GET ADVICE FROM DEEP SPIRITUAL FRIENDS AND QUIT GRUMBLING AND COMPLAINING

Christians often try to get advice from other people instead of listening to what God has said about the subject. If people— even preachers—cannot advise you from the Word of God, their advice is very poor. Sometimes we can get into real trouble by following the well-intentioned advice of fellow Christians who are not carefully attuned to God's Word. I did once, and almost died.

After having pastored churches for a number of years, I felt called of the Lord into a field ministry. This was the Lord's choice, not mine. I would rather have gone on pastoring. There are rewards in pastoring which a field ministry does not offer, including a certain amount of security. More important, our children were small, and I would have liked to have stayed at home with my family. But I sensed God speaking to my spirit, and I finally obeyed and went out on the evangelistic field.

When we set out to do something God has called us to do, we needn't think that things are always going to run smoothly. Furthermore, we can't judge if we are in the will of God by whether or not things are going well. If that were the case—if circumstances alone determined the will of God—then Paul never was in the will of God and missed God from beginning to end!

No, the devil is the god of this world, and we will have him to contend with when we make a decision to go on with God. After seven months on the evangelistic field—months of meeting the devil at every turn and facing severe financial battles —I decided to return to pastoring. (Notice I said "I decided," not "the Lord decided." A rather large, prosperous church in East Texas called me to come preach for them and consider being their pastor. They paid their pastor between $750 and $1100 a month—and this was in 1949, when money was worth more than it is now! The church also furnished a parsonage.

From the natural standpoint, it was an attractive offer. I had preached in this church before. I liked the people and they liked me. They believed in the moving of the Spirit with the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit in their midst. Miracles were a common occurrence. If God had led me in this direction, there was nothing I would have liked better than to pastor this church. Without even considering God's wishes, I thought, I'm going to accept their invitation and at least go preach for them.

Soon afterwards, I had a Sunday free and my wife and I drove to a neighboring church. We arrived in time for Sunday School. As I sat in the class, I was struck by how much the lesson applied to me. The subject was Moses and how he had disobeyed God by striking the rock when God had told him to speak to the rock.

The teacher also brought out how the children of Israel had become discouraged because of difficulties along the way. I squirmed in my seat as I thought of how much this seemed to fit my circumstances. Suddenly my heart stopped beating and I fell from my chair to the floor! Then my heart started beating erratically with a rapid pulse—it was running like a trip hammer. It seemed to me as if it were racing two hundred or three hundred beats a minute.

It was going so fast there was no way to time it. Some ministers who were present felt my pulse and said, "We cannot distinguish a beat—all we can feel is a flutter." I became as cold as ice all over my body. I had been dead twice when I suffered with heart trouble at the age of 16, so I knew when death came over me this time.

They carried me to the parsonage and summoned my wife from the women's Sunday School class. As soon as she came into the room she knelt beside my bed and wept, saying, "I feel this is all my fault." Then she told me she had been grumbling and complaining to the Lord about my long absences from home. She never had mentioned a word of it to me, however. She said one day as she was washing dishes she had heard a voice saying, "I could take him away where he could never come back." She was startled, but dismissed it as her imagination playing tricks on her. Kneeling beside the bed she prayed this prayer of submission: "Lord, if You will just spare my husband, I don't care how long he is gone or where he goes in your will. I will not complain about it again."

Then the Lord showed me where I had missed it, too. When each of us had made a new consecration to the Lord to do His will, whatever it might be, I was instantly healed. I jumped out of that bed completely well. How did I get into that predicament? Instead of listening to God and putting His Word first, I had asked the advice of various pastors. All they could give me was natural advice. They had said, "Your first obligation is to your family. You have small children, and you should be home with them. You shouldn't be out on the field."

One preacher after another told me that, so I took their advice. I tried to do what they suggested—what I wanted to do in the natural—andI nearly died. I finally learned that a man can fulfill his obligation to his family and still obey God. (Kenneth E. Hagin)

Thanks for sharing.