ADVENTURES WITH THE VOICE OF GOD
by
Daniel G. White
Sell your car:
In January 1979, after I had returned from death and was in St. John’s
hospital, my father visited me thinking I may be soon to die. I was in
ICU under a watchful eye of 4 neurologists. The Lord was speaking to
me, but recognizing His voice was new to me. I questioned the Lord
why I was in the hospital after having received such a marvelous
revelation from the Bible about not having to ever be sick again:
(Isaiah 53:5 says in the Old Covenant we “are” healed – present tense
– when we look forward to the work of the cross, and 1 Peter 2:25
says in the New Covenant we “were” healed – past tense – when we
look backward to the same work on the cross.)
The Lord spoke within me this revelation was a seed to be guarded
and watered. He told me if I have a seed of faith, I can tell a
mountain that seed’s size to be removed and it will go. As I water the
seed, it will grow. When my faith is the size of a huge mountain, then
that huge mountain will have to go by means of that huge faith. I can
stay healed as I protect and develop that marvelous revelation within
me.
My father now counseled me about my need to come visit my parents
in Germany that summer. He didn’t know the situation of my health,
but he recognized my prognosis was better than originally thought. I
heard him tell me to sell my car to avoid extra expenses I didn’t need.
He told me I could get a military hop on an airplane to Germany.
After being released from the hospital and finishing that first year at
ORU, I attempted to sell my car. I had a Vietnamese family come to
me to buy the car. I could not find the title to the car to transfer it.
They paid half since the car was paid off and I expressed there would
be no difficulty getting a copy from Pennsylvania. The people took the
car to work on its engine, and Penna., said they would put the title in
the mail for me to receive in a couple of weeks.
Short trip with Roger:
I was not permitted to remain in the dormitory since my room and
board was not accessible until the following school year. I made plans
to go to Minnesota to stay with my friend, Roger Oldre, until the car
title came to Oklahoma. I took a large suitcase to Minneapolis with
Roger.
I called daily to discover when the car title would come. While I was
there, Roger’s sister Dolly turned 16. This is a side story which
developed as I was growing in my learning God’s voice. It is integral
to learn your words spoken are as vital as His words heard.
One evening while in Minneapolis, I went with Dolly and some of her
friends from their church to a pizza shop. What I thought were
innocent things were spoken about how Dolly took any dare spoken to
her. I considered those words silly and said she could never bother
me with her antics. Dolly took that as a challenge.
Learning she was to celebrate her 16th birthday, I was able to attain
some dinner/play tickets to a restaurant she enjoyed. I borrowed her
father’s car and received directions how to reach the location. Dolly
assured me she knew where it was.
As we drove on the interstate, our conversation and the traveling time
grew long. Finally, when I asked Dolly for the fourth or fifth time if
she knew where we were, her answer to me was, “Are you bothered
yet?”
When I realized what she had done, I sighed and groaned that she had
not. I crossed the median, and returned to where I could ask
directions. Dolly’s face turned pale as she expressed her sorrow and
how she would never do that again.
We reached the dinner theatre just minutes before the play was to
begin (Camelot), and they rushed a steak dinner to our tables. The
evening was rescued and we both learned a valuable lesson. Mine was
to realize not everyone hears from God, and I am bound to focus on
Him without presumption.
Still in Minneapolis:
I purchased a suitcase from Roger’s father who worked at that
manufacturing plant. Another time I accompanied the Oldre’s to hear
a musical concert at a church, and I purchased a cassette tape of the
performers. These items were events that began to spend the small
bankroll I had from the sale of my car.
I was frustrated my car title had not shown up. Perhaps the person I
had enlisted to help me with my mail had made a mistake. I prayed
and prayed, but no changes came. Then the Lord answered my
prayers. It was not the way I had expected, but I was in the starting
blocks of learning His voice.
Roger left in the night to work with a circus selling cotton candy and
other concessions. He didn’t tell me he was leaving, but his mother
came to me the next day to inform me. She proceeded to let me know
I was not welcome to stay since Roger had left.
