I pray to break a potential curse in a man’s life and share a paraphrased Gospel with a student friend
I want to start blogging about opportunities that the Lord gives me to share something of Him with others.
It may encourage others to make use of similar opportunities presented to them as well as remind me of the various opportunities the Lord has given me which I might otherwise forget about.
With rare exception I do not set out to share something of God with others on purpose (though the Lord has been leading me to consider doing this more often). Rather, as a result of Jesus being a natural part of my life and my being open about his role in my life, opportunities present themselves for me to share something of God with others as I otherwise interact with them in everyday settings. At the gym, at the Library, on the buses and trolleys, at homeless feeds I go to, at McDonald’s, in short anywhere I am interacting with others.
Today is an example of both an opportunity that I purposely set out in my heart to create if it did not present itself naturally and one which occured with no initiative on my part to speak of Jesus to another.
The former was with a college student who has become a good friend. I have been wanting to share more about Jesus with him for some time but the timing never seemed right. Today I prayerfully determined to make the sharing of Jesus with him a purposeful priority in our get together as there existed the possibility that I might not have quality times to share much with him in the future (as he gets super busy with studies again after the Christmas break).
I had indeed shared something of Christ with him in the past but it had always been spotty and incomplete.
I purposely initiate to share the Gospel
While eating together at Hometown Buffet I purposely initiated to share the Gospel with him as the opportunity presented itself to talk about spiritual things (I can’t remember what was said but the Lord opened the door for me to say something to him about God which led into a natural opportunity to inquire further about his beliefs).
I presented the Gospel to him in paraphrased form (as it just didn’t seem right for me to whip out my Bible and have him read various verses). I simply talked out the thoughts contained in the various verses I would have shared with him. That Jesus was God, that He died and rose from the dead, that He paid the penalty for our sins and took our place, and what faith in Him was about.
It went very well. We talked about many other things and continued to hang out together as we went to McDonald’s afterwards to enable me to get much needed coffee as I was starting to fall asleep while talking due to not having slept very long last night.
Successful Socialism in the early Church!
While at McDonald’s I had even further opportunity in that our conversation had turned to talking about the failure of Socialism in our world. I took the opportunity to open my little Bible and have him read a few verses about the only occurence in history that I am aware of where Socialism actually worked! The early church.
Acts 2:44 (NIV)
All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
Acts 4:32 (NIV)
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
That this success of socially loving practice was based on the inclusion of God into the mix and that apart from His Presence that any attempt at true socialism was doomed to failure as the sinful nature rose up through pride, selfishness, greed, and otherwise to cause problems.
We had a wonderful time together and we agreed to get together again tomorrow and even on Christmas Day to do things together as he is by himself at this time of year and doesn’t have much to do during the Christmas break.
Later on I had a need to write to a client of mine that a win/win working arrangement that we had discussed and tentatively agreed on was not going to be realistically possible, at least this month (I won’t go into the details other than to say that it was not my fault).
That meant that I would make less this month than I had thought I would.
The Lord, the ever faithful Provider
But as ever, the Lord knew ahead of time that I would need money to come in through some other source and sure enough a gentlemen who had volunteered on his own initiate to let me use his address to get checks at told me of a check that he had received! It was like the Lord was letting me know in no uncertain terms to not worry about what I had written to the one client and that He was in control and able to provide for me through one source of money as well as through any other source. That He was the provision and I needed to put my hope in Him and not any one particular client, bank account balance, or otherwise.
When it came time for me to walk with this gentlemen to his car where he had my check and get it from him…he asked me to pray for him about a potential curse in his life with a view to breaking any such curse. When we got to his car I told him that the Lord’s protection over a person is contingent on that person surrendering themselves to God by faith in Jesus (in response to something he had said) but that even such does not guarantee that nothing bad will happen and after talking about that a bit with him I proceeded to ask him if I could lay my hands on him and pray over him whatever the Lord impressed on my heart to pray for him. Right there, in the parking structure, openly, and in plain sight of anyone passing by.
I pray to break a curse!
He agreed to let me do that, I laid my hand on his shoulder, and proceeded to pray whatever I felt led to pray for him. The thought of someone passing by and thinking we were two homosexuals or doing something odd (I mean how many men lay their hand on another and hold it there?) passed my mind but I quickly dismissed that possibility as I focused on praying whatever was on my heart to pray for him.
It was a good prayer! Not supportive of him as a potential unbeliever but also not condemning. I prayed in the name of Jesus against any curse in his life as an expression of God’s mercy and whatever else came into my mind as appropriate given what he had wanted prayer about.
He thanked me from the heart after which I left him, encouraged that the Lord had given me such wonderful opportunity today. An opportunity to assertively and proactively share with my student friend and a totally unexpected opportunity that presented itself to me naturally.
Carlos
