Philippians 4:19, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Even though Paul was addressing the Philippians with regard to the teachings of the same God, he used the word “MY” God which might suggest his God and the Philippians’ God were two different Gods. However this is not the case. Paul was actually personalizing his relationship with God and demonstrating outwardly his intimacy with Him.
Recently I had the opportunity to share the goodness of God with a friend of mine. He was facing some challenges in life and God impressed in my heart to tell my friend that in an event of need, God can help him supernaturally.
Now this is not the first time I am sharing the Gospel and the goodness of God to my friend. As far as I could remember, God has opened up 3 times, the door of opportunity to minister to him over a period of a couple of years. Through the grace of God, I had shared the salvation message with him, my own testimony, addressed some of his questions regarding God and even provided some good literature for his reference. Each of these was accomplished over the 3 different occasions through the leading of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, whatever I knew with regard to Christianity and God, I have shared much with him. However there was something different this time round. I was prompted in my heart to request if I could pray for him before we end the chat. He gladly said, “Sure, why not?” I requested him to close his eyes. I then closed mine and I started to pray out verbally with boldness. This was something I learnt from Pastor Amos when he shared in one of his testimonies.
The prayer went forth as follows briefly, “Heavenly Father, I thank you for this wonderful opportunity to pray for my friend XXX … Father I pray that You will touch him supernaturally in a way that he knows and he knows that You can be so real and that he could not deny that You exist. …. Father I pray that You will bless him, bless his family and that Your peace manifest in their presence. We now thank You and we praise You. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.”
(Certain contents were excluded in the above written prayer to protect the privacy of my friend)
What happened next was when I opened my eyes, I saw my friend looking at me. It seemed to me that he had been observing me while I prayed. There was a moment of silence before he said,” Wow, your prayer is very comprehensive and all round.” I jokingly replied, “I think this is what you need at this point in time.” However in my heart, I believed this is the first time someone has prayed for him and he was amazed by the way and the things that I prayed out. Holy Spirit was actually bringing things in my mind to pray for him. Moreover I have been telling him how real God is to me but somehow I believe he was able to witness the relationship between God and me from the way I communicate with God during the prayer. I feel that God is trying to show me that if I consistent talk with God and fellowship with God through prayer, when we have the opportunity to pray for people, especially non believers, they will be able to see the presence of a relationship with the God that we believes in, as well as the authenticity of the intimacy we have with Him. Just like how Paul says, “My God …” Praise God!
On the hindsight, I could have added the following scriptures in my prayer for him as well: “Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts; and Your ways higher than our ways. Moreover the thoughts that You have toward us are thoughts of peace and not of evil; to give us a future and a hope” and “We thank you for what you are doing right now and what you are going to do in the future.”
Nonetheless, I will bear these in mind when the next similar prayer opportunity comes.
Anonymous
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
We need to learn to embrace boldness to represent and serve God effectively
Ephesians 6:19, “… that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,”
I had the opportunity to share the gospel with one of my relative lately and he accepted Christ as his savior. Praise God!
My relative came to visit my family and we had lunch together. Such visit happened every now and then and our conversations were mostly revolving around catching up with each other. However this time, it was a little different. Halfway through the meal, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me in my heart to share the gospel with him. There was a burden in my heart and I knew God wanted me to do so right then and there. It was a familiar feeling.
Nonetheless, I started to struggle in my mind on how to start, what to say and should I even bring the topic up. I was also thinking perhaps I should wait for another convenient time to share the gospel. Perhaps I should not even spend the effort as it is impossible for him to accept what I am planning to share. Since I would face rejection, I must as well not talk to him about it. Thoughts of justifying why I should not share the gospel with this relative of mine just went wild in my mind in that short span of time. This was when I started to realize I have not been consciously making the effort to seek out opportunities to share the gospel with people around me lately. I was too occupied with my own agendas. As a result I felt “rusty” in some sense.
Nevertheless, I knew I had to obey the Holy Spirit leading. This was one of those moments when I knew that if I consciously ignore the prompting or procrastinate long enough to miss the opportunity, the Holy Spirit would be grieved and I would be accountable for any consequences.
So while I was eating, I started to replace the negative thoughts with thoughts of how to bring the subject up at the right time. Eventually I started bluntly and asked my relative, “Have you ever thought of believing Jesus?” Next I brought up the subject about how God could forgive bad deeds that we have committed in our past and that we have an eternal heaven to go when we die. The sharing took off from there as the Holy Spirit leads. Eventually I asked him if he wanted to become a Christian. In fact, I did not ask him. I suggested to him, “Why not we pray together right now with my wife, I lead you in the salvation prayer and you repeat after me, as you do not know how to pray. But you must speak to God with your heart.” I assured him that he does not need to go church and he does not need to be baptized. At that time, my wife was in the room. My relative hesitated and suggested later. I was not ready to let go of this rare opportunity. I asked my wife out and then suggested to him to pray with us again. He said OK this time round.
