Unshakably Moved

Today shook me.

I had the wonderful opportunity to hear Dr. John Maxwell preach over miracles. And it was a miracle that I had the opportunity to even hear him.

So here's the story: Yesterday afternoon there was a taping of two sermons at our church. One which was taught by the incredible Dr. Maxwell. Having read many of his books and having heard him speak less than a month ago at Scentsy's national convention, I was itching to go. But with youth on Wednesday night in Yukon, it just wasn't a possibility.

Late last night, Brian received an email with another invite to the same taping. The first one hadn't worked. So they re-taped today, and Brian and I rearranged some things so we could go.

After a few worship songs, our head pastor Craig Groeschel welcomed all of us and told us how mad he was (at first) when he found out that there was a mistake with the taping that caused us to have to re-record it. Then he said that he knew it was in God's hands and that he was certain that someone in the audience today needed to hear this message in this moment.

After the first message, John Maxwell took the stage. He proceeded to tells us the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. It's the only miracle that is recorded in all four Gospels, and it was the focus of his teaching.

Here is what Dr. Maxwell had to say about how a Biblical miracle works: "When there is a need sensed by a few and each individual understands his or her responsibility and gives his all regardless of the odds, then Jesus works a miracle."

He also said, "Sometimes God wants us to be a miracle for someone else."

He went on to talk about need and the few and then the individual, but then he started to talk about the little boy who had the only food to eat amongst 5,000 people.

I honestly had never given this boy much thought. You can read the story and skim right over him.

Jesus has been preaching for many hours. The disciples notice that it's getting late and that everyone will soon be hungry, so they interrupt Jesus to suggest that He stop His teaching and send everyone into town for dinner. Jesus looks at the disciples and says, "Why don't you feed them?" So the disciples seek out food. And there is one boy in the crowd with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, and the one person in the crowd who didn't need a miracle (because he had food) was who Jesus used to create one.

I had never considered that He used that boy and his lunch to create a miracle for thousands of people. The other interesting thing is that the boy must have thought the disciples were crazy when they told him their plan, "Well, Jesus asked us to bring him all the food we had, and he plans to feed everyone with your lunch."

Huh?

Sometimes God needs us to be the channel for someone else's miracle (even if His request of us makes no sense at all).

About this time in the message, I'm getting ancy.

See, I have a dear friend, whom I have written about here before. She has a beautiful little girl with an extremely rare disease called NKH. She also has two beautiful and healthy boys, and she is now expecting another sweet girl, Lucy Belle.

Lucy Belle was DNA tested for NKH in the womb, and the tests came back positive. Since the results of the DNA test, I have desperately wanted to pray over Ryan. I've had a hard time believing that sweet baby has NKH (as have many people). There are many many people who believe that Lucy Belle will be born as healthy as a horse.

But, I've had this desire to pray over her. I even had the opportunity a few weeks ago at her baby shower, and I left early to go to worship night at our church, where I was so mad at myself for leaving.

But, as John Maxwell talked about how the requests of God don't always make sense, I knew that not only did I need to pray over that baby, but I needed to pray over her soon.

I almost couldn't sit through the rest of the message. I was unshakably moved. I knew that this time I would not be able to run from this request from God. And then, as if he were reading my mind, John Maxwell said, "We never learn to trust God unless we learn to obey him."

I knew that that was all I needed to hear. We had to go see her. I knew I would have no peace until I prayed with my hands on her belly.

I don't think it was necessarily about the prayers itself, but more about obedience to God. I know God works miracles. I know He has His hand in all. I know His name is above all names, even NKH.

Yes, today I was unshakably moved by God's Word through an amazing man.

Today I learned more about being obedient to God. Because sometimes He just wants us to give Him what we have.

.....Day 20 of a year of writing....