Faith and Manipulation


George Muller was a Christian evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England, cared for 10,024^[1] orphans in his life.^[2] He was well-known for providing an education to the children under his care, to the point where he was accused of raising the poor above their natural station in life. He also established 117 schools which offered Christian education to over 120,000 children, many of them being orphans.  Now that I have established the fruit of his labor, the astounding thing is that he never asked any man for anything.  He only made his needs known to God.  What an amazing story!  What an amazing faith!  It is so refreshing to hear of such faith in a day when manipulation has become common.  Muller believed in the active presence of the Holy Spirit and that He responded to prayer.  He expected every prayer to be answered.  


May we once again be challenged to pray to God and present our needs before Him and believe and expect God alone to bring the answers to our prayers.  Of course the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of men to bring the answer but not with our help.  The moment we make the slightest hint to a man of our need we have polluted the faith process, or so Muller believed.  Who knows how many times we have sabotaged the process and received much less that the Father intended to give us.  


Hebrews 4:16 "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Soaking Or Serving?


I asked someone who was moving to a town where "ongoing revival" was reported, "why?"  They looked at me like I was crazy. It was same look I received back in the 1970's when someone asked me why I wasn't getting in a prayer line at a service to "get slain in the Spirit", and I asked, "Why?"  The person chasing the revival said, "just to soak in the Presence"! You are moving to a town just to "soak"!?  As I walked away I thought, "what a selfish thing to do".  Now, understand my thinking here.  It is selfish if the end result is soaking.  Jesus was baptized in the Holy Spirit but afterward He served.  At Pentecost the church was empowered and blessed with such wonderful experiences that the people who saw them thought they were drunk yet the result was that they served.  Paul experienced the presence of Jesus and actually talked to him.  Later he received the Holy Spirit and his life there after was not a life of soaking but serving.  Mary Magdalene enjoyed the extravagant love and forgiveness of the Lord and the result was, she served.  As the people of God may we daily be seeking His Presence in order to Serve at His pleasure.