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"What? - You Can't Do That!"
Brother Andrew - Open Doors ministry
If there's anything that can quickly quench the Spirit, it's probably
these four words: "You can't do that!" We must actively resist this
attitude if we are to go where God wants us to go and do what He wants
us to do.
People have been saying those words to me all my life, even before I
knew there was a suffering church. Back in 1953 while I attended the
Worldwide Evangelism Crusade (WEC) missionary training school in
Glasgow, Scotland, I needed to find a place to go for the Christmas
holidays. I couldn't return home to Holland because I had no money, and
we weren't allowed to remain on the campus.
I had spent much of the fall semester in bed with a back problem, and I
had found solace in the writings of the late Oswald Chambers—especially
his classic, My Utmost for His Highest. I had even written to his wife,
Biddy, about the blessing I had received. In her reply she had invited
me to visit her home in the south of England sometime. So as the
Christmas holidays drew near, I phoned her, and she told me I was
welcome to stay there. I didn't mention it to anyone; I just went.
When I got back to school in January and sat down at the dinner table
with the whole group, Stuart Dinnen, the director, asked, "So, where've
you been, Andrew?"
I said I had stayed with Oswald Chamber's family.
"What?" he said. "You can't do that!"
"Maybe not," I replied with a smile, "but I just did it."
To me it was nothing special. But to them it was strange. You do not
just go and visit the family of a great spiritual man such as Oswald
Chambers. Nor do you get up and go to a country that has declared itself
closed to the message of Christ.
But why not? I've been doing it all my life.
Now that I think about it, the Bible is full of ordinary people who went
to impossible places and did wondrous things simply because they decided
to obey God, even when others said, "You can't do that." They weren't
any more qualified for their tasks than we are. But they trusted God to
open the doors and give them the power they needed in their particular
situations.
Joseph go to Egypt as a slave boy and rise to the rank of second in the
kingdom? - "You can't do that!"
Moses part the waters of the Red Sea? - "You can't do that!"
David the shepherd boy defeat Goliath with nothing but a sling and a few
pebbles? - "You can't do that!"
Jonah travel to the decadent city of Nineveh and with one sermon bring
the entire population to repentance? - "You can't do that!"
Maybe not, but with God's help, they did it anyway.
And so can we, wherever we are or wherever God leads us. The door may
seem closed, but it's only closed the way a supermarket door is closed.
It stays shut when you remain at a distance, but as you deliberately
move toward it, a magic eye above it sees you coming, and the door
opens. God is waiting for us to walk forward in obedience so He can open
the door for us to serve Him.
[end of article]
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