“Gad” means “a troop or an army cometh” (Gen. 30:11). Gad was the first son of his mother Zilpah, but Leah believed that a troop was following after him. She saw something great in that which was seemingly small. We also should learn to look far beyond the small beginning and see the great things that will take place later. For example, in john 4:3 we read that the Lord Jesus Christ left Judea for Galilee. There were two roads to Galilee. One via Samaria and the other via Mount Carmel. The Jews would never go via Samaria (John 4;9) but the Lord Jesus Christ wanted to go through Samaria. The Lord said to His disciples, “I have decided to go through Samara”, but they replied, “Why go that way? Who will give us food to eat water to drink?” The Scripture says, “he must needs to go through Samaria”. What was the reason? For sake of one woman He went there and the whole Samara was shaken. Through one soul, He won the whole country (John 4:39; Acts 8:5-8)
We think that the Lord works more through big crowds. This is no God’s way. Through small things, He does great things. One day a man came in tears to see us. He said, “Please pray for my wife, she is very ill.” He was a Hindu. We went to see her, gave a short message then prayed and left. The Lord healed that woman and through her husband, many people came to the Lord in that area. On another occasion, a lady came to see me in Madras. She said to me “Please pray for my husband he is very, very sick in the hospital. The doctors are not able to cure him.” We spent only a few minutes with them in prayer, gave a short message and came away. Afterwards, the whole family which was from Hyderabad came for fellowship. In the year 1950 they wrote to me, requesting me to go to Hyderabad and that is how the Lord began to work in the city through a small thing, not through great things. That is what we learn from God.