Mrs. Oldre was very kind, but the facts were that I could not stay. I
prayed again and again, and the Lord spoke to me again. I had been
sleeping in the basement – a comfortable family room which was
carpeted and filled with nice furniture. The Lord told me to get the
map from the top of a wall unit across the room. I did not know if
there was a map there. I had never seen a map there, but I walked
across the room and reached up to the top of the wall unit which was
above my head.
I pulled down an atlas of the United States, and the Lord told me to
look up Kansas. I turned to Kansas, and He told me to go to
Lawrence. I had only heard of Lawrence, but I didn’t know anyone
there. Suddenly, it came to me to look up in my little address book if I
knew anyone there. Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Prox had moved there because
of a job transfer.
Anyone can say my subconscious memory relayed their name and
address to me. I don’t remember that, and God may very well have
used it. All I knew then was hearing God’s voice speak to me the
name Lawrence. I didn’t know there was an atlas where I couldn’t
see, and I needed a car title delivered to Tulsa which didn’t come. I
needed to settle this financial affair and fly to Germany. God was on
the move, and all I knew was to follow.
I spoke to Mrs. Oldre and told her my plan to leave the next morning.
She gladly agreed to allow me to leave my luggage and their contents
with her as I took a few things in a simple backpack.
Stranded:
The next morning before it was light, I left. The Oldre motel (where
they lived and worked) was on the crossroads of two interstate roads.
It was not difficult to attain a couple of rides, but I ended up in Des
Moines, Iowa, where I stood hitchhiking for nearly 12 hours. I griped
and complained to God because no one stopped.
Then a woman picked me up. She asked me if I was scared to
hitchhike. I told her not since I’d been serving the Lord. She had a
strange look come on her face. I quickly responded, “I don’t mean the
Moonies or anything…” I didn’t talk like that, and I had no reason in
my mind to ever say such a thing. She relaxed and told me her story.
Years before, she had accepted Christ as her Savior. Later at another
church she was taught very deceptive Biblical things. Soon she was
weaned from the Bible and introduced to another book teaching her
the ways of Sun Myung Moon. She became a Moonie. Soon she was
told to go to a camp in the north where she would learn more. She
became a prostitute to raise money for the Unification Church.
Knowing this was wrong, she ran away. After nearly being killed by
them twice, she realized she had to do something to help. Presently
she was involved in kidnapping kids from the Moonies for their
parents, and de-brainwashing them. I asked if she knew that was
against the law. She told me Christians weren’t doing anything.
I fell silent, loaned her the cassette music tape I had purchased in
Minnesota, and I fell asleep. When I awoke, she had to let me out
near my destination because she was going a different route from
mine. As I departed, I thanked her and told her God had given her a
second chance. She should give God a second chance. She said she
would, and I told her goodbye.
As she left, I cried to God that I would never complain again. If I had
to wait 12 hours or 12 days, I would always know He had a plan for
me.
Safe and secure:
I made it to Lawrence and was reunited with my good friends Mr. and
Mrs. Prox who had opened their home to me years before in
Pennsylvania. They rescued me at my lowest point there, and now
they were in the middle of the country when I had no where to go.
After some friendly talk, I decided to make a quick hitchhike trip to
Tulsa to see why the car title had not yet appeared. I didn’t know
what I could do, but I was trusting God with my unknowing with the
hope it would be considered as some type of blind faith He would
honor…I didn’t know anything else to do.
Going there and returning was easy, but there was no answer from
anyone as to what possibly might have happened. When I returned to
Lawrence, the Proxes were very amiable, but they had news that made
me have to leave. Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Prox’s mother, was going to move
in with them, and there would no longer be any room for me.
Communication was made with Pennsylvania, and David Prox – the
middle son – said I could stay there as I tried to get things worked
out. I took a bus out there, using the end of my funds, and was
pleased to see my close friend John Prox, Hythem Shadid (another
friend and a son of missionaries to Lebanon,) and my sister Karen.
The Lord was ministering to me greatly in His Word, but I still didn’t
have an answer about my car title or how I would get a plane hop to
Germany. It was nearly the middle of the summer, and my sister
expressed my parents’ emotions of how they wanted me to stop
waiting and get to Europe. All this began to weigh on me.
