WHAT WAS I SO SCARED FOR? So yesterday I had the privilege to preach the gospel to someone who had never heard about Jesus before. The twelve hours that followed were filled with personal reflection, revelation, with a dabble in rejoicing. I mean my first thought of being able to share the gospel with this man was nothing but joy. I couldn't help but think about how this is the first time this guy has ever heard this before. I had tumbleweeds of the great commission rolling through my mind, the fact that I was doing it, the complete tip of the spear. I was treading where the gospel had never been before.
Whilst these stray thoughts went floating through my mind like the big balloons in a parade I was still talking, and preaching away to this guy. With little to no conscious thought behind what I was saying it was almost as if I had slipped into autopilot. Then after a brief moment of frantically trying to think of something to say to which I found nothing. I just ended it, as the translator (a 17 year old kid mind you) was asking him a couple questions I had this fear come roaring up in me, a voice in me saying "You blew it, now this man is going to write off christians and worse write off Jesus forever." Then the translator turned to me and said "he wants to accept Jesus into his life" I was caught almost off guard. I froze, I looked Isaac in the eyes and said "he what?" to which he just nodded to me. So everything ended up going even better then I could have thought because several other people that just happened to overhear what was being said came forward saying that they wanted Jesus as well.
I was stunned beyond all belief. Several hours later I was sitting on a bus headed back to HQ when I started thinking about how much I've grown over the last several months. Here's a little history, this is my first mission trip EVER. My first month I was so terrified to share the gospel, not because I was ashamed of anything but I was terrified I was going to screw up. So now here I sit month three ready to tell anyone and everyone about the gospel for hours on end. God changed something in me between then and now… The funny thing is I didn't learn anymore about the gospel then I already knew. What I did learn though, was about the Holy Spirit and how he has worked through people in scripture. The thing that you see happen the most when people are filled with the Holy Spirit in scripture is that they preach the gospel and prophecie. We see Peter when he preached the first sermon after pentecost that before he spoke he was filled with the Holy Spirit. After he preached thousands came to faith.
Ah, now you're starting to see the connection, because this is when it hit me as well. I received the Holy Spirit when I came to faith. The Spirit is the same today as it was then, so why can't I be filled with the Spirit and preach. That's the awesome thing! I can, and it just happened. Words that I didn't even think when placing them together just brought a small group to faith in Christ. The only conclusion that I can see in that is the Spirit just spoke through me. So why was I ever afraid to bring forth the gospel? Why was I ever worried about what I would say? I guess I just never really knew what was given to me when Christ came into my life. I was living in fear of the wrong words because I was going to rely on my words. It's all about letting my words be his words and then I've got nothing to worry about
