Isaiah 65: 24 "It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking I will hear." This is a prophecy concerning the new heaven and the new earth.

God has been in the past, and is even in our day, beginning the process of answering our prayers even before they pass through our lips. Consider the following experience:

I have a herd of dairy cows that we have been watering from a bored well. The last few years of less than normal rain- fall have greatly reduced the water flow of our well. We came to the place where the well was running dry about every day. We have a pond of about one and one half acres, so we decided to pump water from the pond to the cow water trough.

This has gone well until recently. Some of our young stock have been drinking from a stream on the back side of our farm. A recent check revealed that their water was completely dried up. This forced us to pump water for them from the pond also. Then we realized that the pond was almost dry. It looked as though our water supply would be exhausted in a few days. What do we do now?

That evening I went to bed early, and as I lay on my bed, I talked to the Lord about our water situation, explaining the situation and asking for wisdom and answers. I had hardly finished my conversation with God when the phone rang. Ray Hertzler was on the line, and he said he was aware of our water problems and wondered if we had come up with a solution. I told him we did not know at this point what we were going to do. Then Ray proceeded to tell me that he, Tim, Ed, Bill, Ronnie and others were working on a plan to haul water for our cattle.

What do you think I should have done at this point? Should I have fallen on my knees and told God to cancel the former request because the problem had been taken care of?

My faith is in God, not in coincidences. All week I had been pondering Psalms 95 and 100 where the Psalmist speaks of praising God with songs and shouts. I was pondering how to praise God with shouts. Following that phone call, praising God with shouts was no longer puzzling to me.

As I lay back on my bed, thinking about what had just transpired and thanking God, I all at once realized that I had a big smile on my face. I have erased that smile several times, but it keeps coming back. This is written three days later, and the men have made good on their promise. Our cattle are drinking water hauled to them in a 3,600 gallon tank.

Thank God and thanks to men who were willing to let God use them to answer my prayer. It is easy to look at events that we have prayed about and received answers and say that they came by natural means or from friends. Many times this is the way God answers our prayers. Let’s give God the credit. I repeat the statement, "My faith is in God, not in coincidences."