Working
WITH.
(THIS ONE IS A BIT LONG BUT TOTALLY WORTH IT.)
There is always more than what
meets the naked eye, am I right? Well, what if I told you that the Kingdom of
God is at work in power all around you but you were missing some or maybe even all
of it, would you believe me? Let me give you a small peek into something that
rocked me to the core this past year while traveling the world, serving 11
different countries in Jesus name.
While in South Africa, I was
given this piece of hardcore Truth: “There
is a BIG difference between doing things FOR God and WITH God, FOR Holy Spirit
and WITH Holy Spirit.�
Before we get into that, let’s
remind ourselves of a few things real quick….
1. Holy Spirit is the power of God at work in us (Luke 24:49).
2. Holy
Spirit was given to us when Jesus left earth (John 20:22) and the Spirit still dwells in His children
(Romans 8:9, Luke 11:13, Galatians 3:14, Ezekiel 36:27).
3. When people in scripture, or now for
that matter, operate(d) “in the Spirit�
or were “full of the Spirit�, powerful
things happened (look it up!).
4. This is God’s mandate for His children:
“The Kingdom of God is at hand. Heal the
sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received,
freely give.� -Jesus (Matthew 10:7-8)
My aim is not to drill you
scripturally because, well, you have been reading or hearing scripture all of
your life. Just let me give you something concrete and full of Truth here.
Let’s get focused back in on the
“for� or “with� topic again.
Doing things FOR God is good; there
is nothing wrong with that but we just end up doing, well, that’s just it,
DOING. We often hear the commonly used phrase, “it’s a relationship, not a
religion� don’t we? Let’s put this in perspective for a second. When we do
things FOR God we live by the law (do’s and don’ts) and in a way, we are doing
things to ‘live up to’ or ‘gain approval’ of a God who doesn’t want that from
us. This just pushes us into a religion and not a relationship. It becomes a ‘do
and don’t’ thing. We live in a religion when we do things FOR God and this was
not intended for God’s children (Romans 8:21). Doing things for God is good and
fun but that’s all you are left with a ‘good time’ and a pat on the back from
time to time.
Doing things WITH God is a whole
different ballgame. When we work WITH God, we work where He is working, we are
doing the things He is doing and with that comes the power that I mentioned
earlier. I mean, come one, God did give us HIS Spirit! After all, Mark 16:20
says, (Mind you, Jesus had just left earth) “And they went out and preached
everywhere, while the Lord worked WITH them and confirmed the message by
accompanying signs.� Jesus was gone but still working WITH. Hmm… interesting! Working
WITH God means that we are listening. Doing things WITH God leaves you
scratching your head at the end of the day saying, “WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?� and
worshipping in Spirit AND Truth at the same time, knowing and experiencing the
heart of God for His children in sometimes tangible, Kingdom form!
The book of Matthew (7:22-23) says,
“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your
name, and cast out demons in your name, and do mighty works in your name?’ And
then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you….’� We can do things in ‘Jesus
name’ all of our life but still not work WITH Him. We can do mighty things for
the name and sake of God but not really know the Spirit of God. We can do
things in the name of Jesus and miss it all. We can miss the Kingdom of God
unleashing before our eyes OR we can do things in the name of Jesus and watch
the world change before our eyes. Our response is the determining factor. You
see, we can easily neglect the power of the Holy Spirit and God’s desire to
work through us if we don’t sit back and listen for it.
I was a youth minister for two
years while I was in college and not once did I ask the Lord, “Where do you
want us?� or “What do YOU want us to do?� I never listened to see if God was
saying, “Turn left� when my plan was to turn right. I just planned things and
we did things FOR God. There was no power in it. Nothing extraordinary happened
and the Kingdom of God was not enveloping earth. I was a leader who planned and
did, not listened and obeyed.
Being a believer and working with
God is as easy as listening and obeying. That, my friends, is relationship, a
Spirit filled, powerful, Kingdom bringing relationship!
You know, I had always heard
extreme stories of God telling someone to do a headstand on the street corner
or God telling a woman to do a cartwheel through church, or even God telling a
man to punch a woman in her stomach to heal her and miraculous things followed.
I always wondered if these were true. Well, let me tell you something, the Lord
speaks to His children in crazy ways!
