He Reveals Deep and Hidden Things
by Mark Buckley, Founding Pastor
Mark Buckley Ministries
A few years ago, I was greeting people in the lobby of Living Streams when I saw a tall, handsome young man. One of our members introduced us and said he was a wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals. I played football in high school and I have been a fan since I was a kid going to 49er games. The Cardinals were in pre-season at the time, with many coaching decisions being made. I immediately told the young guy how much I liked the team and what I felt about their coach, and about a situation they were facing.
He looked straight at me with an expression I have never forgotten. His puzzled face said, “You are a pastor, not a football analyst. You don’t know what you are talking about.”
It did not surprise me that he did not stay with our church.
I’ve been told by friends that I speak with as much authority about sports and business as I do about the Bible. These comments are not compliments. I have not played football in fifty years. I’ve been out of full-time business for forty-five years. I’m a fan who studies these things in newspapers and on TV. I like to share my opinions, but I have no real expertise.
In late 1999, Bill Ford, a humble man with a ministry of intercessory prayer, made an appointment to meet with me. Bill sat down in my office and explained to me that he had been a farmer in Texas. In the early 1990’s, there was a drought and the farmers were struggling to make a living. While he was praying, the Lord spoke to Bill and told him to plow his field into large chunks when he prepared the ground to plant his crops. Bill knew crops could not grow in that soil unless the ground was broken into small pieces. Nevertheless, because it seemed the Lord was persistent, Bill plowed his soil into large chunks.
Not long after he had plowed, there was a huge storm. The intense rain broke up Bill’s soil from large chunks into small pieces which were perfect for planting. Many of his neighbors who had plowed their soil into small pieces lost their soil to erosion when the rain fell so violently. Bill had tried to warn his neighbors and explain to them what God had shown him in advance, but they thought he was crazy.
Bill then explained to me that the Lord had shown him we were going to have a major correction in the stock market. He told me many companies would be wiped out. I did not doubt Bill’s story about the warning the Lord gave him when he was farming. However, the stock market was booming, and I did not think Bill knew what he was talking about. Like his doubting neighbors, I discounted his warning completely.
Four months later, in March of 2000, the dot com bubble burst. I lost most of the money we had in the stock market, because I had moved it into high tech mutual funds. Then, in 2007, Bill gave me another warning about what he saw coming, which I ignored. I told myself I would listen and obey if Bill ever warned me about our situation again. I learned it is not easy to obey a word from the Lord that comes through someone else.
Two years ago, Bill sent me another warning about what he saw coming to America. I tucked this word into my heart. I felt the bubble of our debt-fueled prosperity would burst. We would be called to account for our pride, prejudice and pornography—among other issues. When I first tried to warn some of my business friends about the length and depth of the struggles we are now facing, they treated me the way I treated Bill in 2000. “I respect you, brother, but you are out of your depth on this issue.”
I have no more earned the right to speak as an authority on our economy than I have earned the right to speak to a sports professional about his team, or doctors about their medical practices. With one caveat:
He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.(Daniel 2:22)
Sometimes, to reveal His glory, God shows his servants things beyond their pay grade.