"FAIRY TALES OR REAL EVENTS"

by Vicki Sturgill

God made children with a love for stories, whether just “fairy tales” or real events. Sometimes it is hard for a child to distinguish between an event that really happened, or just a made up story. For the adult that is not usually a problem. Adults can perceive what could really happen and what amounts to someone just dreaming up a story which could not possibly happen.

Sometimes adults tend to think of the Holy Spirit as an impossibility. It is beyond their imagination that God uses the Holy Spirit to lead, convict, and comfort the Christian.

In the Belo Horizonte FWB Church in Brazil, the people watch to see what God is doing. One of our teens who has seen the Holy Spirit at work many times, leaned over to a friend a few weeks ago and told him what the invitation song would be. Although the friend has been a Christian for about a year, he has not yet learned how the Holy Spirit works. He whispered back to her that she had looked at the program for the service. She assured him she had not, but that she knew the Holy Spirit would lead the pianist to choose the song because it contained the verse of scripture the pastor had used in his sermon. Sure enough the pastor asked the pianist for the invitation song and the young lady was correct.

The music, both congregational and special music, for the services in Belo is usually chosen a month ahead of time by the pianists after a time of prayer. Usually only the pianists and those singing special music know what is to be sung. It is amazing how many times the music selected fits perfectly with the message. We know that God can work in advance in the heart of the speaker as well as the musicians to plan and prepare the right music for the occasion. On rare occasions the pastor or lay pastor has to ask for a specific song to fit in with his message.

Each week we read a part of the “A Treatise of the Faith and Practices of the Original Free Will Baptists” in our service. For the Christmas service we read the next section which happened to be on the incarnation of Christ. Not knowing what was the section to be read the pastor preached on the virgin birth of Christ. The Holy Spirit brought the two together on just the right Sunday.

Recently an emergency call came for the pastor to rush to the aid of a member of the church who had fallen in a shopping center and needed to be taken to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, the lady said that she should have known something bad was going to happen. The Holy Spirit had tugged at her heart three times as she was on her way there indicating that she should not go. She had just left a Saturday morning baptism service at our church. She had sung a wonderful solo which praised and thanked God for all He does for us, but now she felt guilty for not listening. With a badly sprained foot, God gave her a week to rest, to delve into His Word and to ask for forgiveness for not listening.

Now, have you just read a series of fairy tales or true life stories? I assure you that all of these incidents really did happen just as they are told here.

And you, do you feel the Holy Spirit working in your life? Do you go to God with your problems and plans to seek His will? Or do you just run ahead and do what you want to do without ever consulting with God?

The promise of the Comforter – the Holy Spirit -- is found in John 16:1-16. Read the passage and keep your eyes, ears and hearts open to what HE is trying so hard to tell you.

 

05/11/2008
Vol.2 - No.3

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