MORE ON GEORGE MUELLER
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--Having Faith for God's Miraculous Supply!--By Maria
Maria #172 DO 2814
Why We Ask God and Man for Our Needs!
1. George Mueller made a vow to not tell anyone else, or to look to man, but to look to God alone for his needs. (See Hope #31.) We've been saying somewhat the same thing lately, that we need to look less to man and more to the Lord, to trust the Lord for our needs, and to have more faith to ask the Lord to supply.--Not to the exclusion of asking others, but in addition to asking others. It's pretty obvious to me that looking to the Lord and seeking Him for miraculous supply of our needs is what's lacking in our Homes, because they do ask man a lot. They ask a lot and they receive a lot. But our Homes' needs are so great and so tremendous that they can't be supplied just through asking man. They just don't have enough people to do enough provisioning and ask for enough donations to be able to supply all their needs!
2. We have such big needs that it doesn't seem that just "asking man" is fulfilling them. I don't think that it's impossible to have all our needs supplied through distributing tools and provisioning; I think we could get enough that way if it were the Lord's will, but the Lord obviously is not allowing those means to supply all our needs, because in a way, it is leaning on the arm of the flesh. On the other hand, it is the Lord's will that we do ask others and let our needs be known, but there is a fine balance there; and when we go overboard in looking to man and asking man too much, that's when I think the Lord is displeased.
3. So on the subject of how to go about getting our needs supplied, we agree with Mueller in part, but only in part. We agree with his point about asking God to supply our needs--we should definitely ask God much more than we do, and have faith that He hears our requests and is going to answer. Then we will expect supernatural miracles of supply. But we don't agree with Mueller's point of view that we should never ask people and never let our needs be known to those who can help us.
4. We believe that there are a lot of Scriptural precedents for provisioning and asking for donations. When we minister to the people of the world of our spiritual riches, they should minister to us of their material means. "If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully" (1Cor.9:11; 2Cor.9:6).
5. There are also other reasons that the Lord allows us to ask others for help--to keep us humble, for one thing. And also to keep us in contact with people with whom we can share God's message and minister His comfort.
6. If we stopped provisioning and we stopped asking for donations and we only prayed to the Lord for miracles of supply, I don't think we'd get them, because we really couldn't expect in full faith, because we wouldn't be obeying and doing what we know the Lord wants us to do. Like Dad has said before, the Lord often uses our need for support to force us to get out and ask for help and distribute the tools. He allows us to have those needs because He knows we'll then be motivated and obligated and practically forced to get out and witness or follow up, and thereby get out the message.
7. The Lord puts us in a position of having to get out and ask for donations because what do we give them in return for their donations?--We give them the Word! We need food, support and other material goods, so He forces us to go out there and ask for it, so in the process we will give them spiritual food and spiritual support. The Lord blesses us as we pour out spiritually, and He blesses them as they pour out materially.
8. We've been doing the right things, but in recent years we've gone overboard in them until we put too much trust in man, and leaned too much on the arm of the flesh with the tools. We've gotten to the point where we think we have to get out there and get out the tools or else we're not going to survive.--We're not trusting the Lord like we should! So we're a bit lacking in the thing that Mueller was the strongest in.
9. The Lord is a God of balance. The Bible says, "A false balance is abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight" (Pro.11:1). His ways are not usually either black or white, like either we do this thing or we do that thing. The Lord wants to teach us all to grow up and mature. He teaches us wisdom through knowing where the right balance is in things.
10. So I'm not saying that the way we raise our support is wrong, like the provisioning and receiving donations for our tools. The problem is that we've gone overboard. We've become so used to leaning on those means of supply that that's all we have the faith for now. We're afraid to do anything else and we're not trusting the Lord as much as we should. Of course we pray, something along the lines of, "Lord, please help us to get out so many videos. Please help us to get this provisioning contact." And that's good, and that is trusting the Lord to a certain extent.
11. Real trust in the Lord means believing that He'll do it no matter what you have or don't have. Real trust in the Lord isn't believing, "If we have these videos, the Lord is going to save us!" Or, "If we can provision down at the local market, then we know the Lord is going to take care of us." Real trust in the Lord is trusting and believing Him even if you don't have anything!
Mueller's Special Calling and Ministry!
12. So for that reason, Mueller's story is a wonderful example! It's something which I think we should learn to do more of, but please don't take it to the extreme and decide you're going to do only what Mueller did! After all, Mueller was only one person. When he was pioneering and overseeing orphanages, he didn't have a large pool of Christian workers who were available to go out and raise funds. Nor was he able to go out and raise funds--he had to stay home most of the time and take care of the business there. Besides, those the Lord wanted him to minister to were right there in his own homes--his orphan children. That was his main ministry, especially in his early years, so he did not have to go out to minister. The orphans came in to him. (Later, during the last 27 years of his life, from age 65 to 92, after his orphanages were fully established, Mueller was free to travel more and minister to people outside of his orphanages. But it appears that before that time, he was mainly occupied with his work with the orphans.)
