The Fingerprints of God

Good afternoon brethren. I hope you are enjoying this Sabbath day and being able to get some time to fellowship and just enjoy the morning as it was. I want to cover something today. It’s a little bit different. I’m going to take a slightly different approach than I normally would in a message but hit a subject that’s super important. It’s everywhere in our Christianity, but often we don’t think about it.

Really, it’s a fundamental aspect of building faith in you and I to be able to ensure that we understand how God is working in our lives. So, you say, God is working in our… okay, that’s big, but it’s something most of us rarely focus on, or at least if we do, it tends to be a little bit indirect. So let me back up and talk about something completely different. Have you ever gone to an art gallery?

Well, like I said, something completely different. Have you ever gone to an art gallery? Especially if you’ve gone to a famous one where they have paintings that are well known or sculptures. If you’ve ever seen a Michelangelo sculpture, you probably are able to spot another one by that same artist. There are painters that are even more like that. If you know Picasso and you go into an art gallery and see something, even if you’re too far away, maybe your eyes aren’t good enough to see the little sign at the bottom, but you see a painting with those kind of brush strokes that are signature of Picasso, you look and say, “Oh, that’s a Picasso painting.” Or at the least, the very least, someone imitating Picasso.

I could throw up Monet is another one. Oh, is that by Monet? Because you see it, you recognize the strokes, the brushstrokes, the effects. In effect, that painter’s style, or if he was putting a thumbprint on it, you could say his fingerprints. It’s easy to recognize. And over time, the more experience you have... if you were into art, as you’re aware, I have a young child, and my wife... and he will look through art books as he’s learning to understand artists.

And they get good. I’ll hear them saying, “Is this da, da, da? Or is this this person? Or is this that person?” Because he’s starting to recognize it. He’s starting to understand those brushstrokes, recognizing that artist’s style or approach. Oh, brethren, spiritually we have to do the same thing, don’t we? We should at least be thinking about God’s approach, God’s style, God’s fingerprints in matters.

He has an ability, just like those artists and far, far more impressively and more deeply being able to have His hand, fingerprint style, His involvement in various aspects of your and my lives, but sometimes God’s fingerprints, God’s hand, God’s style, or way He does things is not always immediately apparent. Sometimes it requires us to look back, reflect, think about, or really deeply inspect something to be able to notice it. And when we do, that builds faith, doesn’t it?

When we see God directly working in our lives or through others or His Church, or the various things we’ll look at today, it builds faith in you and I because we see God’s direct involvement. And when God’s involved, that builds faith and that builds also confidence or trust. So today, let’s examine God’s fingerprints in all our lives and how to spot them. As I said before, this sermon should build your faith. As we look and examine the different ways where we can spot God in our lives, it should build our faith.

And over time that builds our ability to trust in God. So, we’re going to make it personal first, and then we’ll expand out as the message develops into being able to see God’s fingerprints, not just in our lives, but the lives of others, His work, His Church, and ultimately how He does things with His plan. You can open your Bibles to James chapter one.

As I said, it’s sometimes difficult... James chapter one. It’s sometimes difficult in the moment to see God’s hand. If you’re miraculously protected or you’re in a car accident and you just managed to dodge another vehicle and you come out, you see God’s protection. Sometimes, okay, that’s obvious. That’s divine intervention. Those are easy. Those are inspiring. Those are faith-building. Yes, but those are easy.

We want to dive a little bit deeper today and see God’s fingerprints in the little things as we examine and look through God’s word. It’s the little experiences, and those, frankly, are almost impossible to see in the moment, which means you and I have to reflect back in prayer and study, meditation. Look back at the things that we experienced that day, that week, that month, that year, especially as we come into the Passover. Look at ourselves, examine ourselves, look back at the past year, and think about what God has done in our lives.

Those little things, those build up. Those are the things most people would tell you, “Ah, that’s just coincidence.” Brethren, we know the difference between coincidence and God’s hand. Of course, there’s time and chance, but time and chance only accounts for a few things that happen in our lives. It’s the buildup over time of those faith-building items, those little things, those little blessings that make a difference, but we have to reflect to be able to see them.

You’re already in James, James chapter one. We’ll start in verse sixteen just two verses here, James one, sixteen. “Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” God is God, and He does not change. That’s what the verse is saying, but also the fact that all the good gifts you and I have come from Him.

See, bad things can happen to us. There could be instances where something goes wrong, and it’s not necessarily God testing us or even Satan trying to put us through a trial. Sometimes, those are time and chance. It just happens. You could be walking through the house or through a building, and there’s a perfectly clean glass door, and you walk full speed right into the glass door, and you break your nose, time and chance. It just happens. That is not God testing your faith to see whether you will understand that He... no, it just happens.

Sometimes things just happen, but this verse clearly says that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. So when good things happen, that’s not time and chance. When perfect things happen, that’s not time and chance. God clearly says the little things, the perfect things, the good things come from Him. Do we stop sometimes and just reflect on what that means? What are all the little things in your life that you experience each and every day?

Do you have food on the table? It’s so simple. You ask a blessing over your meals, and you ask God to bless them, but as human beings, we can get into patterns that are just rote. That’s why we have to be careful with prayer. If you don’t control your mind in prayer, you know what you will do? You will have a certain prayer that you pray over a meal every single time, and your body will get into the habit of it.

Your mind will get into the habit of it, and then you’re not asking for a blessing over the meal. You’re just simply reciting like a Catholic would do. It’s not prayer. It’s not asking for a blessing. We have to be careful that we don’t just get into a habit of assuming things over and over again, and we have to look at our lives. And something as simple as a plate of food in front of us, we have to remember is a blessing. We have to remember that God is directing things in our lives to allow us to have food.

If you’ve been through difficult situations and food just was available or something worked out, you can see God’s hand more clearly, but you and I, brethren, if we’re not going through those things, still have to see God’s hand. Shelter, safety, things that you and I just simply take for granted. Do we see God’s hand guiding them? Again, these are the little things, are stuff that you have to look back on.

You are not going to get it into your mind when you’re going through just normal day-to-day activities, and things just work out and happen to go through. You’re not going to notice it in the moment because you’re living your life, and lives are busy. You have kids and school and work, and all the needs and necessities that tend to pull us in different directions. It takes us to stop at the end of the day, the next morning, in prayer, to reflect about the previous day.

