Page 133 - Evidence of Things Unseen

the area quickly.
On the last occasion when this occurred, my son Josiah had gone over to the barn to
get some eggs from the chickens before the storm arrived. The wind began blowing, with
lightning striking in close proximity attended by loud boomings of thunder. Josiah had not
yet made it back, and I was thinking about looking for him when my wife hollered and said
that Josiah was crawling through the yard. She thought he had been struck by lightning. I
flew out the door and was by his side in a moment. He was a pitiful sight crawling through
the yard on all fours.
I asked him what had happened and he said that when he had seen the lightning that
he had decided to hurry to the house and he went to change his gait to a run, pushing off
suddenly with one leg, when his knee twisted. He fell to the ground and sat the eggs down
in the grass and was proceeding to crawl to the house. Tony and I helped him into the
house. His knee was tender for some time, and he walked gingerly for a week, or so, but he
healed up quickly. This event was a foreshadowing of a tremendous spiritual storm to come
where my son would once more play a central part.
My mind was gripped with the image of my son crawling through the yard, and great
compassion filled my heart for him. I thought of David crying out in grief over his son, “O
my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom,
my son, my son!” It may seem strange that these words came to mind when I witnessed my
son dragging himself through the yard, for my son’s condition was nowhere near the
extremities of that young man Absalom. Josiah was my only living son, however, and it was
an emotionally moving experience for me to see him in this way.
After the storm I noticed that the air conditioner would no longer come on. It had
been damaged by a lightning strike. When I went to check on this problem I noticed that
the brand name of the air conditioning unit was Payne. This was the same spelling as the
town we lived in where we knew so much pain. What a prophetic sign this would prove to
be. Although the landlords replaced the unit within a few days, the old unit sat in the yard
next to the house until the day we moved out.
The emotional pain we were to know at this house, and the great wrestling of soul and
spirit, were to be the greatest we had ever experienced. Though I had known longer trials,
I had never experienced any trial that would be as intense as that which was coming. That
which is spiritually complete and satisfying to God often comes attended with great
wrestling and acute pain. God pronounced His satisfaction when Abraham was willing to
offer up Isaac, and before we left this home on Levie Road I would also be faced with a
similar test.
I was to learn more about the Father’s heart through the painful experiences I was
about to walk through. Just as Yahweh wanted Abraham to learn more of His character and
heart, so too did He want me to discern more of His great and terrible love. Even in
Abraham’s day, God had already determined to give up His Son Yahshua as a sacrifice, and
He wanted a friend with whom He could share the knowledge of what it had cost Him. In
asking Abraham to perform a similar act, Abraham would be able to touch the heart of
Yahweh in a way that only those who are willing to make such deep sacrifices can. Abraham
was called “the friend of God,” and a true friend will willingly share the joys and the sorrows
of another.
Yahweh wants others to know His heart, His sacrifices, His pain and sorrow. God is
not some automaton that lacks feelings. He did not embark upon the plan that would lead
to the death of His beloved Son without emotion and pain. What He experienced is