Does God Really Answer Prayers? Unpacking the Divine Appointment

Welcome to another edition of The Rap Report. I'm your host Andrew Rapoport, the Executive Director of Striving for Eternity and the

Christian podcast community of which this podcast is a proud member. And we are here to give you basically biblical interpretations and applications for the

Christian life. And what we have on the episode today is we're going to have a guest who has written a book on a topic.

Now I'm going to give you the topic, but I'm just going to tell you right up front. This is a topic I don't know that I've ever attended a conference ever dealing with this topic.

In fact, I think that if there was a conference on this topic it would be empty. I think that people, almost every

Christian I know says that they struggle in this one area of their Christian life, and yet no one will have a conference on it.

No one wants to talk about it. And yet our guest was bold enough to write a book about it.

Are you intrigued? I hope so. So today we're going to talk about a book called Does God Really Answer Our Prayers?

I am going to be joined by, well, a voice that you may think you recognize if you're a long -time listener of this podcast, and if you're a regular listener of the

Christian podcast community, especially our Theology Throwdowns, you may say, boy, that voice sounds familiar, and it won't be who you think.

It is not going to be Daniel Minnick of Truthspresso, but his twin brother,

John Minnick, who they sound a lot alike. I can never tell them apart when they're both on the same podcast, when

Daniel interviews his brother. But John, welcome to The Rap Report. Hey, Andrew.

How's it going, dude? So we want to talk about your book.

Let me first ask, what brought you to writing this book?

I know you and your brother worked on a book together, as you guys seem to like to have different religious cults visit you and dialogue with a

Mormon Jehovah Witness, but you and your brother had done some work on a book on some of those experiences, and a more personal story.

And this one is, again, similar. It's a personal story, but that also helps to make it intriguing.

What caused you to want to write a book on prayer? Well, I think

I, just like Daniel Minnick, weren't really ever expecting to write any books at all.

But it's one of those things where when something happens in your life and you want to express it to other people, but then the only way you can express it is in a book form.

And so even though writing books are hard, I'm sure you know that because you've written a lot of books, but somehow you just do it because you all of a sudden find the motivation to get it out, and every day you work on it is a day closer to getting it done.

But this was a story that for about 10 years I've been wanting to get out because it seemed like such an amazing answer to a prayer, especially because it happened to me, and I never thought something like that could happen to me.

So, I had been writing it on and off for about a decade, and I finally got the motivation the last two years to try to get it written before I forgot a lot of the story.

But yeah, I mean, the title sounds like it's just about prayer, but the subtitle is more descriptive,

My Divine Appointment Story. So, I'm asking the question, does God really answer prayers?

And I kind of like to use that in a way to get the attention of not just devout

Christians, but maybe anyone of any belief who might be doubting even if there is a

God. And then when they see My Divine Appointment Story as a subtitle, they might think, okay, this isn't just a textbook, prayer and Bible verses about it, this is someone's actual story, and I want to read basically a human story about someone's life and think, wow, did

God really intervene, basically. Jared Well, this is what a lot of Christians do struggle with though,

John, right? There's people who, and for those in the audience, think about it.

How many of you have a lost family member that you stopped praying for? You just gave up. You think,

God can't save that person. And I think many of us, especially with lost family that you've been praying for for decades, just really wonder, is

God really going to answer that? Could God answer that? And it's a thing where I think many of us struggle because we, when praying for something for so long, start to think, well, this can't happen.

John Yes, exactly. I mean, I did have an uncle who passed away a couple weeks ago, but I remember growing up, we would assume he wasn't saved.

Like, he supposedly gave the profession of faith as a teenager, but then he lived like an atheist for like,

I think the first, at least I remember the first 20 to maybe 25 years of my life.

And every, every prayer we give before a meal, we'd always include him and pray that he gets, his wife gets saved.

And then just, I think somehow he got a stroke. And then his brother, or uncle, who's also a pastor, visited him.

And maybe I'm not, I wasn't there, but I think I've tried to ask him if he believes in Jesus, and he confessed that he does, and he seemed to have changed.

And then I think, I think he's saved. I don't know. I haven't seen him that much recently since I moved to Colorado, but that's what people are claiming, that he's in heaven right now.

