A MAN WHO WOULDN’T LISTEN!

BY: SUNNY ORLY COFFMAN – NOVEMBER 6, 2000

Recently, we had a friend visiting in our home and in the course of a discussion about human responses to God’s directives, our friend related this true story about a man he knew.

It seems that John [not his real name] was very seriously in a courtship with an attractive young lady named Jane. John was a committed Christian and had been very active in church activities and programs prior to Jane coming into his life. At some point just prior to his up-coming wedding, the Lord spoke directly to John and told him that Jane was not God’s choice for John a wife. He chose not to acknowledge that he had heard from God, put the incident out of his mind, and continued to pursue his plans for marriage to Jane.

Time passed and John became very successful in two areas of his life. He became a very well known evangelist and he also earned a great deal of money in his "hobby" of raising finely bred roping horses.

One evening while John was riding a cutting horse, with the intention of purchasing the animal to breed, the horse did a strange spin, threw him onto the ground, and John landed, head first on a large rock and suffered a severe concussion. For the next 6 months, John was in a coma. During this time, his wife of 20 + years divorced him, took all of his finances, and was preparing to leave the area where they had lived. John was in this coma, hooked up to life support, but his wife has tried to convince the doctors that they should remove him from life support and she had signed an agreement for them to do so.

John’s primary care provider was in his hospital room, considering the signed order to "pull his plug" and some of his staff members were actually in agreement with the signed order. One even stated, "After all, doctor, it has now been over six months and there has been no response of any kind." The doctor responded, "I don’t know what I’m feeling, but I just can’t do this today." At that moment the doctor saw a big smile come over John’s face and in due time he made a journey from coma to full consciousness and finally to even partial mobility.

John had lost all of his worldly goods; his wife had left him; he was not a "complete man" in that he walked with a terrible limp, but he was alive and he had to face the fact that many years ago, God has spoken directly to him about not marrying Jane and he had chosen to go his own way. Now, he was walking differently, but he was listening and reflecting, and realizing that while he had lost all of the fame and fortune that he had gained, he had been given a second chance to obey God and fulfill the call that God really had on his life.

What are we talking about here? Isn’t it REBELLION – man’s unwillingness to give up his own will and accept the will of the Creator? It’s really pretty ridiculous, isn’t it? To think that man would consider himself smarter and better in making decisions than the one who has created him and all the other humans that have ever lived… and even the planet they have lived on… what folly… what pride… what conceit! God says He loves a humble and contrite spirit.

Today John is taking the time to consider God’s opinion in everything he does. His life is under reconstruction, but his heart has been completely healed and his will is to do the will of his Father. Today God is not just someone John once read about in a book. He now has an intimate relationship with God and he is being healed of all the pain produced by his own disobedience.

 

 

 

 

 

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