“Build their faith”

I learnt an amazing lesson the other week about how God likes to build people’s faith. Believers or not.

The Holy Spirit has been keeping me busy over the past 4 months (hence the low number of blogs), but it’s been amazing learning just how God loves to see the gospel preached.

Jesus said  “I told you (who I am), and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;”

Jesus also said “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” (John 10:25, 37-38). 

Jesus loved to back up what He said with works. Now I am not just talking about ‘good deeds’, I am talking about works like healing the sick, raising the dead, turning water to wine and giving sight to the blind. And here’s the story of how I realised this is for us Christians (sons and daughters of God) as well.

I have a friend (friend through my wife) who’s Dad is extremely ill. I’ll call him Paul (though that’s not his real name). I’ve only met Paul once before and really only said hi to him. A few months ago he came to mind and I felt God wanted to reach out to Paul, so I began praying for him and for an opportunity to see him face to face. My wife received a phone call one Friday morning from our friend who said that she wanted to have lunch and that Paul would be tagging along. I jumped at the chance.

On my way to lunch I felt God say “I need you to build their faith before you pray for Paul.” Ok God. How do I do that? Tell a cool story? I wasn’t sure how that would work. As we all sat down in the middle of the restaurant (which is in the middle of a busy mall), Paul sat across from me, and my friend to the right of me. When the waitress came over to take our order, I felt the Holy Spirit say “Ask the waitress her name.” So I did.

“Oh, not many people tend to care what my name is.” The waitress said. As she began to speak to me, I began to see a picture in my spirit of the waitress chasing her kids around her living room. My challenge was, the waitress looked very young and wasn’t wearing a wedding ring! She went away and I began to ask God what He wanted to say. After I was clear, the waitress came back to check our food was all good.

“Excuse me Lisa, can I ask, do you have kids?” I asked,

“Yes I do.”

“Oh, great. Then can I encourage you with something? I am not sure where you are at in your spirituality but I saw in my spirit a picture of you chasing your kids around and I believe God wants to let you know that He sees all of the hard work that you do for your family, your love for your kids and also wants you to know that He is about to reward you for that hard work.”

Lisa responded with; “Amen.”

Turned out Lisa was a Christian! So I went deeper into what I felt God wanted to say and she said that she had just walked out of the house that morning thinking that God didn’t care about what was going on in her life. She also said ‘Wow, God sent you here today because He knew. God sent you.” Haha. All of this was taking place in front of our friend and Paul. I turned to Paul and said “Paul, can I pray for you?” He said I could, so I went over to him right where he say and prayed for him.

God loves people so much!

Here’s what I believe; the days are here where God is calling His people to preach the gospel (the Kingdom) not just in word, but also in power (1 Corinthians 4:20). Jesus Himself said that if you don’t believe the words He says, then believe because of the works that He does. Jesus also said  “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” (John 14:12)

So when I felt God say “build their faith before you pray”, I now understand what He means and I am praying you do also.      

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