KEY TO LIVING GOD'S WILL

      It was after midnight after a healing service. I was tired but 300 people remained and the pastor asked if I would anoint them with oil. I agreed and the first person down the aisle to the communion rail to be anointed was a lady with severe arthritis. She had to hobble forward an inch at a time on crutches, a cripple for years. In my weariness I wondered why God could not have allowed the first one down to have something less severe, like a headache or a cold. But I anointed her and prayed and moved onto the next person.

      A layman in the healing ministry attending the line of candidates for healing did not move along with me, as he would normally do. He stayed right with the arthritic lady because he felt she was on the verge of a miracle. When I was fix or six people down the line, I heard people jumping and dancing around back at the beginning of the line. There was this formerly crippled woman shouting joyously about her healing and hopping about without her crutches!

      I did not complete the healing. I don't know if I did any part of it. The layman kept the vigil. He saw what I did not-that here was a woman on the brink of a healing. He was attuned to God. His faith was alive. He prayed to know whether to stay and pray or continue to move along with me. He asked the Lord with expectant faith and received his answer.

      How often do we come to within an inch of a miracle because we are not attuned to what God wants, or we do not sustain that prayer long enough? Does God act because of my accomplishment in building up enough faith? Is faith automatic miracle-working power or is it something that I have to work up? Faith is not some magic power that does wonders. Jesus does the wonders, contingent on our dependence upon Him. That which brings results is a living relationship with a person--Jesus. Faith is a relationship of belief, dependent upon the accomplishments of the One trusted, not on the accomplishments of the one trusting.

      We as exercisers of faith are simply maintaining that relationship of trust. The faith and confidence you have in your doctor is developed and strengthened by his success, not by yours. It is by his wisdom, his medical skill, not by anything you do. Your faith in him is a direct result of his accomplishments. He can help you, however, only to the degree you are willing and have faith enough in his accomplishments-the accumulation of evidence testifying to his skill-and then to follow his directions, to submit to his treatment. The analogy, I'm sure, is clear.

In the next installment, part one of "Intelligent Commitment."