After I completed High School I moved to southern California to attend Bible School. Until then I had my entire life in Minnesota and North Dakota. Now I was heading to California to do a couple of things that I loved to do, stay warm and study the Bible. I was excited.
About one month after arriving I experienced my first earthquake. I was amazed at how little the earth actually moved. I guess I must have been expecting to be thrown off of my feet. Although the actual shaking was less than I expected the movement of the earth stayed with me forever.
From that day on whenever I feel a little vibration under my feet the first reaction of my brain is to expect an earthquake. It doesnt matter if I am in Minnesota, California, or Mexico my brain now expects that the earth will move. Up until that day in 1987 I never ever expected the earth to move. Something inside of me had changed forever. When God touches us it is also an earth-moving event. Many people testify that when God first touched them they did not get thrown off of their feet as they expected they would, but they did know that God had done something inside of them. Whether God knocks off of our feet or lightly touches us it changes us inside forever. Our expectations and the way we perceive things are never the same.
I have seen people of faith walking around with changed expectations. When I warned my fellow missionaries this summer that allowances would more than likely be pretty low I saw people who expected to see God. God has never left us lacking in all of my years and he will provide this time also – they would say time after time. At church when a little baby was dying with a tumor I saw people all around praying earnestly for the babys life. They had seen God move before and were asking for him to do it again. He did! I am a firsthand witness of how many of you are sending money to WMPL and praying for the souls of people in far away lands. Why? Because you have seen Gods saving grace in your life and you expect that God wants to do the same in people all around the world.
When God heals a child who is dying, provides finances for us at just the time, or changes the eternal destiny of a soul from death to life it is never a small thing. We are always amazed at what God does and rejoice with him. But at the same time we have experienced the earth move before and we seem to expect that God will do it again.