Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Peggy Joyce Ruth, aka "the Psalm 91 Lady" is author of a variety of Psalm 91 book titles with over six million copies in print. She taught a weekly Adult Bible Study for more than 35 years in her church in Central Texas as she shared how to make God’s Word your final authority. Known for her easy-to-understand style of communicating the Word of God and warm storytelling, Peggy Joyce's heart is that her books and teachings will bring you into the same freedom from fear she experienced and help you put God's Word to work in your life.
We're going to be talking today about our part versus God's part. I have so many people come to me and they'll say, You know, what is my part? What am I supposed to do to be able to enter then to the deeper things with God? Well, the problem so often is that we get our roles reversed. So often, what we're doing, we're trying to do God's part, and then we're leaving, many times, leaving our part undone.
Speaker 1:And so often, what we do, we miss God because we have a preconceived idea about how He's going to do something. Now, God will do exactly what He promises if we meet the conditions, but He won't necessarily do it our way. He's going to do it His way, of course, we want Him to. But now don't go over into the erroneous idea that I hear so many people say. They'll say, Oh yeah, you just never can tell what God's going to do.
Speaker 1:I have so many people say that to me. No, you can know exactly what God's going to do concerning His promises. It's how He's going to do it sometimes that we don't totally understand. And so, sometimes that remains a mystery. But our thinking needs to be reprogrammed until we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is going to do exactly what He promises to do.
Speaker 1:Now, if something looks like it just is not working, looks like God didn't come through, then we need to rest assured that the fault is not on God's end. He's going to do what He promises. We just have to cleanse all of our preconceived ideas out of our mind of how He's going to do it and when He's going to do it. We get that in our head and we're the one that's messing up. So we need to make a quality decision that whatever God says that He'll do, that if we choose to believe it and if we fulfill whatever God's telling us to do, then we can know it's going to come to pass.
Speaker 1:Everything in God's kingdom is a choice. Now, faith is nothing more than just a decision to believe God. Now, if something looks like it didn't work, if it looks like it didn't come through, nine times out of 10, we're going to find out that we got stuck on, number one, how we were expecting it to be done, or we've gotten hung up, number two, on when we expect it to come about. And then there's such a peace when we finally turn all these reins over to God and we allow Him to be the driver. And that's what we're headed for is to come to a place where we trust God so much that we let Him lead and guide, where we allow God to handle His part without any interference from us and something that we need to practice until we get it right.
Speaker 1:And I think that's what God's been dealing with me, that He wants me to practice just trusting Him and relaxing in Him. Now, this is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in a Christian's walk. Most Christians start off believing that God's going to do it. They're confessing what God's going to do. But they can't trust Him many times in how He's going to do it.
Speaker 1:We get our preconceived ideas about how God's going to bring it to pass. And sometimes between point A and point B, we get disillusioned, you know. Sometimes we give up and we keep walking expecting like we're supposed to. Now, I'm going to give you some personal examples. And then next week, I'm going to give you examples from the Word, and I want you to be able to make application in your own life as we go along.
Speaker 1:Now, years ago, we went through a very severe drought, and I don't know if you remember when there was a time that they started making window screens. They started making it out of a plastic material instead of screen wire. And when we went through that really bad drought, the grasshoppers were horrible that year. I mean, we had piles of them sometime out our front door. And they started eating huge holes then in these plastic screen wires.
Speaker 1:And the house started just filling up with grasshoppers. Well, God had impressed Jack that we were going to have a real wet fall. So, were looking forward to that, but we were concerned what we were going do in the meantime. The grasshoppers were horrible. Now, it got drier and drier and the cracks in the ground started growing deeper and wider and we were beginning to say, Lord, what on earth do we do?
Speaker 1:We've got to have an answer. We were trying to replace screen wires as fast as we could. So, I did a study through the Word on Famine, and I found that God never promised that we'd never go through a drought. Now, He tells us some other things that won't touch us, that we don't have to receive, But he never did say that we would never be touched by a drought. But he does promise to sustain us through it if we'll just trust him.
Speaker 1:Okay. So, Psalm 37 verse 19, God says, in the days of famine, you'll have abundance. Well, I started claiming that because we were losing a lot every time we had these bad famines. But God says, in your day of famine, you will have abundance. And so that's what we've gotta stand on.
Speaker 1:That's what we have to start saying confessing that and thanking God for that. Now, at the end of that summer, I looked back and I realized that God did exactly what He said He would do. Now, that was the first year that corn had been made available to us. And that particular summer, this company went out of business, and so they were selling off their grain bins. So, we were excited because we were able to buy that grain bin at just a fraction now of what it would have cost new.
