Hard Hearts!

Dalmanutha!

Mark 8:10”And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.”

Now watch, Jesus had already performed a breath-taking miracle where He multiplied 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes that fed an enormous crowd of more than five thousand, the second time we read in the eighth chapter of Mark that Jesus again multiplied 7 loaves of bread and fed around four thousand people who were blessed and satisfied. Observe here, the twelve disciples were with Him all the while: witnessing, watching, praising and enjoying! Immediately after this crusade, Jesus went to the district of Dalmanutha where the Pharisees argue and ask Jesus for a sign from heaven to test him. The Bible says: ‘he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.’ I reiterate, He left Dalmanutha, the district that did not believe in His Power, He got into the boat again and went to the other side! This incident grieved Jesus but something worse happened when His own disciples murmured on the way after witnessing many awesome miracles, that they had just ‘one loaf of bread!’ Jesus looked at them and said sadly, ‘Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?”(Mark 8:17) The disciples were confused by the somber assessment of the number of loaves in their hands; I encourage you today to look at His Hands rather than your own! Listen carefully to what I have to say today!

I had been investing hard prayers, teaching and advice in the life of a particular gentleman who had been attending our meetings regularly for the past few years; however, he never surrendered his heart completely and also dilly-dallied regarding immersion water baptism; I kept insisting and talking, though. Suddenly he stopped coming to our meetings, which caused immense pain in my heart, I was grieving and weeping over his soul. A matured pastor counseled me, ‘sister, you see the outside of that man but God watches the deep crevices of his hardened heart, do not grieve over someone who has rejected God and His counseling.’ This was painful, yet the truth! The Bible says that ‘Jesus sighed deeply in his spirit’, yet, He left Dalmanutha without doing any spectacular miracle there! Very sad!

Friend, you have been reading my testimonies, miracles that I had experienced and many illustrations that I write every day, let them not be just delicious for reading but set your heart to believe this Wonderful God who would do the same for you! Do you hear me? Faith looks at the unseen, faith believes the promises of God rather than be bewildered by the circumstances, faith does not ask for time and season, faith does not question, argue or doubt! Faith endures the pain of delay and uncertainty and never wavers! After relocating to Hyderabad in the year 2009, during this initial period of transition, we were just taking up whatever comes our way.

On a particular day we had to conduct a fasting prayer meeting at a school, but just as we were leaving in the car with our keyboard and other instruments, we were aghast to find that there was no petrol! No petrol in the bike too! No money too! Along with my maid, we tried pushing the car –nothing happened. I’m going to say something that would sound weird, hear it though; we laid our hands on the car, prayed and started the car with faith. We had to make it! We did not want to cancel the meeting! God blessed our faith, the car started and my husband drove the car; however, the fear that it might stop anytime, anywhere did grip us. We reached the spot! Glory! Now, the ordeal of the return journey tormented us! The lady who hosted the meeting would give us Rs.200/- ( yes, that was the exact amount) but that day there was no sign of that amount too! Towards the end of the meeting, as I was praying for the crowd, an old woman not very rich, though, came close to me, stuffed a hundred rupee note in my hand and said, ‘God told me to give this to you!’ We did not have ‘much’ but we had enough to make it home. God bless you!