This is the Truth Network. Welcome to If Not Forgot. Stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. Are you willing to let God Interrupt your plans?
Are you willing to let God interrupt your busy schedule? And I've got Psalm 37, verse 1. It says, Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity, for they soon shall be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good.
So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart.
Now, here's the thing. It is easy to delight yourself in the Lord. It is easy to do what the Lord has asked you to do when you believe it's the same thing as what you want to do. And so, but the problem is, is there's many times when God will tell us to do something, He'll show us something that we need to do, and then immediately it's something different than we want to do. There's times where God has us on a certain path.
And we just can't do it. And we feel like there's other things that we want to do. And so we looked at Psalm 37, but I can think of some times in my own life, and I'm sure there's some times in your lives, friends, where God has asked you to do something or told you to do something, and it was the exact opposite of what you wanted to do. And I can think of many examples of where there's been times where God wanted me to give some money, and I didn't want to give that money because I wanted to be selfish and I wanted to keep that money for myself. But the truth is, is that when God speaks to us, that we need to listen.
And the Bible says in Isaiah 6, verse 8, it says, also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Then said I, here I am, Lord. Send me. Are you willing to go somewhere that God wants you to go?
I remember years ago, and I've got my friend Jeff Hoover here, but I remember years ago, I was going to go on a mission trip with a group called Cross Assembly, and everything within me did not want to go on that trip. I didn't care anything about going on that trip. I tried to get out of it. There was even a guy who got me to go to a meeting, and I didn't want to go to the meeting. But he said, Mike, he said, I don't know what it is.
He said, but there is something about this trip that I feel like you're supposed to be on this trip. And I didn't know why. I didn't know what. And a lot of times God just tells us to do something. And he doesn't give us the reason, Jeff.
We think we say, I want to do A, B, and C. God, I'm on this plan. But God will bring us on another plan. God will change our trajectory.
Now, let me ask you a question: Are you willing to be inconvenienced for the Lord? And I can think of a couple of years ago, back in 2023. I was just praising the Lord at just like Jesus Ministries. And I remember I felt the Lord go to tell me to go into the front of the room. And he said, just praise the Lord, praise me with everything that you've got.
And I started to do it. I started to praise the Lord. I gave him everything that I had. And what happened was, was that when I started to do this, there was a lady named Christy Rill who walked up to me at the end. And she said, Mike, she said, when you were praising the Lord with everything that you've got, which is something that I felt funny about, which is something that I felt awkward, I didn't want to do that in front of everybody.
I felt like people were going to look at me. People were going to say, oh, he's just doing this for attention. But God told me to do it. She said, Mike, she said, when you were praising the Lord with everything that you've got, I saw Jesus walk up to you and he put a gift inside of your chest. And I was sitting there like, what?
God, what are you talking about?
So at the end of the meeting, and I didn't know what she was talking about, but I guess she did. Because at the end of the meeting, we left outside. She says, Mike, she says, my back has been hurting for about 20 years. And she says, I am not leaving this parking lot until you pray for my back. and my back is healed.
And so, Jeff, you know what I thought? I said, we're going to be here for a while because whatever gift I have, it's not the gift of healing. But I started to pray for her back. And I prayed and I prayed and I prayed. And finally, she just started screaming, hallelujah, praise the Lord.
And she said that her back was healed. And after that, I didn't know what to do, but I just started praying for people. And the Lord gave me another dream about a friend of mine named Jason. And in that dream, Jason was giving me an IV. And I didn't know what it meant at the time.
But what I realized later on was that Jason was going to teach me about how to pray for the sick, about how to walk in healing. And what I didn't know was at the time, he went through a whole training school. He went through, it was something back in the 80s that he went through or in the 90s. Charles and Betty something, but uh But they, the happy hunters, have you heard of them? The happy hunters.
And he started to teach me. He said, Mike, he said, so many times we are waiting on God, but God is waiting on us. And so many times, he said, I would grow up in the church and I would see people say, Lord, would you please heal so-and-so? And he said, Those prayers almost never got answered. He said, But when I realized that God has given us the authority, When Jesus was here, Jesus said, it's better for you that I leave because then you'll have the helper with you.
He said that we command people to be healed in the mighty name of Jesus. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, it will be done according to our faith. And so when I got that, it started to change my life and it started to help other people's lives, Jeff. Other people all of a sudden started to get healed. And I watched a teaching by Curry Blake.
