Unexpected

(by Bill Stevenson)

Note: This testimony is not boasting because the Holy Spirit helped me in every situation. I was
surprised by all of the blessings.
1. After the disappointing Men’s Conference messages, I was surprised by the good information
in the Creation and Science seminar the next weekend.
2. On November 21st I decided to have us go to a computer store for seeking birthday gifts,
(Dolo’s birthday is in late November and mine is in late December). We went to a large store
and first Dolo wanted to look at TVs and washing machines and dryers and after about a half
hour we finally got to the computer department, which was my target. I found two good sets
of speakers, a headphone with microphone for Dolo, a Epson printer/copier/scanner, and a
pad for my wrists all for 112€! The Holy Spirit helped me see the good buys quickly and
encourage Dolo to agree. It all went much smoother than in former times.
3. We were told a few weeks ago that our 15-year-old car was supposed to die by Christmas. I
prayed about it and “silver metallic” came to me. Dolo’s Christian mechanic found a
replacement for us and on Thursday we picked up the 2004 3-year-old (with about 39,500
kilometers or about 24,544 miles) Golf. It was owned by a retired VW Golf worker and was
stored when not being driven). Dolo’s mother used the money she had saved for redoing her
kitchen to buy the car. It is silver metallic and is bigger than the Toyota Starlet we had. Here
the yearly auto tax is based by the power of the engine, not by the year of the car as is done in
the USA. This car had a lower power and so the tax is lower. Dolo said that the lower power
makes her a safer driver because it takes a little longer to increase speed. We will take photos
later and put them in a Yahoo album. I was not told about how her mother was going to help
us. She paid about 10,200€ ($13,581.80) which included the mechanic’s efforts (including
licensing and insurance stamp on the license plates and new winter tires, and storage of the
other tires). TJ paid the car’s previous owner 9,400€ ($12,516.56).
4. I was surprised last Friday morning when the Holy Spirit told me to suggest to Dolo to
surprise her mother with a trip on Saturday to see her sister who lives about an hour and a half
away as a thank-you token for buying the car. She normally only gets to see her 3 times a
year and otherwise they talk on the phone every day. Dolo’s aunt was so happy about the
news, she made wonderful stew and spaghetti for us and gave us wonderful sweets
afterwards. I thought we were going to take them both to lunch in a restaurant. We had good
fellowship and I was able to share spiritually too. I was surprised when the latter happened
and also by Aunt Ruth’s mostly good responses.
5. We got home from Braunschweig about 6:15 PM and Dolo still wanted to go to another
special church meeting featuring a pastor from the USA. No subject was given only a little
about him and I thought he would be one of those hyper dramatic charismatic preachers who
points at people about needed healings etc. Dolo thought it would be very crowded. Both
were wrong guesses. After one worship, he passed out a page of Scripture references about
joy and rejoicing with summaries in German of each. And he just spoke about them without
dramatics, prayed in relation to his message, and then we had a regular worship time. It
meant a lot to Dolo to hear about joy and afterwards she went to have a discussion with him
and received good advice.
During his message, the Holy Spirit had me mark some of the verses he mentioned in my new
Bible for church usage and to consider a possible speaking ministry as Pastor Cole does. I was
shocked by the latter. But the Holy Spirit told me that as soon as possible to look at the Preparation
For Heavenly Living Courses, the abbreviated versions for Third World ministries, and my other
Bible studies to prepare for such a future ministry. I told Him that I didn’t think I could have such
courage and He reminded me from my development from being very very shy during my childhood.
I would prefer just leading Bible study discussions in homes. The Holy Spirit also reminded me
about the prayer I had developed after reading the book “The Prayer of Jabez” (which follows this
testimony) and about the end of the “God’s Generals” book I had finally completed in the afternoon.
The latter had very good list of concluding lessons which were mostly the shoulds for expanding
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 ministry and the cautions of expanding wrongly because of others persuasions. Last August in Berlin,
I had noticed the book (which was written by Pastor Robert Liardon) in Dolo’s stepdaughter’s
bookshelf and asked if I could borrow it. I was surprised to find out that it had been given by Dolo
for a Christmas or birthday present. I don’t read books in our home usually and am a slow reader, so I
asked to keep it until December. It is about ten very famous preachers who were involved with great
moves of supernatural manifestations of God and who all had major disappointments and challenges.
Back to about Saturday night, I then said to the Holy Spirit I would need the volunteer secretaries to
do my Internet ministries. He didn’t say anything then but later had Carlos tell me that God would
provide for any ministry that is His. The Holy Spirit said that as soon as possible I was to make to
binders: one with the Scriptures in the Bible course formats possibly with the thought provoking
questions and another binder for hand-outs for audiences. Is this the reason for a new printer with
cheaper ink cartridges that are separate?
Then after the service, I was shocked when the Holy Spirit had me give examples of my indent
formatting to a young man from Columbia from the Spanish church. He got excited and we had a
wonderful conversation and he said that he would consider translating my Bible study course. He
said that he had married a German and it ended up in divorce, but he got born-again saved and was
now wanting to become a minister and needed Bible courses. While we were talking, two others
came to listen. One was from Ethiopia and the other was able to freely worship God in the church.
Both of them became excited about the indent format samples too and the Wonderful Children of God
Bible study. I was so surprised. The latter man spoke only a tiny bit of German. But the papers I had
were in German. I mentioned some other things with hand/arm motions and he seemed to understand
and smile big many times. Meanwhile, Pastor Cole gave Dolo a nice 2-page paper like the one on Joy
we received that night about how what we should thank God for (52 different things) and another man
we had counseled earlier this year wanted to give Dolo a nice birthday gift referring to Israel he had
made with good news about his mother treating him better.
On the way home, I told some of the experience to Dolo and she was not shocked or resentful or
discouraging. The Holy Spirit told me that I was to write this testimony with the above title and to
post it along with the following into my blog in order to get more prayer support.