But yeah, yeah, I know the feeling of praying every day for someone in the family to get saved and just thinking, am

I just rattling off words into the abyss? You know, is it really even matter? I don't know.

Pete Yeah, yeah. So, let's talk about your book. Give folks an overview.

What is the prayer that you were referring to in your story that you didn't think would be answered?

Pete Yeah, when I was 17, I went to a Wednesday evening service at my old country church in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and just expecting a typical sermon, like to step on my toes or whatever.

That's how I was thinking as a teenager. But we have this guest speaker, don't even remember his name, but he was an elderly guy with a

Texan accent. And he just came up to the pulpit and he said, let me tell you about divine appointments.

And then I thought, what's a divine appointment? I don't remember all of his examples, but it seemed like over and over, he's telling all these stories about how people would end up meeting him in seemingly random and chaotic situations.

And then he would, when they explained how they ended up meeting him, he would just say, you see, you have a divine appointment with the

Lord, and then immediately share the gospel with them and say that they believed and prayed along with them.

And at the time, I tried to witness the people, I'd never seen anyone even come close to believing the gospel.

I'm like, okay, seems like so many people just claim they can win all these people to Jesus and I can't for some reason.

So then at the end of the sermon, he said, divine appointments, will you see them when they come? And when they come, will you be ready to take them on?

And that sermon was in my mind all night. I was thinking about it and I just asked

God, look, I know I've never led anyone to the Lord, but these divine appointments sound really interesting.

Could you give me one? I mean, it wasn't one of those moments where I fell on my face and prayed for hours.

It was just a moment of thinking the words in my mind and then fell asleep. And then through the years,

I would remember that prayer and thinking, okay, did I just do words out?

Was it just a moment? Like, does it even mean anything? And I just kind of shrug it off and live my life.

And then it seemed like that for the next 16 years, all the decisions

I was making, everything that was happening to me, whether I knew it or not, were somehow leading up to what seemed like a divine appointment.

And after seeing this so -called divine appointment happen, it's all of a sudden,

I'm like, that must have been the answer to my prayer. I mean, that's what it seems like, but it just boggles my mind.

I mean, almost every day or every other day, I just keep thinking about that. I'm just like, wow.

Peter - So, what was the incident that everything led up to?

Peter - It was, there was a little eight -year -old girl who got, and she and her seven -year -old sister got dropped off at a ministry we're having in a park every

Saturday morning in Pensacola, Florida. It was called Bible Club. We'd have children go there, and then we'd have people, like, we'd sing

Christmas, no, not Christian songs. We'd have Bible verse memorization game and then teach a

Bible lesson. And it was just, that's just the way it would go. We wouldn't really see any dramatic salvation conversions happen there.

But I mean, there's a lot of details in the book. So, I mean, you'd have to read them to see how incredibly chaotic, like a

Rube Goldberg machine and how everything is set up. But like, it was a three -month period in this

Bible Club where I had to get a three -month contract extension to my work contract before I can leave and move to Colorado, which wasn't even a thing that would happen at Pensacola Christian College, at least that I knew of at the time that I was living and working in staff there.

And somehow I got that three -month contract granted. And the very first Saturday at Bible Club during that three -month contract, a car comes by, drops off these two girls who've never seen before.

They come up to us, start playing Frisbee with us, and they get to know us. And how

Amy, as I call her in the story, she would say, we didn't actually hear about this

Bible Club. Our mom was just going on some errand. She looked over, saw this park full of kids and decided to drop us off so that she can go do her errand.

And then they decided to come every Saturday since. And within that three -month period, my contract extension got to know her.

I end up teaching a Bible lesson, which of course, even the day I taught it versus the day

I was scheduled to teach, that was important. And she ended up getting saved.

But even after I taught it, there was some chaos going on. And there's even a detail where a little boy needing to use the restroom made sure that happened so that she can hear the gospel.

So it seemed like there was something going on trying to keep her from hearing the gospel. And then I've heard people say

God has a sense of humor. Having a boy need to use the restroom ends up bringing her to my friend

Rachel to share the gospel with her. You know,

I think a lot of people share the gospel. And I teach a, often

I teach a evangelism training that people sit and they hear me tell all these accounts that happen.