I'm reading a book now by John G. Lake about how he walked in healing. And that this was not just something that was for the early church fathers. This is something that you and I can do today. And so when I thought about that, I said, that's pretty cool.
God interrupted my plans. But see, a lot of times when God interrupts your plans, Jeff, he's going to take you out of your own comfort zone. And you told me, Jeff, and use your outside voice like I told you, but you told me, Jeff, something earlier. You said that you were in, was it in Bible school? Yes, I was going to Piedmont Bible College at that time.
Now it's called Carolina University. I had gone four years. for full years every summer as well. And I was on my fifth year. Which was the last year of the Bachelor of Science, Physical, I mean, Bachelor of Theology.
Missionary Aviation. Minor, the major, and I was headed to the mission field. And that I had one more year And God told me Uh to Change majors. God told me to change to the Bachelor of Science Physical Education degree.
Now, I loved playing sports, and that's at Piedmont.
However, this degree was to become a teacher in a Christian school. And I didn't like it when I went to school.
So I definitely didn't want to be a teacher, but I. Uh I knew God wanted me to do that.
So I changed majors. And everybody in the school, teachers, professors, everybody, were all telling me. That I was not hearing the voice of God because Um You know, God would not tell me this and things like this. But uh The to make a long story short, After that, Um I graduated with a Bachelor of Science Physical Education degree, and then later on, God put missions and sports together. And I didn't become a teacher.
I did for a few years, but that wasn't what God wanted to do. God wanted to put the missions that I was headed on to begin with. With sports and put that together. And so, so, in other words, what I hear you saying, Jeff, is that it didn't make sense in the natural at that time. You were almost finished with your, you were almost finished with your degree.
You were almost finished with what you were doing, but the Lord spoke to you. And when the Lord speaks to you, you need to listen. When the Lord speaks to me, I need to listen. And this just happened with me recently. I had called, it was Christy Real, that same girl.
I had called her about something. And I, oh, I was a friend of hers who had gotten healed. And I said, hey, you need to pray for this girl or whatever. But she called me when I was in the middle of a sale. I sell insurance.
And I was about to close the sale. I was about to close the deal. And Jeff, I don't know if you know this, but when you're selling something, especially when you're in the closing stages, you don't want anything to interrupt it because you are in the closing stages of that sale. And you need to go ahead and you need to close that sale. But the problem is, is that the Lord told me, He said, You need to get Christie on this phone and you need to have Christy pray for this woman.
And so I didn't say, Lord, is this really what you want me to do? Is this your will? In that moment, I only had about 10 or 15 seconds to answer the phone, or the moment would have been gone. And so I answered the phone. And I said, Christy, I said, there's a woman right here.
I said, she's dealing with, she has kidney dialysis. Would you pray for her? And she didn't just pray a 15-second prayer. She prayed for about 10 minutes. And when she was done with praying for the woman, I still ended up closing the sale, by the way.
So God still ended up giving, you know, I still ended up, that ended up working out. But the lady that I was talking to, she said, well, I want to talk about this insurance. And I asked her, I said, are you willing to let God insurance? interrupt the plans that you have. And I'm asking you right now, if you're listening, are you willing to let God interrupt your plans?
Is what you have and your desires and what you think you need to do is it more important than the Lord? You see, God knows the end from the beginning, He knows our whole life. He knows what's going to happen in the front, what's going to happen in the back, what's going to happen behind. But, Jeff, you had a couple of more stories as well. And I'm going to step out for a minute and I'm going to let you speak.
But you had a couple of more stories as well. You actually had something that happened in, where was it? In the Czech Republic.
Now, this story, you didn't really have a choice, you just had to do it. Go ahead. Mm-hmm. Yes, Mike is talking about where we, as a missionary overseas, we were traveling from Germany. through uh uh to Poland.
And uh the thing is that we did not know that uh the gas stations were going to be closed on Sunday. And so as we were traveling Uh we uh We were starting to run out of gas. The red light was coming on, but we just thought, hey, we're going to stop at a gas station and just fill up.
Well, the thing is that the first gas station we uh we stopped at was closed. And uh So then we just started to pray because. There was no way that we were going to make it without filling up with gas.
So. uh unless God did a miracle.
