Let’s begin an investigation into something that is deep, promising and confusing all at the same time. The thrill of answered prayer and the puzzle and bewilderment of unanswered prayer. I personally remember the thrill I experienced of becoming a Christian and realising the Creator God of the Universe heard my prayer and responded. It was mind blowing. The halcyon days of following His prompting as He led us toward mission and Wycliffe was an unbelievable feeling of walking hand in hand with God and having Him direct our paths. You can read about that in Stories. But hand in hand with these are the times when the heavens seem to be made of brass and as desperate as we were for answers, none were forthcoming. It felt like God had “shut up shop” and now we were on our own. We all experience those times and wonder what has happened. But I will get to that quandary later in this series of Nuggets. For now let’s start at the beginning.
I remember a night when we went to home group in Auckland in the late ‘90’s. Yes that’s right, back before the new millennia. There was a new guy at home group that night and he was so grateful to have been invited along by one of the group. He was blown away when at the end of the night Kev, our leader, asked if there were any prayer needs. A few shared and then the guest spoke up and asked if we could all pray for his nephew. He went on to tell us that there was no one else in his wider family who was a Christian and thus no one else as far as he was aware who would know how to pray or had any inclination to pray for the nephew. The young nephew was going through some difficulty in terms of life decisions he had made and things were going wrong. Would we pray for him? We did with passion and focus. This was absolutely staggering to the guest who had not seen personal prayer for others in action like this before and thanked us numerous times for praying for his nephew like we had.
Tania and I talked about it going home in the car afterwards. The privilege we have as Christians to come into the LORD’s presence and bring our prayer concerns before Him. For us personally we had experienced a higher, wider level of this reality, being privileged to be a part of a mission organisation. Our prayer supporters who numbered in the hundreds prayed for us around the world when those difficult moments arose when we needed prayer. When the really hard times came we were aware there were thousands of people praying for us around the world across the three or four churches and the Wycliffe International family as a whole. That night, immediately after home group, we sensed the immense privilege it was to have such prayer backing over what eventuated in our lives. That was contrasted with the man at home group who had no one else to join with him in praying for the members of his immediate family.
Those of you who know the LORD and are connected with your local church, the Body of Christ, know the reality of joining together to pray for one another and see God meet needs in astounding even miraculous ways. Experiences that could be taken straight from the pages of the Bible.
All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. . . They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people.
Acts 2:42-44, 46-47
It all just sounds so idyllic doesn’t it? The epitomé of what life should be. All we need to do is gather together as a body to pray for one another and everything will work out. When we are going through the tough stuff, we can put the need on the church prayer chain and God will answer with signs and wonders. The church in the local area, the mission prayer team, the multitudes around the world will pray and God will answer. That is our expectation.
I remember the first time when that expectation, growing and strengthening inside of me, received a body blow. It was with the death of Keith Green, one whose music I appreciated so much and who I felt God was using mightily to share deeper truth in the lyrics of his songs. Suddenly on July 28th 1982 Keith Green was dead, killed in a plane crash and taken from us. But how could that be? Where was God in all of that? Was God not looking after His own. The incongruity of it all hit me for the first time. It was a shock let me tell you. We were convinced by the things that had happened in 1981 and 82 to us personally that God was leading us toward mission work. God had answered such specific prayer that it had amazed us. We too were stepping out under the protection of Almighty God. But wouldn’t God have done that for Keith Green? It left me questioning at a deeper level.
It was not until years later one of our daughters shared with us the panic that she felt when flying on her own or with others but without mum and dad. During moments of panic on numerous flights we took as a family flying between New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, she was comforted by one thought. “It will be all right. God has called mum and dad and so he will look after us.” It wasn’t until she flew for the first time alone on a bumpy flight into Wellington that the realisation dawned on her that she wasn’t flying with mum and dad and therefore in her thinking, under the protective covering of God.
If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.
