“And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:7-8 NKJ
God is not a respecter of persons and our story of miraculous provision and answered prayer is being shared to give you hope and encouragement for whatever you are standing for in faith and believing God for. God is attentive to the cries of His people and as this verse reveals He bears long with us while we believe Him for what He has promised. God delights in avenging His own elect and those who have said yes to Jesus Christ are His elect. But in times of long suffering we have to remind ourselves of this truth over and over again so we do not lose hope during our times of waiting on the Lord, to work on our behalf and perform that which He has promised.
1 Peter 2:9-10 says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.” On this two year journey of faith we have proclaimed this passage many times when we became weak or weary on the journey’s trail to remind ourselves that God chose us for this work. And we can attest to the truth Jesus spoke in Luke 18:7-8 because when God moved on our behalf He did it speedily and we had to be ready to respond.
They say that social networking is one of the greatest ways to connect with people and to build relationships that can lead to business or ministry opportunities but we never imagined that God would use social networking to bring about the answer to our prayers, but He did! One day Sam received a friendship request on Face Book from an old friend who he had been out of relationship with for the past few years. After responding to the request the two of them sent a couple of emails and then decided to have a phone conversation. The friend shared with Sam what God had been doing in his life over the past couple of years and how God had done a work that led him to where he is at today.
He told Sam that he is now a pastor of a church in Indianapolis and a partial owner in a roofing company that he used to manage when he and Sam worked together in Indianapolis years ago. Sam used to own a painting and remodeling company and did contract work with him. Nothing of our vision for St. Louis was discussed. A couple of days later some friends were over and they saw Sam’s books spread out across the floor in the living room and asked what we were doing. I said, “We’re out of here!” They asked, “Where are you going?” I responded, “St. Louis.” They chuckled because we had been saying this for two years. I said this without any knowledge of what was going to happen the next day.
As Sam awoke the next morning he opened his phone to discover a text message from his friend that had come in the night before. He called him to apologize for not responding. The friend then told Sam of the reason for his text message. He said his company was looking at expanding to the St. Louis region and wanted to know if we had any interest in moving there to run the operation for them. As you can imagine Sam just about passed out from the shock of this inquiry! Sam said, “Are you serious?” And the friend said, “I am absolutely serious. I couldn’t think of anyone I would rather have run it then the two of you.”
And this is how it all came about that our journey to St. Louis, to complete the work God has called us to began. Sam proceeded to tell him of what God spoke to us two years ago and how we have been waiting on God to open the doors for us to go. They were both blown away by what was taking place! Over the next couple of days they spent time on the phone discussing the details and expectations. When Sam asked if there would be a conflict of interest if we built the church and resource center ministries at the same time his friend said there wasn’t any, and in fact, he encouraged it.
He also said that at any time if we feel God moving us in the direction of going full time with the ministries there was no problem with that either. He told Sam he always knew he would be a part of his ministry at some point in the future and he was glad that now he got the opportunity to do it. As you can imagine we have all been in awe of God as we have watched this unfold but what I want you to know is that even with answered prayer and miracles happening, sometimes delays still happen, but as I have said before our delays are not God’s denials.
To be continued......
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