Speaker 1:And as I look back, I realized that we got that grain bin moved onto our property. We got it erected one week before the corn came in. Now, that was also the first year that Jack had felt that he was supposed to fill the barns with hay at the first of the summer rather than during the fall. And that made a huge difference. So, when we're going through these problems, if we just listen to God, He starts telling us little things to change, little things to do that make all the difference.
Speaker 1:Now, we had had some PVC pipe for a long time that was just stored out there in the barn, big roll of it. And God impressed us to use it and run a water line to the very back of our place. And Jack didn't do it because of knowing that we were gonna have a drought, because we had been through droughts before and we have two earthen tanks in the back, and one is so deep that it's never gone dry. The whole time that we've lived there, it's never gone dry. But, we ran that waterline back in obedience because we felt like God was trying to do that.
Speaker 1:And, that summer was over the top dry. And, finally, that tank went completely dry that summer. First time that we'd ever known that to happen. But not until after that waterline had been laid because God impressed us to lay the waterline. As I look back, I've reflected in retrospect and I realized that God had provided every single need we had.
Speaker 1:We had that corn. We had those big bin for the corn that was already there. We had a water line run to the back of the place before we even knew that those tanks were going to go dry. So, we were able then to keep the hay alive through that summer. But we spent a lot of time, I tell you a lot of time, in frustration because we were trying to tell God how we wanted it done.
Speaker 1:You know, sometimes you're doing that and you're not even realizing that's what you're doing. But, many times what we're doing, we're praying and believing for water from our own tanks rather than stopping and just saying, No, Lord, you had us run a line back then. That's what it was for. And that became a blessing that was a blessing for several years. Now, it took a while to realize that God had supplied pipelines to the back to supply water because He knew that our tanks were going to run dry that year.
Speaker 1:And, you know, if it's never happened before, we just tend to have a thought, okay, we're fine in that area. But God knows what we need and if we're listening, He's going to make life easier for us if we're just listening and flow with Him. Now, we were praying and believing for everything to work like it always had in the past. But God knew the weather was going to take us in a whole different direction that particular year, and it did. We'd never had some of the things happen that we were seeing for the first time.
Speaker 1:And God was getting us in a position now where He could meet our needs. And sometimes we need to just stop and be still and hear what God's telling us because He knows things we can't possibly know. And just because it's worked the same way year after year after year, we need to be quick to listen to God if he's telling us a change is coming. Now, I'm not saying that God caused the drought. I'm not I'm not saying that everything that happened was God's highest.
Speaker 1:But, I am simply saying now that there's times when there's war in the heavenlies and it holds back the blessings. And sometimes we're not aware of what's going on behind the scenes in the heavenlies. And sometimes it takes prayer and fasting and hearing God to be able to break through when He is trying to take us on another path, give us another plan. Now, I'm so thankful that we don't serve a God who says, know, I'm sorry, there's war in the heavenlies, holding back all the blessings, so, you know, you may starve this year, you know, because this is going be a biggie. Thank God He doesn't do us that way.
Speaker 1:We serve a God who can supply our needs in spite of what's going on in the heavenlies. Now, man tends to think that God has only one way of accomplishing something and we tend to put him in a box so many times. Now, when we believe there's only one way that God can do it, then we're many times getting into fear and we begin to doubt His Word when it doesn't work out just exactly like we think it should. Now, anytime there's a hindrance, you know, now I'm not talking about those times when maybe we haven't done our part, you know, the flow stopped because we weren't doing it as we were supposed to do it. But, when we've been obedient, when a hindrance then comes, whatever it might be, that can be an exciting opportunity to see how God's going to do the impossible.
Speaker 1:And, if we're trusting Him, He will do the impossible. And, it is so much fun to sit back and see how God comes through because He usually comes through with a miracle. Now, this is what makes Christianity exciting when we begin to trust Him. But we have to turn off our reasoning. We have to turn off every preconceived idea about how we think He's going to do it because of how He's done it in the past.
Speaker 1:And we just come to a place where we just have to trust Him. And it can be such a fun walk to just say, God, I don't know what's gonna happen. You know, it looks bad in the natural, but, Lord, I'm excited to see how you're going to make it work. I'm excited about that. So we need to come to that place where we say, Lord, you said it in your word that you'd do this, and I believe you, and you've never lied to me.
Speaker 1:And I choose to be obedient and to trust you. So, I give you permission, Lord, to do it your way and in your timing. Because I was not really realizing how many times I was trying to push my way in, how I was trying to do it how I thought it should be done. And God was saying, Relax and just trust me. Now, since we were talking about famine, I was interested in the different ways in which God had provided in years past.
