2 coats and a blessing bonanza....

So 1 Samuel 15:22
"And Samuel answered,
" What pleases the Lord more: burnt offerings and sacrifices or obedience to his voice?
It is better to obey than to sacrifice.
It is better to listen to God than to offer the fat of sheep."

I finally found a consignment shop in our area recently and was cleaning out some clothes to consign. I had a stack for the store and a stack for give-away. As I took the last load to the van I remembered I had a couple of coats I was ready to let go of so I grabbed them too. One long red one, and one long black one.

I loaded the coats into the van and felt a strong impression that they weren't to go in either of the piles - they were not to be consigned or given to Goodwill - I was to give them to my friend Rebecca. It was a strange thought because I knew they wouldn't fit her and they didn't really look like her, blah, blah, blah... But then her mom came to mind - that didn't make any more sense than the original idea - they wouldn't fit her either, but maybe....so I kept them in the van.

I dropped off the clothes for consignment, I dropped the rest of the clothes off at Goodwill and eventually found only 2 coats left in my trunk. When I would remember they were back there I'd start the whole questioning process again: "Why Rebecca? Why her mom? This is so strange, but ok God".

A couple of weeks ago I finally remembered to give them to her. She had no idea what to do with them either - but I explained that it was very strong on my heart to give them to her or to her mom - and that I just needed to obey - would she please just take the coats, pray about it and let's see what happened.

She took them and eventually passed them to her mom explaining that we were all just praying and obeying and waiting . So her mom prayed about it, and the Lord finally put a lady on her heart. Yesterday she delivered them.

As Rebecca relayed the story to me today - her mom walked in with the coats to a woman who received them in utter amazement. You see that woman had just prayed "God if it be your will I'd like a red coat and a black one for funerals".

The God of all creation hand delivered those coats by way of 3 women who tripped their way thru hearing and obeying and now get to bask in the blessings of getting it right!

Isn't that so amazing?
and
wouldn't it be even more amazing if we got to be a part of God's intentional, very specific, crazy fanatical love for His people and all the cool ways He hears and answers their prayers far more often.

I really hope I get to be a part of something like that again - you see the bags I took to Goodwill (my pseudo-sacrifice) - that's a cool thing to do and I pray over them and all of that....
but...
the 2 coats that journeyed me thru obedience - that was off the charts.

To obey is better than sacrifice.

Oh and Rebecca you should know that I prayed this morning during my workout that God would let me know that I could actually hear His voice....so thanks for being a part of Him answering that prayer for me.

And, oh by the way - weren't you the one that told me between chips and salsa a couple of weeks ago that you wanted to experience the process of knowing you heard Him, and did what He asked....

So I wonder who were the coats about really?

only God.