Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (II Corinthians 10:5).
In 2006, shortly before our departure date for several days of ministry in India, the Indian consulate in Houston informed Sue that her passport was not acceptable because the expiration date was less than 6 months away. We, therefore, rushed an application for a new passport to Canada and asked that they overnight it to friends in Houston. We would pick up the new passport on Tuesday and go immediately to the Indian consulate and get it stamped with her visa. We would then return to our home near the Dallas/Ft. Worth Int’l Airport and fly out to India on the following day, Wednesday. It was a plan that would work if everyone did his/her part in the very narrow timeframe before us.
On Monday we departed for Houston to be there when her passport arrived on Tuesday. However, when it did not arrive on Tuesday, we called the passport office in Canada and they informed us that it was not mailed until Tuesday, which meant it would not arrive until Wednesday, the day we were scheduled to depart. As far as we knew, our tickets could not be changed and this was devastating for it meant that Sue could not make the trip unless we could get British Airways to change the date of our departure. In the meantime, I checked our online banking and discovered that an overnight deposit we had made before leaving home, to cover the cost of our tickets, was not showing in our account. I called the bank where we had made the deposit and they did a search, finding the deposit envelope but no sign of the deposit.
At this point, I experienced all kinds of negative thoughts and emotions flooding into my soul. Anger, frustration and anxiety swirled in my head. However, I heard these words in my heart, “Think on the character of God.” We were in a Fedex/Kinkos store in Houston at the time and I began to walk both inside and outside the store forcing my mind to think on God’s character—His faithfulness, His care for His creation, His almighty power, His trustworthiness, His goodness, etc., etc. As I walked about, taking control of my mind with these “good” thoughts along with appropriate Scriptures, my phone rang. It was the person from the bank who said these words, “I don’t know how it happened, but your deposit suddenly showed up in the system.” Hallelujah!
We then drove to the Houston airport and went to the British Airways desk where we asked the agent about changing our departure dates even though we understood this was not possible. We told our story and she was very helpful and changed our departure dates from Wednesday to Friday for a very small fee.
Well, Sue’ passport came and we obtained her visa and returned home to Dallas. We departed DFW on Friday and arrived in Shillong, Meghalaya just in time for our first meeting. Over the next several days we saw God pour out His Spirit in such a powerful and incredible manner; and, through it all, I learned again the importance of taking control of our thought life.
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