theexpandingshrink

Yesterday, while praying with several brothers, I received a picture in my spirit of God bending down and playing chess with us. After carefully observing the board He turned to me and said, “It’s your move.”

My initial response was of dismay, “How could I ever survive a competition with God?”

About three hours after the private funeral service for Liam on Friday, August 11, we had a dedication of the ‘Tree House’ at the home of Sonya and Horeb.

Horeb had dreamed and planned and worked at building this ‘tree house’ for months and months. Actually more like two years. At one point a neighbor upon seeing the original deck for the tree house, stated, “That is overkill. Your children will soon grow up and will not need the tree house. Why put so much into a tree house?” Even family and friends, although admiring the work, wondered why someone would put so much time and energy into a ‘tree house.’

But Horeb labored on. Never having built anything like this before, he studied, watched Youtube videos and consulted with his builder friend, Elvin Weaver. He made his own skylights, his own windows and doors. He insulated and drywalled and installed flooring and electrical outlets and even an air conditioner. Day in and day out when he had extra time he ‘built the tree house’. He cut no corners, he attended to every detail.

Finally the ‘tree house’ was finished. The table was in place; the lamp was turned on, the couch was lifted up the steps and placed along the wall. And the air conditioner was running.

And the invited guests crowded into the ‘tree house’ to celebrate and dedicate this special creation.

Horeb welcomed his guests with these words: “ This is not just a tree house. God gave me a vision to create a special place, a private place where my children can meet God. Almost every day I pray over my children and bless them. I say to them you are going to be a missionary; and you a worshiper and you a minister and you an evangelist. I proclaim life and blessing over them. I want each of my children to have their own personal encounter with God. And this room is for them to get away alone and meet God. And it is not only for them it is for other children as well.”

Then Horeb went on to say, “I am not attached to this room or this place. I have done what God asked me to do and should God ask me to leave here we would leave. I am committed to following Him wherever He leads.

Suddenly all of our eyes were opened. We saw that in fact this is not just a ‘tree house’; it is a holy place; it is a tent of meeting; it is a place where angels ascend and descend; it is the doorway to heaven.

And our eyes were opened to see Horeb in a new way, not as a hobbyist or a backyard builder but as a Noah who built an ark for the salvation of his house. We see Horeb with the heart of Jesus in going to prepare a place for those He loved. Horeb did not build this structure in response to a whim or even a dream; he built it in response to the deep heart-felt call of God.

And we worshiped, and shared communion together and prayed. Yes, we prayed. We prayed blessings on this space and on all the children and even grownups who would meet God here. And we prayed that God would raise up a generation of fathers, like Horeb, who would make assisting their children to meet God their highest priority.

For we know that unless one receives immediate access to the heavenly place as Liam did, we all need our encounter with Jesus here in preparation for the place He has prepared for us. And all our special places here, though significant and essential, are just “temporary tree houses” in comparison to the glorious, eternal place He has prepared for us. Blessed be His name!

Seven weeks ago my daughter Sonya and her husband Horeb received the worst possible news from a doctor following a sonogram: “This child has serious problems and there can be no good outcome to this pregnancy. ”

But we said with the words of the song, “Whose report do you believe? We believe the report of the Lord. His report says I am healed.” And we believed God for a miracle.

We proclaimed that nothing is impossible for God. We believed and proclaimed that “by His stripes we are healed.” We prayed and fasted. Our faith community prayed and fasted. Servants of God, who have seen many miracles, signs and wonders, prayed and believed with us. We were lifted into God’s presence by the unified prayers of agreement around us.

However, on Wednesday night, August 9, 2017, Sonya, six and one-half months pregnant, was delivered of a stillborn son and they named him Liam, which means strong-willed warrior.

Friday, August 11th, the immediate family gathered around a small open grave in an unmarked country cemetery, near our home. The father and mother sang and the two brothers and two sisters, ages 4-11, took turns shoveling ground over the tiny casket. And Ruth and I, the maternal grandparents, prayed and sang along and believed.

But what do we believe?

We believe that God is good and that His mercies are new every day. We believe that God heals; He resurrects; He does signs and wonders and miracles. We believe that nothing is impossible for God. We believe that He hears the prayers of his children. We believe that where two or three agree together in Jesus’ name they have what they ask.

But how can we believe all this in the face of unanswered prayer?

I remember John the Baptist pointing to Jesus, in the bright sunshine over the Jordan River, and loudly proclaiming, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is far greater than I for He existed long before me.”

And I remember John the Baptist in the dark prison cell pondering the question, “Is this Jesus reallly the son of God; is He really who I said He was?”

And Jesus sends a message back to John the Baptist saying, “Tell John that I am God, that I have come to set captives free, to heal the blind and the lame and to bring God’s kingdom to earth.”

And then Jesus adds, “Oh and by the way, tell John, ‘Blessed is he who is not offended in me’.” In other words “I am a miracle working God and I have called you to be miracle working people. Blessed is the person who does not get offended when in a given situation I take a different course than what you had anticipated or proclaimed. Just know I have a plan that will bring good out of this situation.”

“Do not give up. Do not become passive and say, ‘Well, I will not pray or expect anything, I will just pray, ‘Father, your will be done whatever it might be..’”

“No, No. His will is that you should actively participate in bringing heaven’s will and miracles to earth. He wants you to lay hands on sick people and to proclaim their healing in Jesus’ name. He wants you not just to believe “in Jesus” (that is for salvation). He wants you to believe ‘as Jesus did’ that you carry authority to address the sickness, disease, disorders and demons in the world.

God is a strategic God. He is making all things work together for good to those who love Him. Blessed is the one who keeps on proclaiming the goodness and power of God. Even though for the moment we may be in the dark about the immediate strategy of God, we are convinced that in the ultimate strategy we win, hands down.

Or think of it this way. If I am the number two in command in a large company, how do I best show honor to the number one in command?

When I am faced with difficulties and challenges do I say, “I cannot decide, I must wait to hear from the Big Boss?” Or do I make decisions and proclamations confident that I know the heart and the vision of the number one in command and that he has empowered me to act and speak in his name.

If in some given situation he moves at odds with what I have said, I do not get offended. I only assume that he has information which caused him in a given case to take a different direction than what I had proclaimed.

So in light of all this, I will honor God and his word by continuing to lay hands on sick people, and I will continue to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is here and now and that miraculous signs will follow those who believe. Mark 16.

I will press in even more diligently to know Him whom I have believed and to know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings. For I am convinced that nothing can separate from His love, not a stillborn child, not an apparently unanswered prayer. For His love is deeper, higher, wider and longer than anything I can imagine.

And I am proclaiming that Liam, which means strong-willed warrior, in his very short span on earth was used of God in a powerful way to increase faith in our lives. As a result of this experience, we will be more likely to believe God for the impossible.

One day we will see Liam in the glorious light of the Son of God and we will understand all and there will be no more tears or sighing. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.