Speaker 1:Now, we're all familiar with the famine when Elijah was in trouble. He was in the midst of it. And God had told him that it was going to last for three years. So, he was aware of that. And I'm sure Elijah was saying, You know, what's going to happen to me during these three years?
Speaker 1:That's bound to have run through his mind. God, how are you going to take care of me when there's a drought? What am I supposed to do? But you know what? God never fails us and he never failed Elijah.
Speaker 1:Now, we find that at first, God took him to a brook and told him that ravens were going to bring him food. Now, it always has been curious to me to know what they brought him. I wish God had told us a little bit more. Were they bringing grain out of the field, you know, or maybe some small squirrel had a huge stash that they found? Or did the ravens just swoop down and maybe grab a biscuit off somebody's table?
Speaker 1:You know, sometimes I wish God would just give us just a little more detail. But the point that I'm making is that no matter how it comes about, if he did it for Elijah, he'll do it for us. Whatever we find in the Word of God, if he's done it for somebody else, you know, I mean, that's we need to be able to just relax and say, Lord, if you did it for Elijah, you'll do it for me. It may be an entirely different way that you do it, but you'll do it for me. What if we were so locked in that we thought God couldn't provide any other way through a famine other than sending in a raven, you know?
Speaker 1:Can you see how we limit God so much by trying to tell Him how it has to be done? You know, impressing Him, Lord, we need it to come through this way. And sometimes we're not even aware that's what we're doing. But we try to hold Him to our more conventional ways or maybe how He's done it before in the past and we get locked in. Okay, now, how He provided, that's God's part.
Speaker 1:We don't even have to worry about that. Too many times, we're back there being concerned, How's God going to do this? That's God's part. We need to turn that loose and not limit Him because his whole provision sometimes we try to interfere with that, but that's God's problem. You know, that's his way that he's showing love to us.
Speaker 1:Now, in one Kings 17 verse one, God told Elijah, get ready, there's not going to be any rain. So he he he goes eastward, and he hides by the brook, Sheriff, and you shall drink from the brook, and I have committed the ravens to provide for you food. So Elijah obeyed, and he lived by the brook, and the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and in the evening, and he drank from the brook. Now, you know Elijah may have gotten a little comfortable at this time. You know, he wasn't having to contend with an angry king.
Speaker 1:That was out of the way. He wasn't having to run for his life for protection. Food was just being brought to him morning and evening. He wasn't even having to go out to get it. So, that may have been a fairly comfortable time for him.
Speaker 1:But, I want you to look what happens here in verse seven. So, try to put yourself now in his place. That drought had been going on for a good while and his needs were being supplied and, you know, I'm sure it was just a good time for him. But verse seven says, But after a while, the brook dried up. Oh, you know, how many times have we gotten comfortable God's been providing, and then all of a sudden, something happens and it's like the brook dries up.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm sure Elijah was tempted with, Lord, have you forgotten me? Remember, you know, we've got three years of this. That brook, he was telling God, That's what was watering me. Now, sometimes when God has been providing in a certain way and then the source starts to dry up, it's really easy to think, Lord, what's going on? Have you forgotten me?
Speaker 1:You know, and we get tempted to fear. But God had not forgotten Elijah, even though it looked like all hope was gone. It looked like all of his provisions were gone. But God sends him to the village of Zerephath to a widow lady who has just enough oil and flour to make one last meal. And so, she and her son then were going to prepare to die.
Speaker 1:Now, if I'd been God, you know, I'd probably have sent him to some rich man, you know, that had bin full of grain. But God didn't do it that way. But He certainly hadn't forgotten Elijah and He sent him exactly where He wanted him to be. You know, have you ever noticed that God never does it in the way that we reason it out? I finally figured out that if I figure out how God's going do it, I can be sure it's not going to be done that way.
Speaker 1:I don't think I have ever reasoned out ahead of time how God was going to do something and had it work that way. Anytime we start reasoning, we get into some confusion and disappointment and fear. Now, the only way we can know ahead of time the ways of God is by the Spirit of God. If we're listening and praying, many times the Spirit of God will begin to show us and open doors for us to see. Now, the point I want us to see is that Elijah was taken care of through the entire three years of drought.
Speaker 1:But, it might not have been exactly the way that he thought of. I'm sure it wasn't the way he thought of because usually whenever we think of the way it's going to be done, that's not the way it goes. And it probably wasn't even the way that he had chosen. You know, it it may have been hard for him to go in and take food away from this little widow lady, you know. Okay.
