Confirming Impressions

My good friend Kevin Shaw pointed me to the October 18th devotional in Streams in the Desert, and it encouraged both Daphne and I:

     "The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them" (Num. 10:33).

God does give us impressions, but not that we should act on them as impressions. If the impression be from God, He will Himself give sufficient evidence to establish it beyond the possibility of a doubt.

How beautiful is the story of Jeremiah, of the impression that came to him respecting the purchase of the field of Anathoth. But Jeremiah did not act upon this impression until after the following day, when his uncle's son came to him and brought him external evidence by making a proposal for the purchase. Then Jeremiah said: "I knew this was the word of the Lord."

He waited until God seconded the impression by a providence, and then he acted in full view of the open facts, which could bring conviction unto others as well as to himself. God wants us to act according to His mind. We are not to ignore the Shepherd's personal voice but, like Paul and his companions at Troas, we are to listen to all the voices that speak and "gather" from all the circumstances, as they did, the full mind of the Lord. --Dr. Simpson

"Where God's finger points, there God's hand will make the way."

"For God through ways we have not known, Will lead His own."

     We are now entering possibly the craziest week of our lives.  In the next 11 days we are trusting God to sell our home, sell our car, sell the furniture that we're not taking with us to America, close all our accounts here, ship our belongings to Colorado and say all our final farewells.  If God is not in this, our plans are doomed to failure.  And yet as I look at our lives from the beginning of the summer until now the Lord has not only given us His impressions, but He has and is confirming them through providential circumstances.  We have often spoken about the "life of faith" the Lord has called us to, but I wonder if this transition isn't the biggest step of faith we've ever taken.  Never has so much been at stake, nor the price of our decisions been so high.  We are truly "letting go" of the influence, prestige and leadership responsibility of my previous Namestan roles to launch ourselves into the rushing river of the unknown, so far out of our circle of comfort I don't even know where the circle was anymore.  Lord, it really does feel like falling, but that's what it's like to believe.  

     We said our final good-byes (for now) to Daphne's folks two nights ago as we prepared to leave England.  The tears ran freely and Daphne's Dad just didn't want to let her go (literally).  He is eighty years old, and we leave not knowing if his permanent resident status will ever be approved by the British government, which would mean they could never travel to visit us in Colorado.  Of course I will send Daphne back to England to see them in the future, but his uncertain residency status is just one more issue that we have no control over.  


    " What a friend we have in Jesus - all our sins and griefs to bear.  What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer."