TO TRUST OR NOT TO TRUST, THAT IS THE QUESTION

Recently the Lord spoke to me and told me to guard my peace as my greatest treasure.  This is a peace that is not circumstantial but is the peace of God which can only be had through a relationship with Yeshua (Jesus), as many of you reading this already know. And with this peace comes a kind of freedom that can be had in no other way.  If you don't know the peace or freedom I'm speaking of, please keep reading. I have hope to share with you at the end of this article.  

Well, having said that about peace, I have had quite a challenge to my own peace recently. I am sharing this rather personal story with the hope that it will be an incentive to some of you reading this as I feel the issue is an important one. And besides, I believe it's the Lord who wants me to share it for the same reason and after all, it's really His story anyway. So here goes.  

I had to make a financial decision. I felt the Lord was telling me to sell an automobile that was of fairly substantial financial value as well as having emotional value to me because of the way I had obtained the car. But at this point, because of an accident I had which upped the insurance rate on the car it was putting a monthly burden on me. I have had no debt at all for over eleven years but lately I had a few expenses that meant I now had some debt.  Selling the car and purchasing a less expensive one would enable me to get out of debt plus reduce my monthly costs. 

But every voice in my life, family and friends, whomever I spoke with told me wisdom dictated that I keep the car and just pay off my debts over time like everyone else.

What to do?  Was I really hearing from God?  Isn’t there wisdom in the advice of many counselors, as the bible says?  Could the unity in the advice of EVERYONE in my immediate set of close friends and family really be God speaking to me rather than what I thought He was saying to me?  I spent  much time wrestling with this issue and the more I wrestled, the more my stomach hurt. That peace I was talking about – gone!  Or at least seriously misplaced. What a struggle. 

A few days ago I was told by yet one more of my “advisors” that I needed some counseling to deal with my emotions because I wasn’t seeing things clearly having a fear of being in debt and that debt was what everyone deals with. Well, I had once also been in debt and I know the difference between debt and no debt. Being in debt feels like a loss of freedom to me.  As I held this before the Lord, what came to me is that God doesn’t owe anyone anything. The Bible tells us that, “The heart of the borrower is in the hand of the lender.”  That’s how it felt, as if my heart was not entirely my own. Someone else had a hold of it. Though it wasn't what might be considered by some to be a great deal of money, I was surely not at peace about owing it. The Bible also says to “Owe no man anything but to love him.”  That's the only kind of owing I prefer.  

That sounds ridiculous in this day and age, but the debt of this nation and the debt of this culture we live in today is not normal or safe. I’ve heard more than a few prophetic preachers saying “Get out of debt as soon as you can.”  Some have stated that they see a financial crises coming – even this year.  Well, I’ve heard that before but I must admit I have the same inkling. Some concern has been linked perhaps to Passover (4/3-11) or Sukkot (9/27-10/4).  I was recently called “Chicken Little” and accused of fearing that the sky would fall, when I told someone my thoughts in this regard. I'm not fearful, but I guess time will tell whether it happens or not.

After being in this conflict much too long, I came to the Lord this week and made a decision.  I would rather put my trust in Him and what I believe He was saying to me than disregard what I felt was what He was telling me to do and choose everyone else’s advice instead. After all, everyone else was in debt themselves in some way.  Perhaps my wanting so badly to be free of debt made them uncomfortable with their own debt, though if the truth be told, I bet everyone who is in debt feels the stress of it in some way.  But the reason I made that decision is that I opted to obey God. I chose to trust in God. I would go with what I believed He had been telling me even though it meant going against what people thought.  Part of the struggle, I admit, was having to disregard what people I’m close to thought of me. I decided I cared more what God thought than what they did.

