"I'll have to put the dogs on the lead before you arrive," she said, "so that they won't fly at you when you come in the front door. I hope the black one won't get too nervous and pee on the floor!"
"No, it's better to leave them loose, then," I said. "They're not going to bite me."
I could tell, even over the phone, that the poor woman had trouble believing this. Her nervous dogs, already seven and eight years old, had always charged, barking furiously, at anyone who came into her home. When I arrived and came into her flat, I stopped the charging dogs in their tracks, commanding them to back off and sit down. Then, once I was ready to take them out for a walk, I made them sit down politely in front of the door, instead of charging excitedly out of the house and into the street.
The woman observed this in wide-eyed amazement, as if she was watching some kind of magic show. Grabbing her camera, she snapped pictures of her obedient dogs, so that she could send them to the women at the food bank breakfast, who had prayed with her for a doggy-solution, so that she could go to her sporting event. "This is unbelievable," she kept saying. "It's an answer to prayer. It's a miracle."
Well, no doubt, it was an answer to prayer, but I knew that there was no real "miracle" about it. I was simply completely confident in the fact that if I behaved appropriately, the two dogs would learn to respond appropriately. My faith and confidence were in canine psychology and not in any miracle working power.
A few days later, I was reading in the New Testament, and came to the part in Acts chapter 5 where it says that all kinds of signs and wonders followed the apostles' testimony and these miracles convinced crowds of people to come into the kingdom of God. It got me thinking, How much faith do I have that the Holy Spirit will still do supernatural signs today if I pray for someone to be healed or for some other situation where they need a miracle?
I walked into that home with no doubt in my mind that the dogs would respond exactly as I expected. Do I have the same sort of confident expectation that God will move supernaturally in the 21st Century, or do I have more faith in dog psychology than I do in the power of the Holy Spirit?
It was a challenging thought, and my prayer for the rest of that week became, God, may my faith in your goodness and power be as unshakeable as my confidence in those dogs' ability to change.
