Years ago, I belonged to a spirit filled mega church in the Minneapolis, MN area. They flowed in the gifts of the sprit and I saw many supernatural things in that church. I belonged to the intercessory prayer group that met on Monday night and there had to be 100 plus people that showed up for intercessory prayer. Many people from all walks of life showed up to pray. One summer night as we were filing out the door, the Lord spoke to me and said “Stop”. I stood at the door, stopped in my tracks by the Lord. I knew He wanted me to just observe as He showed me something through His eyes. One by one the people filed out being greeted by the assistant pastor as he said goodbye. We had all just prayed in tongues under the unction and power of the Holy Spirit for an hour or two. As we got down to the last couple of people filing out the door, the Lord brought to my attention a huge black storm quickly coming toward us. Then He brought to my attention a mentally disable brother who could not drive, getting ready to mount his bike on a long trek home while the storm moved closer toward us. Then, I started to feel what the Lord felt in His heart. Not one person had eyes to see the need of this brother on the bike, let alone be moved to help him. They were blind to him and his need. WHY IS THAT? HOW CAN THAT BE? The Lord spoke to me and told me, this is what you need to pray about and expose. Little 5’3″ me went over to this brother on the bike as the wind kicked up. I asked him if he needed a ride home, not knowing where he lived. He looked down at his bike and the look on his face was asking me what he was to do with the bike. I popped up my trunk on my tiny care and tried to get it in the trunk. One other church member came over and helped us secure the bike in the trunk, but this was all the help this dear brother got. The heart of the Lord was grieved. As I pulled out of the parking lot of the church, the lightening cracked and the thunder sounded and this brother would have been riding home in this dangerous storm. I could feel the joy of the Lord well up in me as it does when you have obeyed and He is well pleased. I followed the direction this brother gave me to get him home and it ended up being a group home for adults that were challenged and couldn’t live on their own. I jumped out and got the bike out of the trunk of my car with the help of some of the residence. The brother I took home hugged me and thanked me and went inside. As I drove off I couldn’t help but wonder how the church can have the spirit of the Lord living in them and not see the needs of others and do His will. How an this be? Where have we lost the message to see and to serve and be a servant and lay down our lives for one another? The question that troubled me more was I might have been just like everyone else that didn’t see the needs of this brother, being blind to them, unless the Lord spoke to me, got my attention, knowing I would obey. I don’t want to be the person passing up the opportunity to see the needs of others and serve them in love, because in so doing, I am doing it to Christ. I DON’T WANT TO BE THAT PERSON WHO WOULD LET A BROTHER RIDE HIS BIKE HOME IN A DANGEROUS STORM while I sat warm, safe and dry in my car, dumb fat and happy. Faith without works is dead and if your faith does not have works to back it up, it isn’t the saving kind of faith. Saving faith, not mental assent to Christ, shows empathy and compassion on another and is moved to relieve it and this is the person Christ will use in the miraculous.
When I lived in Minnesota, on holidays, I would invite people over that had no where to go. They were recently divorced or moved to the area and didn’t have family around. They didn’t take up much room at the table and I didn’t want them home alone on a holiday. I know how painful that is. I wanted my kids to have this demonstrated in their lives and show them this is how a Christian behaves and serves others. You will see the Lord move in your midst mightily when you do. On one such occasion I had invited over a couple from my church home group that lived up the street. During the week I had the menu planned and went out Friday to shop for Saturday’s meal when they came over. This family had recently lost a baby and were hurting and they were new Christians. The father was rejected by his mother, who cut him off entirely from her life because he was following Christ. As I shopped for the ingredients, I came down to the dessert items on the menu and the Lord bluntly told me right there in the grocery isles that I wasn’t going to make that dessert. He told me I was going to make a German Chocolate Cake in no uncertain terms. I briefly tried to explain to Him that German Chocolate Cake didn’t go with the lasagna I was preparing and I knew it was a stupid thing to say even while I was saying this to Him. Okay, to the cake isle I went and bought the ingredients for the cake. The couple came over the next day and we had the meal and a nice conversation and you could feel the presence of the Lord there with all His mercy and compassion. I cleared the table and brought out plates for dessert. I grabbed the cake plate, which had a cover on it that you could not see through. I placed it on the table and removed the cover and the husband fell over sobbing. Not knowing what had just transpired the husband stated between sobs, that the one special thing he loved was German Chocolate Cake and his mother would make it for him on special occasions or when he was sad and he was feeling very rejected and abandoned by his mother right now for accepting Christ. I was dumbfounded. All I could say was that Daddy made him the German Chocolate Cake this time and I told him the story about shopping for the ingredients for the meal and how the Lord was insistent that I made that cake. We miss out on so much when we don’t see the needs of others and serve because we are in our own little compartmentalized worlds. When they left that night, we prayed for his mother and family and she ended up accepting Christ and coming to church, but in between the time before she did, the Lord was there and let him know it.
I wrote an article several weeks ago about having ears to hear. Now let’s have eyes to see. Look up, pay attention to those around you and listen for His voice and see who He wants to touch and how and just do it. I had a mom and teenaged son behind me in the grocery store when I lived in Texas. I could hear them whispering about how she didn’t have much money for food and all she had was around $6. She had a bag of cheap tortilla’s and cheap meat and she was calculating how long it would last. I could almost feel the pain in the boys heart to hear this as he felt for his mom. They hadn’t intended for me to hear the conversation but I did and quite frankly, I didn’t have enough money to make ends meet that week either but I had more than they did and I reached over and slide their items in with mine when I got up to the check out and told the cashier I was paying for theirs. The woman started to loudly praise the Lord right there at Walmart asking the Lord to bless me. I was a little embarrassed as I didn’t want a scene. I was just on a lunch break running an errand doing the Lord’s work showing kindness and compassion for another and Jesus loudly was praised by the grateful woman because she knew who her supplier was and it wasn’t me.
Church, we are an epistle read of men and this is how our lives should be lived on a daily basis no matter where we are or what we are doing if we just have EYES TO SEE. Let’s get our eyes off ourselves and see the world through the eyes of Christ. It is fun to live this way and participate in how He wants to move and what He wants to do. Faith without works is dead and not the saving kind of faith. You demonstrate your faith by your works or acts of love toward another. Let’s let out hearts be filled with the love of Christ and give out what He has given us freely.