Maybe when you’re laying in bed going to sleep, and you think, “Wow, what happened today that I would reflect James one, seventeen, that all those good and perfect things come from God?” When you do that, you will see little things work out that maybe you didn’t notice in the moment but worked out just a little too well. That’s what you’re looking for. What are the things that worked out a little too well? And I don’t want this to sound trite, but look for the tiniest things. Because the more we reflect on that, remember, every good and perfect gift comes from above.

Like something as simple... I thoroughly enjoy logistics. And if you’re walking through someplace, and someone opens a door, and then it’s closing, and you manage to walk through perfectly, and the timing is right, or you come up to a stop sign, and there’s no other traffic, so you’re able to go, or the light turns green just as you pull up, and now you’re on time for work that you may have been late before. Those are the little things, little examples.

Could you chalk them up to time and chance? Yes, you could. But James one, seventeen says that’s not time and chance. Not when you’re a Christian, not when you have God directing your steps. Just really simple things, like a beautiful sunset or a sunrise. We have, on campus, just the way our house is positioned, we look down from up higher, down towards the lower campus, up higher. And we get to see some absolutely incredible sunshine or sunrises, excuse me.

And I try to make it a point when I’m talking to my son in the morning, and we talk about God and how He created the universe and those aspects, and we got to experience one of those sunshines. We should be grateful for that. It’s easier to remember the little things when you’re teaching them, but in our lives when we’re just living them for ourselves, that can be more difficult and requires us to focus. Just day-to-day things that we should look to also creates something else in us when we do this.

Again, God’s plan, God’s way of life, is very much a symbiotic relationship, like we heard in the sermonette. It’s build off each other. We build off what God gives us. We follow Him. He gives us gifts. That turns on us, worshiping Him and being an example. That all blends together. And just like looking at our blessings, you know what it also causes, besides building faith and seeing God in our lives? It also makes us grateful. Gratitude.

And over time, that becomes a habit. Gratitude is a habit-forming activity. The more we look at things, the more we’re thankful for them, the easier it is for us to see things to be thankful for. And the more we acknowledge God, His little things, the more we recognize his presence. And again, that builds faith. So that’s trying to see God’s hand in our small daily blessings. How do we see God in our past experiences?

We have a whole bunch of these we’re going to go through. It’ll expand out over time in a similar structure throughout the message. But how do we see God’s hand, his fingerprints, in our past experiences? Because often, like I said, for small things, we have to look back to see them. In the moment, unless it’s a serious trial, we often don’t look to God, do we? If we’re having a good time, frankly, it’s what happened to Israel. When things were going well, they didn’t really look to God.

Because you’re in the moment. You’re in the excitement. You’re in just living life. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It can become such if we don’t stop and reflect, look back at the past experiences to see how God guided us, how he protected us, even when it was difficult, even when it didn’t seem obvious at first. Let’s go to Romans chapter eight. Romans eight. We’ll start in verse twenty-four. Romans eight, verse twenty-four. Verse twenty-four reads, “For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope.”

Which is in front of us, we see it. If I see... if I have this glass of water, I’m not hoping for glass. I have the glass of water. “For what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” God’s Spirit helps us know what to ask God for. God’s Spirit helps us think back and remember what we should be thankful for, what God has been doing in our lives.

Remember, the Spirit can put us in remembrance. So when we’re praying, we can ask God, “God help me remember the things that you have done in my life. Help me see the past experiences,” and that could be yesterday, last month, last year. It doesn’t matter. There are certain experiences you will draw on for the rest of your life as a faith builder. I think I’ve told the story before, but I remember when I was coming down to Ohio, I was still living in Canada, and I would drive down every weekend.

It was only about a five-hour drive, five and a half hours from where I was. And we were up fitting and doing various things at the time, but sometimes it was a full week, and I got out of work, and I’m driving down, it’s getting late, a Friday evening. If you’ve ever driven from Buffalo to Ohio, it is one of the most boring drives you will ever experience. It’s straight. The trees look the same. The terrain doesn’t change much except through Erie, Pennsylvania, where the roads get bad, but otherwise, it’s pretty much the same thing.

There was one night I was just a little too tired, and I saw a rabbit or some small animal jump into the road, and I reacted, the exact thing you should never do if an animal jumps in the road. And I reacted, and I pulled the steering wheel. And it was slippery. It was winter. And then instead of the car doing something that it should have done when you do something that you shouldn’t have done, the car jerked back into the lane, and I just kept driving.

I will never forget God’s hand in my life in that moment. You’re going to have those stories that you will remember for the rest of your life. Those are huge, those are past experiences, but at the same time, again, the small stuff matters too, the more recent stuff. Romans eight, and continue here in verse twenty-seven, “And he that searches the heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” Verse twenty-eight, “And we know that all things work together for good.”

That’s what God’s doing in our lives, to them that love God and to them who are called according to His purpose, not for everyone out in the world, but you and I who have been called to his way of life, who are living it and those who love God, which is keeping the commandments, obeying Him. When we do that, all things tend to work out, don’t they? We can be tested. We can be tried.

We can go through trials and experiences and difficulties, yes, but God ultimately solves that by working it out. And when we reflect back on those things He did, a difficult lesson we had to learn that helped us see ourselves better, maybe even a closed door that led to a different opportunity. How many times, I’ve heard this so many times from brethren, that people thought they wanted to go a certain path, and that’s how God was going to answer them?

Sometimes we make that mistake, don’t we? We all do. We pray for a path or we pray for a specific solution. “Oh, God, can you give me this job because I want this job, this is the job I want,” when probably the better approach would be, “God, should I have this job? Is this the job you want me to have?” But regardless, remember, the Spirit gives intercession. So we could be praying about, I want this job, and God’s Spirit through us, working through us may say, “God knows us better than that.”

He knows we’re being sincere, but he’ll close the door. And in the moment, you, I, all of us would think in that moment, think, “Wow, God did not answer my prayer. Is God involved in my life? Why would He not answer my prayer?” Then the busyness of life sometimes will cause us to forget when another door opens, we get a better job or we find out that that job required working on the Sabbath. The door was shut, and we got a better higher-paying job because a different door was opened.

