Page 78 - The Divine Quest

The Divine Quest Page 75

At this time I was particularly concerned about our power bill, as the power company
was known to not show much grace to their customers who had fallen behind, and
with the bill only a few days late they would send out a notice that service would be
discontinued if payment was not received in the next week. When the bill was due
the Father had not yet provided the means to pay it. The notice came, and I was still
unable to pay. The day that the notice said our power could be cut off on came and
went, and still there was no money to pay the bill. I was expecting to see an employee
of the power company show up any day to cut our power off, yet I continued to pray
for God’s provision to be manifested.

I only received a paycheck from my job once a month, this being on the last working
day of each month. This date was several weeks past the cut-off date on the notice we
received. Yet one week went by, and then two, and no one showed up to cut off our
power. As the last week before I was to get paid arrived I thought we would perhaps
make it, and no one would show up before I received my paycheck and was able to
pay my bill.

On the day before I was to get paid my son came running into my room and said a
man was in our yard, and he was from the power company. I looked out the window
and I saw that he was at our meter and he was about to cut off our power, leaving us
unable to cook, and all of our groceries in the refrigerator would spoil, and since it
was November, we would also be left in a cold house. I walked out in the yard and
spoke with the man. I told him I was to get paid the very next day and would be able
to pay my bill then. He said that since he had never been to our house before on a
similar call, that he would give us grace and not cut the power off. In the end, we
never knew a loss of power, and God did meet our need, though He tested us
severely. A couple days later we celebrated Thanksgiving, and we truly had much for
which to be thankful.

God has tried us in similar ways many times, yet not once has He failed in providing
what we needed. He has testified to us that He is our shepherd, and we will not want
for any necessary thing.

The prayer of faith that pleases God is not one that is based upon a formula, but that
which is founded upon our relationship with Him as our loving heavenly Father. All
of the things spoken of prayer in this chapter will lead the saint to press into
relationship with God. Prayer begins with discerning His will, and this requires an
understanding of God, and His will for us. We must often press in to Him to discern
a specific word for our circumstance, and this also necessitates communion with
Him. Having discerned His will, we must then believe that He is able and willing to
meet our request. Finally, we must wait patiently, trusting in His character, as we
look for the answer to come. All of this leads the saint to an ever deepening