And a lot of times people will be like, I wish I could have something like that. And my answer usually is go and practice it more, right?

I mean, part of the issue is realistically, we're not going and evangelizing.

We want, like you're saying, we want that occasion where we get to, you know, someone gets saved and we see someone come to Christ.

It doesn't happen if we don't actually evangelize. Now, I know you and your brother, you guys evangelize a lot, but the more that we evangelize, the more you're going to have things like this happen.

Petey Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I wouldn't, I don't know if I'd call my experience as someone who goes out and evangelize a lot.

I mean, I had a couple examples in my book of when people asked me to or when

I saw I had the chance, but I guess, you know, I wasn't, we could all do better in that aspect.

But it seemed like anytime I would share the gospel, it would just go over people's head or they make fun of it or just ignore it.

But yeah, and so, I mean, like in the conclusion of the book,

I kind of say that like, maybe everything we do could be a piece of a divine appointment, whether we realize it or not.

Because like, okay, yeah, at the end of my story, I'm like, man, that really seemed like a divine appointment.

But all these other examples were seem like failures. I just throw in the idea, well, you know, we're trying, you know, even if we didn't see the person get saved, maybe we're a piece of the path that got them or someone else saved along the line and how maybe how

God orchestrates things, but never know. Jared Well, yeah, this is, you bring up a really good point with that because a lot of times we think we know what

God may be doing, right? Pete Yeah. Jared But we really, behind the scenes,

I mean, I think it's going to be interesting when we go to heaven and get to see what really was going on.

Right? Because there's things that we're not aware of and God lines things up.

And I do always want to caution, you know, there are those, especially in the charismatic word of faith circles, that get really into looking for divine appointments where everything is a divine appointment, where everything is, look, everything's matching.

And we have to be careful because if we're trying to make something look like it, like, oh, see,

God's working this way because I got a blessing. I remember a pastor, he got a, he had bought a car off this guy.

And he was telling me, he's like, oh, God's blessing me because I got a great deal on this car.

And he just, like, not bragging me, but he was just saying how he thought he got a good car at great price.

And all that was supposedly evidence of God's blessing in his life. And I remember looking at him and saying, you know, if the car is a lemon, it's still

God's blessing in your life. And he thought about it, was like, yeah, yeah, you're right. I should, you know, like, he realized he was actually arguing for, like, the word of faith type of argument that, well,

God wants you healthy, wealthy, wise, everything should go the way you want. And here he's, you know, he's basically saying

God's blessing is proof in him getting a good deal. Well, about two weeks later, he was like,

I guess I was still blessed even though you were right. I said, what do you mean? He's like, yeah, the car's falling apart.

The guy had it, like, he had put it together in such a way that it looked like a great deal, but then all of a sudden, everything started falling apart on him.

And he's like, so, you know, what I had said to him, I had to remember, it was still a blessing, right?

It's just not the way he expected, like, yeah. So, you bring up a really good point because a lot of us do struggle with this.

We think, like, it's God's blessing in our life when everything goes smoothly, goes our way.

And we think we're looking for God working in everything. And we have to be cautious with that because if we're trying, if we're looking to make something come true, right, we can manufacture enough to say, well, if it's this, this, look, look, see, that's

God's working. And I go back to my college days where there was a girl who she had very into the horoscopes, like, very much so.

And the way that I got her to break her of that, because she would tell me, I'm like, this stuff is garbage.

Why are you reading this? She goes, it always comes true. So, I made her read all 12 horoscopes every day and she realized that all 12 were coming true every day because they're so general that she's like, see, this happened and this happened and this happened.

It's like, but they're all so general that, oh, what do you know? They're all true every day. And that's what broke her of believing the horoscopes that there was anything to them.

But there are Christians that go and they do that, right? They're traveling around looking for, oh,

God's working here, God's working there. And a lot of, I think, what God is, how God is working is not in these ways that seem really radical and crazy or supernatural, but in, could we say the simple things, the everyday things?

I mean, it seems that's what your book was really bringing out. Yeah. And I, if, you know, for the audience, if they're, if, if you're, if you go to books,

Christian bookstores and you pick up these Christian books and they're all, all seem to be about like, oh, then the

Holy Spirit came idly upon me and I saw a light coming down from heaven and God was using me and God, this and got that.

