AMEN Australia 2019 Conference: Witnesses Unto Me

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network Australia

David Haupt

Trevor Hurlow

Edwin Nebblett

Friday Q and A


The question is, how can you tell the difference between God's voice? 1 of the things that I have done over the years is, first of all, I studied the men in the Bible to see how to be a better father, what to do and what not to do. And there are 2 things that I observed. First of all, when whatever voice you hear, nothing audible, calls to your heart to do something and you really want to do it, I have learned to distrust that voice. Because my selfish heart, I don't even know my own heart, okay?

But when that spirit calls to my heart to do something, I go, you have got to be kidding. You're asking me to do what? I can't do that. That's the voice that I have come to appreciate. That's exactly why I want you to do it.

You see, because my example immediately comes to my mind is Moses. That's what I learned with studying Moses. When Moses did it in his own strength, disaster. When Moses said, I can't do that, God even said, I'll get your brother to talk for you, but you're going to do it. When Moses did everything that he knew, Moses was amazing!

Under the authority of God, called the most humble man. God could use him. So for me, I have come to distrust when I jump at that idea I go that's the wrong voice Because all it's doing is feeding this boy's self, but when it's something like you I you want Lord can we have a conversation about this? Now mind you I'm not doing any kind of active debating. Please don't misunderstand me.

But you get that still small voice and it says, you really need to do such and such. Oh, please. I don't want, I cannot do that. It is not my skill set. You have the wrong person.

Go ask. I've come to appreciate that I am doing it. And if anything works, to God be the glory. Not this 1. So yes, so for me over the years I've come to appreciate, this is my own experience, I've just come to appreciate that when the Lord asks me to do the impossible, I am very clear that if the possible occurred, it has nothing to do with me, but just me surrendering myself.

Okay, Lord, if that's what you want me to do, I'm not going to look good here. It's going to be embarrassing. I don't know what I'm doing, but it's not about me. It's all about you. Okay, What do you want me to do?

I have done some things that were way out of my comfort zone, but we don't have time for that tonight. So that's my answer to your question. I think that's a really interesting question. But My own experience is it's as much about moving as it is about stopping. I've never been 1 for sitting and contemplating and waiting for voices.

It's about Oswald Chambers, who I'm quite keen on, he says, trust God and do the next thing. And for me, it's about that daily relationship and then doing what comes naturally, doing the next thing, rather than standing and rather than sitting and waiting for direction. And it will be consistent with the law and the testimony. Yeah, it's got to be consistent. And it's also very important to me that I have a community of people who I'm answerable to and responsible to.

And they'll say to me, no, that's wacky, that's weird, that's not appropriate. My wife's the first 1 that'll tell me that. But yeah, there's a whole pile of things and it's my daily relationship with God and ongoing relationship with God. The reality is that We have constant voices speaking in the recess of our mind. And how do you, between all of that, work out which is God.

So I agree with what has been said so far. I also want to suggest that as you go on to a journey with God, that you will eventually come to the point where you start to recognise his voice. As in any relationship, I can recognise my wife's voice or my kid's voice even if there's major noise around me. So I would like to recommend, God will always speak through his word. He will impress you, especially as you read his word.

Ask him to speak through his word to you as well. I just want to comment there. You know, a verse comes to mind and I think it kind of summarizes this and it's in Proverbs and it says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. And how does it go? Lean not unto your own understanding.

And in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path. And I think, you know, some people seem to have, let's say, a clearer connection or whatever, But that has really been a theme in my own life, is just to trust God, to submit to him and allow him. And he will direct your path. And when you look back, often then you can just see how amazingly the Lord has led, despite mistakes you've made and maybe wrong moves and times when we should have spoken up and we didn't or we did things. It's amazing as we turn to him and humble ourselves before the Lord, how the Lord is still willing to use us and make us a blessing.

Dr. Neblett, I'm just keen on hearing a little bit more about your Bible memorization, and in particular that you use some system, Did you call it scripture typing or something? I don't know about that. BibleMemory.com, I believe is their new name, but it's called Scripture Typer. I've learned from my children, and they spoke of scripture for years.

And I've said, really? Again, why Scripture memory? I know I need to take it with me wherever I go. So it's an app. And it's available on your iPad or your iPhone, your Android, your whatever, your computer.

But the bottom line is, you put in there scriptures that you wish to memorize, and you can put it in in whatever version you wish. And I prefer King James, but I've also liked New King James. And so the Lord called to my heart 1 day, my favorite book in the Bible is James. I'm pleased not to be careful how I say this, but the Lord put it in my heart that I needed to memorize the entire book of James. And so I said, okay, All right.

I don't memorize very well, but I've memorized the book of James in both King James and New King James. 108 verses. I know. And so I spend, I spend an hour a day scripture, and I just love it. I just never thought I would love memorizing scripture.

