On another occasion, while in Bible school, my car broke down. The repair bill was $169. I couldn't have paid it if it was fifty dollars.

So I prayed and asked God for the money. That afternoon something like $175 came in the mail. Someone found some war bonds I had purchased while I was in the service and sent them to me.

The next morning a total stranger came into the chapel of the Bible school while we were having a service. He spoke up and said something I can't remember, and then he ended with "and don't ever do that again!"

I knew exactly what he meant and have not asked for money since. God has always supplied my needs.

Perhaps this is the answer why when believers do presumptuous things, or tell God they won't eat until such and such a thing happens, or whatever, and God answers. I know that God does direct people to do fantastic things on occasion with good results. But that is the difference. When God tells you to do something unusual it is not presumption, it is obedience.

Peter didn't jump out of the boat and try to walk on the water. He said, "Lord, if that is you, direct me to come." Do you see the difference?

If Moses had the bright idea of having Israel try to walk across the Red Sea everybody would have drowned. When God spoke to him the water parted.

Moses struck the rock when God had not told him to. The water came out. God honored His prophet. But Moses was kept out of Canaan as a result.

Now let us think about the right way to respond to the timeless vision.

God has made a promise to you or some passage of the Bible became real to you. Between you and the fulfillment of the vision is total blackness. You have no way of knowing how, when, or where God will fulfill His promise. You probably have learned by now that God does very surprising things.

I had a friend while in the Marine Corps. He was a Navy medical doctor attached to the Marine Corps. God spoke to him and said He was not leading my friend to people of a strange language but to the House of Israel.

How would you interpret that? It could go any way, couldn't it?

Do you know what happened? My friend, Dr. Byron, became one of the chief surgeons at the City of Hope, a Jewish hospital in Duarte, California. He was there for many years I understand.

So how do you get from here to there, from where you are now to the fulfillment of what God has said?

First of all, you don't try to work magic. You don't screw up your face and chant I believe I believe I believe.

Second, you don't go around saying you are healed because the Bible says you are healed. If God speaks personally to you that you are healed, then you can state you are healed; although if you want to stay mentally healthy, don't say you are actually healed until the doctor confirms it or you are jumping around until it is obvious to the unsaved person that you actually are healed. Do you see what I mean? Don't play religious games.

To be continued.