THAT’S RIGHT; WHAT WILL WE DO?

By James Wilson

             I will never forget the day in Mindanao when the mini-van transporting us to Davao City broke down in a cane field.  Al Qaida agents were identified at the gathering when Diana and I spoke and we knew for the two insurgent groups in the interior killing Americans was a hobby.  But we also knew we were in God’s will and were not afraid – until the breakdown.

            As our drivers attempted repairs I kept visualizing insurgents carrying AK 47s crossing the field and trying to figure some way to protect Diana.  Suddenly I heard the voice of God as clear as day.  He said, “That’s right, Jim, what are you going to do about this?”  Now I got it long ago that when God asks a question He is not seeking information.  That afternoon I got it that His burden is light (Matt. 8:28) only when He carries it.  I responded, “Okay Lord; it’s all about You.” Our drivers got the vehicle started.

            God does expect us to participate in the unfolding of His purposes, but as very junior partners.  He gave us gifts of skill and imagination so we might offer them to Him; He loves it when we solve problems and give Him the glory.  But it should always begin with submitting the problem to Him in the first place and – sometimes – that is how it ends too…if you are an unarmed civilian stranded in a cane field.

            California is mired in the worst drought in eighty years.  Meteorologists say the cause is a high pressure air ridge anchored high off the California coast the past thirteen months; such ridges normally locate no more than a few days or weeks.  The ridge deflects storms seeking a California landfall and thus our desperate water situation.  Experts say the phenomenon is unnatural, but it clearly resides within the parameters of nature and beyond any human ability to alter those parameters.  Many churches and ministries are calling on their members for prayer; I have been asking my own network to pray for more than a year.  Some would say, “Really?  Then why hasn’t it worked?”  The answer is simple enough – prayer is not something that “works” but rather something that is submitted.  Praying people depend not on the power of prayer but on the power of God.  That power is under His control, not ours, but we can depend on the reality that He loves us more than life itself.  He always exercises His power for our benefit and no other.

            Possibly He wants to teach us something fundamental that we have forgotten – like that day with me in the cane field.  Perhaps He waits on enough of us being consistent enough in prayer that we are less likely to forget we are His anytime soon.  I do know prayer is one thing – like love – of which more is always better.  I know that nothing can possibly be lost – except a bit of human arrogance – by engaging in concerted prayer to the God Who sends His Son to now rescue some forty million of the people for whom that Son gave His life.  And I know focusing on God in prayer is a specific act of that repentance for which He has been calling the past five years.  He says a season of repentance – in His Church – is the necessary precursor on our part to a Great Awakening that will rock the world in the best sense.  Some say it is to begin in California.  I know there is but one way to find out.

            Following Him is lots easier than figuring Him out.

            Northern California was threatened with devastating floods in 1997 because of abundant rain and unseasonable warmth.  Local Christians begged His intervention and the snows came the very day meteorologists predicted the next rainstorm.  Southern California was ravaged by wildfires in 2003 and hundreds went on our faces before the Lord; a storm front changed course off-shore and provided enough precipitation to enable fire fighters to douse the flames.  The whole state lay under drought more than two years with prophetic voices predicting a three years’ duration – if people prayed – and the Lord lifted it just when He said He would. 

            It doesn’t matter how long or articulate our prayers; it’s not about ritual or technique.  It does matter that we pray daily, and that we remember prayer is not something that works or fails; it is something submitted.  But it’s a drought, not a car running rough.  We can pray or we can think and strategize until we hear, “That’s right, what are you going to do?”