What happens when you actually start to trust God?
I woke up in the morning one day in
Mozambique in my tent.
And my prayer was: Lord teach me to fear You, to trust You, to see You, to hear You…Teach me to obey You.
Would I not put any conditions on my obedience.”
Trust is not actually trust when you choose what you will take and not take from God’s hand.
Trust is saying: “its all yours do what you want.”
And real trust demands obedience.
For the past several weeks we have been in
Mozambique.
This week we joined a local missionary here, Jaco Rudolph, and his family.
Jaco and his family have been here in
Mozambique about 3 years, ministering to the people of the area, running orphanages in the area, and also have one of the only homes in the area that was unafftected by the cyclone this past March.
One of the ways that Jaco ministers to the people of the area is spontaneous Jesus film/the Passion of the Christ showings.
And when I say spontaneous I mean pack up the car, pull over on the side of the road, put up the screen, and voila.
So we got up one morning and Jaco informed us that we would be showing these movies the next two nights.
He ran through the plan for the night and then mentioned that he wanted one Team Awakener to preach the following night and that we should pray about it.
But I immediately knew in my spirit that God was telling me it was me and He asked, “Jane, are you ready to walk on the water?”
But I had a day to prepare something so I was like ok, I’m freaked out, but ok.
That night after dinner, after dark, we packed up all the equipment and then crammed all 14 bodies into the 2 cars and then bumped along the back roads of Mozambique.
We all felt this sense that we were going into battle, and were in prayer.
Then satan started attacking.
We got a flat tire.
The equipment was not working. We kept praying because our battle isn’t against flesh and blood…and people started coming out of the woodwork.
Seriously, it was one of the most bizarre things.
We were standing in the dark, trying to figure out all these technical things, and then people just started coming out, young and old, women, men, children.
God was just drawing people out.
The crazy thing is, there was no publicity, no posters, no announcements the week before or even the day before, no inserts in the church bulletin, no nothing.
Just a complete act of faith.
We set up the screen and people came even in the cold of a Mozambican winter night!
We worshipped through some African praise music.
And as we wrapped up the time of worship, we discovered that we had forgotten the remote for the dvd player to show the movie.
So, Jaco quickly hopped in the car to begin the 30-45 minute ride home to fetch the remote.
And there we were twiddling our thumbs trying to figure out what to do to stall and to keep the people there in the interim.
We prayed and more people actually started coming and Christie quickly decided that we should do a drama.
So I sat praying as they prepared for the drama and then got a little tap tap on my shoulder.
Allison looked at me said, “Hey Jane, do you have a word from the Lord?”
I was like, “About what?”
God had been telling her that I was supposed to preach that night since that afternoon.
God confirmed what He had put on my heart, but what the heck I thought it was going to be tomorrow night!!
I stood shaking, trembling literally.
What was I supposed to say to this crowd of people?!
Several teammates came and prayed over me.
I was like ok God if this is what you want I’ll do it, but when I get up there and open my mouth, put your words in my mouth and stop my body from shaking.
The next thing I knew I wasn’t shaking anymore, God’s words were coming out of my mouth, and then most of the crowd came forward to receive and believe Jesus.
God loves to make His strength perfect in our weaknesses and inabilities.
Because there is seriously no way that I would have EVER chosen to do what He asked me to do.
But I know He loves me, so I’ll come out of the shadows and out of my boat to do what He asks.
All glory goes to my Abba.