And I'm like, if you want to read something that sounds a lot more human and, you know, my book, does

God really answer our prayers actually would resonate with you. Cause the way

I portrayed myself in the book, I'm almost like this. I mean, maybe I'm exaggerating when I say this, but I'm almost like this bumbling idiot, just, just bumbling around in life and not just wanting to do my thing.

And then when I see a witnessing opportunity, I'm just kind of in a goofy way.

Hey, let me try that. Didn't go the way I wanted, but then I'm just going back to my own thing.

Not thinking a lid about my prayer that I prayed a while ago until I see it coming right at the last moment.

I'm like, whoa, could this be it? I'm like, I don't even portray myself as a confident, charismatic person, but just someone going, what's going on here?

I'm just doing my thing and this stuff's happening. Is it of God? I'll let the reader decide. Jared Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it is kind of funny because you're saying that. The thing was,

I think that you came across, because it was a personal story, because, well, like you said,

I mean, most people, when they write stories about themselves, like on social media, everything's great and they're the hero of the story.

And you're more, I think, open and honest, transparent with the audience in your book.

And I think that really helps to come through. And I think, for me, at least from reading it, it helps to say, yeah,

I can identify with you. But yeah, like, yeah, like even my introduction,

I talk about a pastor at the college claiming, like, he prayed that his tuition, like he needed money for his tuition.

And then he's like, well, this kind of stuff just doesn't happen to me. I'm not special. When he gets the check in the mail for the exact dollar amount to cover his tuition, he's like,

I'm nothing special. And then when I'm hearing him say that, I'm like, well, yeah, you are. At least now you're a pastor.

You preach a lot of messages, and you probably get a lot of people say, like, what about me?

I'm just a guy, is in my mind, just some guy. And then, you know, people say, like, you hear pastors talk about these amazing conversion experiences they have with people.

And then people like me who are not like not a full time pastor be like, well, yeah, maybe that's expected of you.

Does God do anything at all? Like for something, someone like me, and this,

I mean, maybe this story can encourage people like, well, hey, you, you prayed a prayer about having a divine appointment and didn't get answered immediately.

It took 16 years, but you're just portrayed as some guy, and it looked like your prayer got answered.

So, does God really answer our prayers? Just think about it, basically.

Yeah, well, a lot of people, like we said at the beginning, they really question whether God's answering prayers.

And so, prayer is, like I said in the beginning, I don't know anyone who is really comfortable with their prayer life as a

Christian. Like, hey, I got my prayer life as perfect, as good, as great.

I've never heard anyone say that. Petey Yeah, I know. And like, you know, even with the average

Christian, even like me, sometimes we just don't even feel comfortable praying to God.

Like, if we're not, if we don't feel spiritual at the moment, like, am

I really doing anything? Sometimes we might even forget there is a God, but nevertheless, like, praying to God, and I mean, in this book, you know, you see other books about prayer in general, then they're going to be just preaching at you with all these verses about, oh, you got to get on your face, and you got to pray for hours, and you just got to pour out the tears.

And like, some of us might think, I'm not like that. I can't identify with that kind of person.

Maybe I'm not emotional like that. Or maybe I don't know if there's a formula on how to pray.

And maybe they can identify with me as I'm portraying this book. Like, the prayer

I gave at the beginning, I wasn't on my face for hours. I just looked up in the ceiling and said,

God, if divine appointments are real, could you give me one of these? And then it just kind of slipped my mind.

But somehow, it's like, even if there isn't a formula for this, it seems like God answered that prayer.

And the same when I had that dream about Amy getting saved a couple days before I was going to do the, teach the

Bible lesson, I prayed a couple minutes. If this dream means anything, could

I claim this is a promise that this is what's going to happen? And then I went back to sleep and seemed like even those prayers were answered.

I'm not trying to tell people, you don't have to spend much time in prayer, but you can't put a formula on prayers and whether or not

God answers them. And maybe more people can identify with me and how this happened in my book.

Yeah, and I do want to caution, people sometimes think, especially in charismatic circles, people put too much weight in a dream they have.