In those moments, don’t just reflect on God being involved in your life on the blessing. That’s great. That’s easy to see for you, and say, “I got the job.” Look back. Remember past experiences. Look back at when the door was closed as God being involved in your life. It’s not just the blessings. It’s also sometimes the cursings, if you will, or the closed to doors where God said, “No, you didn’t quite have where you wanted to go worked out. I appreciate you thinking about it and praying about it, but let me show you, as I love to say, that you are just a pawn on the chessboard.”

Brethren, when we are accepting of that, that we’re just pawns, and God is putting us where he wants, we’re in a powerful place, because the pawns just get moved. When we start to think that we’re rooks or knights or kings or queens or any of those other higher-level pieces, that’s when things can get a little hairy because we’re starting to move ourselves. We think, “Oh, I’m a knight. I can make some fancy moves.” Nope, we’re just a pawn. One piece, one step at a time, one step at a time.

If we look back and see it, those protections we didn’t realize, things that happened that require us to reflect back, it also helps us build something else; it helps us to have a perspective of always finding the silver lining in things. That’s how God works things out often. He may close a door to open one. We may experience a setback to be able to be launched forward. We may be corrected to improve. And in the end, in the correction, in the setback, in the trial, we may be thinking, “Oh, wow. God is just not working with us.”

And then the positive happens, and we get better at doing something, finding a silver lining in things. Because that can apply to all aspects of our lives. Being able to see the positive, be the optimistic, see the glass full, find the silver lining, because we see God working with us. We know to work out. Remember, all things work together for good. God’s fingerprints sometimes show up in ways we just don’t expect.

So how do we find God’s fingerprints and when he does something? Because, brethren, God’s timing is perfect. Even though we may not agree with it, even though the Bible tells us our thoughts are not his thoughts, God’s timing on matters is perfect. I’ll use myself again as another example. When I was in my early twenties, my mom was in the Church, and stepdad, they were in the Church. They go back to Worldwide, both of them.

And I was not in no way, shape, or form interested in religion. Anything along those lines. I used to debate creationists. And so, my head was in a very different space. If God would’ve tried to call me in my early twenties, then I’m almost certain I wouldn’t have responded. My life was going well, my job was great. I was enjoying the finer things of living in a big city.

Why would I have looked to God? Just like Israel, same thing, human beings were typically not responsive when things are going well, but at a point things shifted. Things weren’t going badly for me, but I was getting a little bit, bored is the wrong term. But I had done things, and I was looking and thinking about, “Okay, what is my next career move? I sold a business.” And I was being more reflective because of the situation. And that’s the point where God said, “Okay, now is the time to crack the nut on my brain and open it up to receive.”

His timing was perfect. I didn’t see that at the time. It just was in the moment. But I look back now, and I say, “Wow, God was working in my life.” And then I can look back at those moments and see over time, go further and further back, you see experiences that you had where God intervened even before you were called, knowing his timing was perfect at those moments, to shift your life to the direction he wanted to get you to, to be called.

And if you’re raised in the Church, it’s similar. It may not be as dramatically obvious when you’re being called, but you’re going to have those past experiences where God’s timing was perfect to change your direction or nudge you a certain way because he is guiding our path. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter three. Third chapter of Ecclesiastes, to know God’s fingerprints in his timing is to be able to see God working with you.

Ecclesiastes chapter three and verse one. Verse one reads, “To everything there is a season, a time, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” This is a passage is inspiring, but I just cannot have the Beatles song in my head when I read this passage, but I won’t sing it, although I’m singing it in my head. Verse two, “A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up, that which was planted, a time to kill, a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up.”

So there’s a time, there’s a season, there’s a purpose, there is timing for all of these things. “A time to weep, a time to laugh, mourn, time to dance.” He, God, has made everything beautiful in his time. God controls time. He’s a being outside of time. Time is as easy to see to God as a ruler or a light switch or a chair is for us to see. The scope of time God can see like we see a chair. So he perfects time. He’s perfect at his timing. Continuing in verse eleven, “Also, he has set the world in their hearts so that no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end.”

No man can understand God’s hand in matters, that is until he calls us, or until we walk this way of life, until our parents are called. Suddenly that door opens. But go ask anyone out there about specific things that happened in their lives, good things, and say, “Did you know that God blesses us in those aspects?” Most people blow you off as coincidence, but I can look back, and I’m sure all of you can, before you were called, and know with certainty God nudged us in certain ways, protected us for the purpose He has for you to be sitting in the chair you’re sitting in today.

Everything in his plan unfolds at the right time. We may not understand it in the moment. We may think, “Why did you close the door? Are you working with me, God?” As I said before. But in time, we see that door open. We see something change. We see God’s hand. And then we need to look back. Brethren, we have to look back. So much of what today’s message is, is about stopping, meditating, looking back, analyzing ourselves.

Again, we’re coming into the Spring holy days. We are examining ourselves, but not just for our character flaws. Don’t take Passover or look at the Passover season and say, “This is the time where I look at my flaws.” Yes, you examine yourself. And see the areas in which we need to improve. Yes, a hundred percent. But at the same time, same time, find those things that are going well in your Christian walk. Find those things where you see God’s hand in your life.

Our lives have those fingerprints in them. And brethren, that will inspire you to work on the things that were weaker, have the confidence that God can build us up in those areas where we’re deficient. We need to build faith, and we need to understand that God’s timing on matters is perfect. We just have to be patient for him to open the door, solve the problem, give us the way out.

Okay. How do we find God’s fingerprints and how we walk? It’s similar to timing. Because God not only opens doors, sometimes He directs us to those doors, doesn’t He? We don’t even realize it. We back into a solution, and then we have to come back later, and look at God and say, “God, was that you? I didn’t even mean to make that correct move or idea, or that thought popped in my head, or circumstances work themselves out.”

Go to Proverbs three. You’re probably in Ecclesiastes. Proverbs three. Proverbs chapter three. We’ll start in verse five. Verse five, “Trust in the Lord with your whole heart, with your heart, and lean not into your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.” Trust in God with our whole heart. Don’t trust in our human understanding. It doesn’t mean we don’t make our own decisions. No, we don’t trust in our understanding. As in spiritual understanding, we trust in God. Our whole heart.

And if we do, and we acknowledge Him, and by reflecting on how He did what He did in our lives, in small, big, timing, all the things we’ve looked at thus far, we are acknowledging him because if we take credit, this is the danger, brethren. If you, me, any of us take credit for the decisions, the circumstances, the open doors, or whatever the case may be that God did in our lives, we’re not acknowledging him, are we? And sometimes that can be inadvertently so, but we have to step back and think, “Okay, what did he do?” Because I want Proverbs three, six to apply.

So I want to make sure I acknowledge Him in all the things that He has done for me, all the ways, because if we do, then the second half applies that he directs our steps. Jeremiah ten. Jeremiah chapter ten. Well, these are very familiar verses, but sometimes the simple is the way to go. Jeremiah ten, chapter ten, and verse twenty-three. Ten, twenty-three. “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walks to direct his own steps.” So Jeremiah recognized that. So should we. When we live Christianity, we have decided. When we committed at baptism, when we decided to be baptized and live this way of life, when we look ahead now just weeks away to look ahead to the Passover and take the blood and body of Christ, those symbols, we have said, “I do not direct my own steps.”

And if we want God to direct our steps, then Proverbs three, six applies. We have to acknowledge Him and all the things that He’s done for us. And by acknowledging Him, we see His fingerprints, His hand in our lives. And brethren, if you take faith, because that’s what it builds. We have faith when we see God’s hand in our lives, and time or experience passes, you know what that causes? Faith plus experience, that builds trust because we see God’s hand over a period of time and in the right way.

And this is not a bad thing to be. We expect it. We expect it because we’re acknowledging Him. He’s going to guide our steps. All things work together for good because we love him, obey him, do all the things that fulfill that. So you and I should expect God to guide our steps. We’re not arrogant about it, but we believe the promises. Just like when someone’s being anointed as an elder, and I’ve anointed people before, I thank God in advance for healing that person because there’s stripes of Jesus Christ.

That person, if they’ve done everything that they should do, God will heal them. That’s the promise. So, I tell them expect to be healed or expect God to teach you what you need to learn so you can get over the physical thing or whatever the issue is. Expect an answer because we’re doing the things that we’re doing to please him. We’re not trying to direct our own steps. Go back to Psalm thirty-seven. Psalm chapter thirty-seven, or the thirty-seventh Psalm.

Thirty-seventh Psalm, verse twenty-three. Verse twenty-three of Psalm thirty-seven., “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.” Of course, he does because God is guiding his steps, because a good man’s steps are ordered by the Lord. God directs our path. Again, that’s what we’re looking for. We want to be able to see God’s fingerprints, His hand, His guidance, His involvement in the path that you and I are walking.

That only applies if we’re living this way of life. There’s a difference between knowing the way and living the way. We can know about Christianity. We can be in God’s Church and understand basic doctrines. We can be converted and know the way to walk, but that’s very different than actually doing it. Preparing, studying, praying, fasting, meditating, exercising God’s spirit, fellowshipping, doing all of the aspects that we couldn’t even get in to scratch the surface of in a message today, because those are the things that show you love God because it’s outgoing love and concern for others.

Those are the things that allow things to work together for good, allow God to direct your steps, allow us to see his hand and his fingerprints in our lives. There’s another aspect to this too. Remember, and this is why you have to be careful and be open and receptive, if God opens a door, go through it. He can shut it. No man can shut the door if God opens it for you. No one can close a door that God opens. Let’s go to a familiar version, Revelation chapter three. It’s up to us to walk through it though.

If God gives us an opportunity, He may put a time limit on it. We may have to step out in faith, and He can close the door, but no human being can. So this sounds kind of negative, and it can bite. If you and I are given an open door by God, and we don’t walk through it, and it gets closed, that should also tell us He’s working in our lives because He says, “I want you to learn a lesson. I gave you an opportunity. You didn’t take advantage.”

I remember years ago, your... let’s read Revelation chapter three verse seven first, and then I’ll come back to talk about opportunities. Revelation three, verse seven, “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These things says He that is holy, He is true, He that Has the key of David, He that opens, no man can shut, and shuts, and no man can open. I know your works. Behold, I’ve set before you an open door.” This is talking about the Church, but ultimately, individually this applies.

“And no man can shut it. For you have a little strength,” little dunamis, little spirit, or a little miraculous strength, “And have kept my word and have not denied my name.” Let’s go to Isaiah twenty-two. We’ll see the Old Testament version of this. Isaiah twenty-two. Then we’ll talk about opportunities. Verse twenty-two. Just one verse of chapter twenty-two. Twenty-two, twenty-two. “And the key of the house of David will I lay upon His shoulder. So He shall open and none shall shut, and He shall shut, and none shall open.”

If God opens or closes a door, that door stays open. If God closes it, it goes shut. Brethren, the easiest way to see this is if you’ve been asked to do something by the minister or whatever the circumstances. Maybe it could be a fundraising item or getting involved for a social, whatever aspect it is, to help brethren, the widow. If you are asked to do something, see God behind that open opportunity. You may be scared, nervous, like, “I’m not really comfortable doing that.”

You’ve been asked to song lead or give an opening or closing prayer or lead a team to set up. Whatever the case may be. Or just be on the setup team. If you see an open opportunity, you’re given an opportunity, take it. God opened the door for it. Walk through it. Trust that the government of God, God through those around you, everyone who wants to help you see and grow and develop has given you that opportunity and seize it.

I would not be here today if I didn’t say yes to opportunities because I was told very early on in my Christian walk that if you say no, one, that opportunity may never arise again, or two, if God is being merciful, it may not arise again for some time. I remember the first time I was going to song lead, I was asked to song lead. I didn’t want to do it. It seemed like a very complicated part of services, and if you’ve started song leading, and I remember how nervous I was at the first time, as everyone is, when you get up behind the lectern, the podium here, on the podium and behind the lectern, you’re nervous.

And we all should be to some level because, as a minister, we’re speaking on God’s behalf, bringing His wisdom. This was to song lead. And I was told, “Take advantage of that opportunity because God opened a door for you.” And I said, “Okay, I’ll song lead. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m going to mess this up, but I’m going to try my best.”

