This blog is about money.  I was laughing to myself that this must be the quickest way to end my short writing career as a blogger. Not many people in the United States today either agree or fully understand what I want to say, perhaps including me.

The flood of money is not always there for me. It has always been there whenever I hit the hot buttons for God, however. Here is one:

10 If you extend your soul to the hungry

And satisfy the afflicted soul,

Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,

And your darkness shall be as the noonday.

11The LORD will guide you continually,

And satisfy your soul in drought,

And strengthen your bones;

You shall be like a watered garden,

And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Isaiah 58:10-11

After a lot of prodding, I prayed for guidance to go the Middle East for two weeks. It seemed clear there were five reasons to go. I was broke.

God made is very clear over time that I was to go. So, the day my guide on the trip said “Buy the tickets day after tomorrow,” I knew God was going to have to come through. I had no credit on my cards. It was a bad financial scene at the time. I prayed. God said in a picture to use a particular card. I saw myself walking comfortably through this card, as if it was a portal. So… I thought maybe I was crazy, or maybe God was going to do something. No credit on that card, however, was there that day. Zero.

Two days later, I called my credit card line, just for grins. There was almost exactly $1400 credit, which was exactly the amount for the ticket. I know what some of you are saying-my friends already told me-I should not be in debt and God does not do things like that. He does and I am telling you why. The debt is another story for later.

Thus, I had a ticket to the Mid East during Ramadan and it was also the U.S. presidential election week, so our destination was on terrorist alert. I called the State Department and they told me how to survive the trip. I also had no money for incidentals like food for two weeks or in the airport.

The morning I was to leave, I got up and felt God say, “Leave early.” We can always ignore the still small voice, but then my friend called and said, “I think we should leave early. What about you?” We were driving 2.5 hours to the airport, so this was important. I said yes and we did. It was also Sunday, so after early church we left, and it was a day I normally never turn on my cellphone but it was on. About an hour into the trip, the phone rang, out in an area that had questionable service.

“Sir, I can’t believe it. You are the only one on the flight to London that I have contacted. Would you be willing to leave early?” I said yes of course, but we would only have one hour to get on the new booking at the airport and that was not enough for security and immigration, I said. “Oh, no sir, we can get you through, just come.” My friend was number two as I handed him the phone.

At the huge international airport, the woman warmly thanked me for taking the early flight: 1) She handed me $200 in cash, 2) She upgraded me to what was almost first or business class on British Airways-a small quiet cabin and a seat that fully reclines. Unbelievable.

That was the beginning of an unbelievable trip also. I cannot tell you all the things I did. However, we reached out to the truly needy. One example- man I prayed with for healing of his heart: he had come to Christ through a dream. Thoughtlessly and against their word, someone had told his story in the West and it got back-he had become a Christian and “flaunted it in print.” This was a country where this was against the law, at least against the religious law. He lost his job, was imprisoned and tortured, and forgotten by his friends. He was jobless for a year and starving at times.

So, I prayed with him for healing of the anger. He looked at me and asked, “Why should I. Hasn’t God abandoned me?” I told him God loved him so much he had sent me on a 35 hour plane ride miraculously without money to bring the healing. Who else but God would put me up to it? He broke into tears and the Holy Spirit rushed into his heart and took the anger away. He was so happy to be talking with God again. “I missed you so much, Lord,” he said. I will never forget that one.

So, for two weeks we worked above ground, underground and could not even drink water in public without arrest. One day, the locals took us to the only farming region in that desert. I had a deja vu of a dream-it was an oasis in the desert, and it literally was the words of Isaiah 58-a well watered garden!!

At the end, after coming home, I had about $180 in my pocket, maybe more, of the original $200. We had eaten out a lot. We had bought groceries for our hosts. I bought a few gifts. I had gone thousands of miles on a credit card with no credit and netted plus dollars. I mean, I was stunned. My friend and I tried for weeks after to spend the rest of our money and could not easily. We finally met a Starbucks and celebrated God’s amazing work. He was broke too before we left. We did many important things for God’s Kingdom, and we were on the expense account.

So, why then and not other times of ministry? We had stumbled upon the thing that opens up the treasuries of heaven. We did not fully realize it until God did this more times and I finally saw the key to the treasury this year clearly. He really-literally- means, that if we reach out to the truly afflicted soul, He will miraculously provide.