Ministry Moments:
The Day the Lord Blew My Mind
by Lynn Ridenhour
I never will forget the time I saw the Lord grow a
man two inches taller. It blew my mind. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Sometimes the Lord does the darndest things. Take the time when Peter
walked on the water. That incident served no utilitarian value. It almost
seemed like a stunt. Yet Jesus invited Peter to step out of the boat. "Lord,
if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he [Jesus] said,
Come…" (Mt.14:28-29).
Walking on water?! We just never know with the Lord. That’s what I love
about this Christian thing. We can always expect the unexpected. I’ve never
had so much fun. Some would call it--serious fun.
I remember having Bud Sickler, lay missionary to Africa, in our home. I sat
spellbound as I listened to his stories how the Lord was moving in south
Africa. Years ago the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship sponsored what
they called "Lay Lifts." The organization would fly Spirit-filled
businessmen all over the world as they ministered the gospel. Bud Sickler had
just returned from such a mission and was sharing his experiences at our
church.
I was the youth pastor at Six-Mile Baptist Church, just a few miles out in
the country from Liberty, Missouri. Linda and I were dating, so I invited her
that Sunday evening to come hear this man. He was fascinating. That evening he
told two stories that have stuck with me down through the years. One incident
was when the team had to get to a certain village by a particular time. The
only way to the village was across a small river, and the only way across the
river was across a log. A huge tree had fallen across the river. It was used
for a bridge. The problem was—hornets had built their nest right in the
middle of the log. And they were swarming everywhere. Natives had died from
their stings.
Bud looked at the log, looked at his watch, then said, "Lord, you gave
Adam dominion over the animals. You can give it to me. Bees, I command you,
not to sting," and the team walked across the log with hundreds of
hornets buzzing around their heads. No one was stung. They made it to the
village on time.
While ministering at the village, a native from another tribe comes running
up the trail, asking for the "white missionaries." The chief points
him to Brother Sickler. Through an interpreter, he discovers that in one of
the previous villages they had ministered, one of the native families who had
become believers wants Brother Sickler to return and perform a Christian
burial service for their father who had passed away. He had been dead a day
and a half.
Brother Sickler agrees to return.
It would take a day and a half of backtracking to reach the village. I
remember Brother Sickler telling us, he was having trouble getting a message
from the Lord as he marched back to the village. Along the trail he kept
asking, "Lord, what do you want me to say to these people?" He got
no answer.
Finally, they were approaching the village. Brother Sickler said he could
see the wake. The villagers had a custom of displaying their dead on stilts
built with lots of green leaves and flowers for the deceased to lay on.
Brother Sickler could see the dead man. Villagers were lined about the stilts,
waiting for the white missionary. As he approached the scene, the Lord told
him to speak to the dead man and tell him to get up.
That tested Brother Sickler’s faith to the limits. No wonder he
couldn’t get a funeral message from the Lord. The Lord wanted to raise this
dead man from the grave. There would be no funeral that day.
The man had been dead now for three days.
With some reluctance, and lots of fear & trembling, Brother Sickler
walks up to the dead man and says "get up in the name of Jesus."
The man raises up and the natives hit the bushes.
Of course, they had never seen anything like this before. Brother Sickler
extends his hand and the man gets down off his homemade coffin, jumps down off
the stilts, and stands beside Brother Sickler. Very much alive.
It took a while for the natives to return from the bushes, but they did,
and Brother Sickler explains what the Lord had just done. Then he returned to
where he had come from. Of course, it took him a day and a half to get there.
I’ll say it again—sometimes the Lord does the darndest things.
I remember Bobby who was staying with us at the Upper Room. Bobby was a
"saved junkie & hippie" who loved the Lord dearly. Bobby tells
of the time he was sitting in Mass. He’s Catholic. He was sitting in the
middle of the front row when he glanced to his right. At the end of the row a
father had his young son sitting on his lap. Bobby noticed the young lad (who
couldn’t be more than five) had braces on both his feet. The Lord spoke,
"if you ask for the boy, I’ll heal him."
