We were no strangers to seeing the Lord work in various and diverse ways. A few examples may suffice to explain.
When our children were younger, we would invariably leave England for the Continent as soon as the summer school holidays started. We would put a roof rack on our estate car, attach a trailer and line the back with sleeping bags for our four young boys. We would then head to Dover for an over-night channel crossing with the intention of spending a glorious month of camping in either France or Spain. We would always commit the travelling to the Lord each day, but this did not mean that sometimes we experienced a few testing moments. On one occasion we were returning home overnight attempting to catch an early morning ferry. Fuel was so low that the petrol gauge had been registering empty for mile after mile after mile but each petrol station we passed was closed. We eventually reached the channel port and thanked the Lord for that, but I also remember asking that we would at least be able to get on the ferry without running out of fuel: I had visions of the engine spluttering and finally stopping while slowly moving forward in a long queue of other vehicles waiting to board or even worse on the uphill slope actually entering the ferry. None of this happened and upon reaching England we still had the experience of passing even more petrol stations which had not as yet opened up for that day’s business. When we did eventually find a station open, we found that the amount of fuel we finally put into the tank was indeed the manufacturers stated tank volume – we had indeed been travelling on an empty tank.
This must have made such an impression on our youngest child that years later he decided to put the Lord to the test. He had not at this point made a real commitment to the Lord but clearly, he was thinking through the whole question as to whether there was a God or not. Travelling one day on his motorcycle back home from London to the Midlands he decided that if, at the end of the journey he still had a full tank of fuel this may help to make up his mind. Consequently, calling into his local filling station for fuel he was surprised to find that, although he was convinced, he had filled his tank, and it was indeed full, the attendant said that he had not had any fuel at all. After an argument he decided that he would pay anyway but this too was refused outright. Had God passed the test? It was some time much later that he eventually came to faith and this episode seemed to be just a step on the way.
My wife and I were on our way south for a faith sharing weekend. We were travelling in the car of a fairly sceptical, Christian couple, discussing the working of the Holy Spirit in the everyday life of the believer when the car slowly began to lose power and eventually came to a standstill, the engine spluttered and finally stopped. Lifting the bonnet, I felt the Lord telling me to simply put my right hand down towards the right-hand side of the engine then tell our friend to go and start the car. I think he thought me rather mad but reluctantly did as I asked. Much to his surprise the engine burst into life immediately. His only comment was that he would take it into the garage the following Monday; he never did, and the car worked perfectly without any more problems.
On another occasion while on furlough we had borrowed a car to visit some friends some distance away. The car was a bit of an old banger but suited our purposes. On our return journey just before nightfall it started to rain. Turning the windscreen wipers on caused the car electrics to go ‘hay-wire’ so much so that I was hesitant to drive further in the prevailing weather conditions. Again, I felt the Lord distinctly tell me to place my hand on a small box on my right-hand side towards the pedals. This I did, the electrics suddenly corrected themselves and we continued our journey without any more problems.
I have a distinct fear, yes, I am still quite human, of breaking down on a motorway. Once, when travelling to an evening service at Chorley Wood. The car started to misfire rather seriously some two hundred yards before the slip road onto the M1 motorway. I immediately stopped, suggested we all pray, and decided that if the car did not misfire just before entering the slip road we would proceed down the slip road, otherwise we would turn round and make for home. Well, I must admit to being quite nervous but since the engine did not misfire, we carried on without any problems. Just as we were leaving the motorway there was such an enormous explosion and cloud of smoke from the exhaust that I immediately thought we really were in trouble, but whatever the initial problem was that was the end of it and we had no such problems of this nature with the vehicle again.
I could quote many more seemingly unexplained car ‘happening’ which the Lord seemed to have had a hand in and to which I can only assume are meant to be faith builders. Incidentally we still have the occasional car problem which needs human intervention to sort out!