Every day that passes brings a greater appreciation of just how good and merciful our Creator is and the immense privilege of being yoked with Jesus. A yoke that is easy and a burden that is light, if we pull in the same direction (submitting to God). Dragging a load over hills and through valleys but never without Jesus. I have found that more often than not, God wants to do things with us instead of for us. It is in the “with” that we grow and see Him more clearly.
It has been a busy 365 days with many spiritual challenges. Today a photo popped up on my phone from a year ago, when my wife and I , fasted and prayed for 7 days for a person whom received a cancer diagnosis. We engaged immediately and it upended some of our plans as we headed to a location to spend Thanksgiving . On route we prayed and worshiped in waves. As we looked over God’s creation my wife suddenly said, lets pull-over onto that hill that the paved road cuts through. When we stopped at the top, I looked left and noticed a wooden cross embedded within the rock face. We knew God was listening. A year later the person we fasted for and continued to pray for with many others throughout the year to follow, returned to work.
Thank you Lord, that you hear us when we call out in faith about our health.
During this year of 2025, I also turned 50 years old. Man it seems like the blink of an eye since I were in my twenties. Importantly, I still feel that way in spirit and am looking for the body to fall in line (still waiting).
Our wedding anniversary (27th) and my birthday is on the same day. I decided that I wanted to take a road trip to the Tuscon AZ area and spend my birthday in the historical western town of Tombstone, since I was probably half-way there (just kidding). When we booked a room in town about 5 months beforehand, we didn’t know if we would be able to go, but the Lord said you will. We did make it, while the longest government shutdown in history played out. Working for ourselves, we experienced a less busy time because of this.
Our road trip took only 5 days but we a had a great time. I am thankful to God, who didn’t have to, but showed up anyway. Not for work, but for faithfulness. In my book Ever Present Communicator: Engaging with a Dynamic God I share how God wants to communicate with His followers and my journey of drawing closer to God. Much of that journey God decided to re-validate during this trip. That was His gift to my wife and I, because He is good and close to those who remain faithful (even in an imperfect manner).
As a reminder, there are many ways God communicates to His followers. Myself, with a trained engineers mind, asked God to speak to me with the number 7. The numbers 27 (faith , discernment) and 47 (kingdom, rule or reign) feature prominently in my book as being part of major life changes.
As we loaded the car for our day long journey to Arizona a little tab came off the bag of fruit we were carting along. Tab 5247 printed at 00:47.
As a means of passing time, while we drove vast distances through the country side, I decided to take my amateur radio with me. I used an iPhone app to look for a radio repeater frequency in the New Mexico area. The version number of the app that day was 25.09.29 147. In my spirit, I was starting to expect something special to happen amateur radio-wise during our trip as we listened to some local conversations.
When we arrived at the first hotel in Arizona, the odometer reading was 88872.7 Jesus Christ is linked to 888 in the Bible. Now off-course with this sign God sort of raised our expectations and we were hopeful to get a relevant room number. It did not happen…at first. When we opened the door to our allocated room, it was clear that the room was not serviced since the prior occupants left. We went back to the front desk and they re-assigned us to room 407!
The next morning I entered our tourist destination for the day into the map app. The distance from our lodging, 47 miles.
The second day, I entered the destination for an unplanned tourist stop at the Titan II missile museum. The distance from our lodging, 27 miles.
Arriving at the museum, I noticed a sign reading 57-17 on the fence. This is the site number from back in the sixties. Why is this relevant : XX717 is the VIN number of the vehicle I normally mount my amateur radio equipment on and XXX147 is the license plate of that vehicle. Next, we noticed a huge HF antenna used by the site back in the sixties. On the fence there was another sign, explaining that amateur radio operators connect to this antenna on occasion. After the museum tour I gained access to this huge antenna and had a blast with my HF radio. Remember the radio app version of 147 raising my expectation two days before.
Once we were back home, I looked back in time and discovered that my late father visited Tombstone Arizona on 09-27-1980. I stood on the same ground 45 years and 27 days later, on the 297th day of 2025 – my birthday.
Why do I continue to share my experiences, which is hardly world changing and maybe only important to me ? Simple, obedience to do what was asked of me. To relay this message to everyday people, like me.
If you are a skeptic (that’s ok) and maybe only believe in salvation, but not in an active relationship with God available to those who seek Him; I urge you to try and find an explanation for all these interactions that would be statistically plausible. Only a God that exists outside of our time domain, that created the universe that we live in and know us intimately, can do that.
I urge you today to consider being set free and yoked with Jesus; walking with Him brings a kind of fulfillment that just asking for stuff from Him can not.
I thank God for being available to us all and being faithful to those who choose Him, either in this life or the next. I thank Him for everything good in my life, even when it hurts at times.
Isn’t it great that Jesus – the Son of God; the ultimate original source of knowledge, wisdom and guidance is already available to us in perfect form, and isn’t yet to be developed…..
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:8-9
Also see the related Infinite God I and Infinite God III blogs.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving.