“I want to introduce you to my friend, Brian Wheeler. Outside of Christ, my life doesn’t make much sense. Can anyone else relate to that? They don’t go together, except for inside of Christ, they make total sense. Brian is a serial entrepreneur who has started and purchased multiple businesses and brings his faith in Jesus to everything he does in the marketplace.
I’m in a gas station and I’m walking out, and I hear this little internal voice like, ‘Hey, go pay for that lady’s gasoline.’ I’m like, ‘No, whoa, whoa, wait a second, that sounds kind of weird.’ I was like, ‘All right, we’re going to do this.’ So, I stroll over to the lady like it’s no big deal, and I was like, ‘Hey, um, so this is going to sound a little weird, but I feel like God told me to buy your gasoline. So, if you don’t mind, I’m just going to pay for your tank of gas. Are you okay with that?’ And the lady, without even responding, just…
Marketplace skills are missionary skills. So, I’m reading this book, and it’s super practical. He’s like, ‘Hey, start trying this. Is this what it looks like to partner with the Holy Spirit? It’s like exercising a muscle, you know, like exercising a muscle. Okay, I can do that. I’ve worked out a few times, right? Like, left one, come… Okay, all right, so we’re going to exercise this muscle.’ And he says, ‘Start listening to that little still spirit in you and just do what he says to do.’ And I’m like, ‘That sounds simple. Okay, we can do this, you know, right?’
So, I’m in a gas station and I’m walking out, and I hear this little internal voice like, ‘Hey, go pay for that lady’s gasoline.’ I’m like, ‘No, whoa, whoa, wait a second, that sounds kind of weird.’ I was like, ‘Is that me talking or is that the Holy Spirit?’ Then I’m arguing with myself, maybe I’m arguing with God, maybe both. Have you done that, right? If you haven’t been there yet, that’s like the definition of… maybe like good Holy Spirit talk meets insanity meets, I don’t know, but it’s like all the above at that moment ’cause you’re just not sure. But then I at least realize, like, ‘Well, wait a second, doesn’t really matter because this is an act of kindness. So, maybe this is God telling me, maybe it’s just me overspiritualized. You ever had those moments too, like, ‘I’m turning Pentecostal here, what’s happening?’ So, I was like, ‘All right, we’re going to do this.’ So, no big deal, I stroll over to the lady like it’s no big deal, and I was like, ‘Hey, um, so this is going to sound a little weird, but I feel like God told me to buy your gasoline. So, if you don’t mind, I’m just going to pay for your tank of gas. Are you okay with that?’ And the lady, without even responding, just busts into tears and starts sobbing uncontrollably.
I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, like, what did I say, like, what did I do, like, I’m really sorry, my bad, you know?’ And I’m almost kind of backing away because I just don’t know what to do with the situation. And she looks up at me and she says, ‘You don’t understand.’ She said, ‘I was on my way home and I knew I didn’t have enough gas in my tank to get there. So, I pulled up to the gas station and I realized I don’t have any money to my name.’ She goes, ‘I was trying to scratch up a dollar from my little change thing here, I couldn’t even find that.’ She said, ‘So finally, I got to the end of myself and I said, ‘God, if you’re real, I need you to show up right now.” She said, ‘Then you came over and you said, ‘God told me to buy your gas.” She said, ‘In that moment, I knew that God loved me. And I’m going to tell you something, that’s a story I still like to tell more than the rest of them because that was also the moment that I knew that God loved me. That was the moment and it did something in me that I’ll never forget. And from that day forward, I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m in, Lord, okay, we’re doing this, right? Going to exercise that muscle and we’re going to do it a few more times, let’s go. Where are we going with this?’
So, after reading that book, I decided that day, like, ‘I’m going to start trying to partner with the Holy Spirit a little more in my life because that was the second question that I needed answered: ‘Is there not more in this life for us?’ And the answer was emphatically yes. The Lord says yes. ‘I want to do all this and I want to do it through my people.’ And if you say yes because you’re clamoring for more, because you’re like, ‘I need more, Lord, I want to be on a grand adventure with you, I want a deep and abiding romance and love,’ God says, ‘I have all that. Matter of fact, when you ask Him the question, ‘God, what do you want from me? What are you looking for?’ His answer is everything. ‘I want your everything, specifically your heart.'”