And I remember I had a cheat sheet that had every single element of everything that I would want to say from the moment I walked up to the lectern to the moment that I walked away from it, and it was two pages with notes of good afternoon, brethren. I had everything on there, but I wanted to take the opportunity because I remember those words. Mr. Pack said them years and years ago to a group on staff, we were across town. If an opportunity arise to serve, then take it because God may close the door. Remember, if an opportunity arises, He opened it. No one can close it. No man can close it. But if that opportunity closes, it’s because He did. And that should sting a little bit. And if it happens to you or has happened before, reflect on it. Maybe it was recently, and your minister asked you to do something more, and you said, “I don’t think... I’m not comfortable doing it.” Well, stop, see God’s hand, this next Sabbath, go to your minister and say, “You know what? I’ve been thinking about what you said. I don’t think it was right for me to say no. That was an opportunity. Can I still serve in this way?”

And he may or say, “Well, not anymore because someone else is doing it, but thank you for coming to me. There are other ways you can serve.” And then take it, seize it because, remember, if God opens a door, no one can shut it. And you see examples throughout the Bible where this happened over and over again. We can look at one. Let’s go to Genesis Chapter forty-one. Maybe look at two. We’ll see. Genesis, Chapter forty-one. We’ll just summarize this account, even though we’re there, for the sake of time. Genesis Chapter forty-one, and starting verse fourteen, we’ll jump right across, “Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph...” You know the account of Joseph in front of Pharaoh, “... and they brought him up hastily out of the dungeon, and he shaved himself and changed his raiment, and he came unto Pharaoh.”

So we could go through the long account, how much Joseph did and improved the nation and brought ideas. And then Pharaoh raised him and raised him and raised him, but jump down to verse forty-one. “And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” Do you think Joseph accidentally went into slavery at the time when he did?

Do you really think God wasn’t in charge when he was thrown in that hole, or God wasn’t in charge when he was put in prison? No. All throughout the account, if you read it, it’s a great study and something to read on your own time, you see Joseph saw God’s hand guiding and directing, and he was submitting to God’s will.

He didn’t push himself somewhere where he shouldn’t be before it should happen. Just like you and I must be comfortable, and happy, and content with where we are in the body of Christ to be able to be used in a greater way. We must be happy and content in being single before God can give us a spouse in marriage. We can’t get ahead of where God puts us.

He will open the door at the right time. And then you and I have to say, “Okay, God’s opened the door, I’m going to go through it. God’s given me an opportunity, I’m going to take it.”

Doesn’t mean we live Christianity passive. If you’re single, you don’t sit back and think, “Yes, here we go. I’m very comfortable single. I’m just going to put my feet up, God will plop a woman down in my life.” No, that’s not how it works. You have to work at Christianity, but we don’t get ahead of ourselves. We don’t force something when it’s not something that God has done or allowed or a door He has opened. Okay, so here’s another one. How can we see God’s hand in how He uses us to help other people? Okay, I’ll say that one again. How do we see God’s hand or His fingerprints in how He uses us to help other people?

You can turn to Second Corinthians, first chapter. Second Corinthians, Chapter one. See, it’s not just about us. We’re not just looking for fingerprints in our lives. We should be looking at how our lives affect other people. And that’s just not brethren. When we limit being a light to God’s people, we limit how God is using us. You and I are a light twenty-four/seven, or we should be. And we’re a much brighter light to those who aren’t converted than we are to those who are because they’re lights too. So, in a room of lights, you don’t stand out as much, but if you go into a dark room, oh, it’s...

We have a light above our tub in our house, and it’s dimmed really, really, really low. So if there’s all those times you wake in the middle of the night, you want to get a drink of water, whatever, you just flick it on, and it’s really low, and you don’t... you’re not blinded as you’re trying to walk to the washroom or whatever the case may be. But it’s bright in the middle of the night, even though it’s as low as possible because even that dim light, when it’s dark around, is bright. There have been times where I hit the wrong switch, which turns on the main light in the bathroom, and then you’re dazed.

You can’t see anything. So, brethren, we want to be that bright. We want to be so bright that we leave people dazed, not because of a negative, but because they think, “I’ve never seen anyone like that.” The more you and I grow, the more we develop, the more we surrender ourselves to God’s will, the more we acknowledge Him in all that we do, the more we see His fingerprints, the more He will use us. That’s why we seize the opportunities when they’re given to us because God’s using us in a greater way. You can be used in more ways further and in a broader fashion than you conceived, you’ve ever thought of.

How do I know that? I don’t know your individual circumstances, where you are in the world. How do I know that? Because he picked you to be God. That simple. He picked you to become a God being. So He sees something in you that you may not see in yourself. You can do a lot more than what you realize. You can be used in more ways than you realize. Remember the end goal. Everything we do is toward that end goal. So when an opportunity arises, we have a chance to work with people, remember it. God is using you.

So you’re probably in Second Corinthians already, verse three of Chapter one. Verse three of Second Corinthians Chapter one, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.” Verse four, “Whom comforts us in our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them...” So the things that happen to you and I are done so we can help, and done so in a way that allow us to help other people who may suffer similar things. “...comforts us in our own tribulation that we may be able to comfort them, which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”

God gives you opportunities and experiences, tribulations, so you can help and serve other people when they’re going through them. That’s why the diversity of God’s Church is amazing because we’re all going to suffer different things in our lives, depending where we live, our backgrounds, our experiences, what part of the world, our spiritual maturity. That, all of that comes into play in the diversity of God’s Church because we’ll all have different experiences, we’ll have different tribulations. And, at some point in time, those experiences, those tribulations, those trials, those... the triumphs as well can be used in how we help other people.

How many times have you used a story if you’ve been in God’s way for some time? You’re parents, or you’re a senior, or whatever the case may be, talking to someone on Sabbath, and someone brings up a story of a trial or a difficulty. And in the right way, trying to comfort and help, not to brag, or... but in the right way, you say, “Oh, I’ve gone through something similar, not exactly the same, but I’ve gone through something similar, and this is what helped me.” And that person not only are comforted or strengthened, but you also built a tighter bond because you’re showing that you care about them.