Still, was it an emotionally weighted decision?  You bet. But the minute I made the choice to go with God my peace began to return.  I have the sense that my life would go differently if I chose to go the way of what now seemed worldly advice as I doubt any of them had prayed about what they were telling me, rather than go with what I felt the Lord had been telling me. Trust the Lord and He’ll give you more to trust Him with. Doubt He is trustworthy and you’ll miss the opportunities of increased blessings. The whole bible reads like that from Abraham forward: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Those are the words of King Solomon and he was supposed to be wise, right?  To this to I might add: ...and lean not on the understanding of others, even those who love you.  By not leaning on your own understanding it means not to make decisions only based on how you see things without input from or reliance upon God, but acting independently instead.  I made the decision that I would put my trust in God regardless of what the voices around me were saying.

So here’s what happened.  I put the car on Criaglist.com for a certain price. No calls. The second day I felt to reduce the price and continued to pray that God would send just the right buyer.  That evening I got a call from a gentleman asking about it.  It was pouring rain and about 9:30 at night. He wanted to come then to see it. Now?  Now.  Okay.  He liked it, but he’d have to talk to his wife about it. They both came back the next day and decided they would purchase it. 

We wound up spending a good bit of the day together and after he finally had to go off to work, the wife and I went and had lunch together. We had become immediate friends.  As it turned out, they had given – that is GIVEN – away a car of almost exactly like this one for the same amount of money to someone when God had told them to. Obviously they had been in a position to do it but still, it was quite an act of obedience. The woman to whom they had given it to said that she was feeling suicidal as she didn’t believe God even knew who she was anymore or cared what she was going through. This made such a difference in her life. It had given her hope. 

Now, here, sometime later, God had not only somewhat supernaturally provided the cash to purchase this car without financing it but here I was selling it for the same amount that they had paid for the car they had given away in obedience to the Lord. 

Add to this that the Lord had told this couple to get entirely out of debt by this winter. They had purposed to do so. They had obediently sold an even more expensive automobile. The tenant of a rental property they owned called and said he wanted to buy the house without their having advertised it. They sold their high end large home by the time winter had come, officially December 21st of this year, and had moved south to another city, to where they felt God was leading them, which happened to be my city. They had downsized to where they owed nothing including no mortgages and were now renting a nice home. The car they had purchased from me was not a frivolity but a necessity and they were able to pay cash for it. We were clear confirmation to one another that God had said the same thing to both of us - get out of debt to the best of your ability - now!

[Note: Everyone of us is in a different situation and we each need to know what God is saying specifically to us in regard to debt, or mortgages, or possibly downsizing.]

As the wife and I had lunch together, she turned out to have an interest in the Jewish roots of Christianity and the Feasts of Israel, all those kinds of things that my life is all about. So we felt that God had put us together as kindred souls. Plus they had prayed that the Lord would lead them to the right car to purchase just as I had prayed He would bring whom He wanted to have it.  This was more than a transaction for a car, the whole thing had the Lord all over it. There were so many confirmations that not only was I to have sold it but that it was this very couple who was to purchase it. The Lord had arranged the whole thing. I love when those kinds of things happen that prove how involved God is with our individual lives. My peace was entirely restored and so was my amazement once again at how “God works all things together for those who love Him.” If ever I had a set of lessons on always trusting the Lord, this was it.

So I leave you with these thoughts:  The Lord is worthy of your trust, even when logic and even your own emotions may say otherwise if that’s how you feel He’s leading you, or what you’ve heard Him say to you either directly or through His word.  Protect your God-given peace.  Value it beyond anything else, for in it is the wisdom from above – where God is, that He can see the down the road and knows what’s best for each of us.

Secondly, I share with you what I have heard from Him, to be careful what you put great value on, because many things that are considered of value today may cease to have the same value. That which is of the greatest value is peace with God.  He will take care of you and provide for you. That means put what you own in proper perspective. Let your treasure be in heaven, that is to say, value your relationship with Yeshua (Jesus) beyond whatever is in the here and now and over what people may think of you. What we have today will last only for a time, but what we have with Him lasts forever.  This life on earth will be ours for just so long but peace with God carries with it an eternal weight of glory!   