Speaker 1:Next then, in Genesis 26, a horrible drought comes on the land and it's about the time that Isaac then is thinking that he needs to go to Egypt. And normally, did go to Egypt when drought came because of the Nile River. And, obviously, that was Isaac's plan. It even says that he was planning on going to Egypt. Now, I'm sure he was thinking, If I can get to Egypt, I'll be okay because that Nile overflows heavily each year and it makes wonderful for me.
Speaker 1:But God has said, Don't go there. Stay here. Now, I've thought about that and I thought, you know, probably a lot of people would have overridden God when they knew they were headed for a famine and they knew that there was provision there in Egypt and God said, Don't go. Stay here in the famine. Sometimes people would say, I think I missed it.
Speaker 1:I think I'm still supposed to go. But Isaac was obedient and he chose not to go to Egypt, even though his reasoning told him that that's where you go to be taken care of during the famine. And in Genesis 20 six:two-three, the Lord appeared to Isaac and he said, do not go down to Egypt. Stay in the land that I show you, and I will be with you, and I will bless you, and I will bless your descendants. And I will give you all these lands, and I've established the oath that I swore to you, father Abraham, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and by your descendants all of the nations of the earth are going to be blessed.
Speaker 1:Okay. He's hearing things from God that are just the opposite of what it looks like. But Isaac chooses not to go to Egypt. He chooses to obey God even though his reasoning told him that Egypt would be the place where he'd be able to be taken care of. He'd have all of his needs supplied.
Speaker 1:And, as he prayed and listened to God, he made the choice to go with God. Now, if he had followed his reasoning and gone to Egypt, he probably wouldn't have starved. There probably would have been some food and more than likely, he would have had his basic needs met. But, I want you to look at the blessing that he would have missed. Sometimes, when we do it our way, sometimes God does bless us and we get by, but we never know the blessing that that we missed from not doing it God's way.
Speaker 1:And, I want you to listen to the blessing. In verse 12, Isaac stayed right there because God told him to stay. And Isaac sowed there in the land where the famine was going on, where everybody was having to go someplace else to get help. But he stayed right there because God told him to stay, and he reaped that year a hundredfold. We're happy in good times when we reap a hundredfold.
Speaker 1:But there, when the famine's going on in huge amounts, he reaps a hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him, and he became rich through that year of famine. He continued to grow richer until he became very Look what he would have missed, you know. That means right there now, where God had told him to stay in the midst of famine, he planted and God brought in the increase. Okay, that's before they had irrigation. That's before they had ways of artificially watering, you know.
Speaker 1:But the Lord blessed him anyway. And we don't know how he did, but the Bible says he became very wealthy in the midst of a huge drought. Now, we don't know how his crops were watered, but it's not too hard for God. And because Isaac was willing to go God's way rather than his own way, God blessed him abundantly beyond anything that he could possibly have imagined. He blessed him a hundredfold and then he just kept blessing him.
Speaker 1:Now, so often we get a little niffed when we want to do something one way and God says no. God, that way would work, you know. And this other way doesn't look like it's going to work. But, when we obey God, it is amazing what God does. It can become very exciting because we think our way is so good.
Speaker 1:And sometimes we reason, you know, what could it possibly hurt just this one time? And many times what we do, we push on through and we do it our way anyway. And I'm sorry to say, but I think a lot of Christians fall into that place of pushing on through. And God does bless us and keeps us going, but not anything compared to what He could have done for us. And we get by, sometimes by sight, with no real serious repercussions that we know of.
Speaker 1:So, think, See, it didn't hurt that I did it my way. It worked. And we never know the blessing that we miss if we had just allowed God to do it His way. Now, if Isaac had gotten into fear and had reasoned and decided that he had better go to Egypt, I better get to Egypt because this drought's really looking bad, you know. He might have made it and they may have had enough food so they didn't starve, But he probably would never have known the fabulous promise that he missed out on, where God absolutely said that met all of his needs and blessed him a hundredfold.
Speaker 1:Now, it was later on in Isaac's life that his grandson, Joseph, ended up in Egypt. And because God had gotten him there to store up grain for the worldwide famine, it was entirely different this time. And so, have to realize from these stories that God will do it for one, one time a certain way, and then He'll turn around and do it in a totally different way for somebody else. But that's why we have to trust him. That's why we have to be willing to just say, Lord, maybe you haven't ever done it this way before, but Lord, I'm gonna trust you because you've never let us down.