And they start thinking, well, I had a dream, so is that a promise? Is that something? And I think dreams are typically just, maybe 99 % of the time, it's nothing more than just the thoughts that we had throughout the day coming back in our, as we're sleeping, the way that our brain works.

And so, it's something where I think people put a lot of weight in, oh,

I had a dream, so it means something. Because there are a few times in the

Bible when a dream meant something. And I say that that way to point out the fact that it's very rare.

I mean, if you really look at the number of dreams that occur in the Bible that have some divine meaning, there's less than a handful of them.

And so, but a lot of Christians are running around going, oh, I had a dream, I had a dream, I had a dream. I just want to caution people with that is just because we have a dream, that A, that doesn't mean it's going to come true.

It doesn't mean it's a promise as John said. And it's also something we have to recognize that it could be nothing more than, well, a dream.

I mean, even if it's like in your case, you had a dream about something, you're thinking about someone.

I have dreamt about sharing the gospel. And I find it interesting that when

I'm out evangelizing a lot more, I dream about handing out tracts and evangelizing more than when

I'm not. Why? Because that's what I'm doing, that's what I'm thinking about more of the time.

And so, the more that we're thinking about things, we might think about a person, and then you think about sharing the gospel with someone, and you do share the gospel with someone, and they get saved.

Does that mean it was a promise? No, it means you had a dream because that's what you were thinking about. But yet, as your book lays out, you had all these things happening that were leading up to something that you were not expecting.

It wasn't like you were going, oh, I'm going to do this, I'm going to make this happen. And so, when we have that, first off,

I guess the question would be, should we be looking for that in your opinion? And when that happens, should we be like, oh, well, that was a promise from God, or should we just say that's

God's providence working in our life? Yes, I totally agree with you on that.

I've never tried to push anyone to think that that dream

I had that moment was actually a vision from God, but just thinking about at the moment when

I was, all I was thinking of was, I need to leave on a good note in teaching a

Bible lesson before I moved to Colorado, because the one other time I taught a Bible lesson was an absolute failure.

And then I had my newfound friend Amy there rooting for me, and I'm like, and she hadn't seen me preach that, or I mean, teach that other

Bible lesson and it was a failure. And so, at the time, all I was thinking of was,

I just want to make this sound good and make her happy before I moved to Colorado. And then suddenly, on Wednesday, when

I had a dream, I was, I don't know why, but when I taught the lesson, I did one of those like, bow your head and close your eyes, and if anyone wants to, you know, not show your save, raise your hand.

I don't even know why I said that, but then, you know, there were 50 kids there, and Amy raised her hand, and then

I just woke up, and it was just, and it felt like, very real, like where it didn't feel surreal, like other dreams.

And then at the moment, like, you know, suppose you had that happen to you, what would you think?

Like, I had a dream that this girl was actually going to get saved after I teach my

Bible lesson, and then you just teach the Bible lesson and nothing happens. It's almost,

I look more, not as a prophecy, but as a motivation to say, oh,

I need to change this lesson to be more evangelistic, because I want that to happen, and I want her to get saved, and I don't know, like, because even if that was something supernatural from God, I don't,

I just take it as a dream. But like, when, like, even in the book, when Rachel said, sounds like you got a vision from God, and my reply was,

I really don't know, because I'm not one of those people who ever wants to claim that God spoke to me, or directly at all.

I strongly caution people against claiming that in front of other people, like, maybe you think that happened, but don't start, be careful about, like, claiming

God spoke directly to you, because then others can look to you as some kind of mediator between God and man, and we know that Jesus is the mediator between God and man, not us.

But yeah, that's my take. Yeah, and that's a thing too that we have to consider.

Look, I think that there's a lot of people that when it comes to our prayer life, it comes to things that happen to us, we're not fully,

I think, aware of God's providence all the time. Yeah. God is working through things and bringing things about in not just our life, but everyone's life that we're in contact with.

And sometimes I think he's doing that for, as you mention in the book, these divine appointments.

I think, I'm going to give you what I think, then I want to know your thoughts on this, but I think that one reason why people don't have what maybe you're referring to as a divine appointment is because they're too busy doing their own thing.

