“I stood up. I took a stride
forward. And in that moment, there was a sharp wrench in my lame leg. I thought
with horror that I had turned my crippled ankle. Gingerly I put the foot on the
ground. I could stand on it alright. What on earth had happened?”*
In 1949, Andrew had been shot in the ankle while fighting against
the rebellion that had broken out in the Dutch East Indies. The wound had put
him out of the war and Andrew had been living as a cripple for the last three
and a half years. This was one of the arguments that he had laid before
God, when he felt the call to become a missionary. “How could I be a missionary when I can’t even walk a city block without pain?”*(see The Predetermined "Yes")
But none of Andrew’s
fears were bigger than God. God didn’t cater
to Andrew’s excuses, rather He asked him simply to say “yes” and trust Him to provide a way for him to obey. Andrew accepted this challenge. He had said,
“Whenever, wherever, however you want me, I'll
go. And I'll begin this very minute. Lord, as I stand up from this place, and
as I take my first step forward, will you consider that this is a step of
obedience to You? I'll call it the Step of Yes.”*
It was with these words and this fresh
determination to obey that Andrew had stood and taken that first step. The ‘Step
of Yes’. What had happened when he did so? He didn’t seem to have turned his
leg, for he could walk on it well enough.
“Slowly and very cautiously, I
began to walk home, and as I walked, one verse of scripture kept popping into
my mind: “Going they were healed.”
I couldn’t remember at first
where it came from. Then I remembered the story of the ten lepers, and how on their
way to see the priest, as Christ had commanded, the miracle happened. “Going,
they were healed.”
Could it be? Could it possibly
be that I too had been healed?”*
God took Andrew’s
‘Step of Yes’ and used it. He took a man’s faith and began to show His
faithfulness. The story that Brother Andrew thought of is found in Luke xvii.
“On the
way to Jerusalem Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And
as He entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have
mercy on us.” When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And going they were healed. Then one of them, when he saw that
he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he
fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving Him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus
answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was
no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And He said to
him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
(Luke xvii. 11 -19)
Jesus told the
man that his faith had made him well. It is a phrase that we find Jesus repeat on
multiple different occasions when men and women were healed. But wait, wasn’t
God the one who had made the leper well? In the same way
that Andrew’s faith had to come before he saw God’s faithfulness, the leper had
to believe before he was healed. Andrew’s ‘Step of Yes’ and the leper’s
obedience in going to the priests both demonstrated faith. First came faith and
then the show of His faithfulness. This is and always has been God’s pattern.
If the order was reversed neither would work - men’s faith would not be faith, nor
would God be seen as faithful. In Romans viii. 24-25 Paul says, “hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one
still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we
do not see, we eagerly wait for it with
perseverance.”
In the same way we can’t trust God, or have faith in Him, to do something that
He has already done. But if He hasn’t yet done it, or we do not yet know that
He has done it, then we are given the opportunity to trust Him to do it.
Likewise, God needs men to trust Him if He is going to show that He is
trustworthy. He asks men to have faith in Him so that He can prove Himself faithful.
God employs the actions of the men’s faith as the means of showing His
faithfulness. This is why He desires for us to act in obedience to His words; to
step out in faith. He is beckoning us to trust Him so that He can work in and
through us. Our God is saying, “Step out in faith, say “yes” to Me, so that you
may see what I will do!”
*"I was due at a Sunday evening
service in a village six kilometres away. Normally, I would have ridden my
bicycle, but tonight was different. Tonight I was going to walk all the way to
the meeting.
I did too. When it came
time to go home, a friend offered me a ride on his motorbike.
“Not tonight,
thank you. I think I’ll walk.”
He couldn’t
believe it. Nor, later, could my family believe that I had actually been to the
service; they had seen my bicycle leaning against the wall and assumed that I
had changed my mind.
The next day,
at the chocolate factory, I walked each employee back to his post at the end of
our interview instead of sitting rooted to my chair as I had done in the past.
Halfway through the morning my ankle started to itch, and as I was rubbing the
old scar, two stitches came through the skin. By the end of the week the
incision, which had never healed properly at last closed.
The following
week I made formal application for admission to the WEC Missionary Training
College in Glasgow. A month later the reply came. Dependant on space opening up
in the men’s dormitory, I could start my studies in May, 1953.”
God
had stepped in and played His hand. He met Andrew’s faith with perfect faithfulness
and He was only just getting started…
to be continued
In Christ
quiana
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