Speaker 1:Now, the people, I'm sure, had no idea what was going on at the time when Egypt was totally out of food because very seldom did Egypt ever go through a drought. They had plenty of water. It just worked for Egypt. But, this was one time it wasn't going to work. And there was a famine that was greater that never happened in Egypt before.
Speaker 1:No one was expecting it this time. But God brought Joseph there because he may have been the only one that was going to be open enough to hear God. Now, though God wouldn't allow Isaac to go to Egypt for grain, he actually sent Joseph. And that's why we have to be led by God's spirit and we have to hear him because God alone knows things that we can't possibly know, sometimes things that's never happened before. We just can't allow ourselves to be put in a box.
Speaker 1:God will do what He promises, but not necessarily always in the way that we think He's going to do it. Too many times, we have our head going, our brain going, and we're trying to figure out how God's going to do it. And we need to quit and just say, God, I'm trusting You. Now, trusting Him is our part. And how He does it now, that's God's part.
Speaker 1:And we don't need to reverse roles. It's like healing. God often provides differently every time. Real easy to get preconceived ideas on how we think God is going to heal us. He tells us He's going to heal us.
Speaker 1:We know that. But sometimes we get in our head how we think He's going to do it and it messes us up. But we have to get to a place where we look down in our heart and we realize, God is my Jehovah Rapha. He's my healer. And, Lord, I am going to trust you.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to tell you how to do it. I'm going to trust you. And, we have to be very careful not to lock down on how we think he has to do it. Now, in Psalm 103, it says, I'll forgive all your sins and I'll heal all your diseases. Okay, that's the truth.
Speaker 1:That is God's promise to us. And that truth is reiterated throughout the Word. Therefore, we've got to come to a place where we don't question how God's going to do it. Lord, you just said you'd do it and I'm going to trust you. And we have to be careful not to lock into how we think it's going to happen.
Speaker 1:Now, when you do a study of healing in the Word of God, it's amazing because you see countless numbers of ways that God does it. He doesn't do it the same way every time. I'm not sure he ever did it the same way twice, you know. But, there were times when the healing was stifled because of the preconceived idea about how we thought he had to do it. But, if you'll notice, when Naaman the Syrian came to Elisha, he almost lost his healing because of his preconceived idea about how God was going to do it.
Speaker 1:Now, the little servant girl had told him, Go and you'll be healed. But he went and then he had those preconceived ideas about how God had to do it. And, he expected the man of God to come outside. He expected him to throw his hands up in the air and say the words and then he'd get healed. He didn't like the idea that that prophet didn't even come outside.
Speaker 1:He just stayed inside and sent word out and said, Go dip in the River Jordan. Well, that was very humiliating to this man because he was pretty high up in his country. And, he didn't like that because it didn't line up with his idea about how it was going to be done. And this teaches us, this story alone teaches us, we've got to come to a place where we don't get into the idea of how we think it's going to be done. See, all these stories have little tidbits of truth that can save us a lot of time and energy if we'll just listen to them.
Speaker 1:So, thank the Lord, he had some servants now who talked him into going God's way. They said, what's it going to hurt? Why try? If God tells it to you, at least try it. And so, he finally obeyed and he got his healing.
Speaker 1:But he almost missed it because of his preconceived ideas. That's one of the things. If we're going to trust God, we've got to take care of preconceived ideas. They'll send us in the wrong direction every time. Now, I noticed that Jesus did it a different way almost every time He healed in the New Testament.
Speaker 1:If you'll go through and make a list, it can be really fun. Once He made a mud pack by spitting in the dirt and He rubbed it in the blind eyes. How different? Once he sent 10 lepers to show themselves to the priest, and the Bible says that as they were going, suddenly they discovered that the healing had come. Another time, he simply spoke forth the word to the centurion and he said, Your servant will live.
Speaker 1:And, at that moment, the servant had gotten well. Another time, a woman made a point of contact when she touched the hem of Jesus' garment and she was instantly healed. There were times when he would cast out an evil spirit and the fever would leave and the healing would come. There were times when he would lay hands on someone and that healing virtue would flow out of him into the person and that's the way they got healed. One Corinthians 12 lists the nine manifestations and the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:And they're all singular: the Word of Knowledge, the Word of Wisdom, prophecy. But, when you get down to healing, it's listed gifts of healing. It was plural. And because there are so many different kinds of healings. And when we realize that, then we quit telling God how it's got to come or how we expect it to come and we start trusting Him.
Speaker 1:And He'll do it many times a different way every single time. Now, you've probably seen in your own life different ways in which God has brought healing into your body. John Osteen tells about how he was scheduled for heart surgery. And God just told him one day, No, no, just claim my word on healing. Don't go in for the surgery.
