He Speaks Through Us by Chuck Elmore

One morning while sweeping rocks off the blacktop at the school where I taught, I saw the music teacher from a distance walking to her classroom. "I bet she doesn't feel appreciated," I thought. I kept sweeping, but the Lord said to me, "I appreciate her." "I hope so, God.? That's your job," I prayed. "I want you to tell her that I appreciate her," He said. At first, I questioned whether or not I'd heard from God, or if I had just been programmed by years of Sunday school lessons to know that God appreciates His servants. Then I questioned the message. "I am just supposed to walk up and say God appreciates you? Doesn't she know that already? Isn't that a little trite?" But the Spirit kept pressing, and when I finished sweeping, I went to her classroom. I went inside, but she wasn't there. I figured I was off the hook as I headed to my classroom, but then we crossed paths. I nervously cleared my throat and took the step of faith. "Um, Betty? This normally doesn't happen to me, but I feel like God wants me to tell you something." She nodded politely, not knowing what to expect. I looked?at the ground and said, "God wants me to tell you that He appreciates you." The words sounded anticlimactic, and as I stared at my shoes I mumbled something about me appreciating her too. I stole a glance at her to check her reaction, and she was crying. And I knew she wasn't crying because I appreciated her, but because God did and He audibly told her so. I learned from that not to question God's message and his prompting. God knows the whole story, even if He only reveals part of it to us. Acting in faith is our part. He prepares the works in advance, we just walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

A Word of Reassurance by Chuck Elmore

It was summertime, and I was in the park with a group of summer camp students. Part of our routine was to have the kids run or walk a lap while the workers stationed themselves around the park to keep an eye on the children. The day was beautiful, the Sandia Mountains stood up tall in the east, and I began to worship God and pray silently to myself. I noticed a coworker, a single mother of two teenagers, walking with the campers, and I began to pray for her. I knew she was struggling financially to put her son through private school. As she approached, I felt God prompt me to say to her, "God doesn't want you to worry about your finances. He will provide." She smiled, hugged me, said thank you, and we went on about our business. A few days later, she came up to me with an amazed expression on her face and said, "You are not going to believe this. I was called into the school's business office today. I thought they were going to remind me that I still owe $1000 on my son's tuition, but instead they told me they were waiving the remaining balance!" They gave no explanation, other than they felt they were supposed to do it. Her joy was from the forgiven debt, my joy was from sharing in God's work.

He takes care of all obstacles by Chuck Elmore

One evening while I was visiting my sister, the Lord moved me to talk and pray with her. She had been a Christian from a young age, but she was struggling with many doubts about her worth in God's eyes. As we talked, I was begging the Lord to give me a word to share with her, but nothing came. I kept praying, and finally I felt Him tell me that I was to physically embrace her as if He was doing it. I told her that Jesus wanted to hug her, and when I put my arms around her, she began sobbing. She told me that was exactly what she needed. We decided to move to the back porch so we wouldn't wake her children. The Lord led me to share many facets of the good news with her, but the neighbor's dog began to bark at us from behind the fence. We tried to ignore it, but the dog persisted. I realized that this was a distraction from the enemy to keep my sister from hearing the truth, so I stopped what I was doing, and as odd as it felt, I said to the dog, "In the name of Jesus, stop barking and don't bark anymore for the rest of the night." The dog stopped and made no more noise the whole time we talked. I talked to my sister on the phone several weeks after that night, and she said the dog doesn't bark at her anymore.