Faith--Believing God

I had a front row seat to watch my husband exercise amazing faith in God multiple times, and when he was alive, it was so easy for me to believe God. However, watching someone exercise faith and exercising faith yourself are polar opposites! Since his passing, I have experienced these exercises in faith while going forward with the Tom Williams Evangelistic Ministries, and they are definitely not easy exercises.   In fact, I have found them more difficult than the conditioning exercises I went through for the sports I played in high school and college. However, when I recalled my husband’s acts of faith, I was helped and strengthened to also believe when things looked impossible.

I remember one time, shortly after we were married, that he was looking at a motor home to buy for us to travel in from meeting to meeting.  To my eyes and way of thinking, it was over the top impossible and ridiculous to even consider; however, there we were at Camping World looking inside a Class A motor home, and this was not even a brand new one. I wasn’t verbalizing my incredulity, but I have never had a “poker face”; and so, I’m sure it was quite apparent to my husband that I thought this was all terribly crazy. He asked me to kneel down with him and ask the Lord for His guidance and provision, which I did. While my husband was praying out loud, I was inwardly conversing with the Lord questioning the wisdom of this idea when suddenly the Holy Spirit, within me, spoke to my heart that everything would be ok, at which time, I began to weep tears of relief.  My poor husband had no idea that I was crying tears of relief, only that all of the sudden his wife broke out into a torrent of tears.  He said to me, Honey, if you're that opposed, we can wait on this. To which I answered, No, it’s ok, the Lord just told me it would be ok and just follow you as you follow Him.  We left there the owners of a class A motor home.  The Lord did faithfully pay for it, and then,11 years later, when we no longer needed it, He brought a buyer for it in answer to prayer.  Over the 18 years of our married life, I witnessed my husband believe God for the impossible and expect God to do the great and mighty things that He promised He would do if we would only believe.

Last year toward the end of summer and on into fall, the finances for the ministry were severely lacking to the point that I began to question whether the Lord truly wanted me to be doing this—carrying on the Tom Williams Evangelistic Ministry.  I sought counsel from one of the board members, and he counseled me to pray for confirmation, and keep moving forward as the Lord provides; so that’s exactly what I did.  Seven weeks later, the Lord spoke to me from His Word out of Matthew 14, most specifically from verse 31, these words: O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Then a couple days later, He spoke again to me from his Word.  This time from Luke 8 and specifically from verse 25 the words, Where is your faith?  My only answer to both of these questions the Lord asked me was, I don’t know! It was easier to follow my husband than do it alone. A couple more days later, the Lord gave me confirmation to continue the ministry.  Financially it looked impossible—but God!  One week later, He sent in all that we needed to get back into the black with money left over. In December, the income got low again, and I was going out of town to my brother’s for Christmas. I asked our Father to meet the need before I left, which He did on the day I left. 

Once again we are financially where I’ve seen the ministry when my husband was alive—low to non-existent.  I heard him tell secretary after secretary, Just write out the checks, when there wasn’t any money to meet payroll or pay a bill.  And payrolls were met and bills were paid.  It is a strength to my faith to not only go to the Word of God and remember His promises, but it is also a strength to my faith to remember how my husband exercised faith throughout his Christian life and ministry.  It helps me when I am being exercised to believe God.  

God exercises all of His children to believe and have faith in Him and His promises.  We all are put through trials of faith, and I’m sure some of you reading this are right now in a trial of faith concerning something in your life that looks impossible.  My husband’s book, Prayer and Faith, the Life of Dr. Tom Williams, has been a help and encouragement to so many who have read it.  I believe it will be a help to you as well to read about an ordinary man who, through the grace of God, learned to believe God in the trials of his faith, and will encourage you to also believe God.  My husband always said, God is just looking for someone to believe Him.  His book can be purchased through our office by calling 812-952-4245, through our website store at twwm1.com, or on amazon.  

Below is an exerpt from the book, Prayer and Faith, the Life of Dr. Tom Williams

God once again showed His power to provide as  I was leaving a meeting in Tacoma, Washington, and traveled on my way home to Southern California. I only had $1.68, and the Lord asked me, “Tom, can you drive 1,200 miles on a $1.68 worth of gas?”

I replied, “If you tell me I can, then, yes, I can.”

His next words to me were, “Let’s go,” and I started toward home. I had some gas in the tank and drove until it ran out. I pulled into a gas station and told the attendant that I had $1.68  and no more because in those days gas stations weren’t self-serve.

Shortly after I asked him to give me only $1.68 worth of gas, the Lord sent a convey of cars to that station. The service station attendant was frantically running from car to far, filling their tanks. He had not shut off my  pump, but he had left the nozzle in my car and filled my tank. When he came back, he said, “That’s okay, Sir. It’s my mistake.” That tank of gas took me into northern California along what was known as Highway 99. I was passing through  small city and stopped for a red light when I heard someone call my name. I looked to my left and saw a man I had met the year before while I had been preaching in the church he attended. He motioned for me to pull over to the curb, which I did. He walked over to my car and said, “When I saw you just now, the Lord laid on my heart to buy you a tank of gas.” We drove to a gas station; he filled my car with gas, then turned and asked me, “Are you as hungry as your car?” 

I told him, “I really am.” We left the gas station and drove to a restaurant where he bought me a wonderful lunch before I started on my way toward home again. God miraculously provided for my gas all the rest of the way home, and I pulled into my driveway having only spent $1.68 on gas.

Thoughts.....

Who might need this encouragement today? Consider sharing it with someone walking a similar path.

If this spoke to you, leave us a heart! ❤️ We'd love to lift you up in prayer!