They're not out really doing what the Lord's work, what the

Lord's called us to do, a ministry of reconciliation, and they're not seeing these things because, well, they're just taking too much time for themselves.

What would you think about that? About people not having a divine appointment because they're not going out and seeking it?

Yeah, well, not that they're not seeking it. Some people are seeking it, but really, they're not doing

God's work. They're trying to create an experience. I'm talking about people that are just so busy doing things, right?

I mean, we got to work. We got to take care of kids. We got to take the kids to soccer. We got to go and do this and do that.

I mean, as I travel across the country, every pastor I know tells me how busy his flock is, as if it's only their area.

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Striving to make today an eternal day for the glory of God. You got to understand this area,

Andrew. Everyone's just so busy. And I'm like, it's not your area. It's everywhere in the

US. People are so busy, but then they want to have an experience like you're writing about.

And I would argue, I personally would argue that maybe they're not having those experiences because they're too busy doing things that are not the

Lord's work. I mean, they're doing things that might be good, but should they expect to see

God do these, give divine appointments when they're just going about their day, busy doing their job and family and watching

TV and who knows, being on social media and what else, you know? Yeah, no,

I think at least the way I tried to conclude my book, I don't, I didn't try to claim anything special at all that so -called divine appointment was because I was doing,

I was like spiritual or anything like that. I was like, kind of surprised at how amazing it was to someone like me, but I didn't claim, hey, if you pray like this or that or seek

God, blah, blah, blah, then you too could have a divine appointment, like nothing like that. Just like I concluded with maybe a thought experiment on divine appointments to try to say, hey, anytime you, maybe anytime you try to share the gospel or things you do, it could be a piece of the divine appointment, whether you actually see the end of it or not, to kind of expand the definition of divine appointments behind what

I showed in my story as what looked like a divine appointment.

But yeah, like you say about maybe we're not seeing that stuff like that is because we're not, we're too busy with things and not going out and witnessing or whatever.

But yeah, I mean, in my story, there's a lot of where I was just too busy bumbling around.

I don't know how that so -called divine appointment happened, but I don't claim anything special at all.

I think this is just a story of encouragement for people to say, look, there really, maybe there is a

God out there and he does answer prayers, but doesn't have to be in the exact same way that it was for me or for anyone else.

Just kind of encouragement to pray to God and believe in him. Paul And that should be the encouragement, right?

Because I think ultimately, we've been talking about this, but there is an issue people,

Christians have with prayer. So, you know, encourage folks. Why should we pray?

Why should we spend the time talking to a

God we don't see? Yeah. And you know, in a lot of my story,

I don't even, it doesn't even look like there is anything going on like me.

It's just me deciding to do this and this and that. And then once you look at the end, you're like, hmm,

I wonder if everything was pieced together. Like, was God doing there was just that a coincidence or what?

I don't know. But it's pretty interesting. But yeah, yeah, yeah.

You see, you're trying to balance the stuff we do for because we think it's important versus the stuff we do for God and how to balance that.

It can be kind of hard, chaotic, I guess you want to think, or how do we balance that out?

I mean, what would be your take? Let me ask this, and after a break, I want you to ask this question is, you know, you talk about how

God kind of puts these things together and we don't even see it. We could look at the case of biblical individual of Joseph, and you look at his life, you look at everything that happened in his life, and it's at the end of the book of Genesis that we see he saw at the end, obviously, he didn't see it going through it, but he saw how

God was working through all these choices, even choices that would be evil against him to bring them together.

So, the question I'm going to have after this break will be, you know, how can we not necessarily be looking for a

Joseph -like experience, and yet you had something like that in your life where you can look back and see how

God was working through it, but how could we move forward in life doing our everyday things and yet see, hey, look, as I look back,

I see how God was orchestrating that. So, let's talk about that right after this break. So, folks, maybe you want to get yourself a really good sleep because, well, you know, sleep is quite important.

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I got a new mattress topper from MyPillow, and it was great. Added many more years to that mattress rather than buying a whole new one.

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So, let us now get back to John. The book we're talking about is Does God Really Answer Our Prayers?

