God has given me some awesome Spiritual gifts to reach others for His glory! Some of the Spiritual gifts God has given to me are preaching, teaching, evangelism, and encouragement.
I was preaching in Nicaragua and I was in front of 125 people and I was preaching about being salt and light to the world. During this sermon I preached in Nicaragua I did get a little nervous before I preached. Many people wouldn't even know this seeing me preach. Sometimes I feel like throwing up before I preach the Word of God in front of other people. I preached in Nicaragua and all the nervousness went away in one minute like most preaching situations. I preached boldly and confidently the Word but Satan didn't whisper to me in Nicaragua.
People were clapping at the Word of God was speaking through me and people on my squad were saying Pastor Blake and your a natural preacher and so on! This made me feel really good!
This was Month 2 of the World Race in Nicaragua and I was at a different place with my walk with God.
Fast Forward to Month 5 and Blake your not in Latin America anymore! Your in Southeast Asia in Malaysia.
Your preaching in front of Indian people. They have a very different culture than in Latin America and in the United States.
In short they are much more conservative than how we worship God. Everyone is created unique in His image.
So I am preparing for a sermon to preach on Sunday at a house meeting aka church in someone's home.
I get a little nervous but I know The Lord is preparing me to preach for His glory. The sermon I'm preaching is about God's purpose in our lives.
So I come up to preach and during the prayer I hear the enemy saying "What are you doing?" Your a young preacher who speaks with relatable things and humor in the illustrations but you can't use those examples here what are your going to do?"
I paused in my prayer and I felt like Satan was about to take my voice away. I said to Satan No! Your not taking my voice away! Holy Spirit fill me now to preach your word!
Of course, The Holy Spirit won and He filled me and I was preaching well for His glory!
A few nights later I went to an Indian family and shared my testimony. God uses all for His glory which is great but my contact wanted me to present the Gospel to the family not a testimony. So after this learning opportunity we went out to a village again a few nights later to share the Gospel with the families at their houses.
I was in a group of 3 with Teresa, Ciera and myself with Pastor's wife going from house to house. Teresa shared with a family and then Ciera shared with a family. We had one more house to go and I was feeling weak. What I mean by feeling weak is feeling weak to the point of throwing up and felt I had to share the Gospel really well or else this wouldn't be good. I already had the previous time at the other Indian family so I felt some pressure to do this really well.
I'm feeling weak and at the point of being really down and I asked Ciera to pray for me right now! I entered in the house and Teresa was sitting next to me and I only had a few minutes until I had to share. To my knowledge Pastor was outside praying for the families and for us. I'm already feeling like my voice is about gone and then I see Pastor walk into the house. I was like I have to say the Gospel perfectly or else it's not good! So I tell Teresa to pray for me and I'm just saying Lord give me the words to speak now and I can't do this without you! The Holy Spirit has to enter in me now!! So the enemy may have looked like he was about to win but he didn't The Lord prevailed again like He does every time!
The explanation for this is the enemy was threatened by me because he knew if I could get out what God wanted me to say to those people then Satan lost! He knew if I get out the word of God to those families then lives can be changed for Jesus and a few less people Satan has in his army of unbelievers.
Please Pray for this Indian Family I shared the Gospel to for Salvation. Thank you and God Bless!
