Lesson
#1
Obedience
Brings Blessing
The bottom line of
advice that my Dad would always give was, “You obey God.” This was not a glib
cliché on his part for, like Jesus, he had learned obedience through the things
that he suffered (Heb. 5:8). For example, when I was 3 weeks old my family
lived on a large farm in west Texas where “Daddy” worked as a farmhand.
One day while plowing in the field he noticed a tractor with plows attached to
it, that he had parked in our yard, moving around the yard in a circle. Knowing
that something was not right, he turned his tractor toward home and arrived to
find my mother, sitting on the porch, holding my 7 year old brother, Pete, in
her lap and sobbing. Pete and my 4 year old brother, Belve, had been playing
like they were farming and, somehow, had started the tractor and it had run
over Pete.
Daddy said that when he
looked at Pete, he looked flat as a pancake. He was still breathing, but blood
and water were bubbling out of his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears. He carefully
picked Pete up and laid him in the back seat of the car. While Mother remained behind
with me, Belve, and my 9 year old brother, Harvey, he rushed Pete to the
nearest hospital.
At the hospital, 3
doctors looked at Pete and told my Dad that he would not live for more than 10
minutes. They explained that, even without xrays, they knew that he had, at
least, a broken rib that had punctured a lung. This was the reason, they said,
for the blood and water coming out his passages as he breathed.
The only thing on my Dad’s
mind at that moment was that he had not been obedient to God. For 5 years he
had had this unmistakable and growing sense inside that God was calling him to
full time ministry. But having no Bible school training and only a 4th
grad education, this seemed like an impossible assignment, and he had shared it
with no one. But after hearing the doctors’ prognosis, he stepped into a
restroom, raised his right hand, and said, “Lord, I’m ready.” At that moment,
he became obedient to the heavenly call.
Suddenly, a
supernatural faith dropped into his heart. As he described it, “I didn’t know
how I knew, but I suddenly knew that Pete was going to be alright.” He went
back to the hospital lobby and had to wait for an hour; but all that time he had an
unshakeable assurance in his heart that everything was OK. Finally, one of the
doctors walked into the room and said, “Mr. Hyatt, there has been a higher
power here tonight.” He went on to explain that they knew that Pete had a
broken rib that had punctured a lung; “But,” he said, “We have completed xrays,
the bleeding has stopped, and there is not a broken bone in his body.”
Pete came home in a
couple of days and is well and healthy today, serving Jesus. Hallelujah! Daddy
learned in a very dramatic way that there is blessing in obedience. Yes, I
believe in God’s grace and mercy, and where would any of us be without it. But
never attempt to use God’s grace as a justification for disobedience. As the
old hymn says,
Trust and obey, for
there is not other way
To
be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey
Lesson 2
It
Pays to Persevere in Prayer
When I was 11 years old
my family was living on another farm near Tipton, Oklahoma where Daddy was
still working as a farmhand. When God had miraculously healed Pete 11 years
before, he had brought his call from God out into the open; but ministry had eluded
him and he had only preached on the very rare occasion. Our family attended the
Assembly of God church in Tipton, and we were there every Sunday morning,
Sunday night, and Wednesday night.
Dissatisfied with his
situation on the farm, Daddy began making plans to move to Dallas, Texas and
work as a bricklayer. But as he made his plans to move, he heard the Holy
Spirit speak in his heart, “What about pastoring this church?” This again,
seemed like an impossible call. The people in this “nice” church did not see
him as a pastor. To them, he was just an uneducated farmhand. He said to the Lord, “If this
is you speaking to me, let this pastor resign before the first of the month.”
He was shocked when he went to church on Sunday and the pastor got up and
announced his resignation.
Knowing that God had
spoken, my Dad went to the church secretary and said, “I would like to submit
my name to be the pastor of this church.” The church had a process in place for
finding a pastor and it consisted of allowing anyone who was interested to
preach in a service and then afterwards the members of the church would vote.
If the preacher got more than 50% of the votes, he could become the pastor. The
secretary replied, “You are the first one to inquire so your name is at the top
of the list.”
About three days later,
an older gentleman, who was the chairman of the board of deacons/elders,
visited my Dad and informed him that he had talked to all the members of the
church. “We are all in agreement,” he said, “That you are not qualified to be
the pastor of this church.” He then asked Daddy to withdraw his name for
consideration because, he said, “No one will vote for you.” Well, what do you
do now? He was between the proverbial “rock and a hard place.” God had clearly
spoken for him to pastor this congregation, but now they are all in agreement
that they did not want him as their pastor.
Not being a politician
with a plan to sway votes, Daddy went to prayer. He prayed all night, but heard
nothing. What now? Do you throw in the towel and move on? Something inside
would not let him quit, so he prayed all night the second night; but there was
no voice, no guidance, and no direction. Virtually everyone advised him to
withdraw his name and forget about pastoring that church. One of his relatives
poked fun, saying, “The Lord told Clarence to go plow, and he thought He said
to go preach.” But I remember him saying that my oldest brother, Harvey, said to him, "Daddy, if God told you to do this, you need to obey God." He had already learned the importance of obedience, so he prayed on, all night for the third night in a row.