And John, throughout the book, you're talking a personal experience where by the end of the book, sorry, folks,

I'm going to ruin the end. Not really, because John already kind of told you some of the end, but at the end of the book,

John's going to say, hey, look, I look back and I see how God was working through a lot of choices he made, and looking back he could see

God was working. And we could look at Joseph. Joseph had that experience.

And so, John, like in Joseph's life, in your life, you weren't looking to say, oh,

God is doing this. You weren't expecting the outcome. No different than Joseph was.

But how could we go about our everyday life, not necessarily thinking like, oh,

God is doing something. God's going to do something big here. God's going to... But how is everyday life just allowing

God to work through us and having his providence in our life? How can we live and be mindful that God might be working through us?

And then how can we look back to see, oh, look, God was working. Look what he was doing here and here and here.

Yeah. I mean, you did kind of cover it with the idea that when we look back, so, you know, the expression hindsight is 20 -20.

In a sense, you can look back and see how God has been involved in your life, looking back, but then it's like you mentioned, looking in the present, it's kind of be careful when you say

God is using this. You can say that, but not in a care, I mean, the charismatic sense of, well, he,

I know the Holy Spirit is around doing this and he's going to answer it in my prayers in the way that I think he should answer them.

So, I mean, we know that, what was that verse about? We know that all things work together for good to them, that love

God to them who are the called according to his purpose. So, work together, sometimes we don't see it working together, but when we look back, we can see how it worked together.

I don't know if that's the best explanation, but. Paul Yeah, no, I mean, it's a good point, because, you know, we always have to have that hindsight in mind.

I think of, you know, George Mueller, who wrote a autobiography, and a lot of people know him for his autobiography, and they go, wow, he was just such a great man of faith, and look at how this guy was doing so much, and they look at him as a man who just trusted

God for everything. And yet, when you read the intro to his book, which most people don't, he says that the whole reason he put his diary to book form is so people realize there was nothing special about George Mueller.

There was no great faith that he had. It was just that he started recording a diary because he knew that if he took steps of faith,

God would give him greater things, but each step, he didn't notice it. And so, he actually did his journaling so that he could see what

God was doing in his life as he looked back. And toward the end of his life, where everyone's talking about what a great man of faith he is, and he, no, here, look at my journal.

I wasn't a great man of faith, and yet, what do you see in it that he actually was? It was just every step, even though it looked like a small step maybe to him, and he didn't notice the step of faith, it just grew and grew and grew his faith.

And I think that's a good point of your book with your account where it's just taking the next step.

And you will get Andrew Rappaport's book at WhatDoTheyBelieve .com. It's not looking for some great thing for God to do, but just seeing what

God's going to do in the little, the mundane things. Would that be fair?

Yeah, I still think it. Yeah, I like the looking back to see what

God has done and working things together versus looking in the future.

Like, when you read my book, it's a lot of it, like, you're just blabbing about things you were doing, you're choosing to doing, things you're struggling with, and even stuff like when my friend asked me to help him out at Bible Club, I'm just thinking at the moment, all

I'm thinking is, man, I got all this homework in my doctorate right now, like, I don't want to do this.

And then I just do it because he needs the help. And even stuff like that, where I'm like, not wanting to go out somehow, that is building it up into the divine appointment.

And then when I look back, I'm like, okay, I understand why all of that happened.

And even my faults and my unwillingness and my selfishness somehow worked together to make this so -called divine appointment happen.

Like, even one of the steps, my doctoral dissertation took me two years longer than expected to finish because of different issues.

And then that kept me in Pensacola longer. And then with that, working with everything else, with my needing to get the three -month contract extension at that exact time, that's when the so -called divine appointments start happening.

So, with all of my human flaws and my lack of faith and stuff like that, when looking back, it seems like it's almost like,

I don't want to speak for God, but if I could, I'd seem like God would be like saying, you didn't know why that happened, but now you do because hindsight is 20 -20, but I don't.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, and I think that's a really good point for folks to be aware of, is the fact that God is working all the time.

We just may not see it. We may not recognize what's going on.

And looking back helps us to see what God's doing as we look forward.

Yes. Like, when you think of the perseverance of the saints or sanctification, however you want to describe it, like sometimes we can think, am

I being sanctified? Sometimes I don't feel like I am, but then maybe the answer could be, well, if you look back, did you see what

God did in your life? And then you could be like, oh, yeah, yeah, but that doesn't mean like, oh, well, he already did everything he needs.

