John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
God has placed me in a new season of life where all that He is asking of me is that I learn to abide. A life of abiding always manifests itself in simple obedience throughout the mundane moments of life. That is what faith does, it always manifests itself in obedience. It is what sets you up for encounter.
I want you to imagine the time that Noah picked up his ax and headed for the woods. As the ax hit the tree, faith and obedience collided revealing the heart of Noah. We aren´t told of the countless hours that Noah had to put in building the arc but we do know that with that one swing Noah signed up for 100 years of simple obedience. Day in and day out going out into the woods cutting down trees, being called crazy, building the arc. Day after day after day staying the course, cutting, building, obeying, abiding. Gods still looking for these people who will abide in Him no matter what and I want to be one of those people.
Last Wednesday night we were invited to a church service by a local pastor that we had met the day prior. Upon arriving we found ourselves in a pretty nice sized empty church. Thirty minutes passed by and there was a total of 10 people in the room (5 of us including our contact and 5 people from the church including the pastor). There was a split second in time where we all wondered what exactly we were doing there after we had all realized that this was everyone who was coming. Suddenly we were asked to give a message and lead worship and all of our demeanors changed. We all agreed that God was calling us to obedience and was wanting us to bring The Kingdom despite the low turn out.
My buddy Evan and our contact Juan led us in some worship songs setting the stage and piercing the language barrier. Our friend Brian got up and spoke about the love of God and our contact Juan translated. We then felt led by God to lay hands on all 5 of the church members and pray for them. We remained obedient.
We started off praying for Miguel. He was in a wheelchair and had cerebral palsy. Immediately the Lord drew my heart to him. I ended up staying and praying for him the whole time and I could see God moving in his heart. I asked God to give me His eyes for Miguel and I was undone by love. God gave me so much joy as I began singing songs of Gods love and reciting scripture over Miguel. I could literally see the transfer of grace happening. The more that God filled me up with His love for Miguel the more I saw it being transferred over to Miguel.
Through prayer, God showed up and healed a lady from a headache that had been bothering her all day. He also healed an older lady from a plaguing back pain. The older lady who had the back pain walked out of that room with the biggest grin on her face bending over and touching her toes rejoicing. She had barely been able to move beforehand!
While praying, I could feel the Presence of heaven and all 10 of us left that room on a spiritual high. People were even giving each other high fives for what God had just done in that room and if we hadn´t had the mindset of obedience it never would have happened. God really did something in my heart through this encounter and He showed me the importance of abiding both in season and out of season.
Like Noah, The Lord is calling us to abide. He is looking for these people to bring His Presence.
As a wise old saint once said, ¨God shakes eternity through simple obedience.¨
Robert
Jesus: ¨If you abide in me, I will abide in you.¨