Again, there was
nothing from heaven—until dawn began to break. As the first rays of the morning
sun were coming over the horizon, Daddy turned to look out a window. Suddenly,
something unexplainable happened. He said that as the first rays of the morning
sun hit him in the face, “I felt like I was turned into another man.” All of
sudden, he did not care what anybody thought of him. Human opinions no longer
mattered. The only thing that mattered was that he obey God.
He went out and found
the secretary of the church and the chairman of the board of deacons/elders. He
said to them, “Brethren, whatever you do is between you and God, but I have to
go through with this.” They said OK, and arranged for him to preach the
following Sunday night.
I still remember the
message that Sunday night, and there seemed to be special anointing from the
Holy Spirit as he preached from Haggai 1:5, “Consider Your Ways.” After
finishing his sermon, our family retreated to our home, now about a half block
from the church, while the church members had their business meeting and voted.
About one-half hour
later, someone came from the church and told us he had been voted in as pastor
with 100% of the vote. WOW!! They then proceeded to explain that, after we
left, Brother Cook, the chairman of the board, had gotten up before the
congregation weeping and said, “Folks, I have been wrong about this man; he is
supposed to be our pastor.” Everything suddenly changed. Hearts were melted
across the congregation. And whereas everyone there had come prepared to vote
against him every single member voted for him.
From that time forth,
except for brief intervals between pastorates, my Dad was in full time pastoral
ministry for the rest of his life. The last church he pastored was the Assembly
of God in Chicota, Texas, which he pastored for 27 years. I sometimes wonder
what would have happened if he had given up after the first night of prayer or
the second night of prayer. He learned—and I learned from being there—that it
pays to persevere in prayer.
Lesson 3
The
Value of Self-Discipline
My Dad was from the “old
school” and would agree with the adage, “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” We
had lots of freedom growing up, but there was a discipline or certain behavior
that was expected of my brothers and I; and the possibility of physical
punishment was further motivation to adhere by those rules and expectations. It
was through this outward discipline that I learned to exercise a
self-discipline, or what the New Testament calls “self control” (Gal. 5:23).
An example of this
occurred when I was about 3 years old and we lived in Dallas, Texas and
attended the Gospel Lighthouse pastored by J. C. Hibbard. I do not remember
this incident but I heard my Dad laughingly tell it on more than one occasion. In
one particular church service I would not be quiet so he took me outside and
gave me—what we called in Texas-- a “whuppin.” We did not “spankings” or “whippings;”
we got “whuppins.”
Anyway, Daddy said he
got me quieted down and then returned inside to take his seat. As he walked
through the church foyer he asked, “Are you going to be quiet now?” He said I
replied, “Nope!” He immediately turned around and started out the door again. I
obviously knew what that meant—another “whuppin.” He said I began to cry out, “I
won’t do it any more! I won’t do it any more!” In other words, I began to
exercise some self-discipline. My Dad laughed as he took me back inside where I
was very good and quiet until the service was over. I exercised self-discipline, i.e., self-control for the rest of that church meeting.
Now I know that there
is a problem with child abuse in our society, which, to some degree, is actually
a result of parents who never experienced any loving discipline themselves; and
so never learned to exercise any self-discipline, or self-restraint. Child abuse
is inexcusable but should never be associated with corporeal punishment that is
administered in wisdom and love. In other words, the “whuppin” my Dad gave me
was not given to vent his anger towards me (that’s abuse), but to direct a
certain desired behavior and self-discipline in me.
The more disciplined we
are from within, the less discipline we will require from without. As I point
out in my book, America’s Revival
Heritage, people who are self-governed from within according to Christian
principles, will require less outward governance and regulations. This is why
John Adams, the 2nd president and one of the Founding Fathers, said,
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly
inadequate for any other.” In other words, the American Constitution was
designed for a self-disciplined people. May God give us more fathers and
mothers who will have the wisdom and courage to inculcate and nurture a
self-discipline in their children.
My Dad passed away in 1994 at the age of 82. He was home recovering from hip surgery but was not sick. My mother said that one day he called her from the bedroom. She asked, "What do you want?" He said, "I'm going home." She thought maybe she misunderstood him and so went to the room and said, "What did you say?" He replied, "Bye bye, I'm going home." And in a few hours, that very same day, he was gone. But the lessons from his life remain.
My Dad passed away in 1994 at the age of 82. He was home recovering from hip surgery but was not sick. My mother said that one day he called her from the bedroom. She asked, "What do you want?" He said, "I'm going home." She thought maybe she misunderstood him and so went to the room and said, "What did you say?" He replied, "Bye bye, I'm going home." And in a few hours, that very same day, he was gone. But the lessons from his life remain.
No comments:
Post a Comment