13. Also, Mueller had a specific mission from the Lord, a calling from the Lord to show Christians that God answers prayer and you can trust Him utterly for your needs. He is a very wonderful, vivid example of trusting the Lord, leaning on the Lord completely to supply, and knowing that it wasn't anything else or anyone else, it was just God. If he had gone out asking, people could have said, "Sure God supplied, but it was the people that did it. God used all these people, Mueller just told them his needs and they helped him!" Just like when someone goes to doctors and then says the Lord healed him! People are prone to say, "Sure God healed you, but He used the doctor to do it!" There is always a little element of doubt there.
14. Mueller had a mission, a special calling, to show that God could supply all his needs even when no one else knew anything about them. He could do it supernaturally, miraculously! Not telling anybody else his needs and only telling God was the only way he could really prove to skeptics and weak Christians that God really does supply and really won't fail you!
15. The book about Mueller that we summarized in the HOPE explains, "His motive was this: Many times he met believers who were afflicted by doubts. They knew that the Bible was true, they had heard of many proofs of it in the past, but still they had doubts. Mueller wanted to prove to them that God was still as true to His Word as He had been in the past. If God would provide an orphanage in answer to faith and prayer, would that not encourage the people of God to believe? Mueller had proved God in his own life, and he was eager that others should enjoy the same experience." One of the main reasons he didn't tell anyone of his needs was so that the Christian world could see that God would never fail, no matter how bad off you were, He'd always come through for you, and that they'd know when his prayers were answered, it was God who did it and nobody else, because nobody else knew!
16. We don't have that particular calling in life. Our calling is different. Christians have different callings. The Lord leads them to do different things, and it is not our calling to only expect God to supply everything through either private or united secret prayer, and not to ask human beings to help. Of course, we know it's only God that supplies our needs. We understand that it is God who is supplying through these people. And we also know that we have a calling to reach these people. At the same time that we're having our own needs supplied for our Homes and schools, we in turn have the mission and the calling to reach the people outside our Homes.
Do What You Can to Raise Support and Pray Desperately!
17. There's a definite difference in our callings and our ministries and those of George Mueller. So in printing this story of this very dear, precious man who has been an inspiration to millions in the last almost 200 years, we are not suggesting that in any way it is the Lord's will for us to stop our provisioning and our distribution of the tools and getting donations for them. What we're trying to show in this story is that when we need God's supply and we turn to Him, God is able! When we've done all we can and gotten all we can get from man and we still have further needs, we're not to doubt and refrain from asking the Lord, but we're to go to Him and expect that He is going to do the miracle that we ask. Instead of looking around and thinking, "Now who else haven't we asked for help in the last few months," we should pray! Pray and ask the Lord to bring it in, ask the Lord to give it to us!--Or who to go to for help.
18. After reading Mueller's story we don't want you to go to the extreme and say, "Well, look what happened with Mueller, so we should do the same thing!" But even if you were to go to the extreme, I don't think it would last very long because you would find out very soon that the Lord is not going to bless just sitting at home or kneeling at home for hours at a time asking the Lord to supply your needs. He has already given you a way to supply some of your needs, and you have to do that and be obedient to the Lord. And then, after you've done what you can do, the Lord will do the rest supernaturally.
19. The Lord will not supply all of our needs by prayer alone, when He knows there is a world out there for us to reach. He expects us to get out there and do what we can, to put feet to our prayers! The only way that a lot of us are going to get out there is if we also have a need that they can supply.
Extending Our Faith for More Abundant Supply!
20. It's a real good exercise in faith to pray in the Lord's supernatural help. Now we know that the supply we receive through donations and through provisioning is the Lord supplying. The Lord is doing it. But there is a big difference in the Lord supplying it for us through these means when we depend so much on them--in fact, almost exclusively on them--and the Lord just supplying in a supernatural and miraculous way when nobody really knows our need and we've just taken it to the Lord alone. It's a real exercise in faith!
21. You might ask, "Well, why should we do that? Why do we need this exercise in faith, praying in miracles of supply? We're surviving okay." Yes, you may be surviving, but most of our Homes come up pretty short. They can survive, but they could be living abundantly. They could be rich in the Lord, but instead they're very impoverished because they don't have enough faith to really pray and trust the Lord for His supernatural, miraculous answers. They have some faith, yes. They have enough faith to pray and go out there and get out the videos, or go to the markets and do provisioning, and that's great!
22. But if you're putting your total faith in those things, the Lord isn't pleased with it. He wants you to extend your faith. He wants us to strengthen our faith and launch out into the deep and put our nets down and catch a whole draught of fishes! He doesn't want us to just be living with scarcity and with want and to just be able to survive. You could be living abundantly if you would step out and have more faith. We're not talking about living luxuriously, but we're talking about having the little extras that would make life more convenient and comfortable to enable you to do a better job for the Lord. "Delight thyself also in the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart!" (Psa.37:4).
Giving to Others Spiritually Brings God's Material Blessings!
23. The Lord doesn't want you just to wait until the Tribulation to have faith for Him to miraculously supply your needs. Even right now you really don't have enough, because many of you are just living hand-to-mouth. You're expending so much time and energy on bringing in support, and your thoughts and efforts are so concentrated on raising support that, even though you're witnessing to people, you don't really have your mind on their needs and feeding them. You're not giving it your all. You're not really totally ministering to them as you should be.
