During the first week of our time in Madagascar we did ministry on the campus of the largest university in the entire country located in the capital, Antananarivo. We would spend the first half of our time there doing some evangelism just talking to the students and sharing about Jesus as the Holy Spirit would lead us. Then we would break for lunch and after that have a Bible study in English that we would invite the students we met to come to if they wanted to. There we would share a testimony or a word from the Bible about something God laid on our hearts to share that given day. We would also play different games that would help the students practice English and remember whatever was shared that day.
The story I want to share with you all happened on the last day of campus ministry that week.
Each morning before we would go out to talk to students on the campus we would spend time in praise and worship to get our hearts and minds centered on the Lord. Many times after that we would do listening prayer, which is when we spend time asking God to show us something or speak something to us regarding who He may want us to speak to or what He may want us to say to someone that day.
On this day we did both worship and listening prayer. After asking the Holy Spirit if there was anything He wanted to show me or tell me regarding ministry that day I ended receiving a vision of a man on a boat. The boat was sailing on some rough waves and the man who was on it looked very distressed, like he didn’t know what to do with himself. I asked the Lord what this meant and just kept hearing, “Look for the symbol of a boat.” After that I thought, “Ok, I guess I’ll look for something with a boat on it and that will point me to the person God wants me to speak to today.”
I then had to partner with one of the Malagasy translators for ministry and felt that God wanted me to go with one of them who’s name is Marc. Now Marc is a solid man of God, which I knew from interacting with him before then, so I was excited.
Now unbeknownst to me at the time, Marc had received a word from God about paying back debts during our time of listening prayer that he believed God wanted him to share with someone that day. So when we went out to talk to people on the campus we were both looking for people who fit the things God had revealed to us earlier that morning.
During our time walking around the campus God lead us to some people who were open to talking about Jesus and the gospel, and then wanted to have Christ come in to their lives as their Lord and Savior to have a relationship with Him. It was so awesome to see how God would lead us to people who’s hearts were reading to welcome Him in to their lives. He was doing it literally everyday I went on the campus with Him that week. God is amazing!
However, as awesome as it was, none of the people we talked to during that time were related to what God had revealed to each of us that morning.
After meeting with those people from the campus we split up and I went to lunch and then to the afternoon Bible study we would have each day during the week. When the Bible study was finished that afternoon I then saw Marc come running in to find me before we left the campus for the day. He wanted to ask me if I would come with him to do some more evangelizing in a near by village he was about to go to. I unfortunately told him that I wouldn’t be able to due to other commitments but offered to pray for him before he left. He understood and was glad to have me pray with him.
Right before we started praying I had an impression from the Holy Spirit to share with Marc the vision of the man on the boat God had given me that morning. I thought it a little strange to do that because I didn’t think it was anything important by that time because we had already finished campus ministry for the day, but I shared it with him anyway because I felt like the Lord really wanted me to.
I told him what I believed God showed me that morning and that maybe he should look for the symbol of a boat or what it means. Marc said he would pray about it and seek out what, if anything, it may mean from God for him during his ministry in the village.
Marc then left for the village and I left the campus with my team to go back to our compound. I didn’t see Marc for the rest of the day until later that night.
At that time I saw him come walking in to our hostel building. When he saw me sitting in the lobby he then ran up to me with excitement on his face. He told me that he had to tell me what God did today during his ministry at the village.
He proceeded to tell me that the vision God gave me that I shared with him before he left for the village ended up being important for his ministry. He told me how before he started evangelizing he asked the leader of the team he was with what a boat symbolizes. His leader told him that a boat can symbolize redemption as something that covers a person or people like how God covered and redeemed Noah’s family during the flood. He also told Marc that a boat can represent authority as sometimes a mass of people can be represented by many waters and a boat sits above the water. After hearing this Marc felt that the Lord wanted him to look for a man who not only may have a boat, but a man who has some sort of authority.
After that when Marc went into the village he first asked some of the people if there was anyone there who had a boat. The people told him that there was indeed a man who managed a boat in the village, but that it wasn’t just any man. This man was the chief of the village (a man with authority).
When Marc heard this he knew in his spirit that this was the man he needed to talk to. He then asked if someone could direct him to this man because he needed to speak with him and someone said that they would go get him for Marc to speak with.
When the chief of the village came Marc began speaking with him and eventually inquired if he was currently distressed about anything in his life. The chief then told him that he has been very distressed. He said that he has several children and in order to feed them and meet their needs he’s had to barrow some money but doesn’t know how he was going to pay it all back.
Marc then knew that this wasn’t only the man from the vision God wanted him to find, but it was also the man that God wanted him to share the word with that God had showed him that morning.
Once he knew this he began to share the word of God with him, telling him about Jesus. He shared who Jesus was and what He had done for him on the cross because of how much God loves him. Marc eventually shared with him how it’s important to repay his debt and that God wants him to, but also that God wants to help him be able to do that and that he just needs to come to Jesus and trust Him because He loves him.
After Marc had finished telling me all of this he then said to me that the chief looked at him and said, “I had been going to church for sometime before recently and then stopped going because I started spending most of my time at the bar drinking because I was so stressed and didn’t want to think about my problems…but I need THAT. I need Jesus. And I want Him to come in to my life and help me.”
Marc then told me that the chief prayed with him to ask Jesus to be his Lord and Savior to begin a relationship with Him. And not only that, but Marc shared with the chief that there was leadership training for people who want to learn how to effectively be leaders who impact their communities for the Kingdom of God. After receiving the Lord in to his life and hearing this the chief was eager to also receive this leadership training in order to be able to know how he could begin to impact his community for Christ.
When he had finished telling me all of this my mind was completely blown away!
I was in awe of God and His sovereignty.
God had spoken to both Marc and me in different ways earlier that morning all for the purpose of reaching out to this one man so much later that same day. And it wasn’t just any man, but it was a man who was the chief of an entire village. A man who had the most practical potential to impact his community for God’s Kingdom in major ways because of his position of authority. Because he is the man that the people where he lives all look up to.
God literally blew my mind away! It was an amazing testimony of how God speaks to His people and guides them to the work He has for them if they are willing to listen and follow His leading. It was an amazing testimony of the awesome harvest that God wants us to reap as His workers if we just trust that He is guiding us in His will for our lives and those He wants us to reach out to. It was an amazing testimony of God’s love for people. That He was planning that entire morning to give two of His children the vision and words they needed for Him to reach out to the chief of this village later that day. A man who has the ability to point all the people in his village to come to know Jesus Christ, the One who created them and loves them so much!
My encouragement to you all is first if you don’t think God speaks to His people, know that He certainly does. The Holy Spirit speaks to those who He indwells, the children of God, and He does so in many different ways including visions and dreams.
For it is written, “’AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says, ‘THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS; (Acts 2:17 NASB, referenced from Joel 2:28)
With that said, God also speaks through His people just like how He spoke through Marc to the chief of the village. And the Holy Spirit also simply speaks to us through God’s Word. Every time we open our Bibles to seek the Lord He is speaking to us. And sometimes the Holy Spirit will speak directly to your spirit. You just have to be seeking to hear His voice and be listening. So I want to encourage you all to seek the voice of the Lord because the God we serve is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He speaks to us in the same ways He did to the saints of old and those who followed after the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ (just read Acts). He is the living God who loves us, saves us, and speaks to us. We just need to seek Him and listen.
“Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.””
John 18:37 NASB
“But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.”
John 10:2-4 NASB
“He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.””
Hebrews 4:7 NASB