To anyone to whom the peace of God is alien to you, or if you’ve never put your trust in the Lord before, or you find that you’re not sure about where the real value is in your life – talk to Him.  He will listen.  He will hear you. And He will let you know He does.  He cares not only about you, but for you – with a loving heart beyond what you can imagine.  Tell Him the things that are on your heart.  Those things you’re afraid of anyone knowing? He already knows them. He’s just waiting for you to open up your own heart and unburden yourself to Him so He can release you from the weightiness of misplaced values and trusting in your own understanding that turned out not to be wise after all. He is the God of forgiveness and of comfort.  Put your life and all you own in His hands. So is your forever! He can take better care of both much more than you can.

The End of Life ~ The Beginning of Glory

About two months ago, I had someone on my mind I hadn't seen for years. He was a boyfriend of many long years ago. The romance lasted for quite a while but in time I realized he was not someone I wanted to build a life with. On occasion, throughout the years, we would reconnect for a brief, "How are you" or a "What's happening in your life?" But he, being Jewish, was not the least bit interested or receptive in hearing about my Yeshua on any level. I suspect it was his lifestyle more than his Jewishness, but his attitude made it difficult to talk at all. We lived in two very different worlds. Still I continued to pray for him, asking God to rescue him and save him throughout the years. I had known he wasn't entirely well when we last connected several years ago. Nothing life threatening, but still....


Then here he was, on my mind again. I decided to send him a copy of my book, Heaven is Beyond Your Wildest Expectations, hoping he would at least be curious enough to read it and consider his own eternity. One of the last things I did the day before I left for Israel was see that the book was in the mail. Then I forgot about it and about him. Back home again six weeks later I sat at my dining room table and confronted the stack of mail that awaited me. I began sorting through the pile when there was the envelope I had sent to him. What? Didn't it get there? Did he refuse it? Then I saw the words someone had written above the address: "DECEASED".

I sat there and stared at those words. They seemed so final, so absolute. He was now dead, and he had never gotten the book. To my knowledge, he had never come to know the forever-hope there is in Yeshua. He never knew the freedom of forgiveness and the cleanliness of soul that comes from exchanging our pride for acknowledging our need for the Lord. And now, where was he? I was afraid I knew. How sad. How very sad. I'm sure he would have let me know if he had come to Yeshua. But he never did. I don't know why we pray and pray for someone and there seems to be no answer, at least to what we are asking for. Should I have prayed differently? Should I have prayed for him to realize the peril of his self-sufficiency or self-aggrandizement that he rejected any thought of needing God? Should I have asked God to bring him to a place of fear of his own pride and arrogance and to somehow be made aware of what it would be to stand before a holy God? I had simply prayed, "Lord, save him; rescue him; help him know he needs You." No long prayer, not a really empathetic prayer,just a sort of perfunctory concern for his eternal well-being. I am not taking on any kind of guilt here. I had committed him to the Lord long ago, and who knows but God, what his last moments on earth consisted of? I may yet find him greeting me at the gates in heaven. Hope springs eternal, as the saying goes. I must leave his destiny to God and move on.


In the here and now, though, I have another friend who possibly faces death -- wait, no! That word does not apply. Death is such a dark and sinister word, so wrapped in a shroud of emptiness and desolation. Tthe end of life here on earth is not at all death for those who are "in Messiah Yeshua" or "in Christ," as many would prefer to say. There is no death in Yeshua, only life. "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord," Paul said, who himself had been to heaven and brought back a report, that there is no sting in death for those of us whose sins have been washed away by the blood of Yeshua. For that we are grateful beyond expression.


