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My parents owned a whole set of encyclopedias. My father poured over each book in search of things he wanted to know. Additionally he collected random facts he would later just as randomly drop into conversation.
As time went on, we gifted him with another book that was updated with a new edition every year. The book had all kinds of information from how old Lawrence Welk was to the square footage of China.
We saw no earthly reason why anyone would want to know all the things that were in those books, but it delighted us to see how delighted he was.
He would have been absolutely amazed if he had lived into the computer age. We might have lost him on the information highway!
However, Daddy was quick to acknowledge there were things he did not know … things that were unsearchable in his usual ways.
But he had a Source better than any book. He went directly to The Source of All Knowledge — God Himself.
When presented with a problem, my father wisely knew he did not have all the answers. He might have an opinion, but he always said, “Pray about it. Prayer is the biggest Power we’ve got.”
And He added “Pray with an open mind. Don’t make up your mind before you pray and ask God to agree with you. Present your situation and ask God what He wants you to do. Then agree with God.”
He also taught us to be willing to wait for an answer. Even if we believe we have prayed with an open mind, often we don’t wait very long for God to answer. If we do not have a clear idea of what God said, we might believe He did not say anything at all.
Then we start to think, “Well, God’s not coming. I guess I will have to handle this one myself.”
Or we might interpret His Silence as His Agreement with what we already decided we want to do. Also wrong.
Did Daddy use the ultimate book, The Bible, to search for answers? No, he did not start there. He started with direct communication with God.
He knew God might confirm what He was speaking in his spirit through His Word, but my father did not start by trying to gather information to proof text his own opinions.
The same is true of other ways of hearing from God. God may use any number of people or things to point us to Him or confirm what He has spoken to us in our spirit. But we should not start with them. We always start with the direct line to God.
What if God does not give us all the answers at one time? In fact, He rarely does. He wants us to follow Him one step at a time. When we take the first steps, He will shine His Light on the next place to step.
I am truly thankful for Daddy’s Wisdom from long ago. If Daddy were still living on earth, he would be 120 years old this year. And yet his advice still guides the generations that followed him.
Prayer is The Biggest Power we’ve got because it connects us to The One Who is All Power!
God said,
“Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know!”
Jeremiah 33:3