Suspense builds:
One evening, Karen told me she would help me in Philadelphia to
obtain my passport. That seemed easy since I had never done this
before. Karen was a missionary to Spain, and so I thought she would
know everything to do.
We took a commuter train into the city. I used the last $20 bill I had
to obtain passport photos. When we went upstairs in the government
building, I had to fill out an application. It asked me for my birth
certificate. I didn’t know I needed it, and remembered it was in the
luggage I had left in Minnesota.
Karen was livid, and we left in a fury to return on the train. She
pointedly let me know that God had not me speaking to me, and I was
totally messed up. She never stopped loving me, but she sure didn’t
want much to have a conversation.
That night, in my downstairs bedroom, the Lord opened up the book of
James to me. I discovered extreme secrets (that are not secrets, but
revelation to me,) and sound branded in my heart James 3:18 which
has become my life verse. While contemplating these things, the Lord
spoke to me.
He told me I was to go back to Philadelphia the next day and He would
give me my passport that day. I didn’t question Him, and I went to
sleep with joy in my heart.
The next morning, I thought it necessary to tell my sister what God
had said to me the night before. She was at Pastor Weaver’s home,
and I walked up to their front porch as Karen was coming out. She
was decidedly upset, but she handed me $20 telling me to get my
passport by myself. She didn’t believe I had heard from the Lord, and
she made it clear I could not get my passport for at least 3 weeks –
even if I obtained my birth certificate.
At that immediate point in time, Rocky, the youth leader at the church
we attended, drove up. He had to go into Wilmington, Delaware to do
some type of paperwork. I exclaimed to him I had to go to Wilmington
to get a copy of my birth certificate (I was born in Wilmington.) Rocky
said he would take me.
I still had to take a train to Philadelphia, but I had to have my birth
certificate first. Rocky started driving, and he took a branch of an
interstate which had never been open to the public before that day. It
took us straight to Wilmington.
Rocky and I both did not know where I had to go, but at our first red
light I saw a building marked the Office of Public Records. I jumped
out of the car, and Rocky said he had to go down the street to do
something else. I went inside and 5 minutes and 5 dollars later, I had
my birth certificate.
Rocky drove up as I came out, and we went back home – except he
first dropped me off at the train station.
Sincerely sure:
I took the train back to Philadelphia retracing my steps. The only
difference was I had my passport, my Bible, and my birth certificate. I
filled out the application and entered a huge line of people.
I was praying as I moved in the line. There were three windows open
to help the people, and each window had a different woman. The Lord
spoke plainly to me that I was going to go to the second window, and
the woman there would not be the woman there when I reach the
window. I didn’t understand, but I wouldn’t stop believing Him.
I continued to pray as my turn came close. When it was my turn, I
had to go to the second window…but it was the same woman…it was
the same woman…my faith sank…my heart grew faint. I didn’t know
what to do…I gently through the application, the photos, and my birth
certificate up on the counter. I said, “I don’t know what to do…” She
said, “Don’t tell me, I’m going to lunch…tell this woman.”
She stepped away, and my faith grew until my chest was about to
bust. Nothing was going to move me now…I did not take her mention
of 3 weeks. I told her what my father told me – I could get a flight
tomorrow at an air force base. My father was a lieutenant colonel in
the air force, and he said so. The woman asked me if I could come
back before 5. I smiled and said, “Yes.” She took my paperwork,
photos, birth certificate, and the money to process it all and left that
window.
I sat down with my Bible and read it the rest of the day. Around 4 my
name was called, and the same woman gave me my passport with the
words, “I don’t know why, but you are the only person I helped today.
Now, I’m going home.”
I made the train back with the passport in my pocket. I was so
thrilled, I went to the church. I found to doors opened, announced
myself to the church secretary who allowed me to play the piano in the
church sanctuary.
I could only turn to the hymnbook and sing one page after another in
praise to God. I think I praised Him loudly for about 20 or 30 minutes
when out of the adjoining door, the pastor’s office came some people
from a meeting. I didn’t know they were having a meeting, and I
profusely apologized for making the noise. They laughed and said
they enjoyed it.
