I wish I had enough beautiful words that could adequately and eloquently describe what I am about to tell you, but alas I am only a human retelling of the majesty of a God who is far more wonderful than words can contain.
During my last week in Bulgaria I was praying for the upcoming month that my team and I would be spending in Macedonia, teaching English and evangelizing on the street. As I spent time in prayer the Lord gave me 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 to carry into the next weeks and to pray over myself and the people we would be coming into contact with during ministry.
“Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
That same week (while we were still in Bulgaria) God gave me a vision.
There was a man sitting next to God, but was closed off from Him by a very thick veil that surrounded the man from all sides. The fabric of the veil was dark and it was very thick. As the man was sitting, his head was downcast, which directly reflected the posture of his heart. God was moving in this man’s life in so many ways, he was divinely orchestrating things for the man’s good and God was showing the man that his greatest desire was that the man would accept God’s gift of grace. As this went on the fabric of the veil grew lighter and thinner. Eventually the man lifted his face and became curious about who was on the other side of the veil. How could someone he cannot see love him and pursue him with such fierceness? Why would God love him? Why would God send his Son to die? As the man’s searching grew, the veil thinned until it was no longer there, it was then that the man stood up and embraced God while accepting the Father’s gift of loving grace.
After God gave me this vision I shared it with my team and thanked God for speaking to me in such a beautiful way. I couldn’t have even imagined that what I had just seen was a lot less abstract than I thought.
-Fast forward to Friday, November 11th –
My team’s ministry for the day was to go out into the streets of Skopje and ask people questions that would cause them to think about their faith. We had many encouraging (and not so encouraging) conversations with a wide range of non-believers, but at the end of the day there was one man who stood out. We came to know this man as Jovan, and we quickly accepted him as our friend (although it took him a little longer to reciprocate the friendship). It was easy to see that Jovan was very intellectual, distrusting of people, honest, and desperately searching for joy. When we first met him it was actually Jovan who stopped us, his words were “I heard you speaking English and I saw that you had a genuine happiness that I have never seen before, so I stopped.” Praise GOD that the joy of the Lord is found through the Holy Spirit which we carry with us wherever we go. We saw Jovan almost every day after that when he would come to the center where we taught English, he pressed into us as he asked many many questions about God and what we really believed. It’s also important to know that on Friday he said he did not believe in God. He had been deeply hurt by the Orthodox Church and could not accept a God who believes the things that the people who hurt him believe.
-Fast forward to Wednesday, November 16th –
On this day God told me that Jovan was the man in the vision that I had back in Bulgaria. When this happened my heart grew large with anticipation and excitement. Even though I knew that Jovan would receive salvation I didn’t know WHEN. However, my heart was at peace because I trusted wholeheartedly that God is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards us, not wishing that any should die spiritually, but that all should reach repentance.
-Fast forward to Sunday, November 20th –
On Sunday Jovan came with us to church and afterwards came with us to the center where we usually met with our hosts after every Sunday church service. It was there in that room where we had been teaching English all week that Jovan became a son of the Living God, accepting Jesus as his Lord and Savior in a very raw and genuine way. I let the tears fall freely down my face as I sat in complete awe of God’s radical pursuit of Jovan, not only in the past week but throughout the course of eternity. Even now I cannot even fully the transformation that happened. At the beginning of the week Jovan would not even accept a cup of tea made for him for fear that we were not trustworthy, but on Sunday he gladly drank a cup of tea without a second thought.
My God is a God who gives his daughter a vision of his son a MONTH before they meet when one of them is in Bulgaria and the other is in Macedonia. My God is a God who caused his son to stumble upon a group of foreigners who were standing in the middle of a city, if there was a minute difference in timing then none of this would have taken place. My God is a God who redirects my path. Had my squad been in Greece (that’s were we were supposed to go this month originally) who knows how or when Jovan would have come to the Lord. My God is NOT a God of randomness or coincidence, he is a God of purpose and intentionality. My God pursues each and every one of us (including YOU) with this kind of tenacity and relentlessness. His deepest desire is for you to know and love him because he knows and loves YOU (even the messiest parts) (better and more fully than you know or love yourself).
Please keep Jovan in your prayers as well as our hosts in Macedonia (Dardajan, Billiana, and Rina) who will be pouring into him. I am humbled and greatly in awe of the Lord and how he works. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that God would invite me to partake in something as wonderful as watching Jovan surrender to the Lord, but he did and I am so thankful that he uses me even when he does not need to.
My squad and I are currently making our way to Zambia, Africa and I am excitedly anticipating sharing more of God’s stories with you.
All the love,
Emily
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
1 Peter 2:9