So we uh We were just praying and talking to the Lord and We were just asking the Lord to just help us to make it to the next gas station. And that's what we did. And we ended up going all the way from Germany to Poland. On that day I Um Yeah, I don't remember how many Hundreds of miles we went, but it was a long way. And uh we were on red the whole way.
So, uh but uh but God uh God did a miracle and we were able to make it the whole way. And we were kind of forced into that, but God made a way. And so that's what Mike was talking about. I'm going to go back one thing until Mike comes back. We read Psalm 37.
Verse 4 says, Delight thyself also in the Lord. And he shall give you the desires of your heart. But there's two ways for us to look at that, but many times we forget about verse 5. And verse 5 says, Commit your way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.
So, if we're wanting the desires of our heart to come to pass, we need to trust God and commit all our ways to Him.
So as we commit all our ways to Him and hear His voice and say, God, I'll do whatever you want me to do because you know who God is, and God wants to give you the desires of your heart. And that's the thing is that makes us listen and follow Him, is His heart. Is to give us the desires that He put in us. It is not to make us suffer. And to uh But as He asks us sometimes to do things that don't make sense because we can't see down the road how He is going to put it all together for the desires of our heart.
But he is a great and a good God, and we thank you. for that. Uh another story. that where where God moved also was I started a sports ministry also on the mission field in the area of the Middle East. And while I was there, The teams and the things that I was working with, they actually, after working with them for quite a few years, they Uh ended up, they were my friends, but they ended up kind of stabbing me in the back and saying that they would not play for me.
Uh if I was coach. And uh It seemed like that the sports ministry that God wanted me to start was. was falling apart. And uh And all the other missionaries, and what was happening is the church planting ministry was really going strong, and people were coming to know the Lord, and things were going great in that way. And so the other missionaries were telling me, Jeff, you don't need to have all this suffering against you in the sports ministry.
Just let that go and just quit that and go concentrate everything into the church planting ministry. And I said, okay, I will. Pray about this and see what God says. And what God told me to do was to keep going with the sports ministry.
So I forgave and kept going with the sports ministry. And later on, God turned things around and He not only saved the friendships, but He also started working in the sports ministry and We started seeing fruit come from it as well for the glory of God.
So I thank Him for that, and we just give God the glory. You know, we never know what He's going to do, but we need to do what He says. I had another friend, another story. This was a friend who was a great artist. And uh And he was so good.
And he told God, he said, you know, like he said that. He would do anything, I mean, that he wanted to do, use his art for the Lord. And he told that to the Lord, but he said, Lord, do not send me to the mission field.
Well, to make a long story short, he had to end up Giving because that was part of his heart that he had not given over to the Lord.
So he had to end up. Um giving that over to the Lord. enrolling in a Bible college and heading in a missions program, telling people that he was going to a missions program, that he was going to do that, And all. And then, as soon as he did all that, His senior or junior year in that Bible college. God intervened and told him to switch majors as well and to go back into art because God knew that was where his desires were.
God knew that's where his heart was and that's where his joy was. But the thing is that we can't hold anything back. That's when God says, commit everything to me. And so that's what God wants us to do because He knows that if we commit everything, if He has our whole heart, then He can bring about His will And our joy can be full in a great way, and we just thank you for that.
Well, and it's funny, you know, it's like God had to interrupt our plans right there. I had to go and do something real quick, and I've got my daughter here, and my mom's dealing with some stuff, but. Hey, listen, God just interrupted our plans. But you know what? Jeff was here, and Jeff, you didn't know you were going to be talking for that long.
No, I didn't. Were you prepared? Yeah, yeah, I guess I went okay. The other thing that I was thinking about was this. is that there are many times when God does interrupt our plans and God tells us to go a certain way.
And there's times in this life, Jeff, where we may never understand why that happened. See, we're always looking for a reason why, right? Jonah, you know, God never told Jonah. Why he needed to do this. Jonah kind of knew that when Jonah was going to go over to Nineveh and preach to them, he knew that God is merciful, God is gracious, and that God would forgive them.
But see, what a lot of people don't know today, that Nineveh was a really wicked city.
Some of the stuff that they did was absolutely awful. But at the end of the day, the Lord wanted to save that city. He said there were over 120,000 people in that city who needed to be saved and needed to, needed to, needed to have stuff worked out and stuff like that. But, you know, right now, there's many times in my life where I can think about God. Let me ask you this.