Word for Word, he repeated after me. I could feel the boldness in my voice as I lead him to say the salvation prayer. I wanted to make sure he understood clearly what he was praying about. Praise God. As I think back, it was truly a miracle for my relative to even say the salvation prayer with us. I am glad that I obeyed Holy Spirit’s prompting.
As what Pastor Amos shared recently, boldness is the key to effective evangelism and believing for the promises of God. He mentioned:
Moses was bold enough to step out and call forth the parting of the Red Sea.
David was bold enough to step out and challenge Goliath.
Peter was bold enough to step out of the boat to walk on water.
Peter was bold enough to step out and preach to multitudes after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit when he just denied Jesus previously.
Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. By stirring up the gift that was in us, which is praying in the Holy Spirit, we could speak forth the Words that were accumulated in our hearts with conviction. This is when power is released through our mouth.
There were several accounts in the bible where men of God asked for boldness.
Paul requested his brethren to pray for him the boldness to speak the Word of God in the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians 6:19, “… and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,”
Peter asked God for boldness in the book of Acts.
Acts 4:29, “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word,”
And Paul reminded Timothy about the faith of Timothy’s mother and grandmother and urged him to stir up the gift that was in him because Paul knew that praying in tongues can bring forth the boldness of God in the book of 2 Timothy.
2 Timothy 1:5-7, “when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Therefore, boldness is one of the key attributes we need to learn to embrace in our personal life to represent and serve God effectively.
Steve
I had the opportunity to share the gospel with one of my relative lately and he accepted Christ as his savior. Praise God!
My relative came to visit my family and we had lunch together. Such visit happened every now and then and our conversations were mostly revolving around catching up with each other. However this time, it was a little different. Halfway through the meal, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me in my heart to share the gospel with him. There was a burden in my heart and I knew God wanted me to do so right then and there. It was a familiar feeling.
Nonetheless, I started to struggle in my mind on how to start, what to say and should I even bring the topic up. I was also thinking perhaps I should wait for another convenient time to share the gospel. Perhaps I should not even spend the effort as it is impossible for him to accept what I am planning to share. Since I would face rejection, I must as well not talk to him about it. Thoughts of justifying why I should not share the gospel with this relative of mine just went wild in my mind in that short span of time. This was when I started to realize I have not been consciously making the effort to seek out opportunities to share the gospel with people around me lately. I was too occupied with my own agendas. As a result I felt “rusty” in some sense.
Nevertheless, I knew I had to obey the Holy Spirit leading. This was one of those moments when I knew that if I consciously ignore the prompting or procrastinate long enough to miss the opportunity, the Holy Spirit would be grieved and I would be accountable for any consequences.
So while I was eating, I started to replace the negative thoughts with thoughts of how to bring the subject up at the right time. Eventually I started bluntly and asked my relative, “Have you ever thought of believing Jesus?” Next I brought up the subject about how God could forgive bad deeds that we have committed in our past and that we have an eternal heaven to go when we die. The sharing took off from there as the Holy Spirit leads. Eventually I asked him if he wanted to become a Christian. In fact, I did not ask him. I suggested to him, “Why not we pray together right now with my wife, I lead you in the salvation prayer and you repeat after me, as you do not know how to pray. But you must speak to God with your heart.” I assured him that he does not need to go church and he does not need to be baptized. At that time, my wife was in the room. My relative hesitated and suggested later. I was not ready to let go of this rare opportunity. I asked my wife out and then suggested to him to pray with us again. He said OK this time round.
Word for Word, he repeated after me. I could feel the boldness in my voice as I lead him to say the salvation prayer. I wanted to make sure he understood clearly what he was praying about. Praise God. As I think back, it was truly a miracle for my relative to even say the salvation prayer with us. I am glad that I obeyed Holy Spirit’s prompting.
As what Pastor Amos shared recently, boldness is the key to effective evangelism and believing for the promises of God. He mentioned:
Moses was bold enough to step out and call forth the parting of the Red Sea.
David was bold enough to step out and challenge Goliath.
Peter was bold enough to step out of the boat to walk on water.
Peter was bold enough to step out and preach to multitudes after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit when he just denied Jesus previously.
Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. By stirring up the gift that was in us, which is praying in the Holy Spirit, we could speak forth the Words that were accumulated in our hearts with conviction. This is when power is released through our mouth.
There were several accounts in the bible where men of God asked for boldness.
Paul requested his brethren to pray for him the boldness to speak the Word of God in the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians 6:19, “… and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,”
Peter asked God for boldness in the book of Acts.
Acts 4:29, “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word,”
And Paul reminded Timothy about the faith of Timothy’s mother and grandmother and urged him to stir up the gift that was in him because Paul knew that praying in tongues can bring forth the boldness of God in the book of 2 Timothy.
2 Timothy 1:5-7, “when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Therefore, boldness is one of the key attributes we need to learn to embrace in our personal life to represent and serve God effectively.
Steve
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