Reading The Christian

READING THE CHRISTIAN

“Out of 100 people, 1 will read the Bible. 99 will read the Christian.”

  I stumbled upon these words in a picture as I trawled through Facebook about a few months ago, and I kept it. A while later, I began to think about these words and how it applied to my life as a Christian.

  About a couple of weeks ago, something happened that brought these words to my mind again.

  One area where I have had struggles has been with influencing people for God through interaction. Maybe because I sometimes saw myself as inadequate and in need of influencing as well. In time I realized that I was going about it the wrong way. Grace was available; all I had to do was ask for it.

“Heb 4:16: Let us then with CONFIDENCE  draw near to the throne of Grace, that we may receive mercy and find Grace to help in time of need.”

  I had some messages, so I decided to select the ones right for the situation I was in to build my Faith. And build my Faith, they did. God showed me that in my weakness, there was strength available; all I had to do was ask. So, I unconsciously resolved to speak about God to someone at any opportunity that I had.

  And boy, did it work…

  I found that this created a hunger for more within me, and with it the need to do more, to be more. In so doing, the afore-mentioned incident happened.

  I had spoken with a friend of mine in the presence of another friend. He’d had some reservations about fasting (talk for another time) but I was able to clear things up for him by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Unknown to me, I was being watched by another friend of mine. I thought nothing of it till the next day when she accosted me and said “So you are born-again? Must have been recent.”

  I smiled, cos she had not seen me in over 2-3 years, but I kept quiet and nodded; the length of my new life was not the issue.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.

“Huh?” I replied, a bit confused. “I thought I did.”

“No!”

“But I spoke with you what, two nights ago? When we were talking about-”

“It wasn’t me.”

  And she was right; it had been her elder sister. We’d talked about career choices and Christ. I shrugged, surprised that I had to tell someone that I was Born Again.

“Sorry,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

  Unknown to me, this was a set-up by the Holy Spirit. As a result, I was able to speak to her about being Born Again and how wonderful the Christian life is. Her fears were allayed, and God showed her that she could live above sin; the Grace was available. A few days later, she gave her life to Christ. As I walked home, I marvelled at the fact that God had decided to work through me.

  All because I had chosen to act and live my life for Christ.

  It humbles me because I am a man who has made so many mistakes, even while serving God. Just yielding to Him…

  I went to see them some days ago, and the elder sister was not feeling fine; she said she was going inside. She looked dull and seemed a bit lethargic. I stopped her and pressed for information; she told me she was feeling sick. Malaria. So I opened my Life Manual to Isaiah 53:5  and showed it to her “…and with His stripes we are healed.” After explaining to her what it was and how Christ had healed us on the Cross, I did something which surprised even me.

  I told her “I won’t pray for you.”

  Strange, even for me. The common logical move was for me to pray for her…but then God doesn’t work with our logic. Instead I heard myself saying the opposite. I told her to study the scripture and internalize it until it has meaning for her and the spirit behind the message is made known to her. After letting her know that she was not to stop her medication if she had been prescribed any, I left. The next day, I saw her; she had a spark in her, and she couldn’t wait to tell me.

“Something happened today,” she said.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I went out!”

“…Oookaaayyy…?” I can be clueless sometimes, hehehe.

“I am better now! I did what you said, and I am better.” And then it hit me. She’d been healed.

“Wow,” was all I could manage, amazed. God had done it again; through a small boy like me.

  In these past weeks, I have learned so many valuable lessons from God’s Word. I have learned that with God, you are never down and out. I have learned that the Scriptures are given for Manifestation, and that you are saved for others. We all have an assignment here on earth, and until we start doing it, a lot of things will remain the same.

God bless you.