It's just the strangest thing. But I love doing it. And I don't do it in order to... I think 1 of my role models, to be very honest with you, is Pastor Randy Skeet. I look at him in awe.

Wow. But you can also memorize passages in Spirit of Prophecy. It's quite, I would encourage you to look at it, scripturetyper or biblememory.com, that's the same way. And I thoroughly enjoy spending time in the Word. I never thought I would.

When you were describing all that you were doing when you were working full time and doing all those evangelisms. Can you please explain to me what your day looked like? Because how can you fit all of that into 1 life? And do everything else that you're supposed to be doing outside of work. To everything there is a season, a time to be born, a time to die.

When you live a directed life by the Spirit of God, you are effective. All of my life is a witness. All of it. The question is, is it a witness for the Kingdom of Heaven or the enemy of the kingdom of heaven. So my observation has been that each and every 1 of us has the opportunity to put, this is my favorite statement these days, I am a man under authority.

You speak of your wife, I am a man under authority. You speak of your wife. I am a man under authority. I am a loved man. I am loved by God.

I am loved by my wife. I am loved by my family. How I have been deserving of this, I don't know, because I am selfish. This is a selfish heart. But by God's grace, I am gifted by His love, by my wife's love, my children's love.

Because of this, it is in my heart to do everything that I can to show appreciation for that love. And so now I order my life, not by the request of man, because I have gotten into a lot of trouble over the years doing great work saying yes and not saying no. So I have now formulated in my mind, this is just me over the years, I have 3 questions I ask. Is the request that I am being asked going to affect my time with God? In other words, I'm going to be doing this evangelistic series, I'm not going to get home until 10.30 at night, I'm going to be too tired to get up in the morning to spend time in God's Word.

I say no. I'm talking good work. Number 2, will it affect my time with my wife? No. Will it affect my time with the family?

Now my children are all grown, so I have a little more time. So unless I get 3 yeses, I stopped saying yes. So that's what's happened because, yes ma'am, I was doing the work of 3 and I loved every minute of it. I love doing obstetrics. It completely disrupts your life.

I love teaching. I love the practice of medicine. It is a gift to be able to be in the lives of other people. It's an intimacy that is just amazing. I love doing the work of God.

I love playing with grandchildren. I love doing all of these things. So I have learned. Lord, what would you have me to do?" And so now it's been very difficult for me. Trust me, my journey, just a week before I came here, I finally told my office that I am going to be retired.

I will be there for them, and I will do locums with my practice, but I have been not wanting to let go. And so I finally told them, it broke my heart. My administrator said, what am I going to do without you? It was tough, but I've learned. To God be the glory, what would you have me to do, O Father?

What do you want me to pay attention to? And so there are things I need to take care of in my own life, and my precious bride is in charge of me? Yep, I am a man under authority." So I don't have time for a lot of some of the things that I would love to do. And that's okay, because the time will come when the Lord will say, I now need you, now that you're ready, I now need you to go and do this. I'm not, my usefulness is not at an end, but I am learning.

Lord, what would you have me to do? And that's what I'm going to do. But I say no to very wonderful things that I would love to do. So to God be the glory. That's what I do.

This is just my own journey. It's not a matter of saying no, it's a matter of saying yes to the important things. I've learned to work on a year's schedule and to actually plan my breaks. So I work at a heavy pace, but I also know when I'm going to take breaks. David, I'm just interested in the 3 people that you mentioned that connected through the ADRA outreach program.

What was it, I know you talked a little bit about the time you spent in prayer and so on, but when those people reflected back, what was it that they saw and how did they connect and do you know more about their journey? There's more than those 3, but I guess they experienced no judgment. They actually were judging themselves enough, and it's interesting, Ellen White in Ministry of Healing says, never speak word of censure to this class of people, because if you would, you would in actual fact be doing the work of the devil. So we looked at the way that Christ ministered, the compassion with which Jesus, and it's phenomenal what happens when people give from themselves expecting nothing in return, what happens in the life of the recipient. 1 case in particular, a young lady was brought in, found at the point of wanting to commit suicide, was brought in.

She was a fairly tough case, so my team said, David, you take over. I wanted to test the water whether I could come in from a spiritual angle, and I asked the question, I said, do you believe in a higher power? She just exploded with a few words that I can't mention here. She said, don't ever talk to me about him because he's no different to my father who sexually abused me from the age of 7. So I called my staff and I said, don't ever speak the word God.

Live him in every aspect that you connect with her. 3 months down the line, she knocked on my door, I motioned her to come in, she said to me, she sat down, she said to me, I have discovered God in every aspect that that service have treated me. I want to know more about the Jesus that makes you people different to the other services in town. So I believe it is a way in which we interact and live and a standard of service that is of such a higher, you know, much higher than the world out there because you're able to do it because you look away from yourself. You're able to serve without expect anything in return.

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