Can You Find Your faith?

I was twenty-one years old, fresh out of Bible College, and still
learning about God’s ways. Today, I feel like my ignorance is still
vast, but I’ve made enough mistakes after more than three decades in
the ministry to know some of what are not God’s ways!

My friend, Neil, was face down on the carpet a few feet away. Our
“cottage prayer meeting” was developing intensity as the night wore on.
I heard him pray loudly, “God, I claim all the gold in Las Vegas for
your kingdom!”

Being emboldened by his brash words, I thought to myself, “I need a new
car.”

Lana and I had been crisscrossing the Southeastern U.S. in our 1967
Plymouth Valiant, preaching in churches and teaching in home prayer
meetings. I loved that little reliable car with its slant six engine
that sounded like a sewing-machine. But it wasn’t big enough for our
present traveling ministry plus it had a lot of miles on it.

So I got up enough courage to pray like Neil was praying. Faith is
contagious!

“Lord,” I said, “I need a new car!”

“What kind?” I heard.

I thought quickly and said, “A Mercury.”

“What color?” the Lord responded

“Green; dark green; with air conditioning and a big trunk!” I answered.

Neil at that time was a Spirit-filled Methodist who worked for NASA as
an engineer. I was a member of Carpenter’s Home Church which was then
known as First Assembly of God. We grew on God’s Word together, enjoyed
the terrific insights brought by pastor Karl Strader, listened to
hundreds of teaching tapes by charismatic Bible teachers, and became
firm prayer partners and still support one another in that role to this
day. Neil is now Chief Operating Officer for a powerful corporation
that develops television and radio broadcast outlets and TV studios. He
serves God in his vocation. He has prospered in his career and has been
a major contributor to key ministries that have taken God’s Word into
many nations.

Lana and I kept up with our itinerant preaching ministry, accepting
invitations as often as they came, often barely receiving enough income
form offerings to keep gas in the car or to have regular meals. It was
adventurous and tough, but we didn’t know what else to do.

I knew my calling was to preach and I knew that gifts of the Holy
Spirit or accompanying signs and wonders were frequently manifested in
my meetings. For instance, when I would go around a room and pray for
people, folks would later remark, “You seemed to know how to precisely
pray for each person’s need.”

I didn’t know about words of knowledge or prophetic utterance. It
still amazes me! Also, sometimes the gift of faith would “flash” upon
me. I remember one young woman who had a withered leg. As I knelt in
front of her and took her foot in my hand and offered my faith to the
Lord for her healing, I felt God’s “electricity” flow powerfully and
tangibly through me into her and watched in awe as her short limb
lengthened and grew more stout, all within one or two minutes. My, how
much God loves hurting people! How much He wants us to risk a little
bit of faith!

Back then, with my very limited understanding of the Five-fold
Ascension gifts (Ephesians 4:11), all I knew was that if you weren’t a
pastor, you must be an evangelist. I didn’t think I was supposed to
settle down and pastor so I kept refusing invitations to “take a
church.”

That is, until later that summer. The President of Southeastern Bible
College stopped me one Sunday morning as I came out of church in
Lakeland. It was his only Sunday to be in town and my only Sunday there
as well. I had begun a three-day fast earlier that weekend, feeling
that God was “changing gears on me,” but I had no more clarity than
that vague feeling. So I started seeking God earnestly for new
direction.

Rev. Homer stopped me and said to me, “There’s a church in Louisiana
where I want you to go preach. They’ve had some trouble and they need a
new pastor. I’ve given them your name. I know you’ve turned down
churches already, but don’t make up your mind until after you‘ve been
there.”

Strangely, when I checked inside with my spirit as he was speaking with
me, nothing said “No” as it had in former situations. So I agreed to
go.

Six months later, I’m sitting behind my desk in my study in the church
where I was now senior pastor, looking past the curtain through the
window at my car in the parking lot. There’s something tickling the
back of my mind… what is it?

My thoughts go back to the prayer meeting in Vero Beach, Florida, where
the owner of a car lot who held Bible studies and prayer meetings in
his home, had asked me to speak just a few months ago. I had told him I
needed a bigger car but I had no money, just a trade-in.

“Come on down,” Jim said. “I’ve got one car on my lot that I can make a
deal with, and I know the banker.”

Lana and I spent the evening with Jim and his wife after he showed us
the black Buick sitting outside his home that he wanted to sell me. I
taught in his prayer group, prayed for some folks, and then we all went
to bed.

The next morning Jim said to me over coffee, “Preacher, I can’t sell
you that car. Last night I had a dream and the Lord showed me something
wrong with it. I’m going to take it to my mechanic and check it out.”

I rode with Jim in the Buick to the shop. They ran a pressure check on
the cylinders and sure enough, the very problem Jim had been warned
about was uncovered. “I’m not going to let you have this car.
Somebody’s driven it hot. Let’s go back to my lot. I’ve got another car
I can let you have.”

We drove back, looked at another used car, signed some papers, and went
together to the bank. I drove it home and packed it up with all our
possessions and soon we were headed off to Louisiana to pastor the
church we had accepted.

What was there about that car? It was wonderful. I had loaded a
three-drawer triple dresser into the trunk. It had delightfully cool
air conditioning. It was green, it was big, it was cool, and, it was a
Mercury.

Then I remembered. It was exactly what I had asked for while lying face
down in the carpet in a prayer meeting more than six months ago. I had
forgotten but God had not.

Faith in God is really faith in His faithfulness, as John Wimber used
to say. Are you using your faith? Can you find it, dust it off, and put
it to work? You may be trusting God for big things while you are
presently serving Him in little things. But faith starts with little
things. The little answers to prayer are still a testimony that God is
trustworthy and His Word is true.

Jesus is so gracious as to reach down low, to loan us His proven faith,
to stand in our stead with His favor, to give us the tools of grace we
need to overcome.

“…through Him (we) are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead,
so that your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Peter 1:21 NAS).

By the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, our prayers strike home and our
faith is vindicated. Why? Because the Father wants to honor His Son
Jesus, and because He loves each of us more than we can ever fully
know. Nothing escapes our Father’s notice. He is on time and He doesn’t
forget what He has promised. Faith is one of the tools in our equipment
bag that is indispensable. Don’t let the devil or doubters steal your
faith. It has potential for hurting the devil and helping people!

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© Can You Find Your Faith? by Ronald Wood, President of Touched by
Grace Inc. You may write Ron & Lana Wood at P.O. Box 12749, Wilmington,
NC 28405. Visit our website for more articles- www.touchedbygrace.org.
Permission to copy and share provided byline and content are unchanged.
We are touched by grace to touch the world!