VL - Issue 43- April 22
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STEPPING FORWARD<br />
Trust God, Even When<br />
You Don’t Understand<br />
THIS STORY TOOK PLACE during my<br />
incarceration, and it taught me a spiritual<br />
lesson that helped me through some of<br />
the most questioning times in my spiritual<br />
walk. I believe it can help you in your<br />
journey with the Lord as well.<br />
I remember that day like it was yesterday.<br />
I had been asked to pray for a guy that<br />
I had never seen in the chapel before. He<br />
had just received the terrible news that his<br />
mother was in an ICU and not expected<br />
to live. So I laid my hands upon him and<br />
started praying. Immediately, I heard the<br />
word “kidneys” come up in my spirit.<br />
Now, I won’t speak for everyone, but<br />
kidneys aren’t what first comes to mind<br />
when I think of someone dying. I quickly<br />
decided to step out in faith and believe that<br />
I was hearing from God. And I prayed for<br />
his mother’s kidneys.<br />
As soon as the word “kidneys” left my<br />
mouth, I felt him tremble under my hand.<br />
BY KORY GORDON<br />
When I finished praying, he looked at me<br />
and said, “I know that was from God because<br />
I never told you that my mother is<br />
dying from double kidney failure.”<br />
Listen, at that moment, I felt like I had<br />
the faith to walk on water. Excitement and<br />
boldness flooded through my veins. I was<br />
convinced that his mother was going to<br />
step out of that hospital room miraculously<br />
healed. The following week, I shared the<br />
testimony with everyone in the chapel. I<br />
boldly told them God would heal the guy’s<br />
mother. But then, sadly, a couple of days<br />
later, she died.<br />
News of her death was like a punch to<br />
the gut. Not only did I hurt for this guy<br />
who’d just lost his mother, but I was confused<br />
and ashamed. I had stood before a<br />
chapel full of men and made a fool out of<br />
myself. I prayed for understanding, but it<br />
seemed as if God had gone silent.<br />
Still, I continued with my mini stry. One<br />
day the guy who had lost his mother came<br />
into the chapel. As I looked at him, I heard<br />
the Lord say to my spirit, “It was never<br />
about her. It was about her son.”<br />
Suddenly, understanding filled my<br />
heart. This guy, before our prayer together,<br />
hadn’t wanted anything to do with God.<br />
Now, he was involved in every Christian<br />
activity the chapel offered. Every time I<br />
saw him, he had a Bible in his hand. He<br />
had even committed to moving into the<br />
faith-based dorm.<br />
When the Lord first spoke the word “kidneys”<br />
to me, it wasn’t because He was going<br />
to heal her. That was my assumption,<br />
and I was wrong. Instead, God was pursuing<br />
one of His lost sons. And He was using<br />
this difficult situation to lay hold of the<br />
guy’s heart by revealing to him that God<br />
was real and present in his life. My prayer<br />
for his mother’s kidneys had ignited his<br />
faith and drawn him into a relationship<br />
with Christ.<br />
I learned an important lesson from this:<br />
We can trust God even when things don’t<br />
go our way or when we don’t understand<br />
why something happened.<br />
We only get to see a small portion of the<br />
picture God is painting. His thoughts are<br />
higher than our thoughts, and His ways<br />
are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8–9).<br />
We simply must not lean on our limited<br />
understanding (Proverbs 3:5–6). We have<br />
to rest on the simple truths that He is God<br />
and He loves us.<br />
Maybe you’re going through a difficult<br />
season right now. Maybe your heart is<br />
overwhelmed as you search for answers.<br />
Remember, in this life, you will only know<br />
in part, but God sees the whole picture,<br />
and He is at work behind the scenes. You<br />
can be confident in Him, for He is the<br />
all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-powerful<br />
God. And that same God loves you!<br />
KORY GORDON spent 11 years in incarceration, where he<br />
gave his life to Christ. He is now an evangelist, sharing the Good<br />
News that set him free. In 2021, he founded Damascus Road, a<br />
nonprofit residential discipleship program battling addiction,<br />
recidivism, and homelessness. Email damascusroad2021@<br />
gmail.com for more info.<br />
VICTORIOUSLIVINGMAGAZINE.COM<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> 02 / 20<strong>22</strong><br />
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