Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. — ACTS 3:19

In the Old Testament, we read that God told Isaiah, “You go tell Hezekiah to set his house in order because he’s going to die” (Isa. 38:1). Well, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and repented. He cried and prayed. Before Isaiah got out of the courtyard, the Lord said to him, “You go back and tell Hezekiah that I’m going to give him fifteen more years” (v. 5).

That sounds like a paradox to the casual reader. One time God said Hezekiah was going to die, and the next time He said that he was going to live. Did God change? No. He wanted Hezekiah to live to begin with. God simply told Isaiah what was going to happen under the circumstances. And notice that Isaiah, the prophet of God, couldn’t change it. Only Hezekiah could change it. That doesn’t mean that it was God’s will, His highest and best, for Hezekiah.

The Lord told me concerning my sister, “She’s had five years. You’re on the radio in her city, and she’s never listened to your radio program one single time. She’s never read one of your books. She’s never listened to one of your tapes. She didn’t do one single thing to build up her own faith or to try and help herself. She depended on someone else to do it. You can’t do it for her anymore.”

What happened? She died. I’m glad she went to Heaven, but she shouldn’t have gone so soon. That wasn’t God’s best. The time will come in every Christian’s life when he will have to believe God for himself. Someone else won’t be able to carry him any longer.

Confession: I build up myself on the Word of God. I feed on the Word of God so that my inner man becomes strong. And when opposition comes, I am able to stand up and resist it with the Word in my mouth and in my heart!