In recent days, I have been reading Genesis, particularly enjoying Joseph, but I’ve been about all the extraordinary ways that God answered the man’s prayers, and how even the things done against him that his own brothers met for evil, God used for good. As I begin to mediate on this Scripture, God showed me many things, one most important thing was he reminded of all the ways he has manifested himself in my life, both in big and smalls ways, some subtle and some as gentle whispers.
As such, I taken upon myself to make an account of all the amazing ways God has answered my prayers, or just shown up in my life in just clear and powerful ways. If for no other reason that my own posterity and the Glory of our Creator I present such account. These won’t be detailed of all the facts, but have enough context to convey the excellence of God. So here are a few examples I know of, about how God has Provided.
On October 16, 2003, my heavenly eternal destiny and earthly purpose changed one night after a class. When at 9:25pm Thursday night when given the choice between 2 pathways, one leading outside to my car and a 5 minute drive to my house and the other up a set of stairs to an Intervarsity Christian Fellowship Meeting that had ended but where people love to hang around and talk. Like a fool arguing aloud with myself at this pathway about to go home or visit; a little voice inside my head said “just go up what do you have to lose”. So I did. Once there a friend named Tim Perkins, says in the most sincere voice I have heard before “what is keeping you from a personal relationship with Christ?” Not wanting to give a halfway answer, I replied after several moments of thought…”nothing”. So I went and accepted Christ with Tim’s help. Later, I got home at 11pm to turn on the news with report of a car accident right beside my home, in fact the very intersection I just drove through. The next morning as I read the paper looking for info about the wreck, the time of the accident was 9:30. As I said, it takes me 5 minutes to drive home and at 9:25 I looked at my watch deciding to go up those stairs and have life and soul forever changed, as my jaw dropped, that same voice I heard before spoke to me again saying “I saved you twice last night Brad, I am real, and I love you”.
A side from my testimony God has revealed himself to me in other situations in the past 7 years. Besides providing me to the funds for 6 years of college, bills, and other expenses, including $2000 worth of mission trip the Dominican Republic; for which I had no parental help, mostly just me and God, 2 examples of his financial provision stands out in my mind more clearly than all others. Once at IVCF conference in Pittsburgh in 2006, before I left I found I had accidently overdrawn my account by like 1 dollar, which meant that recent checks I had just wrote were going to bounce, resulting in hundreds of dollars worth of bounced checks and over drafted charges. I was utterly sick to my stomach about how I could let this happen and had no clue about how I was going to pay it all, since I had no job at the time. So that night, the conference had a retreat of silence I went back to room, and poured out my heart and tears to God, asking for help, he lead me to Eph 3:20, which says God do immeasurable more than we could ask or imagine. The next morning as I called bank computer over the phone, to check the dmg, the computer voice said +300.00 dollars, again my jaw dropped. I was speechless. I hung up and called back and put all the info again just to make sure I did it right the 1st time. Sure enough, she said the same amount. I started to cry again, my tears of sorrow became a weep for joy. Later, I found that Penn State had acquired another scholarship for me, of which I knew nothing about at all until the money has shown up. Praise be to God.
The 2nd example, as I said I went to the DR a few times, one of times I went I had problem raising the funds about 3 days before I was suppose to leave I was still about ½ short on the required funds. That night for my Quiet time I was reading John 11, where Jesus, tells mary and Martha that he is the resurrection and that if they believe, they will live, “then he says do you believe this?” That caught my attention as the Spirit asked me “brad, do you believe this? That I can provide for you?” I said “Lord, I want to and do, show me, help me please” with that I fell asleep. The next day I went to the mailbox, and sure enough a check from a friend for the amount I needed. Again God came through for me. That night as I finished John 11 for my QT, I read verse 40, which says “Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" With that I cried again and gave him the glory. Also, as I am writing this I recalled a 3rd time, God came through for me, the 1st time I left for the DR, the night I left, I checked the atm I had like an extra 200 dollars in my account, I didn’t know why, when I looked online my IRS tax refund had come in about 2 weeks ahead of time. As with Abraham, My God is Jehovah-Jireh.
A few cool ways that God has provided for me is by having the right people show up along my path when I need them the most. Suddenly they are just there and it goes beyond a fluke or chance. Once i got dropped off at a diner coming back from Christian Retreat in Michigan (CFW). Anyhow, my dad was suppose to pick me up at such and such a time and place, but due to communication error and no cell phone, he never came. I waited for an hour. Deciding I would walk to my grandma’s house which is all I could think of, since she was like 5 miles away. So I started walking with Luggage toward her house. As I walking down the road like a homeless man, I prayed “Lord, please provide me someone that I know to drive by and give me a ride, please..” and before I could even finish my prayer, a pickup truck slows down beside me and parks off to the side, and sure enough my cousin jumps out offering me a ride…That’s my King!
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