My friend may well be dying nonetheless, at least her body may be coming to an end. She has cancer and unless the Lord heals her miraculously, she may not have long to live, though if you looked at her today, you would not think that is the case. Her faith is high, she is trusting God to heal her. She has been given many "words of knowledge" or supposed "prophesies" of God's healing hand upon her life. But so far, though she has been doing well and has beaten the doctor's predictions of the expected duration of her life, the prognosis now isn't matching the "words" and the "prophesies." Were they truly "words" from the Lord, or were they uttered with wishful thinking or declarations of hope without having heard specifically from the Lord about her situation? Now she questions why God would have spoken those words to her if He wasn't going to heal her. I do wish that before we say, "Thus saith the Lord..," we be sure it is really what He is saying in that specific circumstance. Even believers do die. It is a reality in this life that our bodies do give out sooner or later. That may just be a reality that we all need to accept.


My dear friend Igal Hoffman, an Israeli, died of cancer a number of years ago after a bold attempt at alternative medical resources to keep him alive. But in the end he succumbed anyway. But through it all, Igal was yielded to God, that whatever proved to be His will, Igal would trust Him and love Him and rely on His goodness to get him through. He saw himself as a lamb in the arms of the Lord. I once asked Igal how he relates to God through all he was suffering, and suffer he did. I remember his words clearly. He said, "Underneath the pain and the confusion (of why God allowed this to happen), there exists a joy. I know He is with me and I know there is an even greater eternal joy to be had in His presence." Igal was entirely secure in the Lord that God's goodness was with Him and toward Him and that His goodness would be fully manifested to him either in this life or the one to come. He gave no place for the devil in his trust in God and in that he had the Lord's peace. The day after he died, having had my own experience of heaven I told God I wished I could see Igal when he entered heaven and experienced the joy he so anticipated. Suddenly I had an experience I cannot give you chapter and verse for, but I sensed Igal's presence with me, so real, and so there! I "felt" as if he was beside me, even to "feeling" his Israeli accent though I heard nothing. The more amazing thing was that I sensed he was more alive than I had ever known him or anyone to ever be. It was as if God allowed him to come to me to assure me of how real life after death is and that once we are free from these limited bodies in this fallen world, we are indeed fully and completely alive!!


Many years later, the day after my mother went to be with the Lord, I was awakened that morning hearing the Lord say to me, "She's been before Me." At that very moment I had a mini-vision of my mom, who seemed to be about age thirty or so. She was beautiful, the fullness of joy radiating on her face and once again, I sensed she was more alive than I had ever seen her. I kept thinking of God's words to me: "She's been before Me." My mom had been before Yeshua!! What made it even more precious to me was that I had led her to the Lord. I believe God allowed me those experiences to prepare me to write the book about heaven in order to assure people of eternal salvation and that whatever we experience here on earth, it is a momentary light affliction compared to the glory that God has prepared for us who are Yeshua's in life eternal.


I'm not facing cancer and an early death as my friend may be. What I do know is that being yielded, submitted and utterly trusting of the Lord in whatever situations we may find ourselves, can never be wrong. God is good and in Him there is nothing that is not good. There is no darkness, no abandonment, no hopelessness. There is only glory ultimately ahead for any who are His. My brief experiences of life in the eternal realm changed me, it changed my whole view of life here on earth and eternally, and gave me an assurance of the goodness of the Lord in all situations. He is, after all, Lord of all there is! I have felt the joy of heaven's atmosphere until I thought I would explode, the power of it is entirely overwhelming to these earthly bodies we presently live in. And I "felt" the joy, the overarching joy - the indescribable joy - of the oneness, the unity, the love between fellow believers and the safety which is the normal atmosphere of heaven.


Should we not be sharing this reality with others, to make real to them as we are able - and that they allow us to - that we must all come to realize that there is a choice in the here and now that will affect our forever. Would it not be good to ask the Holy Spirit to lead us in how to pray specifically for the people we care about. Romans 8:26 says that when we don't know how to pray the Spirit will lead us. And may we each come to the place, even today, of entire surrender to the Lord, confident of His goodness and His faithfulness to lead you where He will keep you in His love and goodness always. Amen.