Page 137 - Evidence of Things Unseen

for them as they knew I was capable of doing." I thought to myself, "what a wicked
and rebellious people. They did not deserve to go into the promised land, becoming
embittered like that at God." Then the voice of the Lord spoke to me and said: "Son,
that’s the condition you are in. You are becoming bitter at Me." I cried out in horror,
"Oh no, Lord, not me, I’m your son. I wouldn’t be bitter at you no matter what.” He
said: "You are becoming bitter because you know in your heart and have faith to
believe that I am able to meet all your financial needs; and yet, you are wondering
why I am not doing it, and bitterness is coming into your heart."
As the light of His Word shined upon my heart, I recognized that it was true, and
right there in my seat, while the preacher in the pulpit was continuing his message,
I had an altar call and cried out to God for repentance and for forgiveness. I said:
"God if you will cleanse me from this awful thing, I will never complain or become
bitter at any circumstance you bring me into, regardless of what it is"

In his biography Bill shares of this same time, and goes on to comment that he told
the Lord that even if they should lose their house that he would not complain a word to
God. He said that if he and his wife and children were put out of the house that they would
just join hands and sing praises to God as they walked down the country road leading away
from their house. This experience came back to me as I found myself in similar straits. I did
not want to murmur against God, yet I was very perplexed about the situation, and
experiencing some anxiety.
It was not possible for us to go anywhere, for we did not have the money to rent
another house. We had to simply wait for things to play themselves out and see what God
would do for us. I gathered my family together and told them that we would continue to
pray for God’s provision in our lives, and look to Him to deliver us. I read them the chapter
from Bill Britton’s book where he faced his own crisis, and I told my family that we had to
count the cost of our obedience.
The Spirit had shown me that the enemy is able to heap added torment upon us when
we have not counted the cost of obedience and accepted it. I thought of what the worst thing
was that could happen. We could be evicted by the Sheriff and have all of our possessions
put out by the road. We could possibly lose all we owned of material goods. I considered
whether I was willing to pay that price as an intercession for the people we were praying for,
and as an act of obedience to God’s will. I determined that I was, and I shared this with my
family. I asked them to also count the cost, for by doing so they would take away the
enemy’s ability to torment them. When Satan came with his fear tactics saying that we could
lose everything, we could simply respond, “I have already counted the cost and I am
willing.” The threat would then lose its potency, and we could know peace.
Our landlords filed the eviction papers, and the Sheriff came out to have us sign the
document. The papers then went back to the court and we had a couple weeks to come up
with the rent or be put out. The weeks went by and no money came in to pay the rent. We
began looking for the Sheriff to show up any day and place all of our belongings out by the
road and to put us out as well. I continued to pray for grace, particularly that God would
spare my wife from having to go through this experience. She had struggled mightily for
weeks, but had at last come to a place where she said she was willing to trust God in this
situation, and she would accept His will in the matter. This was a great victory and I made
mention of it to God and asked for Him to spare Tony from this ignominy.
The day came when the Sheriff drove down the driveway, and I knew we were to