That’s why attitude is so important in everything we do. But what if it’s not at services? What if the grocery store clerk says something to you about how difficult their day was because of the customer that did whatever they keep running into? What if you worked in customer service, and you said, “Oh, I remember when I did customer service.”? I’m going to tell you a story about... it may... depends on the situation. I... There are people, and I’ve said this before, that work in Giant Eagle that I see all the time, that some of them, you just kind of walk by and smile and nod, and others of them will talk to you.

And at first, I was a little bit like, “I’m in a hurry.” The only time I ever go to Giant Eagle is on a Friday evening. So it’s a little bit... it’s Friday, it’s coming into sunset. I want to get in and get out, and I’ve maybe pick something up for my wife or get something to drink, whatever it is. And I just think, “Well, I just got to get in and get out. Why is this person talking to me?” But at a point many years ago, I thought, “Why am I not talking to this person? Why am I in such a hurry? I understand the Sabbath. I’m about to go into a rest day. Why am I in a hurry?” And then I changed my approach and said, “No, you know, I’m going to converse with them.”

And now I go into the grocery store, and I go in there, and if they say, “Oh, how’s your... you had a good week.” “Oh, how was yours?” “Oh, we had to...” “Oh, yes, it was customers, I tell you.” And then a couple weeks, or about a month and a half ago, they had an issue with a cash register. And I, being the IT guy that I am, I started suggesting ways to troubleshoot it. And then we eventually reset it, and the cash register was back up and running, and it... because I was given an opportunity to help others. Is my light shining more because I did it there or because I did it with brethren?

God says it doesn’t matter. You got to do it with both. You’ve got to be the example. If you see a situation that needs help, and sometimes, especially in the world, they’re the simplest things of showing care and compassion. You help someone with a grocery. I don’t get out much obviously because all my stories about helping people at Giant Eagle. So get a shopping cart, or whatever, brethren, that you see an opportunity to help people. You and I should be lights. And when we do it, we need to then go back and acknowledge God, see that He gave us the opportunity, and then see His hand in our lives.

And then also acknowledge what you did. Maybe something that allows that person to be called now or be able to be more receptive in the kingdom, or they’ll just remember you. There’s one or two people at Giant Eagle that I’m pretty sure will remember me in the Kingdom of God because I made an effort over and over again. Doesn’t make me an all-star, it just means I tried, so we should all do it because that can make a difference. That may help someone be able to more easily receive God’s truth now or later. So we need to see God’s fingerprints in the trials we experience, in the opportunities He gives us, in how we can help and serve other people.

See His hands, see His guidance, see His fingerprints. We need to see His hand also in relationships. Go to Proverbs twenty-seven. Proverbs twenty-seven, this is especially true of God’s people, more so than the world. Sometimes they test us more because they don’t have God’s spirit or trying to live, but this is particularly applicable. Proverbs twenty-seven, just one verse here in verse seventeen. You know it well. Proverbs twenty-seven, seventeen, “Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” Brethren, when we sit across from each other, when we talk, we fellowship, when we disagree, when we give each other counsel, when we think about we work together, we build each other up. We’re human beings.

We might not necessarily see the same in every situation or agree with an approach in every situation. And sometimes that can butt heads, but sometimes that’s just iron on iron because we work through it and then smooth it over, and we all become better for it. Like, how many times have you seen someone in your life, especially in God’s way, that have helped you spiritually? You just see their example. That’s iron sharpening iron. That is a human being who’s forged in this way of life, iron. Their example could have you think, “I want to be more like the way they live their lives, the way they’re forged, what they’ve gone through, their example.” And you may be someone else’s, and you don’t even know.

You could be the iron sharpening the iron. They could be the iron that sharpens you. When those opportunities arise, remember God is guiding it. His hand opens those opportunities. He builds those friendships. When you meet someone at the feast, don’t make... don’t let that be an accident. Like, I just happened to meet someone that I really get along with that have fortified me and strengthened me, and I’ve built a friendship, and I’m closer with them, don’t see that as an accident. That’s not a time and chance. All good and perfect things come from above.

So if you develop a good friendship with someone, see it coming from God. See it coming from Him working in your lives. Acknowledge it, remember, and then He’ll guide our steps. He places people in our lives for a certain reason. It’s especially true if you’re single, and you’re looking for a spouse. You want the person that God wants you to have because they will complement you and make you a better person. If we force it, we are saying, “I don’t care what God wants in my life. I just want the result, not the right result,” because you can get a result, you can get married. People can go as far as leaving the Church and getting married. That’s a result. It’s the wrong result, and it removes you from the body of Christ, but it’s a result.

But if you want to have the right result, to see God’s hand, we need to, again, acknowledge that. Seek it, and work as hard as we can to allow God to maneuver and shape us, guide and nudge us. Okay. Another one here. God protects us when we look for fingerprints, and this is something we should look for in ways that we may not first realize. So God protects us in ways we may not first realize. How many times, and these you’ll never realize, where you driving down a road and a drunk driver was coming at you, and they were weaving all over the road, and you don’t see that, and you’re just driving, and at a certain point God forces their vehicle, and it passes you, and you don’t think anything of it, and then the person’s weaving and hit a tree or whatever it is, after they had passed you?

Those are the times when God protects us, guides and directs the situation around us, and we don’t even know about it. So it’s not even a first realize. There are times when we don’t even realize he does, and we have to assume that’s happening. We have to acknowledge He’s sometimes doing it, even though we don’t know what they were. But there are other times when we can look back at a situation that was precarious, that shouldn’t have been safe. And it may have been after you were called. It may have been before you were called.

I can look back at times in my life that I... I remember thinking, when I was younger, I would tell my mother this, and she’d chuckle into her sleeve. I said, “Mom, I don’t know what it is. I’m just really lucky.” And she would smile and laugh and thinking about the verse of the fact that she lived God’s way of life, so God was involved in my life. And she never thought I’d be called. But she knew that by being... by her obeying God, it gave me some opportunity for blessings. I used to think, “Oh, I’m so lucky.” I look back now, and I’m just like, “Wow, God, you’ve protected me from myself so many times. So many dumb things that I did that I look back. And it wasn’t luck. It was you just stopping me from letting things go too far.”