During the middle of Mass, Bobby somehow got the father’s attention at
the end of the row by whispering to the person next to him, telling him to
pass his message on. The person sitting next to the father finally whispers
into his ear. And he looks at Bobby.
Bobby whispers, "pass your son down."
The father does. He hands his son to the person next to him who he hands
him to the person sitting next to him until the son is sitting on Bobby’s
lap. Bobby says a simple prayer, then takes the braces off. Mass continues.
The little boy jumps down, runs past his father and breaks up Mass by
running down the middle aisle.
Sometimes the Lord does the darndest things.
But I want to tell you what happened to Linda and me.
After Brother Sickler had finished sharing with us that evening, he asked
if there were any that would like to be filled with the Spirit. My girlfriend
went forward. Brother Sickler laid his hands on Linda’s head, and she begins
speaking in tongues. In a Baptist Church. It wasn’t long ‘till I was
filled with the Spirit as well.
Soon after we were filled with the Spirit, I was asked to speak at a youth
retreat. In the meantime, we had gotten married. A bunch of college students
were spending the weekend at a lodge on a lake. And I was one of the speakers.
Linda and I were excited about going.
You need to know that I had recently resigned my Baptist pastorate. I still
had some of my "conservative baggage" hanging around. In other
words, I was pretty "straight." Nevertheless, Linda and I were
enjoying our newly found freedom in the Spirit. The Lord was about to teach me
a thing or two about grace—unconditional acceptance.
We pulled up in front of the lodge and noticed young people everywhere.
Some were down by the lake; others were coming in and out of the lodge. There
was a circle of young people down near the lake; they had their hands raised
and were singing. Linda and I get out of the car and go inside. We meet some
friends of ours, Bob & Cathy, a couple who could sing like angels. Bob had
that high tenor voice and Cathy, a beautiful soprano. O, how they brought down
the heavens when they sang. I was glad they were there.
It wasn’t long ‘till the organizer of the retreat called everyone into
the lodge. It was time to begin. The lodge was big & full of big wooden
beams. Everything inside & out was wood. We were in a huge hall; I would
say big enough for a hundred or so people.
The young people began mingling about. I noticed the dress was casual. And
I noticed some of the girls still had their bikini swim suits on. One of the
girls in a skimpy bikini began with a devotional. I said, "no way, Lord.
You can’t bless this."
Was I wrong! What a tender heart she had. She was full of the love of
Jesus. There went my Baptist theology. We sang and worshipped and finally it
was my turn to minister. I simply shared with the young people what had
recently happened to my wife and me in our home. How the Lord had lengthened
my left hand and straightened my wife’s spine. The presence of the Lord was
in that building. I also told the group of how the Lord lengthened a
logger’s leg over four inches.
When I was through young people all over the room were paring off, praying
for one another’s legs. Young people tend to obey God with few hang-ups. The
Lord was lengthening limbs all over the room. Faith was pandemonium—and
running high. You could hear cheers and laughter, some praises.
In the midst of the excitement, a young man came up to me. "Brother
Ridenhour, I have always been 5 foot ten. And I know this is a silly request,
but I have always wanted to be six feet. Would you pray for me?" His
friend was standing next to him. Linda and a couple other young people were
standing next to me. They were waiting for my response. "Hey, let’s see
what the Lord will do."
We moved him over near one of the beams that was acting as a support from
floor to ceiling. I had Jim to stand up against it with his back to it. Then I
looked around and found a book. I placed the book on his head so we could
measure. And marked with a pencil the spot on the beam. I had him to hold the
book and stepped back. Everyone was watching—his friend, a few others, my
wife, Linda, and I. I said a simple prayer, almost like a request.
"Lord, you heard Jim. He’s always been five ten and he would like to
be six-foot. We thank you."
All eyes were on Jim.
"O, my God!"
"He’s growing!"
We all saw it. I’m very excited now. I marked with a pencil the spot on
the beam. Jim took the book off his head, and I scurried around until I found
a ruler in the kitchen. I came back in and measured the mark on the beam.
Jim was now six-foot!
Sometimes the Lord does the darndest things.
