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Is anything too difficult for God?

MarkTaylor 450CFSouth Norfolk church pastor Rev Mark Taylor believes, from personal experience, that standing on the promises of God and falling to our knees in prayer, could provide an answer to the evil threat of ISIS.

In the spring of 2002, on a particularly bright and warm morning, I sat upon the back doorstep of my home in Cromer to take time to read my bible and pray. Little did I know that God was about to meet with me in a way which would inform, direct, and strengthen for what lay ahead.

As I sat enjoying the warmth of the sun, it seemed the most natural response to begin singing the praises of God; my spirit was lifted and the praises just flowed from within me. In that moment I was aware of the overwhelming presence of God, and He spoke to me with a voice which I recognised and yet had never heard before. What He spoke brought a sense of joy and blessing, and a wonderful sense of promise which would not be broken.

“Mark, read Exodus 23:25 - 26 for your wife is pregnant, and I am blessing you with twins”

Had I heard correctly, was this my imagination? Certainly this was not a theme which was on my mind in that moment. Turning to that Bible passage I read:

“Serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. None shall be barren or suffer miscarriage in your land; I will fulfil the number of your days”

God seemed to be saying that if we remained faithfully serving Him, the blessing of life and health would be upon us. Later that day my wife returned home and I informed her that she was pregnant with twins! Sure enough she was pregnant, and her first scan confirmed the presence of twins!

Claire’s pregnancy progressed normally until she went for a scan at around 30 weeks. This scan went on and on, we could see from the sonographers face that something was wrong. I asked what the problem was and we were told we needed to see a consultant in Norwich who would inform us, but there was a serious problem. We had to wait 7 days before we could see the consultant, which seemed like an eternity. We called our church and friends to begin to pray and stand in faith with us. It was then that Claire remembered how we found out she was pregnant, and reaching for her Bible she turned to Exodus 23: 25–26.

“We have a promise concerning this” she said, “A promise of life, removal of sickness, and no miscarriage” We clung to this with a sense of certain hope that God would keep His promise.

When we finally met the consultant we were told that twin two had a very large liver tumour, which was highly vascular, extremely rare, and would probably rupture during the birth process meaning the baby would die. We were devastated as those words were spoken, but we walked out of his room, and after a cry together, determined to stand upon the promise of God. Many friends stood firmly with us, praying for life and a fulfilled promise. Other friends and church people began to talk about preparing for the little one to die. 

We had a choice to make: Had we heard from God or not? If we had, were we going to let these who could not share our faith in God’s promise shake us or bring doubt? We severed communication with those who were seeking to destroy our blessing, and only listen to those who would stand in fervent radical belief with us.
 
On October 25 2002, our twins were delivered by caesarean. Our Pastor, Mike McGill, came to hospital with us and was tremendous. The twins were born, twin one was 7.5lbs, twin two was 8lbs and yellow. Both babies were taken away and I remained with my wife. Just when it seemed everything was up in the air, she had a huge post-partum haemorrhage. I called out to God : “YOU GAVE A PROMISE!”
 
Within an hour, my wife was back from the edge of death and a knock upon the door brought a nurse with two babies in her arms who were thriving.
 
My twins are now 13 years old, Eli has a wonderful brown mark on his skin over his liver which, he informs everyone, is where God touched him.
 
I tell that story because we were certain that God had spoken and given a “word”. No persuasion of man was going to cause us to turn from the certainty of that word. Even if we were wrong, we would have proved faithful to God. There was no room for compromise or questioning, we were on a journey which we would not cut short for anyone’s advice.
 

Today, our world faces an overwhelming onslaught of evil, as ISIS strikes terror into the hearts of nations.
 
Whilst I do not believe for one moment that they follow the true and living God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I do believe that they believe they are following their god. Their belief is that their god has called them to establish an Islamic Kalifate and they are going to remain faithful to that cause come what may. Sadly, the god of this age has deluded them, and they follow an horrific lie.
 
But I understand from my experience, outlined above, that they cannot turn from their cause. They will not listen to political or diplomatic persuasion, it is alien to their misguided perception of god’s purpose. Crushing them through superior military might may degrade, disarm, and diminish them – Let’s try and watch evil be overcome by a greater good.
 
BUT, there is an army which is more effective and speaks the same language, even if that is to point in a new direction. When the army of God’s Saints will fall to their knees and call on the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to exert His will and Holiness over that situation, then the eyes of a misguided people will turn from blindness to true sight.
 
Like Saul of Damascus, persecutor of God’s people, the zeal of the followers of ISIS can be turned to good, turned to God’s Kingdom, and His ways of Peace. Saul can still become Paul!
 
Is anything too difficult for God?!
 



 

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