So I look back at those now and think, “Oh, okay, I see God in my life.” And after you’re baptized, after you’re called, after you’re in the Church, you’ll see the same thing. Go to Isaiah, Chapter forty-three. Isaiah forty-three and start in verse one. Isaiah forty-three verse one, “But now thus says of the Lord that created you, oh, Jacob, and he formed you, oh, Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.” Not just Jacob, not just Israel, but you, me, all of us. Verse two, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flames kindle upon you.” Brethren, we will go through fires in our lives.

We will go through trials. We will have to wade through waters spiritually, but God says we won’t be burned. He may not remove the fire because, a little bit, “Well, God, I don’t want to walk through the fire. Could you just extinguish the fire? It’ll make it much easier for me to walk through, so just extinguish it.” No, that’s not what He says. You will walk through fires, but they won’t burn you. They may singe your clothes a little bit, but they won’t burn you up because we have a God that protects us. And often, like so many things, and this message is focused on seeing God’s hands and fingerprints in our lives, we have to look back and see it.

There may be times when you’ve gone through a trial, and you look back and think, “Wow, that could’ve been so much worse. Oh, if I would’ve made that decision, or if that would’ve happened, wow, that would’ve been so much worse.” But at a point, God gave you a path to walk through, didn’t he? Because He is not going to attempt you beyond what you’re capable of doing. So it could get very, very hot, but that fire is not going to consume you. But look back, once the trial clears, it’s so easy for human beings, all of us, we all make this mistake, to... we get through a trial, and we’re grateful, and we move on to our lives.

Stop. That’s a key moment. That’s the time where you stop and say, “Okay, let’s look back at that trial. What did I do right? What did I do wrong? How could I have done that differently? What did God do to make... help me get through it?” It’s... any project if you kind of take a project management approach to it, anytime a project closes, you always look back and say, “Okay, what did we do right? What did we do wrong?” We do... every year after the feast we do this. We say, “Okay, what worked at the feast? What did we have to work on? What can we improve for next year?”

Every project should be operated that way. When you close it, you reanalyze it. You do a postmortem on it. Well, any trial we go through, we should do our own postmortem on, and see how God adjusted, and tweaked, and modified, and opened doors, and gave us a path, and the lessons that we learned. Brethren, this is especially, again, important as we approach the Passover because it helps us examine ourselves. It helps us see God in our lives. And that’s what today is about. That’s what this message is about, seeing his active involvement in your individual lives.

It’s crucial because sometimes it’s just simply not obvious at first. Sometimes it’s obvious. Sometimes you could be Daniel in the fiery furnace, and you’re thrown into it, and you’re not burning no matter how hot it was, and God’s protection was obvious. But other times the fire is not physical. Most of the time it’s spiritual, and it’s only when we reflect back on those spiritual fires do you and I see God’s hand in what we did. Okay? So that’s a lot of fingerprint-looking, if you will, investigative work in aspects of seeing the fingerprints of God in our lives.

What about finding His fingerprints in spiritual growth or truth? What about can we find that? Because God’s hand is very much involved with truth, it’s what He’s about. We live, and walk, and obey the Sabbath, and tithe, and keep common, and don’t eat pork. All of those things because we understand truth, and truth has big, huge items like the Sabbath and tiny little details like mohair for the two witnesses. But understanding truth means we understand God’s direction and guidance. John Chapter six. And it’s really not just him giving truth to the Church, but also us understanding it.

John Chapter six and verse forty-four, we’ll read. “No man can come to me...” verse forty-four of John six. “No man can come to me except the Father, which has sent me draw him.” We can’t understand this way of life unless we are drawn to it. Our minds are opened up to it. “And I will raise him up in the last day.” It is written in the prophets...” Verse forty-five, “... they shall all... they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that has heard and has learned of the Father comes unto me.” Brethren, God has established a Church. He has given that Church truth, and He has called you or raised you in it.

That’s God’s hand in the most miraculous of ways because it’s existed for the last two thousand years. And over time, and ebbs, and flows, and trials, and persecutions, that Church remained. And for you, he uses that same spirit to help that truth make sense. When our minds were opened up, there may be think... you may have been someone who was religious before. You may have read your Bible religiously, and suddenly, a verse that you may have read over, and over, and over again, clicked and changed everything. And, “I’ve never seen it that way before.”

I know you have because we’ve done it in the Church. When God has a revealed Church over the last dec... truth over the last decade, there are verses that you have read, I have read, Mr. Pack has read over and over again, and then suddenly, it was the time, because, remember, God’s timing’s perfect, it was the time for God to reveal a new truth. And we read that verse together, and we thought, “I’ve never seen that in that verse before. I’ve never understood that before.” Just recently, even something as simple as understanding birthdays. Something as simple as us conflating the idea that if something bad happened on a day, the day was bad.

That understanding was a light bulb moment for me personally. It’s, oh, well, of course, if bad things happen on the Sabbath, we don’t throw out the Sabbath. And then all the other aspects that went along with that teaching. But so many things that you and I learn that are not seen or common is another one, that’s just shot through the New Testament, and we never understood it until it was revealed. And that’s been... it’s been twelve, fifteen years, whatever it has been. But that was a teaching that was just simply everywhere in the New Testament, but only understood in modern times.

Go to Philippians, Chapter one. Philippians, Chapter one. Let’s read one verse up here. Philippians, Chapter one and verse six. Verse six reads, “Being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” So until the day of Christ, you and I are work in progress. But that said, it’s God, the potter, to us, the clay, that is that work in progress. He says, “I won’t stop building, working, developing, testing, trying, creating in you what will become a future God-being.” Brethren, in our personal lives, that’s how we see God working with us in the greatest way.

It’s important to see the little things, acknowledge everything. But you know the best measure of God in your life? How have you spiritually grown yesterday, the last month, the last year, the last decade, or whatever time you’ve been in God’s Church? You see God’s hand, ultimately, as you see you spiritually change. You see it in others too, but it’s the most important to focus on ourselves and our spiritual growth because God’s hand is deeply there in our growth and in His truth. So those two work together. Those struggles or trials that happened over time, when God opens your mind to an understanding or a verse, or even when it’s hard and eventually, it just clicks because you study, you ask for guidance from the minister, you have a question.

