What a wonderful spirit filled the church this Sunday. Matt and Tami offered ministry on the topic “Jesus Calls”. Matt talked about Jesus calling his disciples, Samuel’s call and his own calling. As promised I will share a story from Paul Bear’s book. In 1944 Paul Bear was working for the Chandler Improvement Company when he received this call from God.
I was on my way to this meeting, going north on Central Avenue in Phoenix, when, out of nowhere a voice spoke to me and said, “Go see Mr. Mans.” (I don’t remember this man’s name but this will suffice.) I was pastor of the Phoenix Church at the time. This voice, I heard it as plain as though someone was sitting next to me, but there was no one around. I thought to myself, yes, I will go see him after the meeting I am going to. But the voice continued by saying, “No, go now!” Again I thought, that is pretty insistent, but what about the meeting I must go to? The voice came again and said, “Go now!”
So I obeyed the voice and went, forgetting about the meeting in the attorney’s office. I turned west on the first street. I said to myself, I’ll go but I don’t know where he lives. I went west on this street, across the railroad tracks to the western part of Phoenix, turned north one block and west again for about one block. All this time it seemed as though I was directed by an external force. I stopped in front of a small white frame house. I got out and knocked on the door. The door was open and a man said, “Come in.” I went in, through the living room and into a bedroom, and there was Mr. Mans lying in bed.
I looked at him, he had tears on his face as though he had been crying for some time. He looked at me and said, “Am I glad to see you!” I asked him what the matter was, and he told me this story. He had had trouble with his left eye and it went blind. The doctor had to take it out. He had gotten back from the hospital the day before and that morning the doctor told him that his other eye was also going out, as the trouble he had with the left eye had spread to his right eye. The doctor had told him he would be totally blind for the rest of his life. He said he had been praying all day that this would not happen. His wife was away and did not know about this as yet.
I talked with him for a time and then administered to him according to our faith in God. I had a small bottle of consecrated oil with me. This bottle was small, about an inch long and half an inch in diameter with a small amount of oil in the bottom. I put a small amount of the oil on my finger tips and anointed his eyes with it, then put a drop on his head, put my hands on his head and prayed to God in his behalf. After I finished praying we both felt better, but that voice was still with me and said to me, “Leave the bottle of oil with him and tell him to bathe his eyes with the oil each morning until the oil is all gone, then bring the empty bottle back to you.” This I did. I stayed with him almost an hour and a half. Then I left.
After I left Mr. Mans, I suddenly remembered this meeting I was to have gone to. I began to think, boy, I will certainly get fired now for I not being at that meeting, as they could do nothing without the papers I had in my car. I decided to go to the attorney’s office anyway even though it was by now after five o’clock, and I knew everyone would be gone. Anyway, I went into the building and opened the door to Mr. Gust’s office. The attorney was sitting there reading. He was alone. He looked up and saw me and smiled. “Oh, it’s you.” I said, “Yes, I’m late!” Then he looked at me a little surprised and said, “You did not hear? The meeting was called off. The men could not come from Los Angeles, so the meeting was rescheduled.”
Was I relieved. I went home feeling much better about everything. About a month later this Mr. Mans met me in the church and gave back the empty bottle. He told me the doctor said the eye was much better and would not have to come out. A few months later, this Mr. Mans moved back to his home in Virginia. He still had one good eye.
I still call this “The million dollar eye.”