Episode Transcript
SPEAKER 1
Hi, everyone. It's all too often said that there are no miracles performed these days. Well, I'd like to challenge the idea of that with my story of God's direction in an emergency. This is miracles in the 21st century here and I'm Mike Browning. Well, this story is a fascinating story. We were living, my wife and I, up on the Gold coast and I was pastoring there. And we would have been there for quite some time. And we were reaching the end of our period of time in pastoral ministry there. And we were staying in a house, a friend's house, just prior to moving. And so we were there in that environment at the same time we heard that my dad, who was quite elderly at the time, was not in very good health and was not at all well. And so we were keeping in tabs with our brother, my brother, who was living down in Sydney where Dad was at the time, and he was keeping an eye on how dad was going. And we were planning to go down there to see dad as soon as we possibly could. And it wouldn't have been very long before that had happened. So what happened on this particular day was this. I had gone out and I was visiting some of our church family up there on the Gold coast in Queensland. And while this was happening, while I was talking and visiting with the people, I was out all day long. Now, there were no mobile phones at that period of time. And so I couldn't be contacted if there was emergency back at home, which there was, because my wife, who was back home in the house, received a phone call from my brother down in Sydney. And he said, dad looks like he's failing. We think you'd better come down here as quickly as you possibly can. And so right away, Ann, my wife, decided, well, she better do what she can about getting things organized for us to go. Now, the drive from Brisbane, where we were on the Gold coast, down to Sydney would have to be a good 10 hour drive at least. So it's a full day's drive or a whole night drive. And so we had to decide, well, she had to decide which would we drive or would we fly. So what she did was this. She rang the local airport and talked to the flight companies there. And she made a tentative booking, which she could cancel if we decided we'd drive down. But she made a booking for us to go late that evening. And so then she just had to wait until I got home. Well, I didn't get home too well until the afternoon. And I drove up and Ann was waiting for Me. And she said, look, bad news about your dad. Your dad's failing. They expect he won't live very long now. And so, look, I've booked this fare on the flight down to Sydney and we can take it if we choose, or what do you think we ought to do? And so, well, I thought, well, it'd be handy to have a car while we're down there, you know, if dad sort of is able to live for a little bit longer and maybe we're better off driving down, even though it's a long drive. So we were betwixt in between, didn't know quite what to do. And so we're very conscious of a verse in the scripture. I'm going to read it for you. It's Proverbs, chapter three, and it's verse six. Some of you will be familiar with this. And this is what it says. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. And that's obviously what we wanted him to do, to direct our paths. And so we did what we always do in situations like this. We went to God in prayer. And what we did, what we prayed, was a prayer like this, Lord, Dad's not well, as you know, and not looking well. You know how long he's going to last. The question is, should we take this flight and go down now, or should we drive down ourselves so that we have the convenience of the car down there and can go backwards and forwards to the hospital and so on? So that was the prayer. Do we take the plane or do we take the car? And so we're praying and praying and praying. And as you would be aware, if you've done this yourself, folks, often heaven is silent and God is waiting for us to make more steps of faith. And that's exactly what he was doing this particular time. And so here we are praying and claiming that promise that God will direct our steps. And then I decided and we talked about this, Anania, and this is something I don't necessarily recommend, but I know that on this particular occasion, God guided us through a plain statement from the Scripture. Now, you may have tried this and God has not chosen to guide you in this manner, but he did on this occasion. So we prayed and said, lord, we have to find out in a hurry or we're going to miss this plane. So we need to know now. Please help us to know. Speak to us through the scripture. So I took out my Bible and opened it up, and there in front of me was Psalm 130, verse 6. And this is what the psalm says, my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning. I should mention, folks, we were planning to drive down. Not during the night. Now I recall we were going to drive down early the next morning, get asleep, then drive down. So my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning. Yes, more than those who watch for the morning. Said it twice. More than those who watch for the morning. And I knew God had spoken. So did Anne. And so we quickly packed our bags and headed for the airport, got the plane, got on the plane and made it down to Sydney. And my brother picked us up from the airport, took us back to see dad. And we had just a couple of hours with dad and he quietly passed away. A point folks, being very, very plain, had we waited and driven down early the next morning, have missed saying goodbye to dad. So isn't God merciful to us in times of great loss and great need like that was, that would have been most disappointing for him and for us if we hadn't been able to say goodbye. So I praise God that he's willing to do even the most extraordinary things to guide us when we need it the most. God bless.
