In Kigali, Rwanda this month we are staying with our host, Pastor Moses, his wife, Mary, and their five children. They have quickly welcomed my team and I into their family and made us feel so welcome and at home. Most days we are helping teach at a private elementary school Moses and his church began in their community for the local children who can’t afford or had nowhere to go for school, and in the afternoons painting and doing construction at the church across town.
This past Sunday, Pastor Moses guest spoke at another church in the city, and the night before he asked someone from our team to preach a short message as well. I have shared my testimony in churches on the Race, but I have never actually preached or given a message. However, when Moses mentioned this, I immediately knew it was God asking me to once again do something vastly outside of my comfort zone. I only spoke for about fifteen minutes, so this wasn’t exactly a full message I had to prepare, but when I sat down to think about it I was filled with so much reassurance with how quickly God gave me what to speak about.
At the beginning of this month, the Lord gave me the word abide. I asked the Lord what He wanted me to speak about on Saturday night, and He reminded me of this word. I wish I could share the video my teammate took of me speaking, but with very limited and not the best WiFi, I’ll instead share a synopsis of what the Lord laid on my heart to share about:
My name is Mallory, and I’m from America. I want to share a little bit of my story this morning and I hope that it can be encouraging for some of you!
I began a relationship with Jesus when I was 14 years old. This was a young age, but I was old enough to know what it meant and to understand the decision I was making.
In America, most people go on to college or university when they finish high school. In fact, it’s pretty uncommon to not further your education beyond high school. When I accepted Jesus at 14, I also began to hear and follow the voice of God in my life. So when I was about 16 years old, I felt God telling me not to go to college or university. He told me what not to do, and so I began to wait for what He would tell me to do. In John 15:5 Jesus says:
“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.”
To abide means to remain. Remain in God, remain in His word, remain in His love. Jesus says here that without Him, we literally cannot do anything lasting or worthwhile. Life without God is futile; it’s useless, a chasing after the wind.
God told me not to go to college, so I thought by obeying and waiting for where He was going to call me, I was abiding in Him. But instead, in the waiting I began to fill my life with things that did not bear good fruit. I found my worth and identity that had once been in Jesus, instead in a relationship with the wrong person, in what other people thought of me, and in chasing happiness through worldly success or gain, among many other things. I was not abiding in God, so apart from Him, I couldn’t do anything that mattered.
What I couldn’t see from that point in my life, was that many years later God was going to call me to be a missionary and travel the world sharing His love. Since then, since He’s now brought me all over the world this year, to Rwanda and to speak to you here today, I’ve learned what it means to truly abide, to remain in the Lord.
The biggest step I took to get here was by truly surrendering my entire life, everything I have and everything I am at the foot of the cross. I learned to surrender the bad things in my life, everything that produces bad fruit, so that He can make it good. And surrendering the good things, even the things that are producing good fruit, so that He can make them even better.
I look at the life of Jesus and I want to love like He did. I want to walk this earth and live my life for others the way He did. In 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, Paul writes:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
This means that because Jesus died for us, because of His sacrifice, we have freedom. We didn’t have to earn it, it was freely given to us. And that means we have freedom to be transformed to look like Jesus.
If we abide in the Lord, if we remain in Him, remain in His word everyday, remain in relationship with Him, we can one day be transformed into His image. To love and to live like He did. And so many others will be blessed because of it.
I didn’t mention it at church on Sunday, but another important aspect of truly abiding in the Lord is being obedient to Him. I didn’t exactly want to preach or speak on Sunday. I am not nearly confident enough in myself to have volunteered to speak on my own accord either. But I knew God was asking, so I did it anyways. Sometimes, He asks for blind obedience, and we may never know why. We may never get to understand why it was so important we do that one seemingly small or insignificant act that He’s pulling on our hearts to do. Talking to the man in the checkout line at the grocery store, giving food or money to the homeless woman on the street, inviting that person you barely know but often think about to a church event.
Sometimes, never to be expected, we do get to see the fruits of our obedience. After the service on Sunday, after Pastor Moses spoke, five men came forward and gave their lives to Christ. I am in no way implying these men accepted Christ because of anything that I said, but I know that my act of obedience very well may have been a part of it. God may have used my act of courage to spark courage in these men’s hearts to come forward.
As my team and I were leaving the church, one of the Pastors approached me and thanked me for my message. He then told me he received a vision of me last week speaking, and the Lord told him I am going to be a pastor one day. He prophesied that I am going to one day preach to many men, women, and children and lead them to Christ. This was all said in broken English, so to be completely honest, I thanked the man immensely but walked away wondering if I heard him right, if some of it could’ve been lost in translation as English isn’t his first language. I didn’t have much time to linger in these doubts, however, as only a few minutes later another Pastor asked me to pray for his family, and for the church before we left. When I finished praying, he told me God gave him the exact same prophecy, that I am going to be a pastor one day and preach to many men, women, and children.
Visions and prophecies are a familiar language to missionaries on the field, but I know this may be more than a little out there for many of my supporters reading from home in America. I believe in these things because I’ve seen and received them myself. A vision coming true is a mark of obedience. This pastor received a vision of me, and in that moment of hearing him describe it to me, I immediately felt so much peace that I am right where the Lord wants me. This isn’t the first time I’ve had such a moment of peace and reassurance on the Race. I know that I am supposed to be here in Kigali, Rwanda this month, I know that I was supposed to speak at this church this past Sunday, and I know that I am on track in following the Lord’s plan for my life.
I’m not writing this to brag about a crazy prophecy given for my life. I’m instead sharing this because it doesn’t terrify me like it would have ten months ago. It doesn’t make me want to run for the hills or tell God no because others could do it better. If I’ve learned anything on the Race, it’s that God doesn’t call people based on resumes or experience. He doesn’t care that someone else could do it better. We don’t serve a performance-based Creator. He calls us, He has called me to the Race, and to so many other things yet to come, because He wants to do them with me. I want everyone in the world, every Christian I know at home in America to grasp that. He wants to do it with you, whatever it may be.
It’s my sincere prayer that you find it, accept it, and run full steam ahead into all the Father has for you. I can promise you that it will be the best experience of your life.
