Hear, Heed, Heal Part 3 George Mueller

Hearing God and heeding Him immediately will heal all your ills. Concluding this series is a glorious example of an ordinary man, Geroge Muller, living out an extraordinary life of prayer and miraculous provision of a Holy God.

George Muller (September 27, 1805 – March 10, 1898), a Christian evangelist and coordinator of orphanages in Bristol, England, cared for 10,024 orphans in his life. He was well-known for providing an education to the children under his care,and giving them a good life.

George had a tough beginning in a dysfunctional home. I can relate to this part of the story. His father was an unbeliever and George grew up a liar and a thief, by his own testimony. His mother died when he was 14, and he records no impact that this loss had on him except that while she was dying he was roving the streets with his friends “half intoxicated.” He went on living a bawdy life, and then found himself in prison for stealing when he was 16 years old. His father paid to get him out, beat him, and took him to live in another town (Schoenbeck).

Mueller used his academic skills to make money by tutoring in Latin, French, and mathematics. Finally his father sent him to the University of Halle to study divinity and prepare for the ministry because that would be a good living. Neither he nor George had any spiritual aspirations. Of the 900 divinity students in Halle, Mueller later estimated that maybe nine feared the Lord.

Then on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of November, 1825, when Mueller was 20 years old, he was invited to a Bible study and, by the grace of God, felt the desire to go. “It was to me as if I had found something after which I had been seeking all my life long. I immediately wished to go.” “They read the Bible, sang, prayed, and read a printed sermon.”To his amazement Mueller said, “The whole made a deep impression on me. I was happy; though, if I had been asked, why I was happy I could not have clearly explained it. “I have not the least doubt, that on that evening, [God] began a work of grace in me. . . . That evening was the turning point in my life.”

Mueller pastored churches but finally came into his main destiny to build orphanages for the thousands of orphans after the wars. He said, “All believers are called upon, in the simple confidence of faith, to cast all their burdens upon Him, to trust in him for every thing, and not only to make every thing a subject of prayer, but to expect answers to their petitions which they have asked according to His will, and in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

One estimate is that Mueller collected about $150 million in today's currency. Thanks to Coty Pinckney for the reference and calculations, using John J. McCusker, “Comparing the Purchasing Power of Money in Great Britain from 1264 to Any Other Year Including the Present,” Economic History Services, 2001 (http://www.eh.net/hmit/ppowerbp/

Mueller never campaigned or asked for funds. He prayed and God supplied millions. He said, “In the greatest difficulties, in the heaviest trials, in the deepest poverty and necessities, He has never failed me; but because I was enabled by His grace to trust Him He has always appeared for my help. I delight in speaking well of His name.”- George Muller

Here's how George Müller set out to ascertain the will of God on a daily basis:

• · I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are over come when our hearts are ready to do the Lord's will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.
• · Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.
• · I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.
• · Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God's Will in connection with His Word and Spirit.
• · I ask God in prayer to reveal His Will to me aright.
• · Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving most important issues, I have found this method always effective.
  

Knowing God's Will - The Key to Everything!

Christ taught us that knowing God's will and living in obedience to that will is the key to it all!

God is the potter; we are the clay. God keeps us spinning on His potter's wheel, shaping and reshaping us as He bathes our lives in tears to make us more Christ-like so He can use us for His will. Surrender daily. Keep your clay moist through daily prayer - prayer that's in accordance to His will.

Prayer *Kay Martin:

Lord,

Thank You for writers who give us this witness of a great man saved by grace living in total submission to You. Lord, teach us how to position ourselves to hear You daily; rest in Your mercy and grace; empower us to dare to live out...heed, what we hear You call us to do. Father God, heal us and make us whole and may our lives shine with Your glory in thanksgiving and praise for you with all that is in us.

In Jesus Christ holy name, AMEN