A new monthly column in which Julita Kok shares on living adventurously with God
Many times I hear people say: “Julita, I pray to have your faith. I also want to trust God for the big things”. Oh, how wrong they are. And my answer is always the same. Faith is faith. We have each received the same measure of faith, because you see, it is His faith within us, at work. The only difference is, I have learned through experience to trust Him and to KNOW that He is capable. Let me start at the beginning.
Many, many years ago, I am talking 35 years ago; I had to trust God for the smallest of things. Bread and milk on my table every day. Those many years ago, R10 would do that. Then, when I saw that I could trust God with coming through for me with the bread and milk, I started trusting for R20. R20 could add R10 of electricity or R10 of petrol (gas) for the car to take the kids to school and back.
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And let me tell you, those early years were difficult. God was sometimes just sooooo slow. Truly, I wanted it yesterday and He was thinking of providing only tomorrow. And in those times, I made my own plans. My own plans always involved me ending up owing somebody, somewhere.
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I saw that when I did stick it out, God would eventually come through on day number 110, the 4-days-late Lazarus type of thing. Late, but still on time.
So, I disciplined myself to stick it out and trust Him. And when I did this, I saw the miracles without me being in debt somewhere. So to me, an intelligent person, it was just stupid to not trust Him. So I started trusting Him with all of our illnesses. The moment one of the kids just coughed, I laid hands on them and trusted the God who provides to also be the God who heals. And again I started seeing miracles happen.
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So, God started building a track record with me and I knew that I could trust Him be it whatever in my life. And I trusted for anything and everything. I believed that he is the God He says He is. Not who my church or my friends says He is, I trusted what the Word says about Him and I became very aware of God’s character throughout the years. Let me give a few examples.
I was a singer. I sang at so many events and sometimes the old Pentecostal churches invited me to their services or events. Now let me explain. It does not matter if you believe what they believe, I always respected the church I got invited to. One such a church was very strict on appropriate apparel for men and women. Married women HAD to wear pantyhose to cover their legs. If not, it was a sign of a woman with bad values.
So, being very poor, pantyhose were truly the last thing on my mind when going shopping. So. I asked the Lord for money for pantyhose. I had six young children at the time and truly, pantyhose were just of no importance to me whatsoever. I needed extra money for this luxury. I prayed and trusted, applied “lots” of faith, but no pantyhose walked through the door.
So the morning of the event — I remember it so well — I sat in my car and I spoke to God. “Lord, I just want to put it on record that I showed up. I am here. They are going to chase me away the moment they see that I have no pantyhose on my legs, but may the record show, Julita showed up.”
And so, very nervous, I got out of the car. As I was locking up, I heard a voice…..”I am so sorry, I am so sorry”! I turned around and this lady came running across the parking lot in front of the church saying she is sorry and dumped a big bag into my arms. I asked what is going on and she just said: “I am so sorry, but this morning when I prepared to come to the meeting, God told me to bring you this”.
She turned around and before I could say anything, she went off into the church. I opened the big bag and lo and behold, it was pantyhose of every colour of the rainbow. For years and years I never had to buy pantyhose. I gave away, wore many, but the bag never seemed to finish.
And I stood there and I knew God was bending over with laughter at my surprise. What are the odds of this? You tell me? Why did she not give me money or food or whatever? My need at that moment was pantyhose and I learned that day that He is even the God of pantyhose hehehehe.
The lesson of course was not that He is the God of pantyhose. It was to see His character. A God that loved me so much that pantyhose was important to Him, because it was important to me. That is what I learned that day. His love for me can make me trust Him. And that day, a relationship started that grew into a love relationship of note.
Another time, I only had R50 in my purse. Those days, a R50 was enough petrol for, I would say, two and a half days. I was sitting in church and complaining to God that I only had this R50 for the week ahead. It was not enough for petrol for the week, I needed milk and bread and whatever else.
And then, clearly, I heard him say: “Give it away.”
