"as The Spirit Of The Lord Works Within Us..."

ILL. Beth Moore is a well-known Christian author & Bible teacher. Listen as she tells about something rather strange that happened to her a few years ago.

As I sat there in the Knoxville Airport, waiting to board a plane, I had a Bible on my lap… I’d had a marvelous morning with the Lord. I say that because I want to tell you it is a scary thing to have the Spirit of God really working in you.

You could end up doing things you never would have done otherwise. Life in the Spirit can be dangerous for…your ego. Let me tell you what happened.

Sitting there, I tried to keep from staring at the old man, but he was such a strange sight. Humped over in a wheelchair, he was skin & bones, dressed in clothes that obviously must have fit him better when he was 20 or 30 pounds heavier. His shoulders were so bony that it looked like the coat hanger was still in his shirt.

The strangest part of him was his hair & nails. Stringy gray hair hung over his shoulders & down part of his back. His fingernails were long. Clean, but strangely out of place on an old man.

As I tried to imagine what his story might be, I found myself wondering if I was having a Howard Hughes sighting. But, of course, Howard Hughes has been dead for a long time now.

So there I sat trying to concentrate on God’s Word to keep from thinking about the old man in the wheelchair. But all the while my heart was growing more & more overwhelmed with a feeling of concern for him.

I’ve walked with God long enough to learn that when I begin to feel what God feels, something dramatic is bound to happen. And it may even be embarrassing. I immediately began to resist because I could feel God working on my spirit & I started arguing with God in my mind.

“Oh no, God, please no. Don’t make me witness to this man. Not right here & now. Please, Lord! Not now. I’ll sit down next to him on the plane & do it then.”

Then I heard it… "I don’t want you to witness to him. I want you to brush his hair.” The words were so clear. My heart leapt into my throat, & my thoughts spun like a top. Is God giving me a choice between witnessing to this man or brushing his hair? “All right, God, I’ll do it. I’ll witness to him. I get the point. I’ll go & witness to him right now.”

Again as clearly as I’ve ever heard an audible word, God seemed to write this statement across the wall of my mind. “That is not what I said, Beth. I don’t want you to witness to him. I want you to go brush his hair.”

“But Lord, I don’t have a hairbrush. It’s in my suitcase on the plane. How can I brush his hair without a hairbrush?” And in that instant 2 Timothy 3:17 flashed into my mind: “I will thoroughly furnish you unto all good works.”

"I stumbled over to his wheelchair, knelt down in front of him, & asked as gently as possible, “Sir, may I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?” He looked back at me & said, “What did you say?” “May I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?”

To which he responded in volume ten, “Little lady, if you expect me to hear you, you’ll have to talk louder than that.” I took a deep breath & blurted out, “SIR, MAY I HAVE THE PLEASURE OF BRUSHING YOUR HAIR?”