God at Work Today

“O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.”* (Psalm 107:1-3)

The following are some excerpts from recent correspondence. We are limited by space, but wanted to share some testimonies of the Lord working for the encouragement of others of His children.

God has been teaching us so much. After being involved in Christian schools for some years, God led us to homeschool eleven years ago, at a time when we knew not one other person who was doing it. We were treated very harshly by our church (which ran their own Christian school) for heading in this direction, but God comforted us. It is hard to know what to do sometimes—we read godly advice which sounds excellent, yet it often conflicts with other excellent godly advice. So we pray. We believe God would have us be a little “isolated” for His purposes at this season.

—Australia

I’ve had a number of health problems in the past years. The most difficult to deal with was one where my intestines would tend to twist and fold—it is extremely painful. We went to a number of doctors, got x-rays, CAT scans, ultrasounds, and a number of other tests. They could tell me what was going on, but not why or how to stop it. The medications that I was given would take the pain down a few notches but the side effects of blurry vision, tiredness, and lack of concentration were not worth it. I decided to try to live with the pain. The past eight years have been the worst—hard to sit, sleep, stand, ride in a car, almost anything. I was moody and angry with my family and friends. Pain 24/7 takes its toll.

Then, a couple of Wednesdays ago, at Bible study we were discussing angels, healings, and a number of other things. One of the brothers told a story of how his wife was delivered from alcohol addiction—in an instant. Something in his story struck my heart. At home I thought, “maybe I should pray for healing.” But I also felt guilty. God has done so much for us in this short time I felt it almost greedy to ask for anything else. But He says in His word, “Ask, and it shall be given.”* (Matthew 7:7)

So, I did. It wasn’t your conventional prayer, I guess. I stood in the middle of my room with outstretched hands and said, “I’m so tired, please take this away from me!” Then I immediately sat down on my bed and felt something odd and warm on my right side. I touched it—it was a lump as big as a golf ball. I said out loud, “Well, this can’t be good.” So, I pressed it very lightly and it collapsed—and all the pain left my body.

I ran out and told my wife. I was bending and twisting back and forth. Nothing—it was gone. You have no idea how it felt—pain for so long, then just…gone. In ten days more things have changed than you can imagine. Every time I do something new I wasn’t able to do before I thank God again. I’ll never be able to thank Him enough.

—Tennessee

First, allow me to tell you that I am saved and living a holy life the best I know how through the power of the Holy Ghost. I love the Lord and live for Him with all He has given me—body, soul, and all else. Please, continue to pray for me to live a victorious life all the rest of my life.

God had initially showed me in a vision that He has a clean, pure, and spotless Church, made up of only the pure in heart here on the earth. I did not comprehend the meaning of this wonderful vision then, in October 1977. So I jumped from one group to the other, hoping it was the pure Bride of Christ I had seen in the vision, but only to be frustrated.

Then, around June 2002, God, in His love, care, and grace, sent me another wonderful vision, which I did not comprehend clearly until the beginning of 2003. He showed me that I was faithfully going after Jesus but before I would reach Him, a group would emerge in between with its fogs. I would get enmeshed in this group and get blinded by the fog, but would almost as soon find out that Jesus was not in the group. Then I would get out, see Jesus afar off on the Way ahead and start running after Him again, only to be obstructed by a group again. It was not until I had run clear out of every group division that I caught up with Jesus, who hugged me and kissed me and held me by the hand to lead me on.

As said before, I did not see what the Lord was teaching me in this vision until January 2003. When the full meaning of this vision sunk into my mind, I completely stopped looking for groups, confessed my unfaithfulness to the Lord, and fully consecrated to serve Him and Him only as He showed and led me free from all divisions and their inherent evils. I offered to Him my whole being and asked God to fill me with His Holy Ghost, which I understood as His fully taking His abode in my body (John 14:23, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20), cleansing me wholly from all carnality and giving me the power to live holy all my life. It was then peace flooded my soul, joy unspeakable became part of my life in all circumstances and love for God and all His creation is now so much my part of life that I would give everything to live this way. I am rejoicing in this glory up to now, for which I truly thank God. I made all effort to do restitution to the best of my ability and I am still willing to do it whenever I become aware of anything of the past not corrected or returned to whoever owed.

—Kenya