Ready To Get Out Of The Boat Yet?
Jesus said to the cripple he had just cured, “pick up your mat and walk”. To the prostitute, “go forth and sin no more”. To his fishermen disciples, “throw your nets into the water.” Jesus´ministry is one of action, of doing, of EFFECTING CHANGE.
As well as fasting, praying and meditating, there is also the need to move on and energize! God cannot work miracles through you unless you are out there working, praying, writing, moving, speaking and doing. So, Abandon all your preconceptions, forget what anyone has ever told you about faith, and begin to listen to your heart, listen to your heart because it is always speaking to you. It is always trying to prompt you act on “God Inspired” ideas and promptings. The only voice that matters is the voice of the Lord. No one else knows what is right for you. Others will try and guide you but oftentimes they are guiding you based upon their theology, their life experiences and their world view. When in all actually, most of the time God is whispering to you simply, “Have Courage. Have Courage,” Have faith”, go on, just do it!
What will you regret most when you reach the end of your life? Non-believers will probably regret not having gone to more parties. Christians, those true in the faith, will regret not having had more courage to do those things which God placed in their hearts.
I once knew a pastor who brought more people to Christ by propping up bars in pubs than preaching in church. In church he was preaching to the converted, in pubs he was meeting the lost. He only drank orange juice, but the people he met, often alcoholics, were impressed by him. It didn’t take him long to start chatting to someone who was despairing, abandoned, unloved and when he did this, guess what, He was able to lead them to Jesus and introduce them to God. Truly he made more of a difference visiting the bar and helping those lost than preaching to those who had already been converted to Christ! What about you? Are you only going after and teaching those who are already converted to Christ or are you doing like the pastor in this illustrated story and going out and seeking to save those who are lost and witnessing to them about the saving power of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Who do you think needs Jesus more? Those already saved or those not saved and not following Jesus?
Most peoples courage and desire to do anything for Jesus or God leaves when life doesn’t go the way they had it planned. But to be this way is a faulty and flawed way of thinking that is not how God wired us all to be. In addition to things not going as planned for some people, Sometimes they feel that things are so bad it takes courage for them to be able to even to go to church, let alone try to lead anyone to Jesus. For others, church has been a prop up for so many years, they are unable to miss even a day, lest they give out or faint. But the time comes for everyone to put their head up above the parapet, and risk being shot at, risk being sneered at, risk being talked about, risk being shun, risk being ridiculed, risk being a rule breaker, risk being an outcast, risk being a lone ranger and risk being forsaken and go for broke and take Large leaps of faith regardless of the consequences or the cost and step out of the paradoxical box that life, religion and theology tries to put everyone in and get radically serious about leading the lost to Jesus. The reason for this is because Over the years, Jesus has made many deposits in to your life account and the time has come for you to decide if you’re ready to give Him a return in ways that He desires for it to be to assist Him in reaching the lost, the unsaved, the downtrodden, the forgotten, the sick and the destitute. If you are, let’s go! Let’s get started! If not now? When? If not now, why not?
So what do you say? Are you ready to step out of the maze of Patternized religion and Launch out into the deep with Jesus leading you every step of the way, are you willing to tread uncharted and uncertain territories with only Jesus as your Guide? Would you like Jesus to show you how to effectively lead others to Him?
If you are ready to launch out into the deep with Jesus Christ as your guide leading the lost, the unsaved, the downtrodden, the sick, the hurting and the abandoned to Him, join us in this simple prayer;
Dear Jesus, I invite you to come in my life and become my personal Lord and Savior, I am sorry for my sins, please forgive me. Help me to become everything that God has created me to be, teach me more about you and how to lead others to you. Thank you for the many deposits that you have made in my life over time, I now wish to give you a return in the manner in which it pleases you. Help me dear Jesus learn to do this and grant me the courage to be able to do this with integrity, compassion and loyalty in your name, I ask and pray, Amen!
If you’ve said the above prayer and you’re ready to start leading others to Jesus as you wait on Him to begin to guide you, below are some tips on how to gain the courage to go forward with Jesus and add to the Kingdom of God thereby helping others to come into the life saving revelation knowledge that knowing Jesus Christ makes!
1. Like all things, prayer will deliver. If you continually and unremittingly pray for courage you will find it.
2. Test it. Test your own courage in small things to begin with, like presenting at a Bible study group, or going up to a stranger in the street and saying hello. Find your own lack, and work on filling it with small cures. If you talk too much, concentrate on listening silently. If you fear to travel too far afield, find a friend to go with you who has more experience.
3. Once you have achieved your small goals, then ENLARGE YOUR VISION. God won’t stop unless you do. He will accompany you all the way. If you now feel you are ready to speak to a larger crowd, do so. If you wish to be a healer in Africa, go for it. No matter what the size of your ambition, a combination of prayer and action will achieve results!
Don’t allow your faith to become a warm fire. Stoke it up till it burns fiercely. Always be aware and alert and available for whenever Jesus may choose to guide you to someone who needs Him, Then you can truly say you have picked up your own mat and walked, and you took an alternate route of doing things by taking bold new leaps of faith stepping out of the boat of patternized religion to follow Jesus wherever He might lead you next! If you’ll go with Jesus, He’ll go with You!
Milton Johanides & “The WIN International Ministries Team”
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