I’ve known my whole life that we serve an awesome God. I’ve seen Him work in ways above and beyond my understanding. I’ve seen His hand in my life in huge ways and tiny things that end up being huge! This week has been no different.
I’ve been working on a book for about 2 months now, and last week, I sat down to “work” on a chapter, and that “work” ended up being a life changing 10 pages.
I hope and pray that these words will touch and change someone else’s life, but whether they do or not, they’ve changed mine.
These words along with the affirmation that I was given Sunday morning, have shown me how truly in control God is.
When I sat down to work on this chapter, I picked up my pencil, and started writing. It was like I was taking dictation. The Holy Spirit was giving me the words to write. I wasn’t even able to read them, I just wrote.
When I was finished, I went back over it and read it, and remember thinking, “Lord, this is a speech, not a chapter in my book.”. I felt a definite, clear call on my life to be a speaker.
I remember thinking that God has a sense of humor, because one of my greatest fears has always been standing up in front of people and speaking, so this was clearly not something that I wanted to do, but I’ve seen that God’s good at doing that, because then He gets the glory and not us.
I prayed that if this was a calling from Him on my life, He would reaffirm this to me in some clear, tangible way, and that He would open doors and provide places for me to minister to people through speaking.
Sunday morning, we had a visitor in our Sunday School class. She stayed for our morning service, and I went over during our “greeting” time, and told her that it was great to have her with us.
She held my hands, and told me that God had called me to minister to people through speaking to them, but that I needed to let go of the chains of fear that were holding me back. I was stunned. How much clearer affirmation did I need?
Then, our youth group presented a skit to the song, “Mercy Came Running”. It was a beautiful depiction of Christ on the cross, with the veil being held up by two of the young ladies in our youth group. Several other participants were on the platform, in chains of various kinds: suicidal thoughts, oppresion, alcoholism, etc. It was so powerful.
Then, the song continued as “Jesus” walked throughout the congregation where several more youth were in chains. As He approached, each would stand, holding their hands crossed until He broke the chains.
This was so powerful, especially since their “chains” weren’t named like the “main” ones were. It spoke to me in such a real way, that everyone has their chains, different kinds in different forms.
As clear as anything, I heard the Lord say, “Okay, I already broke those chains of fear holding you back, so why are you still holding your wrists together as if you’re still chained?”
Just the fact that the word chained was echoed throughout the morning from the lady visitor to the awesome presentation the youth provided, showed me that I needed to let go.
God did not give me a spirit of fear or timidity. If He did not give them to me, then they came from the enemy. AND if He didn’t give me a spirit of fear or timidity, then He DID give me a spirit of boldness and courage.
So, now I understand my calling. I’m just waiting for God to open the doors with a place to speak.
I’m looking forward to seeing Him work in a very real and powerful way in opening these doors.
Please keep me in your prayers as I seek Him, whole-heartedly through this whole process.
I just want to be a tool for Him to use in any way needed, to reach those He sends my way.
In Christ’s service always,
Beth