And it’s as easy as looking back at habits you may have had ten years ago that you thought, “Oh, I’m never going to overcome this.” And you can think back now because we reflect and think about it, like, “Wow, that was a struggle at the time. I don’t even think about it anymore.” If we don’t reflect and meditate on how much we’ve grown, especially coming into the Passover, it won’t be as obvious to see God’s hand in our life and then have that faith that He’s working through us and then experience, which will build trust. And as we trust Him to take our steps, we actually follow Him more closely, and that cycle continues over and over again.

We acknowledge Him, we trust Him, we love what He does by obeying, and then He guides our steps, and then we get closer to Him. Our trust builds, our confidence and faith builds. It’s the positive feedback loop that are in so many aspects of living this way of life. The more we do something, the better we become at it, and the more we draw closer and be like God. Okay, as we start to come to a close here, we also have to recognize, and we’ve touched on this, God’s fingerprints in both His Church and His government. God’s fingerprints on His Church and His government because He doesn’t just work with individuals.

He works through an organization. One on the face of the planet that has a government, that has a ministry, that works with brethren, sheep, to be able to build them up and then do all the things we talked about today. I’m standing up here because of that. It’s because of the Church, the work, the government, that I’m in the role that I’m in. It’s why you were asked to set up this or whatever. Remember those opportunities we talked about? That’s the role of God’s Church and government. Go to Ephesians, Chapter four. Okay, just a simple verse.

No organization on earth moves like the Church of God. After being here for twenty, what, three years now? Twenty-four years? Twenty-three, twenty-four years? Twenty-three of it at headquarters. No organization can move at this speed or be able to turn on a dime the direction they go because there’s bureaucracy, there’s red tape. No, not with the government of God. If something is deemed right, we change gears and move, and we move as a group in unity. Ephesians, Chapter four and verse eleven. Verse eleven reads, “And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” Why? Verse twelve, “For the perfecting of the saints...”

That’s why I’m giving a sermon today to help perfect the saints. I’m a saint too. When I study and work on a message, it’s helping me be perfected, just like I hope to bring out the truth, the knowledge, the wisdom of God to help you be perfected for the work of the ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ. That’s why we do what we do. That’s why God put the Church in place that it is today. Let’s go to First Timothy three. First Timothy, Chapter three. Just read one verse here. Verse fifteen of First Timothy three. “But if I tarry long that you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God...”

That’s why we’re here. This is God’s Church, the pillar and ground of the truth. So the truth comes to the church through His government, and it’s given by an apostle. And then every other rank in the ministry, every other rank, holds up the apostle’s arms and then holds up, teaches the things we have been taught. Just like you have been taught, my job is to teach the things we have been taught because that creates unity. You and I believe the same thing. That is not normal. There are people out there, there are organizations, even within the Church of God umbrella, if you will, that are converted individuals, they sit in organizations where the person next to them believes something different.

And as long as they’re not too noisy about their differences, they can kind of walk together even though they disagree, and there’s that undercurrent. They don’t have the unity, the peace, the bonds that are in God’s true Church. The clarity of the decisions that are made at headquarters, the wisdom of God guiding. Brethren, sometimes what happens far, far away may not make sense in the moment, but that’s where you and I trust God through His government. We see His fingerprints on all the aspects of what God is doing in the Church, here, and in congregations around the world.

It’s not random. Remember, all of us are pawns on the chess board. All of us should be looking for and finding the fingerprints of God in our lives. We are being maneuvered around as He sees fit, as long as we don’t resist. So don’t assume if someone’s being moved, it’s being done incorrectly because God’s moving that pawn just like He’s moving you. God’s moving His headquarters just like He’s moving you. Don’t ever assume or question what you see happening. You could have questions, but being a critic is different than having questions.

Trust God’s hand guiding His work in His Church. Matthew sixteen. Matthew, Chapter sixteen and verse eighteen. Couple of more verses here. Matthew, Chapter sixteen and verse eighteen. “And I say unto you, you are Peter...” classic verse here to understand the Church, “... and upon this rock...” which was Christ, “... I will build my church, and the gates of hell, the grave, shall never prevail against it.” So throughout the last two thousand years, God has kept that promise. The Church has gotten small. It’s gotten big, has gotten small again, and big.

It’s cycled through its eras, but at no point has it disappeared. At no point has the grave, hell, destroyed it. Satan. And he continues to do it today. We’re here, so let’s go to Acts. Acts, Chapter two verse forty-seven. Acts two verse forty-seven. “Praising God and having favor with all people, and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved.” Almost every day, someone is invited into God’s Church. Almost every day, multiple times per week, at the very minimum, there are new human beings that are called and invited to live this way of life. God is growing His Church.

He’s expanding who He wants to be part of that hundred and forty-four thousand. See that growth. Understand it. Ask God to open doors. Ask, pray about things that will happen at the right time. Be excited when you hear stories of doors opening or obstacles disappearing, or the Church growing and developing, or things as simple as us paying down our loan that we’re now in a position waiting for the Kingdom of God, of course, as Mr. Pack explained. Where would you rather do the work? But we’re in a position that God is blessing us no matter how much time there’s left.

See His fingerprints about how we expand, how we grow, how God blesses headquarters, how He brings truth into the Church, through the structure and government of God. You do it in your local congregations. The halls you meet, that we practice this around the world, are nicer than when you started meeting in them. You’ve cleaned the floors, you’ve painted walls, you’ve improved whatever it was where you meet from because you leave it better than you found it. That’s the way of quality, that’s the way of God. That’s why the campus is important because it shows and reflects what God is to people who see things physically because you, the work, all of us collectively become a light to this world.

Remember, the Church is led by God with those underneath it. God’s fingerprints are all throughout this work, your lives, individuals, congregations, open doors. This is not just an organization, brethren, this is the body of Christ. This is God leading human beings toward the Kingdom of God, to be part of the family of God. You are those human beings, so am I. Remember, faith plus experience will build trust and help you walk this way of life. So the more and more we look at God’s fingerprints, the more and more we search for His hand in our lives, the more and more we will trust Him. We will have confidence. You and I will grow. The more and more we look and examine, we will be closer to Him. His hand guides your life, guides mine. So, brethren, especially as the Spring Holy Days come, examine yourself, look deeply, and find the fingerprints of God in your life.