God's Hand of Provision

Starting in January of this year, it was a honor to join with several pastors in Arkansas for an extended season of revival and harvest. It was also a season of great blessing for us personally. Pastor & Sis. Kurt Johnson invited us to start a revival with them at the beginning of the year. We pulled our truck and trailer from Houston to the greater Little Rock area. We got about 100 miles from Conroe, TX, when the engine in the truck started running different. I babied it for another 100 miles or so, due to there being no gage indications of anything being wrong. Then I noticed a increasing loss of power over the next 100 miles. I called my engine expert and he said to try to get it where we'd park it and do a deeper diagnostic checkup on site. God lead us to an Apostolic mechanic, Bro. Nathan Ferguson, who helped us figure the issues out. The engine had bit the dust and we were looking at needing to put in a new engine.

However, we did not have the finances to do it. So, Catherine and I prayed together that God would provide when it was time for us to roll down the road. Pastor & Sis. Johnson, along with Bishop & Sis. Billingsley & the Otter Creek church family were so kind to allow us to stay parked at the church, even when we were preaching in other places. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude. However, God also repayed them with an incredible harvest of new souls. Otter Creek is growing by leaps and bounds!!

In the process of this season, we were invited by another evangelist friend to come and be with them in another church where he was ministering. At the close of the service, the pastor of the church, whom I had only met once very briefly, found out about our need and felt led to take up a sacrificial offering for us. We wept and worshiped the Lord as the spirit of giving swept across that sanctuary. In 5 minutes, that precious pastor and church family raised the exact amount that we needed to put in a new engine in the truck. We are forever thankful for their kindness...and God is restoring to them 100 fold their sacrifice of love!! We also received another love offering in a fellowship meeting that paid for the repairs we needed to make to our car that we used while the truck was down.

God's people are the greatest in all the world!

In the midst of this humbling experience, Jesus reminded me of the scripture where He spoke about how the world would recognize His disciples as truly being HIS disciples:

"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another"

John 13:35

I have often heard this scripture misquoted. Notice that Jesus doesn't use the phrase "one FOR another," BUT "one TO another." The difference is that you can have love FOR someone and never do anything to demonstrate what you say you have. But true disciples have love "one TO another." This simply means that if I see my brother/sister in need...overtaken in a fault...etc...I show that I am truly a follower of Jesus Christ by how I act toward them when they aren't in a position to help me in return. My attitude and willingness to serve my brother/sister is how the world knows that I am what I profess to be. Selah.