Matt 18:19-20
The tele-evangelists and certain sorts of preachers of the name-it-and-claim-it variety reassure us that we just have to cry out to God in faith and all will be well. He is holding us in His hands and when we are in His hands we are safe from all harm. “The arrow that flies by day and the pestilence that flies by night will not in any way come near us.” We can name and claim the truth of the verses Jesus Himself stated above. We can gather in twos and threes, phone 20 or 30, email 200 or 300 and place our concerns in God’s hands. But that comforting thought hits the hard reality of the fact that Christians die like everyone else. Believers in Jesus, dedicated followers of the LORD, die from cancer, are killed when travelling or suffer gross injustice or death at the hands of evil doers. Have you ever stopped to think that everyone who has been miraculously healed of a life threatening sickness or disease ultimately died, even Lazarus himself. The mortality rate for Christians and non-Christians is the same – so far it’s 100%, the same for all life on earth. No-one has escaped death except One and two others who were “taken up” but still none-the-less removed from the earth.
Just stop and think for a moment. The name it and claim brigade, the health, wealth and prosperity theology is laughable if preached to Christians who live in Cambodia, China, North Korea or large parts of Indonesia or parts of Africa. It is not a universal principle able to be applied worldwide. It only works among the privilege few who have control of finance and privilege in contrast to most of the world’s population. I want to tell you of others of whom the world is not worthy over a number of Nuggets in this series of a Puzzling Paradox. And yes I will leave you with some shocking conclusions to make you think in the end, while ultimately giving you some anchors for your soul. But before then I have many more Nuggets to share with you.
Tania and I have been privileged to meet some amazing people of the kind of whom the world was not worthy. I think of many of the poorest people we have stayed with for a night, a week or a month who showed by their lavish generosity that they were greater givers than the rich in many parts of the world. I think of many people who I could name around the world who have suffered incredible atrocities at the hands of those who opposed them or who spitefully used them yet could turn and forgive their persecutors. Almida* in Makassar who told of the time in 1967 when insurrectionists came to kill her family and forcibly seize their house and belongings and drive those who survived from their home. She pointed to the house which once belonged to her family while telling us what happened. Yet evident in this precious woman’s soul was the fruit of the Spirit of God who had ministered to her painful past and had brought her through without bitterness or resentment against the very family who still lived in the house which once belonged to Almida’s family.
* the name of the person has been changed to hide their identity
I could tell of Pastor Lambang* living in a village up in the mountains who told me of the time when some of his family were slain by the hordes of religionists who swept through “this area”. He then proceeded to tell me in graphic detail what happened “when they came through that mountain pass there and down this valley. Our family home which used to sit right there was burned to the ground and we were driven from our homes. Many were killed.” What stays in my mind from his graphic description of what he observed as a young boy was not the violence perpetrated against him and his family. It was the sweet spirit of a precious saint of God who now longed to share his faith with the families living around him, descendants of the ones who had unleashed the atrocities against his family. Only God can change a human heart to that degree to cause the one with such a heart to love the ones who treated them so badly. That my friends is a miracle of astounding proportions. I have more stories lined up to tell you. Each one true and revealing the God who hides Himself behind the scenes all the while doing miracles, yet miracles which are in some way disguised.
I will tell of real life situations of people who believed in faith for things not seen yet hung on in faith for the things they believed God had promised. Even dying while waiting for the promised response from God. How does the human spirit cope with such unfulfilled hope and yet still cling on in hope? It through the strength of human spirit enabled by the power of God’s Spirit within. All those stories are ahead of us in the up-coming Nuggets. I dare to promise you real life stories that will help shed some light on the mystery seen in God’s miracles and yet the reassurance of a God who both hides Himself while showing us His ways through acts which are baffling and difficult for us to fathom.
Oh I assure you, I haven’t forgotten the baffling question shared by my pastor and me which I used in the first Nugget of this series on a Puzzling Paradox.
“Why does God heal an eighty plus year old woman and allows a 20 year old young man to die?”
Next week why does God allow His chosen ones to die despite the prayer backing of the Saints?