“The Lord shows me that someone here is suffering from depression and sugar diabetes,” said Bob as we stood soaking in one of those silent moments of God’s glory after our time of worship.

Bob is a simple guy with childlike faith. The teaching session on the gifts of the spirit challenged all fifteen of us in the class that day but Bob stepped out like Peter when he tried to walk on the water.

Wow, this is it, I thought. A supernatural word of knowledge like we’ve been learning about is materializing in our midst. My eyes squinted imagining what would happen next. 

Silence possessed the room like lead air. My head bowed in its weight. I raised my hands and held my breath. We waited. Nothing happened. 

Surely someone will respond to this miraculous offer of healing, I thought. 

We waited.

That person must be stunned by the supernatural Glory, like I am right now. 

We waited some more. 

Maybe the Glory has made them speechless.

No response. We kept waiting.

Maybe they’re too scared to speak up. 

The silence became awkward like the lull in a conversation. 

We waited. It grew uncomfortable.

“And it’s me!” blurted Bob. “I’m the one with depression and I have sugar diabetes.” 

My breath heaved out like a popped balloon. My hands fell. Squinted eyes stayed shut. Painfully embarrassed for Bob, I couldn’t look. My head dropped again, this time for the deflating experience. Bob just gave a word of knowledge for HIMSELF!

Our wise instructor translated the embarrassment into a teachable moment. He put his hand on Bob’s shoulder.

“Thanks for that Bob. Stepping out by faith is how we learn.”

He took us to 1 Corinthians 13:9–12; “For we know in part and we prophesy in part … for now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face.”

“Spiritual gifts come by exercise,” said our spiritual coach. “Scripture tells us to eagerly desire spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 14:1, NIV). You gotta go after ’em.”

“God doesn’t despise baby steps. Any act of faith pleases Him. But without faith it’s impossible to please him,” he said, quoting Hebrews 11:6. 

Since then, I’ve been blessed in manifesting various spiritual gifts. I’ve learned they operate by a number of different signals like intuition, pictures in my mind, feelings in my body, etc. But, just like our teacher taught us back in 1974, they require the courage of faith. 

I’ve learned it’s like a batting average: nobody bats a thousand. Your first “at bats” could be strikeouts but you can’t get discouraged. You gotta keep swingin’. There’s nothing wrong with stepping out and admitting you might be wrong. There’s something right with attempting to obey God.

Miracles are His pleasure. We feel that pleasure when we help someone with His power. 

Our mentor dismissed that day’s session by looking at Bob and saying, “God bless you for teaching us something today, Bob.”

Everyone smiled, including Bob.

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