Speaker 1:And he went home with the symptoms still on his body. He went home in faith. But, as he continued to say what God's Word said, that healing gradually came and all the symptoms left his body. But sometimes a person will start to trust God and because it takes a while, it doesn't happen instantly, sometimes they throw in the towel. We have to come to a place where we know God's going to do it and we're willing to wait whatever it takes and we're willing to trust Him because then God's pleased and He can do it any way He chooses.
Speaker 1:And it's fun to see the different ways in which God works. Now, I've heard testimonies of how someone received their healing because they were praying for somebody else, you know. And, the Bible says, Pray ye one for another, that ye may be healed. And, He does it that way many times. Sometimes, it's after you've been anointed with oil, according to James five fourteen, and your healing comes.
Speaker 1:So, when we realize how many different ways God brought about healing, then instead of it letting it be, Oh, no. I don't know how God's going to do it. Maybe He'll do it this way. It's fun to just sit back and say, Lord, I'm excited to see how you're going to do it for me this time. Now, some people have been healed while they were just simply sitting there in a pew listening to a sermon that was being taught.
Speaker 1:And then, all of a sudden, they realize the symptoms are gone and the healing comes in. There's been other times when someone was healed as they took the Lord's Supper and as they took the body and the bread and they started standing on their covenant. They started confessing that covenant and literally it drove out the sickness. Others were healed when they went to the doctor. Sometimes God will send us to a doctor.
Speaker 1:So, I want you to think of all the different ways in which God chose to bring healing about. And when we look at all these different ways, then when something attacks our body, it just becomes easier to say, God, you've done it. You have so many ways to do it. So, Lord, I just want to be surprised. How do you plan to do it for me this time?
Speaker 1:And it can make life fun. Instead of being panicked over the sickness we're going through, it can be exciting to see how God's going do it. Now, God is the Healer and He will do it any way that He chooses. But it's His choice. He's the one that has to make that choice.
Speaker 1:He just wants us to develop faith in the fact that He will do it rather than how He's going to do it or when He's going to do it. When we start telling Him how or when we got to have it done, seems like things just kind of stop. But if we stop and we just know, God, you will do it. I can't pick the time. I can't pick how.
Speaker 1:But I'm trusting you. And we'll get our healing every time. And I've noticed how many people, many times, will put all their concentration in on how God's going to do it rather than simply just having faith in the fact that He will do it, but He's going do it His way. Now, when Jack first sold the Pepsi plant, there were several months before a job came up. And God has spoken in prophecy that He would take care of all of our needs.
Speaker 1:He gave us specific words that our needs would be taken care of and He was going to do it, And He did. But we had to get all of our preconceived ideas out of the way because we thought of so many ways that God could do it. And we finally came to the place where we realized, He's not going to do it in a way that I preconceived it to be done. I better just leave that alone. And he came through every time.
Speaker 1:But it was His way. We were a little surprised because we thought, Surely God's going to do it by Jack getting his job and working hard and getting the paycheck. But, it just didn't work. And we thought, Lord, what is wrong? Because Jack loved to work.
Speaker 1:So, we knew it wasn't that. But, it was because of our preconceived idea of how he was going to do it. We were frustrated. We didn't realize that God had Jack in a training. And, literally, when a day would come from early morning until late night, God was training him.
Speaker 1:He was getting to study the Word for hours, which he hadn't been able to do before. And he was ministering to people because he didn't have that job that was holding him down. And he was learning to pray and learning to walk in faith. So, that period of time where Jack couldn't get a job, it just seemed like nothing was working, it was working so beautifully for him to just start learning to trust God. And he was being trained for full time ministry, but we had a hard time relaxing.
Speaker 1:We had a hard time giving God the reins because Jack was so used to work. He liked to work. Now, a lot of it was pride. What would people think if we're not holding down a job, if we're not getting a paycheck? And sometimes pride holds us back because we're thinking, you know, what do people think about me if I'm just sitting home because they don't know he's sitting home studying his Bible.
Speaker 1:But it made us very uncomfortable when God does it a way other than society's way. You know, we look at how it's done in the world and if we're not doing it that way, sometimes it gives us a problem. Of course, when we looked back in retrospect, it was really easy to see why God had done it that way. We had had a crash course in so many different areas of ministry. Plus, it was a walk of faith to see that He was going to supply.
Speaker 1:We didn't have to have a paycheck coming in right then. He was supplying, and He was supplying in so many exciting, fun ways. Now, we had $800 coming in every three months. Now, even back then, that wasn't nearly enough. Money went a long way back then, but not that much.
