|
It has been my privilege
to spend about thirty-three years in Foreign Missionary Work,
besides a goodly number of years in both pastoral and evangelistic
work in the United States and the British Isles. Most of this time,
I have lived and labored without any definite means of support, but
trusting alone in God to supply all my personal needs and the needs
of the work to which He had called me. Some of our experiences have
been marvelous indeed. Yes, too marvelous to keep hidden away from
the heart of the Church in these perilous days in which we are now
living, when every Christian needs all the encouragement to their
faith that it is possible to have. True Christian people everywhere
are suffering things the world did not dream of before. They all
need all the spiritual nourishment they can get to build them up in
the most holy faith, and to make them able to stand against the
wiles of the devil in these days of apostasy. Today we hear men who
hold high positions in the nominal Christian world, and even some
who at one time were looked up to by the Church as real rocks for
God and Truth, scoffing at the sincere testimony of "answered
prayer" and unhesitatingly they put the miracle working power of the
Son of God as something definitely of the past. For instance, the
healing of the body of physical affliction in answer to the prayer
of faith, is unhesitatingly set aside. They laugh to scorn at the
very suggestion of taking the temporal cares of life before the
throne of God in prayer, with the hope of having divine intervention
in these things. Most of the Books of Prayer that have been
published are so deeply intellectual and so lacking in the divine
unction that absolutely no inspiration comes to the soul through
reading them. As I have beheld these conditions my heart has cried
out to God to help us in some way to lift up before the work and to
preserve the Bible Standard of Active Living Faith in our LIVING GOD
and in HIS DIVINE PROMISES.
For years past I have been urged by ministerial brethren to write a
book on "answers to prayer;" but I have definitely believed it would
not be accepted by many, and for this reason I hesitated. Seeing the
powers of unbelief increasing, and the hearts of God 's true people
just crying out for something that will lift up their faith to a
higher plane, I have decided to frankly write this book of
testimonies of what God is doing today. I send it out with the hope
that many souls may be inspired and lifted up to a higher plane of
faith and a deeper depth of obedience to God through reading it. To
this end, I pray sincerely that the dear Lord will add His blessings
to this feeble effort. If this is accomplished, my efforts will have
been well rewarded.
As you read, meditate on the following questions--Whose God are you
serving? A God that has ears but that hears not? A God that has eyes
but they see not the sufferings of His people? A God that has hands
but they are never out-stretched to administer help to those who
have need? What God are you serving? Bless the Lord; I am serving
the God of Isaac, of Abraham, and of Jacob. I am serving the very
same God who quenched the fire in the heated furnace and delivered
the three Hebrew boys. I am serving the Living Christ of God who was
first seen as He walked in the midst of the fire with the Hebrew
boys while they were in the furnaces "and the form of the fourth was
like unto the Son of God" Daniel 3:19-25. Glory be to God, file is
still walking in the midst of the furnace of affliction or
sufferings right by the side of his followers, to DELIVER THEM. Yes,
my God is the God of Daniel, and He can still close the mouth of
lions when they rise up to destroy God's people. WHAT A MIGHTY GOD
WE DO SERVE! My God is the God of all earth and heaven. He metes the
mighty waters of the seas in His hand--and THAT HAND upholds
me--yes, it upholds all of God's trusting people today. Bless the
Lord, oh my soul and ALL that is within me, bless HIS HOLY NAME
forever.
Do you feel, troubled soul, that you are sinking--sinking to rise no
more? Just lift up your eyes as did Peter and cry out from your
heart, and those GREAT OMNIPOTENT arms of God will encircle you and
carry you safely through. I KNOW IN WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED, and I know
that He is able. This book goes forth with a prayer that it may
accomplish just what God has purposed to accomplish through its
message--Amen.
E. FAITH STEWART.
|