Just before I left the U.S. this
past year something happened. It was the 6th day of World Race
training camp and my team and I were directed to ask God for a vision of
something (I had never asked God for such a thing!) specifically to direct our
unknown ministry of the day. They said it could be something as simple as a
pair of socks or a color. I prayed for God to give me a vision and I could see
(in my mind) myself walking up to an old abandoned house and there was someone
cutting him/herself. I was of course freaked out and wondering where my mind
had gone! I asked God to give me something “of Him� and again I received the
same vision. Once more… the same vision! I was thinking, “Where’s the socks
God!?� Finally, I told Him, “God, if this isn’t of you, give me something else�
and I got the same thing for the fourth time. Convinced, I went to share with
my team. Once we all shared what God gave us, which was an old abandoned house,
someone cutting them self, an old black Lincoln, broken handcuffs, a homeless
person, steps and the bright colors orange and blue, we headed towards Atlanta,
GA. As we walked the streets of this rich neighborhood, I thought, “You’ve got
to be kidding me! An old abandoned house HERE!?� Not a mile from where we
parked, we saw an old black Lincoln halfway
out in the road. We walked around it and kept going. As I was making sure I was
listening to the Spirit, just past the car, I got, “turn to your right�. As
soon as I turned, I saw right across the road from the Lincoln, among mansions,
was an old abandoned house! My jaw hit
the ground! While looking around the house and praying over it, I got a phone
call from one of my teammates who had walked on. “Colby, we need your help. Can
we come get you?� As soon as we walked up to where we were going, I saw a homeless man sitting on a park bench
about to pull the razor blade across his arm (he was already covered in scars)
and start cutting. Thomas was his
name and we found out that he had just been released from prison (broken handcuffs). We listened to him,
poured into him, told him what God says about him and prayed over him for a
while. Just after our goodbye hugs as we began to walk away, Thomas said, “I
was sleeping right here,� pointing to the ground next to the park bench, “when
you found me right?� “Yeah, why?� asked my friend. Thomas looked straight at us
and said, “I usually don’t sleep here,� as he pointed back up the street, “I
normally sleep on the steps of an old abandoned house up there across the
street.� It all made sense then! This was it! This was the man that God had in
mind to encounter that day! Well, as if we were finished with imparting the
Kingdom of God on Thomas, we walked on only to discover on the sidewalk a bright orange arrow pointing across the
street to the house and a bright blue
arrow pointing back to Thomas. That day, I am sure of it, Thomas met the
Kingdom of God how he was supposed to. It wasn’t some group of people before or
after us passing out tracts, it was a group of people willing to listen and
obey the voice of the Lord!
As if that story is not enough,
prior to entering China (month 9), our contacts kept telling us, “We don’t know
why you are coming but we’re glad you’re coming.� Once we got there, we heard
the same thing quite a few times and were also told that they had nothing for
us to do. “Just wait around for something. We’ll either find something for you
or you can just find something yourselves�, we were told. On the second or
third day of waiting around, I couldn’t take it anymore. I was talking to Jesus
and He told me just to go outside. I finally went outside and started walking
around the apartment complex. While walking and ‘talking’ with the natives, God
told me, “I’m going to bring two white people your way today�. At this point, I
had only seen one white person in that big city. I kept walking and the Spirit
began to stir. For an hour and a half or so I walked and prayed things I knew
nothing of. As I was praying, I got to one point on the sidewalk, God stopped
my feet and said, “Stop. Stay right here.� I stayed for, I don’t know, twenty
or thirty minutes until after looking at the mountains to the right for a bit, I
looked left and an older white couple was walking straight at me! As soon as
they got within earshot, I told them, “I’ve been waiting on you two!� They
looked at each other and then said to me, “You have!?� “Yes ma’am, the Lord
told me to come out here and while walking around, He told me that He was gonna
bring you two to me,� I quickly replied. “Well praise the Lord!� the wife said,
“We don’t know why you’re here but we’re sure glad you’re here!� Yeah, they
said it! A bit after they told me that they were from Texas, which was a HUGE
blessing, they told me that they needed my help and wanted to know if there
were more people with me. I was then informed of an English Café that they were
opening up on Wednesdays and Thursdays to help the community with their
English. If that were not enough, as soon as I got upstairs to tell everyone
(my team went crazy), my teammate Rachel walked in only to say, “Guys I heard
about this English Café that we should look into helping at this month!� Well,
as the Holy Spirit proves Himself again, we worked with the café all month and
had some divine encounters!
I could go on and tell you about
how the Lord told me to give my cousin another ‘option’ for his back (major
surgery was inevitable according to doctors) and then God healed him at a
wedding, or how when praying for a guy with knee problems in Africa, the Spirit
told me to stretch out my hands toward a man with problems in his hand and God
healed him on spot too, or how the Lord tells me things about people all the
time, I repeat those things to them and the people freak out at how I knew that
and then I tell them what God wants them to hear. I could go on and on and on
about operating in the Spirit and working WITH God but I don’t believe I have
to. I will not say that Holy Spirit is going to speak to you like you always
thought but I will say it like I did earlier… listen for it and obey it no
matter what and you WILL see, hear, feel, smell, and taste the Kingdom of God
as it comes crashing to earth before you!
Working with you and with the King,
Colby Gardner