Speaker 1:But every single time, God made a way. There were times when it would get right down to the wire and God would always come through. You know, we think, we can't go through another week like this. Once a grocery store went out of business and the manager knew my dad and he invited him to come in after hours, bring his family. He said, You can bring your whole family.
Speaker 1:And you can buy whatever you want, as much as you want. He literally charged us pennies on the dollar. And, wow, we stocked up on everything. We had enough stocked up that we had food to give away. Now, when Jack had worn out his boots, it was the only pair he had, and the leather store had a big one day sale, and they were selling all of their boots.
Speaker 1:But our reasoning told us, There's no sense going there. Jack wore an eleven-3A, And you don't find an eleven-3A in any boot store. You don't. You have to special order those. So, we started not to even go to the sale because we thought, well, it'd just be a waste of time.
Speaker 1:Also, right then, we didn't feel like we had the extra money to buy a pair of boots, even if they had the right size. So, everything was marked down. We decided to go. We felt like God said, No, go. So, everything was marked down and they were all ordinary sizes, except one table over in the corner, a table of odds and ends.
Speaker 1:And they had one pair of beautiful Tony Lama boots, size eleven three a. Jack and I both stood there and just stared at it because it was almost like God was laughing. You could almost feel God saying, you know, is there anything else you need me to do? You know? And when we looked at the price tag, it was $10.
Speaker 1:You can't get any kind of boot for $10. But the reason they did that is because someone had made a special order. They never came back to pick up the boot. And they had had those boots sitting over there on the table forever and they just wanted to rid of it. So, put $10.
Speaker 1:And we went home, rejoicing. You can imagine. One particular week, we needed some groceries. We had some bills that were due and we were out of money. And we had estimated that we needed $75 to be able to get to the end of the month.
Speaker 1:Well, one afternoon, a man knocked on the door and asked me if we were willing to sell our TV tower. And I said, We don't have a TV tower, you know. And he had found one in the grass beside the Pepsi plant. We were out of the Pepsi business by this time. And he had found it and went in and asked them about it.
Speaker 1:They said, Well, that belongs to Jack Ruth. Well, when Jack was a teenager, he had bought that TV tower to have a TV at his house. And he had bought it with his own money. And after the cable TV came in, he didn't need it anymore, so he had taken it down, put it beside the plant, and had forgotten all about it. Well, Jack asked the man, you know, What TV or tower are you talking about?
Speaker 1:So, we'd both forgotten about it. But it was there, where Jack had left it years before. So, he asked the guy, he said, Well, what's it worth to you? You know. And the guy said, $75, the exact amount that we needed.
Speaker 1:Now, God had kept that tower hidden until the exact time when he was going to use it to meet our needs. It's amazing the things God will do if we're just trusting. You know, now during those months while Jack was daily being trained with this particular pastor, Our needs were met you know, supernaturally. But then, at the next interim period of our life, Jack had been hired by the FMC company, but they were still building the plant. So, we were waiting for it to open for him to actually have his job.
Speaker 1:We were expecting some of the supernatural moves of God and this time, it almost appeared that God wasn't even hearing our prayers this time. I mean, He was just meeting all of our needs and then all of a sudden we were praying and it wasn't happening. And Jack was working really long hours at an interim job and during that season, we saw very few of what we would have called supernatural provisions. We didn't see much during that period of time. Now, we had to really trust because that's when you almost think, God, have you gone on a vacation?
Speaker 1:You know, you're providing everything and now we're not seeing anything. And there's usually more of those times than the miracle intervention. So, God showed me to keep a diary. And every time God did something supernatural, and I went back all the times He had done that, and I wrote it all down, and every time we started struggling, we opened that and we started reading it, and you could feel your faith building. And that's when a Christian has to be careful because the enemy tempts you to think that God's not even listening.
Speaker 1:But when you start remembering all the things that he's done in the past, it is amazing. And all of a sudden, faith begins to build again. And so, the enemy tries to play with our faith. And we have to realize that he's going to do that and say, God, I'm trusting you. You've never let me down.
Speaker 1:And He won't. And that's when your miracle book is so important because you can go back and open it up and start reading all the things God's provided in the past. And you can feel your faith begin to build. Now, if we had sat back and said, Lord, we want you to supply supernaturally, like you've always done, you might have been in trouble because he started providing a different way. Now, God will meet our needs when we do it His way, but it might not be the way that we expect it to come.
Speaker 1:We have to turn our expector off. Just turn it off, you know, and just trust. And when we did and just said, God, I don't know how you're going to do it, but I'm trusting you've never let us down. It's amazing things that we began to see. Now, if you're waiting on something and it's been a long time, just ask God if He's trying to show you something.
