Baby Steps of Faith

Lately, I heard from the Lord, "Step out on the water."

There was a virus going around and, sure enough, I caught it. I figured, "Of course I caught it, I haven't been eating properly." Even though that wasn't necessarily true, I accepted the lie of the enemy and accepted the virus.

In a way, that's how it works, we accept defeat and allow the illness to "run its course". I have this other attitude like, "We're supposed to get sick because it strengthens our immune system." And, although that may be partially true, that doesn't mean we need to lie down and let the devil walk all over us.

So, here I am in a cheap hotel room in Hadyai, Thailand, when, upon waking up in the morning, I heard, plain as day, "As they went, they were healed." I knew it was the Lord and I knew what I had to do. I had to pull my sick body out of bed and hit the road. It was the last thing I wanted to do. But, when I did, I suddenly felt great! My cough was pretty much gone and I was gaining more strength than ever.

The next verse I heard was, "Step out on the water."

So, it seems that the Lord is requiring more action and for me to put more action to my faith. "Faith without works is dead."

When I got off the bus in Bangkok, I really had to hear from God about which direction to go and which taxi to take. It was like being in a maze of hawkers shouting prices I refused to accept until finally I crossed the length of the terminal and found myself face-to-face with a little man who quoted me 300baht. It was a lot, but not as much as the others. I followed him to his taxi and discovered there was an Italian man sitting in the front seat, so we started up a conversation in English.

He said was looking for a "spark" to show him that God is real and he had even been thinking about becoming a Buddhist. We talked for the whole ride and then for a few minutes after we got out of the taxi and I ended up suggesting to him that he perform an experiment on himself:

I said, "You are the test-tube. Ask God to show you whether or not He is real. Ask Him to show you whether or not He is Jesus. If God is God, he can do that, can't He?"

The young man agreed that He could. So, I suggested, "When you are alone and quiet, without any distractions, just talk to God."

We exchanged email addresses, so we'll see what happens.