What do you want? God, what do you want to do? How do you want to interrupt my life? It's one thing if we allow God to interrupt our lives if we don't want it, but it's another thing we say, Lord, this is the way that I'm going. How would you like to interrupt my life?
And the question is: this is that if God interrupts your life, are you willing to answer the call? Are you willing to look at that and say, okay, God, that's not what I was looking at. That's not what I was trying to do. But at the end of the day, God, this is your will. This is what I want you to do.
I'm willing to let you interrupt my life. And a few years ago, not a few years ago, but a few weeks ago. I had a prophetic dream. And in this dream, the Lord spoke to me in this dream, and he said. He showed me people, there was going to be like another pandemic or something like that.
And so, when I saw the pandemic and when I saw it happening, and this and that, the first thing that I thought of was, oh no, everybody's getting their masks on, this, that, and the other. But then the Lord took me to another area. There He is right there. And He showed me that there were people who were gathering together and they were like making fun of this pandemic. And then after that, all of a sudden I saw that it got really bad and that people were dying.
And it's interesting. He didn't give me all the explanations for this, but recently I saw a. I saw something, they said there's a virus that's out now, and it's in India, the Nipah virus or something. And they said it has between a 40 and a 75 percent fatality rate. And so, what I thought the Lord was telling me was that be prepared for another COVID-19, but this time it's going to be real.
And so, we always have to be prepared when the Lord tells us something, but there would also be a lot of people who would not take it seriously, and there would be people who would actually die when this happened. And so. You know, there was a time in my life where the Lord took me out of insurance for about two years, Jeff. And I thought that I was going to keep selling insurance for the rest of my life, but he had me helping people who were in, he had me helping people who were in, you know, who needed help with their homes and stuff like that. At the end of the two years or three years, I said, Lord, this is not what I want to do.
But it wasn't about what I wanted to do. It was about what the Lord wanted to do. And the Lord, through that time, it was a season of testing. I had a time a few years ago where I had a financial setback, Jeff.
Now, who do you know who wants to have a financial setback? I don't. I mean, I don't know anybody who would say, I want to have a financial setback. I want to have a time where I'm having a really difficult time financially. But it was through that time, Jeff.
It was through many times, it's through our weakest of times and through our toughest of times when God is able to lift us up out of the dirt. But see, when everything is going well in our lives, Jeff, we're not necessarily looking up to the Lord and saying, Lord, how can you use me or what can you do? But it was during that time that I realized I don't need to spend every single dime I get. And a lot of times it's like we think we've got money coming in and it's always going to come in, but we've heard that we need to save for a rainy day. And so now there's times where I don't spend money on things that I used to spend money on.
And so the more that you save money, Jeff, the more that you're able to give to others in need, the more that you're able to help other people who actually need it. And there was a time where the Lord, you know, during that time where I had a tough time financially, I had to get off on the get off of the radio. I didn't want to get off the radio at that time, but I didn't really have much of a choice. And so I had to do what I had to do. And then in that time was a Lord of was a time of growing.
You see, we always want things to go our way. And sometimes God has other plans. But I want you to listen when things are not going our way. That there's times when we have to say, Lord, what are you trying to tell me in this situation? Because a lot of times, in our toughest of times, It's those times when the Lord will lift us up, and it's in those times where God will really use us.
What else do you have to say, Jeff? And it's in those times when we find out many times who God is. You know, God We're we we uh we think That God ha uh You know, we think we know God. But then at those times, it is when we see his heart and his hand move. for us.
And it is those times where we say, yes, God, you have had me, you have been there for me, you have supported me, and you had a plan that was there to. give me joy in my life. You know? This maybe came into my life. The devil may be meant for this to destroy me, but you are there to lift me up and to help me through that and to show me that I can overcome with you and you can turn things around for me.
There was a time where on the mission field we had a car that was blown up. And Yes, we had to forgive the people. We did not know when we would be able to come back into that city. But God turned it around so that the next time I came into that city, God brought me in as a VIP. To help dedicate a new stadium with the head of the country.
over sports for the glory of God. For the glory of God. And so I'm gonna ask you before we have to end the show again. Are you willing to let God interrupt your plans? Are you willing to let God interrupt your plans?
I appreciate you guys listening. I love you. We'll talk to you soon. if not for God. All right, for my YouTube channel.
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