided specific gifts from saints at specific times as a means of encouraging us. The first time we received a personal gift from a fellow believer occurred when we were praying about Bruce leaving his full-time job. The first time we received an assembly gift unrelated to a teaching visit was on the very day we asked God for extra confirmation about Bruce leaving his full-time job. Praise the Lord for His sovereign timing to encourage us!
The Lord Sovereignly Opens Doors
God’s servants need the Lord to guide them and open doors. Having moved, we chose a piano teacher who turned out to be the wife of a department chair in a nearby college, whom we got to know. Later he asked Bruce to teach a course, which opened a door for ministry to students which is still ongoing. God had sovereignly chosen our children’s piano teacher. Years ago, when he was in college, Bruce had changed majors thinking the new major might be useful if the Lord called him to missionary work. Guess what course needed an adjunct? The specific area Bruce had switched to. Our God had sovereignly arranged it as we walked in obedience to Him.
Our God Helps Us Go Forward
It can be intimidating to go forward with God using our spiritual gifts in the ministries He entrusts to us. But the work is the Lord’s. How freeing that is. Be part of starting a new assembly? Actively engage in personal shepherding? Have forty young people in our home each month for Bible teaching and homecooked meals? Yes! When so clearly prompted of God, it would be disobedience to not go forward by faith. We have often had concerns, yet the Lord has faithfully helped every time. It is so good to trust and obey Him.
The Lord Provides For Specific Needs
Our home has been a hub of rich teaching, shepherding and fellowship with about 10,000 visitors during the last 15 years, and Amie has fed many of them. The kitchen was very small with five doorways, so it was essentially a hallway. Neither good nor safe. Yet we persisted in serving and prayed for five years regarding improving the kitchen to better facilitate hospitality. Eventually, God gave us the idea to look for a “used” kitchen. He provided us with a barely used, eleven-year-old and fully outfitted kitchen for 10% of what a new one was worth. The hard surface countertops fit perfectly into the available space.
Building Fellowship
It is a joy being part of God’s work which brings closer fellowship in Christ’s body than we would otherwise experience. On one occasion, the Lord opened the door to drive six hours to teach, but we only had enough funds for gas to get there. A few minutes before we left, a brother from our assembly stopped by with cash that had been given to him, but which he did not think he needed. The Lord knew we needed it, so the Spirit put it on this brother’s heart though he did not know about our financial situation. It was an act of God’s kindness in answer to prayer and, as a result, we and this dear brother have a shared experience of the living God at work.
Stepping Out Into the Unknown
How blessed it is to genuinely walk by faith in Christ. There are times when, through communing with the Lord, we have a settled mind that He says to go forward even though we do not know how it will work out financially. We advertised our house in obedience to the Lord’s prompting us to move from York to Mechanicsburg, not knowing how it would work out. We knew the Lord was guiding us, and the assembly and its leadership agreed. Praise God, the day our check left the mailbox for a down payment to purchase our new house, three separate tax refund checks replaced it, totaling twice the amount of the down payment. We journaled that day: “It is so unquestionably the hand of the Lord in timing! He withheld the returns until now, and yet was not a moment too late – for they ARRIVED the day we wrote the deposit check! Yes, the Lord is with us. Oh, my heart, do not forget it. Your God is directing. Trust Him and go with confidence in your living God!”
Ongoing Fellowship With the Lord
While the faithful care and mighty hand of God in the past encourages us, we have continuing fellowship with Him. We remember the past but also desire to continue actively and confidently trusting Him for the future (Josh. 3:10). While there are certainly times of struggle in prayer and need for patience, we would not exchange this living fellowship with the Lord for anything in the world.
Encouraging Others by Example
There is such joy and purpose in dependent obedience to the Lord. In a sense, this is just imitating Abraham, Joshua, Daniel, and Paul. May all our lives similarly inspire the next generation to active dependence on the reliable God. In the last few years, we have had the joy of seeing a young couple “risk on God” in moving to our area to support the assembly and a nearby camp ministry. They came, not knowing how their employment situation would work out but believing that the Lord had led them. In time, the Lord richly provided the needed job. Even more, He encouraged them forward in this joyful life of obedient faith in the Lord. May it be so for many more saints for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.