I was struggling this morning for inspiration, I wasn't sure what I should be sharing in this latest blog. The others have just flowed naturally and haven't involved a lot of thought and preparation, I've just had something on my heart that I felt that I wanted to share. So I sat down and started thumbing through a journal I keep of things that God has revealed to me. I started writing this a number of years ago, while at ngm, when we were initially encouraged to meditate on some specific verses in Isaiah 43 that God had given ngm and to share what we felt that God was saying through them. It developed into a wider series of revelations from scripture, eventually evolving into my blogging. I came across something that I'd written in December 2016, which as I reread, it stirred this post:
I was reminded that our God is a God of miracles! As it says in Isaiah 43, he can make a path through the sea, he can bring life and water to land that is a barren wilderness. In the book of 2 Kings in chapter 4, is the amazing story of Elisha instructing a widow who has just a small jar of oil, to collect as many empty bottles and jars she can find (even to borrow them from her neighbours) and to pour the oil she has in her small jar into them all. She pours out the oil into the first jar and fills it, but she still has oil in her original jar, so she moves on to the next jar and then the next and the next, no matter how many times she pours out her oil, it never runs out! You can imagine the scene, this widow would be struck with awe and wonder, but also excitement and joy as she's scrambling around her house trying to find something else to fill! It was the impossible made possible. I'm sat pondering, what would I have done in her shoes? Would I have had the faith to start pouring the oil in the first place? Would I have questioned why I was being asked to do it and how was the oil from a small jar going to look like more when in a bigger jar?
Later in the chapter, it goes on to tell the story of the miraculous birth of a baby to an older couple (God never seems to get tired of bringing forth life from barren wombs, but that's potentially a whole different blog), again it's the impossible made possible. The story goes on to tell of the death of the son a number of years later. Rather than going into mourning as you would expect, the woman does the most bizarre thing, she leaves his him dead in his bed and rushes off to find Elisha. When she finds him, she tells him what has happened and she convinces Elisha to go back with her to the house and after Elisha prays over the boy, he is brought back to life. Another impossible situation made possible by God.
We shared a few weeks ago, that we'd visited a property that we feel is the right one for us to use for Time2 (in Have We Made The Right Decision), but we received a call a few days later from the agents, saying that there was someone else interested and that they'd made an offer that was acceptable to the vendors, but they were part of a long chain. The vendors said that they would leave it for a few days to give us chance to sort out our finances (it didn't take us long to check our bank account and come to the decision that we didn't have any finances to sort out!), so we'd assumed that the other peoples offer had been accepted and was proceeding. We shared this with the small group of people who have praying with us through this whole journey. One of them came back with the following:
"The property that God has for you, belongs to you and no one else. It belongs to this vision/dream that God has given you. Praying over all the practicalities of the house/finance that God's will, will be done!"
We've continued to pray each day about the property and God's financial provision, but we deliberately haven't been checking on the sale progress online, as we have been believing that if it is the right property, it belongs to us. I missed a call late on Tuesday from the agents, but he left a voicemail asking if we had the money yet, as the vendors were still interested in selling us the property. I can only assume that the other peoples chain has broken and the house is being actively marketed again.
Ruth had a dream one night last week, that we'd walked into the bank with a bag of money and that every time we took the money out to pay into our account, that there was more money in the bag, it just kept coming and didn't run dry. I've only just realised how that ties in so well to the story of the widow and the oil. The other similarities to that passage are striking, we're an "older" couple who should be planning for retirement, not birthing a new ministry! Our dream property had appeared to have died, but after prayer is very much alive again.
We're praying that God will once again take the impossible situation we are in and make it possible.
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