Joe Farris
“Nothing is Impossible for God…”
Just reading that still causes me to stop whatever I am doing and smile. These words spoken by the Archangel Gabriel seem to be perfect for pillows, t-shirts, and bumper stickers, but ten years ago did I really believe them? I had heard for years that we worship a God of possibility who takes impossible situations and makes them possible, but could He do it with me and my situation? In other words, what if I took GOD at His word…
“Nothing is Impossible for God…”
I was in the Holy Land on a mountain praying outside of Nazareth. I heard the call. My choices were obvious. For the first time in my life, I was faced with insurmountable odds and a decision that could possibly be cataclysmic and financially devastating. I was working in a job I loved. I had retirement and health insurance. I was making a difference in the world. I was in a house I wanted to live in forever. I was in a town I loved and my family was happy, but on that day on that mountain in a faraway place, I said YES.
The flight back home was long and I waited for the kids to go to bed before sitting my bride (A woman I met on August 4th, 1987 - my 16th birthday!) down and telling her that I had experienced a unique encounter with the Lord in the Holy Land and I was pretty sure He was asking us to sell everything we owned and to give away the rest. He did not give me any further details. And I waited for her response.
She paused, looked me in the eyes and simply said, “No, you did not hear that correctly. You must have misheard what He said. We are happy here. We are doing God’s work.” And then she left the room.
“Nothing is Impossible for God…”
A few months passed from my YES, when my bride called me while serving with missionaries in Mexico. She was now screaming into the phone. “Nothing is impossible for God! NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD!” She yelled over and over again. Finally, when she calmed down she told me that when she returned home from her trip, I was to resign from my job, we were selling the house, and we were giving away ALL our belongings. She was convicted earlier that day in prayer that God wanted our entire family to serve Him as full-time missionaries and to trust Him in a radical, even reckless way. I was stunned. I might have even been a bit snarky, “Let me get this straight - when God speaks to YOU we do it? But what about my announcement a few weeks ago?”
“Nothing is Impossible for God…”
Within two months of my wife returning from her trip, we had sold our home (In a rough economy), sold our belongings, and our community had fundraised enough for us to live for two years! When God moves, we MUST respond!
He is not necessarily calling us all to serve as full-time missionaries, but He is calling us to trust Him more, to step out in faith more, to be the first to forgive and the first to love. I have often prayed about those two glorious years our family served and loved. We are no longer living as missionaries, but I would argue it was that YES, first in the Holy Land, then in Mexico that launched our entire family into a deeper faith in God and a stronger bond with each other than we would have thought possible.
Reread Luke 1.37 often. Pray over it. Memorize it. And then say or scream “YES!” And let God move.