Page 136 - Evidence of Things Unseen

This was not to be the last time God would prepare me for a test by placing it upon
some saint’s heart to send me a book. Just before we moved to the home on Levie Road,
another brother in Christ sent me a copy of Bill Britton’s biography called “Prophet on
Wheels.” In this book Bill Britton described a time when God called him to also trust God
for his provision as he committed himself to ministry. Bill gave up a lucrative insurance
sales job to follow God in obedience, and then God did not provide according to his
expectation. Bill ended up having his nice car repossessed, and they too faced being cast out
of their home for not being able to make their payments. Bill began to complain to God
about the poor provision they were seeing. The following is taken from his writing titled
Hebrews - A Book of Better Things.

One time, years ago, we were living in a little house at the edge of a village in
Carney, Oklahoma. Our only bathroom was an outdoor privy, or an outhouse, as
some call them. We had no hot water in the house. In fact, until we were able to have
a well dug, we had no water at all and had to carry water from a neighbor’s house.
It was during this time that our youngest girl, Rachel, was born and seeing my wife
have to take care of herself and her newborn baby under these conditions, began to
do something to me.
I had been successful in the insurance business and was zone manager for a very
fine company, but the Lord had pressed on my spirit to quit my job and give
full-time to the ministry of writing and radio preaching. Our expenses were heavy
and had been sufficiently met by my earnings at my job. But when I was without a
job, the expenses went on while the money coming in was cut off. Things got in very
bad shape. Financially, it seemed that the door to heaven was closed. Night after
night I would stand in the field behind our house and look up at the stars and say,
"Father, I know you own every one of those stars. I know you own the cattle on a
thousand hills. You have in your hands the hearts of millionaires who would not
even miss the amount that it would take to bring us through this financial crisis.
Father, I do not doubt your ability to meet our needs. The question in my heart is,
why are you not meeting those needs? Why are you letting us go like this?"
Night after night I cried to God. Our bills were getting behind. We hardly had
money to feed our children. We lost our car and it looked as though we would lose
our little home. Unknown to me, a bitterness against God was beginning to creep
into my heart. I did not recognize this until one night I went to a service in
Oklahoma City.
The preacher was preaching on the first part of Hebrews 3. I had with me an
Amplified New Testament, and began to read this chapter in the Amplified, reading
ahead of where he was preaching. I came to verse 8, and in the Amplified it says: "Do
not harden your hearts, as happened in the rebellion of Israel and in their
provocation and embitterment of Me in the day of testing in the wilderness." I
stopped and read that phrase again, "embitterment of Me.” Then I realized that the
children of Israel in the wilderness were bitter at God.
I said, "God, why were they bitter at you?" And the Lord spoke to me as I sat there
in the service that night and said: "They became embittered at Me because they knew
I could do better than give them bread and water. I gave them manna from heaven
and water from the rock, but they lusted after flesh. They knew that if I desired, I
could give them quail, and they were bitter at Me because I was not doing as much