I don't have to worry about it. Like, no, just keep persevering, but don't worry as much about am

I really being sanctified or am I really persevering? Because as you keep going and you look back and the hindsight about, wow,

God did stuff and I didn't even realize it at the time, but now when

I look back, I can see how what he was doing in my life because the hindsight is 20 -20.

Correct. Yeah. Correct. So, let folks know where they could get a copy of your book and then what is the one thing you'd want to leave people with to encourage them to maybe consider picking up a copy?

Okay, you can get my book on Amazon. You can get the paperback and finally it actually has the paperback with the prime shipping, the two -day shipping, which

I was hoping would happen before I had the interview. But yeah, so you can actually order it and maybe in two days get it instead of needing to wait like a week or two if you order it from Wipf and Stock.

But you can order it from Wipf and Stock's site as well. And if you go to wipfandstock .com

and search for my book, you can search for Does God Really Answer a Prayer or even like John Minnick or even

Andrew Rappaport because guess who wrote the foreword to the book? Who wrote the foreword? Yeah, who did write the foreword?

So, those of you who are in the audience, guess who wrote the foreword to this book?

Yeah, I think his name is Andrew Rappaport. Yeah, oh really? Wow, that's a coincidence.

But yeah, hey, if you all want to read Andrew's foreword to my book, you can buy the book.

But I mean, maybe I shouldn't say this, but in Amazon, if you find my book and you click the

Kindle edition, and then you click the read sample, you can see his foreword for free.

Oops, wow, my bad. Why did I say that? But hey, it doesn't matter. You can read his foreword.

And then if you want to read the book that he was writing the foreword about, don't you want to buy it?

Yeah, well, let's put it this way. I'll put it this way to entice people. I gave you two forwards, right?

I gave you a more serious foreword. I gave you a more lighthearted, more comical, maybe, foreword.

Folks, you're going to have to go read the book to see which one he chose. I liked, originally,

I was going to go with one of the forwards, and then - And then you changed your mind.

I actually read both of them to Daniel Minnick on time, and then he seemed more interested in the other one.

So, then I'm like, okay, I'll pick the other one. And then I think the other one actually goes well with the style of the book.

Yeah, so, folks, you'll just have to go and get the book so you can see.

So, again, the book is Does God Really Answer Prayer? by John Minnick.

John, what's one thing you want to leave folks with? What is the one thing you would like to see people get out of this book?

Well, I would like to show people in this book that you can relate to me, and this is a

Christian book where if you want someone you can relate to in a Christian book, this might be something you would definitely want to read, especially if it's about a true story that tries to answer the question, does

God really answer our prayers? And if it doesn't directly say, yes, he did, or yes, he does, it might imply that.

And you, as the reader, get to be the judge of whether my story is coincidence or if God was involved.

And I like, I think people like that kind of thing in the story if it doesn't directly state it.

It's like my English 101 teacher said, don't state, explain, and that's what

I was thinking of when I wrote the book. But anyways, I can also make a plug for mine and Daniel Minnick's other books if that's okay.

Sure. So, you talked earlier about another book we wrote and it's called

When the Watchtower Knocks, Discussing an Encounter with Jehovah's Witnesses. That's one that Daniel Minnick and I both wrote together, and you can get that on Amazon as well.

And then a book Daniel Minnick wrote in 2011, it's called Freedom to Give, the

Biblical Truth about Tithing. So, if you're curious about the subject of tithing and in the

Bible and everything that the Bible says and doesn't say about it, or also the history of how tithing,

New Testament tithing was brought into churches and whether we should or shouldn't tithe the way a lot of people claim we do and how a church can survive even without preaching, that's the so -called tithe.

If you want to read 500 plus pages on that subject, you can get Daniel Minnick's book,

Freedom to Give, the Biblical Truth about Tithing. But, yep. Jared Well, thanks for coming on.

I hope that folks will pick up the book and get a lot out of it. Maybe it'll help you in your, not just your prayer life, but your

Christian walk. And with that, that's a wrap. Outro Music This podcast is part of the Striving for Eternity ministry.