‘His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it’, John 2. 5
This is the final article of this series. When I started the series, I aimed to ask a range of people to write about a Bible verse that had significantly impacted their lives and had a very sacred place in their hearts. I know there is literature that some people feel is life-changing, but it is rare to come across a book that has had such a universal impact on people’s lives. But such is the Bible. It is the ‘living word of God’, and we should not be surprised at its powerful effect on people’s thinking and behaviour.
As I passed the editorship of Young Precious Seed to Andrew, I did not anticipate writing the final article in this series. But here we are, he asked me. Now, it was one thing for me to ask someone else to talk about a life-changing verse; it’s quite another thing to bare my soul and write about how God has spoken to me. Looking back over my life, I have concluded that God must have spoken to me many times, and I ignored Him. I hope this is not the case with you, but it is possible to be oblivious to the voice of God as He speaks to you through His word. ‘For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not’, Job 33. 14.
The verse I want to share with you is part of a narrative describing the first miracle the Lord Jesus performed. He was at a wedding with His mother and twelve disciples. As you would expect, it was a happy day, but a major problem occurred - they ran out of wine. This was quite a crisis, especially at a wedding! But the Lord Jesus was there, and when He is present, problems can be solved.
But the words that impacted my life were not spoken by the Lord Jesus but by His mother, Mary. You probably know the story but let me remind you of it. When the wine ran out, Mary approached her son, Jesus. She told Him the problem - ‘they have no wine’. The Lord Jesus didn’t agree to fix the problem. Still, Mary, knowing that the Lord Jesus would always do what is right, turned to the people serving at the wedding feast and said, ‘Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it’. She knew that just doing what the Lord Jesus instructed would be the right thing to do.
The reason the verse had such an effect on my life was all down to timing. Like many of you, I had read it for a lifetime, but I heard it in a completely different light that day. You see, God’s word meets our needs and speaks to the circumstances of our lives. I had been struggling with God’s will for my life. My wife and I felt that God was calling us to give up our jobs and serve Him, but we wanted to be sure that we were doing the right thing. We couldn’t just assume that we understood God’s will; we needed concrete evidence. Over time, the Lord had provided lots of evidence and many confirmations. Still, that year, 2006, God spoke to me as I sat at the Belfast Easter Conference. It was straightforward but powerful. Rolly Pickering, an evangelist from Northern Ireland, got up to preach and read this verse. God used his message from John chapter 2 verse 5 to convince me that I had to do what God told me - leave my business and start serving Him daily in gospel preaching and Bible teaching.
Our heavenly Father will not necessarily use the same scripture to speak to you, but just remember - whatever He says unto you, do it!
