Freedom Come Rain

By Orlando Thomas Hi friends, as much as I’d want you to believe that my progress in life and what I’ve achieved was purely down to my brilliance (academic wise), and my ability to persist and persevere despite hardship; that’s not totally true. The fact is, I did have help, a lot of help. 1994 September, I was going into grade 11, and I had just received the voucher for my CXC fees for the eight subjects I’d be sitting. I can't recall the precise amount, but I think it was between three thousand and five thousand dollars in total that we were supposed to pay for these fees, and it was due sometime in November, I think. I looked at the voucher and thought there's no way my mom would be able to afford this because, at the time, our rent was about three hundred dollars and we owed rent for about three months. So, I decided to do the only thing that I knew how to do well at that time, which was pray. I put the paper down, and I prayed and said, “God, please help me to find these monies to pay this fee because, you know, my future hangs in the balance,” and I prayed about it, put the paper away, didn't show it to my mom, and I went onthrough September, through October, focusing on my schoolwork, with the faith that somehow something would work out. Well, November came and nothing worked out, and the fees were due. Maybe the last Friday in November and November went to the last week. It was the Monday and I remember going to school the Monday morning and starting to worry a little bit because it was now a week to go, four days to go before the deadline, and I still had no money. At this point, I think I mentioned it to my mother. I don't remember exactly what she said, but I went to school that week, concerned. THE DEADLINE On the Friday morning, when the fees were due to go in, everybody was bringing in their vouchers. The parents had paid the money at the bank, and they had their receipts. I had nothing to bring, and I sat in class reflecting, and I really couldn't focus very well because I knew this was it: on Monday morning, St. Catherine High School was going to [take] in those vouchers to the office at Piccadilly Road, CXC office, and mine probably wouldn't be in it. That Friday morning, Miss Mirage, our guidance counsellor, walked into the classroom, and she said she had an announcement to make. The announcement was that Scotiabank had sponsored some students, and from my class, one student was chosen out of the forty students whose CXC fees would be paid in full, and guess whose name was called: Orlando Thomas. I felt like crying, and I could not [help] but thank God in that moment for having come through in such a significant way. Right on the deadline. From that experience, I drew three important conclusions: Firstly, you know God doesn't work by our timeline. One preacher said it best this week: we count time in Chronos time. Chronos refers to the counting of time using seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, and we expect things to happen at a certain time based on our calendar; God doesn't use our calendar. God works in what we call Kairos time, which is, in English, the appointed time, or in the fullness of time. God has a specific time when your breakthrough is going to come, and it doesn't necessarily coincide with when you expect it. And He's never late, and He's not going to be too early. If He's too early, you might think that it was your brilliance that got you through; if He's too late, then you might lose faith because it didn't work out. He has a time when He's gonna pull you out of the fire right on time, so you have no doubt that He was the one who delivered you. That's one. NO “HEADS YOU WIN TAILS YOU DON’T” WITH GOD Secondly, Christians and everybody, should be open to being used by God to answer someone else's prayer. It was probably 20 years after that day that I had a conversation with my form teacher, Mr. Moore, and he was telling me that he had a deliberation in his mind as to which student he should refer for this small scholarship. I'm hearing this from him 20 years after and he said it came down to between me and a female student of my class, whose name I will not call. Little did he know that he was doing the work of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit worked on his mind to choose me because he was going to be used as the answer to my prayer. Somebody's prayer can be answered today because of your actions in obeying what the LORD tells you to do. You know, things don't fall from sky, people help people. So, somebody today may need some food, may need some money, or may need a good word, and you are being prompted to do exactly that. Don't resist. You may be the instrument of God to answer somebody else's prayer. I PRAY FOR PATIENTS The third thing I want to take away from this is that prayer works. You don't need to be a seasoned Christian. You don't need to be special. God hears and answers the prayers of His children, and we're all His children. And in that experience and throughout my life as a physician, for example, dealing with difficult cases, I've had to pray for patients when I don't know what's wrong with them or what to do. There are times when patients bring a scenario to me and I'm flabbergasted; I'm totally confused, and I’ve had so many answers that have come to me in dreams and visions to help a patient with a problem they've been struggling with for years. I know prayer works, and today is my day to recommend to you prayer as being the missing link—the help that I had and that is available to you. I could not have done this, what I have done all these 43 years on the earth, without the help and support of my heavenly Father, so if you haven't tried Him, try Him today. “Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wisemanglory in his wisdom, neither let the mightymanglory in his might, let not the richmanglory in his riches:But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that Iamthe LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in thesethingsI delight, saith the LORD.” Jer 9:23 ____________________________ Dr. Orlando Thomas is a certified functional medicine physician. Contact him at 876-583-5632 or thomasmedicalcentre1@gmail.com.

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