LUDHIANA, INDIA  (ANS) -- Did you ever notice that our God is not in a hurry? I did on April 30th 2002 when I was awarded a Bachelor of Divinity Degree from International Theological Open |University, Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, India, after two years of study. The Lord has blessed me with this honor after keeping me in the evangelical field since in 1976.  (Pictured: Rev. Isaac Newton Johnson speaking).

If we go through the Holy Bible, we see it took 40 years for the Prophet Moses to receive his commission to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. It took 17 years of preparation before Prophet Joseph was delivered from slavery and imprisonment. It took 20 years before Prophet Jacob was released from Laban's control. Then the Prophet Abraham and Sarah were in their old age when they finally received their promised son Prophet Isaac from our God of Israel. So the question is why is our God is not in a hurry?

God called each of these Biblical people His chosen servants to accomplish certain goals in His Kingdom, yet He was in no hurry to bring their mission into fulfillment. First, He accomplished what He wanted in them. We are often more focused on the outcome than the process that He is accomplishing in our lives each day. When we experience His presence in our lives constantly, it is certain that one day we will realize that God has done something special in our lives and in our Church through our ministry.

Two months back a young Christian girl with her mother, who are members of our church, rushed to my office at 4 p.m. This young Christian girl is a B.Sc. Nursing Graduate and wanted to apply that day for a job as a staff nurse in the local mission hospital. This was not only the last day, but also the last hour left for applying for the said job and she had unattested testimonials in her hands and tears in her eyes because it was raining very heavily outside.

They requested me to pray and do something to get these testimonials attested from a notary public. As I knew an advocate in the local courts, which is about 4 kilometers away from our church, I hurriedly prayed and then rushed to the court on my bicycle. They had offered me a motor scooter, but I politely refused as I knew that I could come back earlier on my bicycle in the rainy season.

When I entered the local courts, I was stunned to note that the court was closed due to some national holiday and all advocates cabins were shut. I continued to pray for this young girl. When I was passing through the court, I found two advocates sitting in their cabin and they were playing cards. I rushed in and asked them could they attest the testimonials, even though it was holiday. They earnestly agreed on my humble request and attested the required testimonials.

I praised the Lord and was back in my Church office by 4.40 p.m. By now the rain had also stopped. This fortunate girl, with tears in her eyes, rushed the nursing office of the local mission hospital by 4.50 p.m. Within next five minutes she had been able to submit her application for the said job.

After one week the parents of the girl came in my Church office with a box of sweets (candies) as a thanksgiving as she had been selected as B.Sc. Staff Nurse and had begun her duties immediately.

This Christian family arranged thanks giving open prayer meeting in their locality on May 19 (Sunday) evening and invited me to speak on this occasion from the Holy Bible. Apart from local residents of the area majority of the youths, especially Christian staff nurses, were gathered. The Lord gave me Scripture from Psalms 119 - 9, "How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word." The Lord gave me burden to share here that out of one billion population of India, despite Christians are only 2.7%, 70% nurses in India are our Christian daughters, sisters and mothers.

Indian Christians have played a vital role in nation building since 1947. Hence we have our constitutional right to freely profess our Christian faith in this land freely. In this prayer meeting many youths accepted Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and gave their lives to Jesus.

On this occasion, the Lord has clearly spoken to me that He has chosen me to lead the Indian Christian youth boys and girls for church evangelism and church hospital ministries. By doing this great miracle in my ministry the Lord wanted to teach me what exactly He wanted to accomplish through me in my 26 years of Church ministry.

Yes, I can say that our God is not in hurry, but would definitely accomplish His set goals in our lives at an appropriate time. "For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him."