The God moment that spurred this all on.....

The dead are brought back to life.....

OK, the title is a bit over the top, but that's pretty much what it felt like at the time.

A very expensive high end system came in today because it failed to boot, as in no response from the power button at all. I had worked on this unit only a few days ago, no issues, just added a hard disk and a USB3 card, graphics driver update, really simple stuff, customer picked it up, took it home and it didn't start.

I tested the power supply, that was OK, motherboard not responding at all. Ran all the usual checks, went a couple of steps further, nothing, absolutely dead. Set about to find another motherboard, 3 week delay and very expensive, investigated a few other options, all no less than $680 for the hardware alone - I did say this was high end and the system lay on my bench basically stripped down to less than the bare essentials. I had the power plug inserted to provide an earthing point but nothing else.

I was about to ring the customer when I realised I had not asked the Lord what to do, so I simply said in humble prayer, "Lord, please forgive me for not asking you what to do about this system. The motherboard is dead and I can not find anything that will have this system up and running again before the weekend and all that there is is so expensive. If there is anything that you can do to help me, please ... and I can't remember the rest because I got an immediate response - Stand back and see the wonders of the Lord.

I was a bit taken back, because I was not in the best head space, so I replied, Ok, then, but would you mind if I called the customer to tell them about their system.
I called their number, which went straight to voicemail, so I started leaving the message. Only a few moments into the message, I heard some beeps coming from the mostly dis-assembled computer on my tech bench. Now I had not touched this machine for at least 30-40 minutes, maybe more while I searched for replacement parts and options, and took other calls in-between, but here it was trying to start, fans spinning and no heat sink on the CPU, even the front panel connector was sitting loose. I very quickly ended the call and pulled the power cord out immediately.

It ran for around 3-4 seconds, maybe 5 at the most before I pulled the cord. A little dumbfounded, I said OK Lord, then I touched the intel i7 CPU, it hadn't had enough time to heat up, barely tepid, so I knew it was OK. I applied fresh compound, reattached the HSF assembly, inserted a cheap graphics card because the original card is a mission to insert because it is so big and I didn't want to go to all that trouble if this was just a fluke, attached some cables and booted the computer, it ran perfectly, so I pulled out the cheap card, fully reassembled the system and once again, it ran absolutely perfectly and continued to do so for the remainder of my tests.

The big question is, what was the Lord trying to say to me in this particular event?

I took over this business not quite 2 months back and things are really tight. The whole town is down in the business sector due to a local issue that affects a good chunk of the core of the towns existence. Ignoring the issues we had with the bank account changeover, cashflow is sparse to say the least, and with the cost of the changeover plus residual bills from the previous setup that were not yet settled, coupled with the equivalent of 2 months salary for a departing partner and the IRD's requirement .... we've been hemorrhaging money and at times, I have felt like the business was dead in the water before I even started, however, it was the Lord who told me to take this on, so in obedience, I did just that.

Is He trying to show me that what man may classify as dead is of no relevance to Him because He has the first and last say and that I should trust him wholeheartedly because He can breathe life into anything He desires?
Is He trying to say my faith was weak because I went ahead and made the call without standing back and waiting to see Gods salvation?

I heard a saying tonight
When we are weak, He is strong - when we are strong, He is stronger!

In todays events, the physical effect was marvellous, but that pales into the distance as I reflect on how the God of the Universe spoke to me today as a man speaks to another man. It was only 9 words, but that is more than many get to hear in an entire lifetime.

Lord, do in me that which you have desired, I am yours.
Amen