Three Things to show His Glory

It has been twenty-five years since my wife and I first flew our bush plane into the remote mountain community of Dixie Idaho, a community in which I now pastor. Our plan was to use the accessibility to remote back country communities that our Maul M5 bush plane provided to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to places with no ministry. A man in a church we were attending in the Treasure Valley had hunted several times in the Dixie area and shared with us that there was a need there for the gospel. After making plans to fly up to Dixie, we soon found ourselves landing on the little dirt strip that was separated from the town only by a creek.

Our plan was to hold services in a small community center building in the middle of town. At that time, Dixie had about eighteen full time residents. Today, we have grown to a burgeoning twenty-eight. We held our first service that spring weekend and shared the life changing gospel of Jesus Christ with some thirteen open and hungry souls. Over the next several months, we would continue to fly into Dixie, at times staying for several days as we developed numerous relationships in the community.  It was on our second trip into Dixie that the Lord would use the testimony of His prayer answering power to confirm this ministry in Dixie.

Although I would usually lead our worship services with my guitar, we felt led by the Spirit that day to have my wife Betsy lead worship. I sat out with the others during the time of worship, enjoying the freedom of being a part of the congregation. This is when the Lord began to speak to me. The message He spoke so clearly to my heart that day was this. He said “when worship is finished, I want you to go up and ask the congregation for three prayer requests. You will lead them in prayer over these requests, then you will leave those requests with me, and I will show this congregation my glory”.  I was both excited and yet intimidated. I would be stepping out on a limb in faith, and declaring that the Lord has "said" He will meet the needs of each of the three prayer requests.

When I shared this message with the congregation, it was obvious from their faces that they were not accustomed to such an overt promise of answered prayer. Nonetheless, we were able to extract three prayer requests from the small congregation. The first request was from a man who desired that his son in law would seek Jesus. The second was for a woman in town with a bad back who needed healing. The third request was regarding a man in town who had non-Hodgkins lymphoma, final stages, and was essentially sent home to die. We agreed in prayer over each of these needs and did as the Lord instructed. After praying, we left them there at the altar.

On this particular trip into Dixie, my eighteen-year-old daughter had flown in with us. While there she had been offered both a job and a home in which to stay.  That Sunday evening just before dark, my wife and I boarded our plane and flew south to our home in the Treasure Valley. We continued anxious to see how the Lord would work out His plan. It did not take long. When we arrived home, there was a message waiting for us on our answering machine. It was from our daughter saying that when she returned with her hosts to the cabin where she would be staying, there was a message on the answering machine from the son in law we had prayed for saying he was ready to hear about Jesus. This was the answer to the first prayer request.

Monday night we received another call from our daughter saying that when she went back into Dixie to work at the small restaurant, she was introduced to a woman who was walking through town. When she heard the woman’s name, she asked if she was the woman whose back was out. The woman responded that she was but that Sunday evening she had been in some way miraculously healed. This was the answer to the second prayer request.

It was not until later that week that we received another phone call from our daughter, and, as I hope you can guess, it regarded our third prayer request.  The man with non-Hodgkins lymphoma had gone into his doctor in Lewiston. His report was that after doing numerous tests, the doctor said “I don’t know what has happened, but you not only do not have cancer, there is no sign that you ever had cancer”. He was completely healed. It was not long before his testimony went throughout Dixie and into several other neighboring communities where this man was well known. He was in his early sixties and had retired because of the cancer. His healing was so thorough that he went back to his old job as a logger.

To the seven churches in the book of Revelation Jesus proclaims “let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches”.   Testimonies like the one I have here shared are for those who will both hear, see, and recognize the powerful working of the Holy Spirit who exercises this power to draw souls into the kingdom of God.  Just as happened with the miracles Jesus performe while on earth, some in Dixie were drawn to Him by this wonderful work, while others, although amazed and initially captivated by what they could not deny, wandered back into their lives of either denial of Christ or denial of the power that is available to those who believe in Christ.  Nevertheless, this was a powerful and miraculous work witnessed by many that displayed the Glory of the Lord to those who had ears to hear and eyes to see.