Read an Excerpt
The Lord Will Provide
Now God was requiring Abraham to walk with Him by faith. On the way up the mountain to the place of sacrifice, Isaac asked his dad, "Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" (v. 7). Can you imagine what Abraham might have felt at that moment, knowing that Isaac was the sacrifice?
"Abraham said, ‘My, son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering’" (v. 8). Abraham made an adjustment of his life and acted on his belief that God was his Provider. He obeyed God. When God saw Abraham’s faith and obedience, He stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac and provided a ram instead. Abraham named that place after the God he had just come to know by experience. He named the place "The-Lord-Will-Provide." In the Bible this is the first time we see the name "The-Lord-Will-Provide." Abraham came to an intimate knowledge of God that day through the experience of God as his Provider.
This is how we also come to know God. We come to know God as we experience Him. God reveals Himself to us through our experience of Him at work in our lives. We can know about God as a Provider as we read this story about Abraham. But we really come to know God as Provider when we experience Him providing something for our lives.
For twelve years I pastored Faith Baptist Church in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. When we started our first mission church, we called Jack Conner as our mission pastor. But we had no money for moving expenses and no money for a salary. Jack had three children in school, so we felt that we ought to pay him at least $850 a month. We began to pray that God would provide for his move and his needs.
I had never guided a church to do that before. We had now stepped out in faith, believing that God wanted him to pastor our mission in Prince Albert. Except for a few people in California, I didn’t know anybody who could help us financially. I began to ask myself, "How in the world will God make this provision?" Then it dawned on me that as long as God knew where I was, He could cause anybody in the world to know where I was. As long as He knew my need, He could place that need on the heart of anybody He chose.
Jack passed immigration and started his move of faith, convinced that God had called him. I then received a letter from First Baptist Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas. They said, "God has laid it on our heart to send one percent of our mission giving to Saskatchewan missions. We are sending a check to use however you choose." I did not know how in the world they got involved with us at that time, but a check came for eleven hundred dollars.
One day I received a phone call at home. The caller made a pledge that completed the $850 a month we needed to provide Jack’s salary for one year. Just as I got off the phone, Jack drove into our driveway.
I asked, "Jack, what did it cost to move you?"
He said, "Well, Henry, as best I can tell it cost me eleven hundred dollars."
We began that first step of faith by believing that the God who knows where we are is the God who can touch anybody, anywhere, and cause him or her to know where we are. We made the adjustments and were obedient. We believed that the God who called Jack also said, "I AM Provider." When we were obedient, God demonstrated Himself to be our Provider. That experience led us to a deeper love relationship with an all-sufficient God.
