Supernatural Guidance

Despite experiencing the riots (as I described in a previous post - "The Riots of Hong Kong"), I was loving being in Hong Kong. Its modern shops and its life-style made life very comfortable; the children were going to an English-speaking preschool; the ministry was going very well. I was very content. After about a year, though, I began to sense a restlessness in Paul. I knew the signs. I knew the Lord was stirring him to move on. However, whenever Paul sensed the Lord directing him he never came to me and just told me what we were to do. Always he would come and ask me to pray about what the Lord was wanting us to do. Together we would hear from God. And always we prayed with the children also.

So it was he came to me one day. “I think the Lord may be calling us back to Thailand, darling” he said. “Would you seek the Lord about it?

In my heart my immediate reaction was, “I love it here. I don’t want to go back to Thailand.” But above everything I wanted to do the will of God and I knew also that that was what was best for us. I agreed to pray. I dropped the children off at preschool and went down to the city to walk and pray.

“Lord” I said silently in my heart as I walked up one of the shopping areas, “You know I want to stay in Hong Kong. If you want us to go back to Thailand I ask you, please, to give me a sign.”

What happened next was amazing. The moment the prayer was uttered, I turned the corner and almost bumped into the Prime Minister of Thailand!

I had heard nothing on the news of his visit but I recognized him immediately. A number of Hong Kong officials were with him, and obviously some body guards, but there he was - right in front of me. I walked on utterly amazed at the Lord!

Then, whether as a hopeful excuse on my part not to acknowledge what the Lord had just done or whether as a genuine desire to know His will (or both), I don’t know, but, as I walked some more, the thought came, “Even the devil can give signs.” The scripture then came to my mind...

“Let the peace of God rule in your hearts” (Colossians 1:15).

I knew the all-important aspect of knowing God’s will was that sense of peace about it deep within. I went into a coffee shop, ordered a cup of tea and sat down to seek the Lord some more. As I pondered, I knew that in order to hear clearly from the Lord and know His peace I had to get my heart into a “neutral” position. In others words, I had to changed my heart from what I wanted and be willing for whatever He wanted, whether it was to go or stay. I lifted my heart to the Lord and asked for His help. I gave Him all my own desires and said... “Okay, Lord, whatever you want.”

I sat quietly in His presence for a while until I knew my heart was in “neutral”. Then, immediately I remembered also the Amplified Version’s translation of that verse in Colossians...

“Let the peace of God act as the umpire or referee...”

So I decided to do exactly that. In my mind I held up Hong Kong to the Lord. Nothing. I had no sense of peace about it at all. Then I held up Thailand.

“Do you want us to go back to Thailand, Lord?”

A wonderful sense of peace filled my heart. Again I held up Hong Kong. Again, nothing. Again I held up Thailand and again wonderful peace filled me.

I looked at my watch and saw it was time to pick up the children from preschool. I had previously met a Thai woman there whose little girl also went to the preschool. She always picked her little girl up. Only on one occasion had she sent her Thai maid but I had never met her. The preschool was situated on the roof garden of the apartment block, and to collect the children, the mothers would come through the ground floor entrance and line up the stairway till they reached the entrance to the roof garden where their child would be brought to them.
I wanted to be very sure. I remembered the scripture...

“...every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses” (Matthew 18:16)

...and thought of the account of Gideon when he wanted to be sure it was the Lord directing him to go into battle against the oppressors of Israel. He asked the Lord...

“...If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised - look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said” Judges 6:36-37.

So I said, “Lord, you have given me a sign. You have given me Your peace. Now please confirm it to me in one more way. Like Gideon I put out a ‘fleece’.” I think I was amazed at even my own boldness. “Let the Thai servant-girl come to collect the little girl.” I asked “and let me stand next to her in the queue and, then, let her ask me if I am ever going back to Thailand.”

The Lord was very gracious to me. As I came through the front gate of the preschool building I caught my breath. There was the Thai maid coming through the back gate. As we met at the bottom of the stairs a sense of wonder and excitement filled me. There we were standing next to each other in the queue. We chatted together in Thai as we gradually ascended towards the rooftop. We were almost at the top when the girl suddenly asked,

“By the way, Ma’am, are you ever going back to Thailand?”

I was stunned. “What did you say?” I asked, dumbfounded by the chain of events so exact to my request of the Lord.

“Are you ever going back to Thailand?” she repeated.

“Yes” I answered her with a smile.

She, of course, knew nothing of the depth of meaning behind that one word.