Miracles in Enemy Territory • followHIM Favorites • March 23-29 • Come Follow Me

Hey, welcome to Follow Him Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story

to go with each week's Come Follow Me lesson. John, Exodus 1 through 6. You have a story

and I'm ready to hear it. Yeah, we remember that both Moses and Enic said something similar

in the proletariat price that I'm slow of speech. I'm of a slow tongue. I can't talk.

Well, in Exodus 4, 12, the Lord says, now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth and

teach thee what thou shalt say. Interesting phrase, I'll be with thy mouth. I thought,

what is that gift of tongues? We helped him. I do have kind of a gift of tongue story.

You know Hank that I am intrigued by World War II history. I have a book called A Distant

Prayer. It's by Joseph Banks and Jerry Barrelman. Elder Ben Banks was Joseph Banks. I believe

the youngest brother. When I read this book, I thought, okay, this is not like Hogan's

heroes. He was on a B-17 crew, shot down, spent time in the German prisoner of war camp.

Towards the end of the war, the Germans say the Russians are coming. We're going to evacuate

the camp and march you out of here. They march for like six weeks and then the Germans

were ordered to the Russian front. So now these prisoners are on their own. They're

alone. If I remember right, they have a big white PW on the front and the back and

on their pants that means prisoner of war. Well, this story is so cool. They're marching

through these towns. They don't have a map of Germany. He said he tried to remember

one for the best he could. We crept along slowly and deliberately, these group of prisoners

of war. Hardly making a sound, maintaining ten feet between each member of our team.

It was a great leader at times like this because he never got excited or panicked. Suddenly,

I was startled by a voice in the darkness as I instinctively turned to look, a door open

from my house on my left. The light from inside shown on me and it was such an unexpected

contrast from the darkness that temporarily blinded me. I stood there like a deer caught

in the headlights of an oncoming car and able to move. Suddenly, a German soldier came

striding out of the house straight for me, followed by a woman. Fortunately, the field of light

was restricted enough so they could only see me giving my three partners a chance to take

cover. As the soldier got closer, his shadow shielded my eyes enough for me to see a huge

German tank parked next to the house. I could see the excited look in his eyes. I stood

there transfixed, unable to move or make a sound. I didn't know whether to run, put my

hands up, followed my knees back for mercy, so I just stood there. When he reached me,

he shouted something unintelligible in German. Before I could think of what to do, I was startled

to hear myself respond with a calm, confident German phrase that was obviously appropriate

to what he'd asked me. He then replied to whatever I'd said with an almost cheerful,

yaw, yaw, yaw. Then he put his arm around the woman, turned his back on me, went back

into the house and closed the door. I was so astonished and frightened, I simply stood

there with my mouth open. My buddy said, seen and heard the whole thing. And when I didn't

move, they came out and grabbed me and pulled me behind the nearby out building where we

could hide. The whole encounter took only a few seconds. The first thing my buddy said

was, what a nurse did he say to you? And what did you say back when you talked to him?

I told him I had no idea, either what he said or I said. I couldn't speak German. I knew

that I didn't use any of the few German words I learned in the POW camp, like hello, yes

or no, sir. Even if I had my accent would have been terrible. A German would have recognized

me as a foreigner immediately. Whatever I said had satisfied him and all of us stood there

marveling at disbelief what had just happened. Considering I was standing fully in plain sight

of this soldier with my straggly beard tattered clothes, no coat, bright white letters painted

on my trousers and shirt. It was impossible he didn't recognize me as an escaped prisoner.

Instead of shooting me or calling for help though, he looked straight at me, spoken his

native tongue, listened to my response and a foreign tongue I had never spoken before,

and he accepted my answer as legitimate. Even if the guards hadn't figured it out, there

was the woman who also stared at me and heard the words that passed between us. Why didn't

either of them figure out what was going on? As all of this settled in my mind, I felt

a burning in my heart that told me I had been blessed once again and that the holy ghost

had interpreted what the German had said to me and put the appropriate words in my mouth

to respond. I had been blessed with the gift of tongues. I don't know what those two

Germans saw, but obviously they didn't see any letters on my clothing, though they

should have stood out like a neon sign in the bright light that shone through the door.

The spirit may also have changed what they saw, I think in some way my appearance had been

transformed so they didn't recognize me. I've heard it said that for something to be

a miracle, there can be no logical or earthly way to explain it. If that's true, then I

was clearly the beneficiary of a miracle, and it thrilled me to know that God was still

watching out for me and that he cared for me. Wow. I will be with thy mouth, and that's

exactly what he did. Oh my word. That's amazing. What does the Lord say to Moses when Moses

says, I won't be able to say anything. Who made man's mouth? Who made man's mouth? Have

not I, the Lord? Yeah. That's right. That is awesome. We hope you'll join us on our full

podcast. It's called Follow Him. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. We're

with Dr. Crystal Pierce this week. She's awesome. She walks through these first chapters

of Exodus. She has such an expertise that it's really fun. You'll see things you've never

seen. Then come back here next week. We'll do another Follow Him favorite.