I responded: “Lord, I just told you it is not enough and now you want me to give away the little that I have?”
”Yes,” He said. “If it is not enough for you in any case, it will have value to someone else. Give it to so-and -so.”
Now, I have come to know the voice of our Lord and I knew that He was serious. I had to sow this money to the person he pointed out. After the service, I walked up to the gentleman and I gave him what I called a” Pentecostal handshake”. This handshake was simply one where you shook hands with someone, but in your hand or their hand, there were notes and you slid it into the other person’s hand so that no one else could see what you were doing. It is not a display for others to see. So, it was this secret handshake.
And as I was giving this gentleman the Pentecostal handshake, there was a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and another gentleman put out his hand to me and said: “Have a blessed week, sister”.
And as I took his hand — oh my goodness!! — it was a Pentecostal handshake!!! I could not wait to get to my car to check what was in my hand! I could feel it was more than one note. With great expectation I opened my hand and there it was! R400. R400!!! What bank gives you this kind of interest? R400 and all I invested was R50. Instantly!!! Not even Bitcoin can do this.
So let me tell you, with miracles like this happening all the time in my life, I learned that this is a Father. He is more than a God. He is a godly Father who cares for me beyond anything and His plans for me are good.
Again, I saw something about His character. I never earned this instant interest. Only because He loved me like a Father. He never promised that I would have no challenges. No, He said I would have plenty, but I need not worry. He will help me out of each and every one of them.
And through the years I have had plenty of challenges, as has every single one of us had But I was never alone. He was there right beside me to make everything work for my good as He promised.
The very bad things, in retrospect, I always realised: ”This was actually a good thing that happened. Not a nice thing at all, but it was good”. And that was only because HE turned it around.
So, the past 35 years of my life have been spent getting to know God. And because I have a relationship with Him and I have got to know Him (what He allowed me to see of Him). I trust Him and I have faith in Him. The same as applies in any friendship or marriage. The more you get to know someone; you will either trust them or know you cannot. I know that I can trust God with my life. All aspects of it.
So a few years ago, I had to believe God for R7, 5 million. And people thought that I could not “do” it. They never understood who HE was and is. It was not a big faith. It was exactly the same as when I believed for R10. The only difference was Him.
He knew the people who had the R10, but He also knew the people who had the millions. The need never moves God. It is the relationship and faith that does. Knowing that He is capable, gave me faith and my faith (which is actually the faith of Christ in me — we will talk about this on another day) stirred Him to work in the hearts of people to sow into what I was busy with.
I knew it was not that I had BIG faith — it was only that I believed in Who He is. His character was steadfast, trustworthy, holy and therefore I could have faith in Him. Not because of what He can do for me, but because of who He is.
And if you can believe the Word and what it teaches on the character of God, you will also be able to move the mountains in your life through Him who strengthens you, even to trust, obey and believe Him.
So, to me, there is no such thing as big faith for bigger things. There is only faith in a God who is capable of doing great things because He is God and loves us. This faith and His love for us is a mixture that, when added together, brings about miracles that will change your life forever.
So what is my advice to people who want “big” faith? Get to know God. Have a relationship with the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Once you know Him, believe me, it won’t be difficult to have faith of any size. You will just KNOW.
Jesus never had faith like we understand faith. He KNEW who the Father was and therefore He was able to do miraculous things. He did not have faith in God — He knew the Father. It is a higher truth than faith even. To know that you know that you know. And relationship brings about this knowing. And. in return, this knowing brings about a faith that seems “big” to people. At the end, it is all love.
My prayer for each and every one reading this, is to experience the character of God in such a way that you will know that you know that you know He is a God who is capable of the impossible. Nothing is too big for God. This I KNOW.
So may you too, in your circumstances, know that there is a living God who is more than capable of changing it all and by knowing, see the change happen right in front of your eyes. Then you too, will be able to say: “He is a BIG God.”
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