You Won't Have to Ask

I am a hot mess over here. The goodness and grace of my God on active display right in front of me is too much to take in.

My family and I (to be clear, that’s me, my wife Jill, and our five incredible children) have been on the road of fostering children for about a year now. In that time, God has wrecked and gripped our hearts. We’ve watched him go great lengths to putting a family back together, and we’ve been able to be a bridge of love and hope to some beautiful people we now call ‘friends.’

Now, as we foster our second precious princess, God has rendered us speechless. It took us exactly 3 seconds to fall in love with her. She is amazing! When we got our little girl (who will turn two at the end of January), we also learned she has a three year old brother. Because of the demand for foster homes is larger than the number of families taking them in — a reality we are believing God is changing as he inspires regular people like us to know they can be a difference — our foster daughter has been separated from her brother.

When we heard this, our response was practical but unemotional. We would gladly take her brother in as well, but we did not have adequate transportation for another addition to our family. We have one vehicle and it seats eight, the precise number of our crew.

As we began asking God if or how He wanted to go about meeting our transportation need, something unexpected happened. He began to grip our hearts at random times — all throughout the day — for her brother. We found ourselves praying for him. One morning as I sat quietly, I saw what I imagine his face to look like and broke down into tears. We moved from being “willing” to take her brother to “compelled.” We believed with tenacity that God wanted our family to love him like we love his sister.

There were two major obstacles though. First, we didn’t have even any prospects of adequate transportation. Not even a possible “next step.” We were out of resources and knew no options. Second, we received word that the judge over their case had rightly grown impatient with the siblings being separated and was literally days away from ruling to place the two of them in another home. No resources. No time. Awesome.

Jill and I began to pray and I felt conflicted about what we were to do. As he has so many times before, my spiritual father Len showed up to ask how he could pray for me. As I explained the situation, he brought counsel directly from heaven.

He shared about two men of faith who God greatly blessed with miraculous provision: D.L. Moody and George Mueller. Moody, he told me, had the faith to ask people to partner with him and God moved. Mueller had the faith to wait before the Lord. He prayed with me that I would know which God was calling us to.

While he prayed over me, I had a vision of an animated purple dragon, like something out of a kid’s cartoon. I didn’t understand it right away, but hours later at home, I asked God and heard this:

“Purple is a color reserved for royalty. You and your family are MY sons and daughters. Princes and Princesses. The cartoon drawing is because I am answering your prayer about these precious kids. And a dragon is a supernatural being. I will meet your need supernaturally.”

Then, the Holy Spirit floored me by reminding me something God said to me while I was getting ready for work that morning but I had forgotten until this moment. He said: “You Won’t Have to Ask.”

That settled it. Our family gave it to God and continued praying that God would somehow open a door. Imagine my great amazement when, 24 hours later, I found myself on a conference call with two people who both had God speak to them individually about a call to action concerning my family’s need, which they only realized as they talked together. As the words came across the line, I was moved to tears: “We’re going to buy you a car.”

And that they did. Not just any car, mind you. This was an extravagant gift. One reserved for royalty. It was provided for supernaturally. And it would allow a sweet little prince to find a place to belong in our home, reunited with his sister.

As I write this, we are preparing for a reunion that is certain to bring more tears. Our foster daughter’s brother comes home TODAY, and our family — that a week and a half ago had seven members — becomes nine. And we continue our journey of asking God to heal and reunify the family they were originally born into. We get to do this work of restoring dignity. With God. Just like he always wanted.

So, what does that mean for you? There are dreams God has for you and your family, too. Bold dreams. Beautiful dreams. Is he calling you to have the faith to ask, or the faith to wait? Both are amazing.

And just in case you think God did all of this because of how “well” we believed or how impressive our demonstration of faith is — think again. Just hours before God’s answer burst on the scene, I was in a field praying these words: “God...I know you work miracles. I know you are stirring our hearts for these kids, but if I am being honest, I am not expecting you to do anything.” I wasn’t being manipulative. And this wasn’t a brief pause before a rousing resurrection of confidence. My expectation was admittedly weak. But here’s the thing: my faith doesn’t need to be in my faith. It needs to be in the one who is faithful. And there I was, as fragile as I was, clinging to him. And it was — and is — enough.

What dream is he gripping your heart with?

What is he calling you to ask?

Where is he calling you to wait?

I have no idea how many turns and twists your story will have, just as I cannot predict those awaiting me. But I know He who promised is faithful.

I cannot end this post without one further place to ask you to pray or act: partnering to foster or adopt. James wrote that “religion that is pure and undefiled is this: to look after widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” Currently, if one family in every three churches were to make the decision to open their home and foster, every child would be in a loving home as God does the work of reunifying families. One family in three churches. It may not be everyone’s calling to foster, but I am confident there are so MANY more who were born for this and just need to be stirred and invited. If that’s you, consider this a formal invitation. :)

Others can be called like our precious friends to give to this need. Our agency, A Door of Hope, is AMAZING and they need both: families to foster and families to give. God is waiting right now to astound you. Let him.