24. If this is the case with your Home, then you'd better revise your thinking. It looks to me like you really need to get down to business with the Lord and trust Him for some miraculous supernatural answers to prayer for your support, while you concentrate on really winning these souls and following up on people spiritually, and not worrying so much about your support.
25. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might" (Ecc.9:10). And, "Do all to the glory of God" (1Cor. 10:31). When we're trying to get support for ourselves, we're not really seeking first the Kingdom of God, we're not really doing it to the glory of God, we're doing it selfishly. Of course, our support is a need; but the thing is, we should be supplying others' needs and allowing the Lord to supply ours. (See Mat. 6:31-33.) We shouldn't be trying to supply our physical needs to the neglect of others' spiritual needs. If we try to supply others' spiritual needs, then the Lord will supply our physical needs. "The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself" (Pro.11:25).
26. For quite some time now we've emphasized the need to faithfully follow up on our friends, contacts, supporters and potential disciples, to feed them spiritually and help them grow in the Lord through the Word and counsel and prayer. However, we've had reports that seem to indicate that some of our Homes are still neglecting this important ministry. They continue to make one-time contact with people in order to simply sell them a few videos or tapes, or they visit their friends only when the Home has a need, failing to consistently care for these hungry and desperate hearts.
27. Brethren, this ought not so to be! Our friends, contacts and supporters are precious sheep for whom the Lord has given His life, and how sad He must be when we neglect them. It is our responsibility to feed and care for the people the Lord brings across our path! Jesus said, "Lovest thou Me?--Feed My sheep!" (See John 21:15-17.) We are obligated before the Lord to fulfill this commission, and when we don't, we are not only failing these precious people whom He has entrusted us with, but we're also failing the Lord!
28. If you're just taking, taking, taking from your contacts and not feeding and ministering to them spiritually, then the Lord can't bless you as He would like to. In fact, this could very well be one of the reasons why you are in such need and just squeaking by, living day-to-day, because of your neglect to fulfill the spiritual law of God that if you sow bountifully, you'll reap bountifully! And not just "sowing" a video or poster, but continuing to water and nourish them with faithful follow-up. If you're barely eking out the Word to these needy people, then you may get by financially, but you won't receive the Lord's physical blessings in abundance. God cannot abundantly supply our material needs if we do not abundantly supply their spiritual needs!
29. It seems the pressure of immediate financial needs often hinders your faith to trust the Lord enough to allow yourselves the time needed to pursue the slow, laborious task of faithfully, regularly following up on and feeding your sheep. But maybe if you realize and remind yourselves that this very neglect in pouring out spiritually could be what is causing the Lord to withhold His abundant blessing and supply, then maybe you would have a little more faith and motivation, and feel a little more compelled to correct this weakness and do better in this area. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Mat.6:33).
30. As was explained in "God's Financial Blessings," receiving the Lord's financial blessing is contingent on our obedience to a wide variety of Godly principles. If your Home is lacking financially, there may be a number of areas that you need to improve in. Sowing spiritually is not the only prerequisite for receiving God's financial blessings; there are many! However, since we know that follow-up and feeding our contacts spiritually has been a widespread weakness in our Homes, this might be a good place to start when examining your Home's priorities and praying about any changes you may need to make in your schedule or mode of operation. And when you're on the attack in this area and you know you're doing all you can and should be doing, then you will have more faith to call upon the Lord for His miracles of supply, and you can then expect to see Him pour out His blessings in abundance!
31. I think it would greatly inspire us to see more miracles that we know only the Lord did! We didn't help the Lord, but He did them on His Own. We know that they couldn't have been done any other way unless the Lord had supernaturally, miraculously intervened. Normally you don't have a miracle unless you're in need and get desperate with the Lord about it.
32. As long as we can get along and we can survive, then we haven't been getting very desperate with the Lord. Maybe the Lord is going to have to get us desperate with all the pressure He is putting on us in our Homes. There is so much to do, so much that's got to be done that is so much more important than just bringing in our material needs, that it looks like the Homes are almost being forced to get desperate and rely more on the Lord and ask Him more for supernatural miracles, or they're not going to make it!
33. It seems like the Lord has catapulted us into another grade, and we're just going to have to get out from under the bondage of day-to-day survival and having to work so hard for our support. "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Eph.3:20). "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My Name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full" (Jn.16:24).
34. The goal is not just to have your rent or your food or your material needs supplied, but to also have faith for the Lord to supply a home that is big enough so you can live comfortably, safely and at least moderately acceptably, according to System regulations.
35. George Mueller lived completely by faith and prayed in his needs, and he went from one small orphanage to a few small orphanages; then he grew to a large orphanage that housed 300 children. He continued expanding until he was housing one thousand orphans, and eventually several thousand! George Mueller is a tremendous example of having the faith for the housing that he needed to do his work for the Lord. As his needs grew, his faith grew, and the Lord continued to supply for Him. The Lord can do the same for you! "For my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus!" (Phil.4:19). Praise the Lord! Thank You Jesus! (GBAKY in all ways! WLY!--D.)
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family