Karen and Rocky both had been in the meeting. When Karen saw me,
she quickly asked if I got my passport. When I showed it to her, she
sang sarcastically, “Miracles always happen…” I smiled, and went
home.
The next day, I made plans to get to the Dover airbase to get my hop.
In the evening, my father called to tell me he was wrong and I could
not get a hop because as a military dependant I was not allowed to
apply for an emergency flight. Another monkey wrench entered the
mix.
Staying power:
I knew the next day there had to be an answer. I didn’t know what
was to transpire, but I spent the day visiting with John and Hythem.
There were a dozen little things to keep us busy, but nothing
important. As the day progressed, I told Peggy, David’s wife, I was
going for a walk. I traversed familiar roads, and I ended at the
Peterkin’s, some other good friends.
Mr. Peterkin and Jimmy, his son, were working in their backyard.
They asked me to help, and I joyfully joined them. After a short time,
we finished. I was invited to stay for dinner. During the conversation,
I told my dilemma. We all prayed concerning it. After dinner, I said I
should walk home. They offered a ride, but I easily declined telling I
needed to pray as I returned.
Evening was setting in as I strolled up to the front door. Peggy was
there and told me I had received a letter. Through my questions came
the answer. This letter had been forwarded from Tulsa to Minneapolis
to Lawrence to here. My car title? No…it was a tax refund check for a
little over $550.00.
I laughed and sang to the Lord. The next day I called TWA to make a
plane reservation to Germany. I had never done this before, but I
knew which airport I had to land. When I hung up with them, the Lord
told me to make a second reservation with another airline. I called
Pan American, and did just that.
Then I called Minnesota and asked them to please send my luggage on
a bus to me…I wired $50 to them to do it. The clock began – my flight
was leaving within 36 hours. Could I possibly receive my luggage?
Everything seemed possible, but I made arrangements to have Peggy
hold on to it if I had to leave.
That very night – not before or after – an engine fell off of a DC-10,
and all flights on that type of plane were cancelled. My reservations
were both on 747’s. I was covered, and I had a flight back to Europe
for my sister (she was leaving that day, but had her flight cancelled
because of that accident.) Karen refused the help, but I was set to
leave.
Swift travelling:
In the time necessary for the luggage to arrive, it seemed impossible.
Yet, I called the bus station in Philadelphia, and the three bags were
there. I scrambled to borrow a car. Hythem was working on his
Porsche (not new or even pretty) and loaned me his powder blue
station wagon. I knew the general area I was heading and sped away.
I decided not to break any speed limits, but I’m sure I did.
I pulled onto Broadway looking for the bus terminal. There it was, and
I parked the car on the side of the road. I ran down two flights of
stairs to where the luggage was. I claimed my bags, and jumped up
the stairs, ran out to the car, climbed in to discover I had parked in
front of the exit for all the Greyhound busses. Not one was stopped
waiting for me, and I hurried away.
Plenty of time for me to get home, right? Hythem would take me to
the airport in plenty of time, right? Maybe you haven’t been reading
this story…I got stuck at a raised drawbridge. Now I had to pray and
pray while I drew on the courage of all the episodes I had just
experienced.
I made it back in time for Hythem to take me to the airport. He had
just finished putting his two-door convertible back together. He
wanted to take it instead of the station wagon. I didn’t argue, but
what a sight that had to be. There was no trunk for the luggage, and
so there I sat with the big, medium, and small suitcases on my lap.
Then Hythem handed me the antenna on a wire so we could hear the
radio.
The top was down, but I was buried by luggage and was holding the
antenna outside the window. Hurry, Hythem, pleeeeeease. He pulled
away, but into a gas station during the days of fuel rationing. There
was a line, and Hythem was sure it was his number turn to get 8
gallons. What fun, right?
Off we went, and we arrived at the airport in enough time for me to
check my bags. I carried my smallest bag, and began the journey to
my point of departure. I heard a rumble behind me as I approached
the gate. It was a giant crowd of people with their own luggage which
formed a mile long (exaggeration) line behind me as I received my
boarding pass.
I made it to Germany. My parents picked me up. We went to another
city and picked up my sister – I met her. Everything’s God miracles,
right?
My father told me he never told me to sell my car. What?