Sometimes God gives us a hint of something that is coming in our lives, possibly years later. It's important to assess whether God is calling us to do something at that point, or just preparing us for something in the future. For example, a Protestant minister who was very happy serving as the pastor of a small church, sensed that God was telling him he was going to be a counselor to other pastors. When he told his wife about it, she asked him what he was going to do about it. He answered, “Nothing—God didn’t tell me to do anything, he just told me what was going to happen.” A year later a series of events led him to become a counselor to other pastors.
Here are two situations of foreknowledge that I have experienced…
Missionary Aviation
Shortly after graduating from college, I learned about missionary aviation—people who fly small airplanes into tiny jungle or mountain airstrips to support missionaries in those areas by providing transportation, supplies and emergency evacuations. I got pretty excited about that idea, and even started to fill out an application to join one of the organizations that provide that service. However, at that point I was not even going to church, so when I got to the question asking me to describe when I was born again, I didn’t have an answer.
Fast forward thirty years to when I was a contributing editor to Flying magazine, writing an article on human factors in aviation every month. My articles caught the eye of Steve Quigg, who was vice president of Mission Safety International, a non-profit organization that provides safety training and audits to missionary aviation organizations around the world. He didn’t know if I was a Christian, but sent me a message to see if I would be interested in serving as one of their trainers. I immediately recognized this as the fulfillment of the foreknowledge God had given me many years before, so I immediately accepted, and soon was travelling around the United States and to countries like New Guinea, Kenya, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to provide Error Prevention Training to the missionary aviation personnel in those areas. God had planted a little seed in me, and thirty years later I learned He didn’t want me to be a missionary pilot, but wanted me to provide training to the entire missionary aviation community.
Bicycle Prayer Trip
When I was around eight years old, I loved to zoom around the neighborhood on my maroon bicycle with playing cards clipped to the rear frame to make it sound like a motorcycle, but after that I had no further interest in cycling. Almost forty years later we were living in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, when I suddenly felt compelled to buy a bicycle. I went to a local bicycle shop, and because I am tall, I bought the only bicycle with a frame that fit me—a Schwinn Le Tour. A couple of days later a friend asked me how many speeds it had, and I didn’t even know. I counted three front sprockets and seven rear sprockets, and was shocked to realize it had 21 speeds! As its name implied, it was designed for touring, which was something I had no intention of doing.
However, I felt driven to get serious about riding. The Highway 360 bypass on the west side of DFW Airport was nearing completion, so almost every weekend I would ride miles on this empty highway. After we moved to Mesa, Arizona, I gradually increased my rides from a ten mile “no excuses” morning ride, to 20-30 miles, and eventually worked my way up to 100 miles, which is called a century ride. I also subscribed to a bicycling magazine and learned about how to do longer rides and how to ride as a group.
All this time I was wondering why God the led me to focus on bicycling. I was enjoying it, but it was obvious that this was coming from God, and it seemed like I was preparing for something. I finally got my answer when the leader of a men’s ministry called Christians in Commerce invited me to join a small group of men planning to ride bicycles across the country from San Diego to Jacksonville, praying for Christ to rule in the marketplace in every city and town along the way. I immediately realized that this was what God had been preparing me for. In fact, I was the only rider on the trip who had any knowledge and experience with long distance bicycle riding, so I was able to help with the planning and execution of the trip. To make this even more interesting, I was scheduled to do a seminar in Hilton Head, South Carolina, the day after our arrival in Jacksonville, so I literally rode my bike to work across the country!
Need to Know Basis
In the military, even if you have a secret clearance like I once did, that doesn't mean you can learn about everything that is classified at the secret level. You need to have a reason to learn any information before it is shared with you, called a "need to know". While it seems like lots of people want to know what is going to happen to them, I don't, because I'm afraid that if God lets me know, I will get ahead of His plan and mess it up. For this reason, I prayed for God to put me on a "need to know" basis, and only tell me things when I really need to know them to accomplish His mission for me.
Here are two situations of foreknowledge that I have experienced…
Missionary Aviation
Shortly after graduating from college, I learned about missionary aviation—people who fly small airplanes into tiny jungle or mountain airstrips to support missionaries in those areas by providing transportation, supplies and emergency evacuations. I got pretty excited about that idea, and even started to fill out an application to join one of the organizations that provide that service. However, at that point I was not even going to church, so when I got to the question asking me to describe when I was born again, I didn’t have an answer.
Fast forward thirty years to when I was a contributing editor to Flying magazine, writing an article on human factors in aviation every month. My articles caught the eye of Steve Quigg, who was vice president of Mission Safety International, a non-profit organization that provides safety training and audits to missionary aviation organizations around the world. He didn’t know if I was a Christian, but sent me a message to see if I would be interested in serving as one of their trainers. I immediately recognized this as the fulfillment of the foreknowledge God had given me many years before, so I immediately accepted, and soon was travelling around the United States and to countries like New Guinea, Kenya, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to provide Error Prevention Training to the missionary aviation personnel in those areas. God had planted a little seed in me, and thirty years later I learned He didn’t want me to be a missionary pilot, but wanted me to provide training to the entire missionary aviation community.
Bicycle Prayer Trip
When I was around eight years old, I loved to zoom around the neighborhood on my maroon bicycle with playing cards clipped to the rear frame to make it sound like a motorcycle, but after that I had no further interest in cycling. Almost forty years later we were living in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, when I suddenly felt compelled to buy a bicycle. I went to a local bicycle shop, and because I am tall, I bought the only bicycle with a frame that fit me—a Schwinn Le Tour. A couple of days later a friend asked me how many speeds it had, and I didn’t even know. I counted three front sprockets and seven rear sprockets, and was shocked to realize it had 21 speeds! As its name implied, it was designed for touring, which was something I had no intention of doing.
However, I felt driven to get serious about riding. The Highway 360 bypass on the west side of DFW Airport was nearing completion, so almost every weekend I would ride miles on this empty highway. After we moved to Mesa, Arizona, I gradually increased my rides from a ten mile “no excuses” morning ride, to 20-30 miles, and eventually worked my way up to 100 miles, which is called a century ride. I also subscribed to a bicycling magazine and learned about how to do longer rides and how to ride as a group.
All this time I was wondering why God the led me to focus on bicycling. I was enjoying it, but it was obvious that this was coming from God, and it seemed like I was preparing for something. I finally got my answer when the leader of a men’s ministry called Christians in Commerce invited me to join a small group of men planning to ride bicycles across the country from San Diego to Jacksonville, praying for Christ to rule in the marketplace in every city and town along the way. I immediately realized that this was what God had been preparing me for. In fact, I was the only rider on the trip who had any knowledge and experience with long distance bicycle riding, so I was able to help with the planning and execution of the trip. To make this even more interesting, I was scheduled to do a seminar in Hilton Head, South Carolina, the day after our arrival in Jacksonville, so I literally rode my bike to work across the country!
Need to Know Basis
In the military, even if you have a secret clearance like I once did, that doesn't mean you can learn about everything that is classified at the secret level. You need to have a reason to learn any information before it is shared with you, called a "need to know". While it seems like lots of people want to know what is going to happen to them, I don't, because I'm afraid that if God lets me know, I will get ahead of His plan and mess it up. For this reason, I prayed for God to put me on a "need to know" basis, and only tell me things when I really need to know them to accomplish His mission for me.