Speaker 1:Just ask God, Am I trying to do this my way? Done that so many times in the past, Lord. So, is that what I'm trying to do? Is that why I'm having a struggle right now? Now, that may be the case or it may just be the timing.
Speaker 1:You know, a long wait doesn't necessarily mean that it's not God because sometimes we're trying to get it to come in right now and God's waiting. It's not quite time to bring it in. Now, right before we sold the Pepsi plant, there was a lot of small bottlers in Texas, and they had been put out of business wrongly. They were really struggling. And so, one day, Jack was praying.
Speaker 1:He woke up and he said, You know what? I think God's telling me that I need to write a letter to Joan Crawford. You have to realize, her late husband had been the CEO of the Pepsi company. And Jack said that even though he would never have thought of writing, or that was something he wouldn't have even thought of, but God had impressed him to. And so, he put his reasoning out and we sat down and we composed a letter.
Speaker 1:We thought, Oh, you know, thank you Lord. You've told us now how to get through this. Well, we found out later that she was out of the country and never even received that letter. She never she never even read the letter. So, we were confused.
Speaker 1:And I remember Jack saying, you know, I don't know how we miss God on this. I would never have thought of that. And I believe God told me to do it. And he said, I I just I can remember God just speaking and saying, write John Crawford. Well, we could have saved ourselves a big disappointment and a lot of fear if we hadn't started reasoning why God would tell us to do something when she wasn't even in the country and didn't even know we'd written.
Speaker 1:But much later, after they bought our plant instead of taking it away from us now, they put a lot of bottlers out of business but when we started writing letters to them, they decided they'd better buy our plant. And, after everything was signed and everything, they found out that because Joan Crawford was out of the country, that letter had fallen into the hands of the Pepsi Cola's attorney. We never have gotten we didn't even know who the attorney was. But what happened, they realized that letter would be pretty bad publicity. So, God just decided, you know, I'm going to use this and make them realize they'd better do something.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, Jack's dad had started that company way before Jack was born. So, they got to thinking, This is not a very good idea to take something away when he's worked for us all these years, worked for the big Pepsi Cola Company. And so, at one point, the lawyer said, You know, we want to see to it that the roosts are taken care of. We thought, They've never said that about another bottler. And so, that puzzled our attorney, and he asked us, he said, What on earth do you have that would cause them to make a statement like that?
Speaker 1:What do you have on them? Jack said, I don't know. You know, I don't know that we have anything on them. After everything was signed up and they bought our company, Jack asked them, What caused all this? And they said, Oh, it was the letter that you wrote to Joan Crawford.
Speaker 1:And you should have seen Jack and I. Our mouth just dropped because by this time, we'd already found out that she didn't even know about the letter. So, if you could ever just relax in faith and just say, God, I don't know what you're doing, but I'm going to trust you. And if we could just stick to our part and allow God to do His part without our fearful interference. And the Lord began to show me, it's when we get in fear and we interfere, that it might not keep the miracle from coming, but we go through a problem.
Speaker 1:And sometimes it takes longer. But, it can be such an exciting adventure with the Lord every day if we would just trust Him, you know. Look at all the unusual ways in which God comes through. And, if I could make a suggestion that I think would help you more than anything, if you'll just get a spiral notebook and write at the top God's way of provision and every time, even the little things, the middle sized things, the big things, write it down. You you think you won't forget those things, but write it down and date it and give the details of how God came through and how God it will do so much.
Speaker 1:I don't know of a time when we were going through a problem that when we read through that little book, we could read for five minutes and all of a sudden, faith was back up and we were ready to go again. That probably was the biggest important thing that God ever told us to do, was start keeping that book and reading it every time that we were tempted to get in fear. And, it works because God is working all the time but sometimes we're just not looking, we're not seeing it, and so we're not being able to enjoy the benefit of it just because we just think later, oh, it all finally all worked out. No. God worked it all out.
Speaker 1:But if we've got it written down, it's going to be the boost we need in the future when something comes up. So, father, I can't thank you enough. I cannot even begin to thank you enough, Lord, how you've met our needs over and over and over. We just wanna say thank you. We just wanna say thank you, Lord.
Speaker 1:Father, I pray in Jesus' name that that people everybody's go seems to go through a struggle at times, one one struggle or another. Father, I just pray that they'll hear these little tidbits of truth that literally saved our life at times. And I just pray that people will grab hold of this and just start keeping a little notebook and be able to see the difference that it'll make. We thank you for it, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.