I prayed the following a lot in 2001-2002. I created it after my unexpected purchase and reading the
best selling book by Bruce Wilkinson. I only went to the San Carlos Christian bookstore to buy a
birthday gift for my oldest daughter. After reading the book almost in only two sittings, I wrote a
summary with the best quotes from it and then I wrote the prayer.

The Prayer of Jabez for You to Use

(by Bill Stevenson-- May 31, 2001)

1. “Oh, that You would bless me indeed”-- Oh compassionate, generous God please bless me with
Your wonderful, unlimited goodness that only You have the power to know about or give to me. Of
course it is up to You to decide what the blessing will be, and where, when, and how I will receive. I
trust You completely, wanting nothing more and nothing less than what You want to give me. I seek
Your blessings as the ultimate value in life because I just want to say and do what You want. I am
so thankful for all of the past blessings from You. My life is Your’s and I want it to bring more
glory to You on Earth.
2. “and enlarge my territory”-- God Almighty, enlarge my life so that I can make a greater impact
for You. “O God and King, please expand my opportunities and my impact in such a way that I
touch more lives for Your glory. Let me do more for You!” I want to live out my faith much much
more for others. I want You to give me “divine appointments” for doing the good works that You
already have planned for me to do, ministering to those in need of spiritual encouragement, counsel,
or/and exhortation. I trust in the Holy Spirit’s guidance and Your divine strength and wisdom. With
Your love, eliminate all fears that come into my mind in these new experiences and give me Your
courage. I will praise You for the miracles that happen during and after my ministry opportunities.
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 3. “that Your hand would be with me”-- God, I need You so much in order to live for You more
and more. Please release Your power to accomplish Your will, so that You will be glorified through
seeming impossibilities of future ministries for me to do. Sustain and continue the great things that
You have begun in my life. “Father, please do this in me because I can’t do it alone. It’s too big for
me!” I will step out in faith with supernatural enthusiasm, boldness, and power to do and say
whatever the Holy Spirit tells me. I want to depend completely on You, Abba Father.
4. “and that You would keep me from evil.”-- God, the great Protector, I ask for safekeeping from
evil. Because I easily trust others, especially those who seem friendly and respectful, I am easily
taken advantage of or mislead. I only want to say and do what pleases You and learn/remember only
eternal truths. Adam and Eve and many other believers in You in the Bible were deceived about
eternal truths and I have been too many times, so help me via the Holy Spirit, the Bible, true
Christian friends, and Your angels if necessary to keep me on the narrow road of righteousness to
Heaven. “Lord, keep me from making the mistakes I’m most prone to when temptation comes. I
confess that what I think is necessary, smart, or personally beneficial is so often only the beautiful
wrapping on sin. So please, keep evil far from me!” “Lord, keep me safe from the pain and grief
that sin brings. For the dangers that I can’t see, or the ones that I think I can risk because of my
experience (pride and carelessness), put up a supernatural barrier. Protect me, Father, by Your
power!” “Lord, keep me safe from temptations that pull at my emotions and my physical needs, that
call out to my sense of what I deserve, what I have the ‘right’ to feel and enjoy. Because You are the
true source of all that is really life, direct my steps away from all that is not of You.” Finally, God, I
know that You can’t protect me completely from the wiles of the spiritual and human enemies, so
please help me put on the Ephesians 6:10-18 spiritual armor by reminding me via the Holy Spirit of
Your Truth, Righteousness, the Gospel, Faith, Salvation, and Your other promises. Thank You for
future blessings and Great Commission assignments.

Then to backtrack a little, last week I also finished the last few pages of a church’s recent magazine and
the following was in one of those pages. So Sunday evening Dolo discovered how to use the Scanner for
making editable text and this was my first time to try something on my computer using the new Epson:

Tidbits on Faith

Faith Reduced Into One Law

Rabbi Simlai in the third century noted that:
Moses gave us 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands.
David in Psalm 15 reduced them to eleven
Isaiah in 33:14, 15 made them six
Micah 6:8 binds them into three
Habakkuk reduces them all to one, namely “The just shall live by faith.”
Author Unknown

Faith And Doubt

Doubt sees the obstacles.
Faith sees the way!
Doubt sees the darkest night,
Faith sees the day!
Doubt dreads to take a step.
Faith soars on high!
Doubt questions, “Who believes?
Faith answers, “I!”
Gospel Banner

Epigram On Faith
• Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible.
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• Faith is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable.
• Faith is idle when circumstances are right, only when they are adverse is one's faith in God
exercised.
• Faith, like muscle, grows strong and supple with exercise.
• Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.
By David Lloyd George

And then to conclude this unexpected blog, I wanted to repost the following I received from the Holy
Spirit back in the summer of 2000 based on something I saw in a spiritual paper for church Sunday
School hand-outs:
Faith in God and the Bible
adds a lot of hope,
subtracts worries,
multiplies successes, and
divides and solves problems.
It totals-- God’s special, unselfish love.

Sin, caused by selfishness,

adds to your troubles,
subtracts from your energy,
multiplies your difficulties, and
divides your interest in God’s work.
It totals-- spiritual death.