Tuesday, January 10, 2012

When I Saw Her Shoes

It is truly amazing how the Lord speaks. My father use to say, “God speaks through people, places, and things.” Recently, God spoke through a powerful woman of God, Joyce Meyer. For some reason I could not sleep this particular night. As I flipped through the channels, flipping through infomercial, after infomercial, I stumble across Joyce Meyer. God then tells me, “Stay on this channel.” I think to myself, “It is 6 o’clock in the morning… Really God?”  But I put down my remote and obeyed the voice of the Lord. Two minutes into the program, she gives the sermon title, “Obedience and Self Control.” I then say to the Lord, “Ok, you want me to be obedient. Cool…”  I brush it off and fall asleep. The next day at bible study, my Pastor opens up his sermon and begins to talk about obedience. Okay, so now I am really flipping out. Within 24 hours God spoke to me twice through two different people about obedience. Then, I start to get the picture. I asked the Lord, “What is it that You want me to obey?” I literally heard nothing from the Lord. A few days go by and in my private prayer time, I cried out to God and said, “All I want to do is save souls Lord!” Yet, I still haven’t heard what he wanted me to obey. 

A week has now gone by and finally the Lord spoke to me. He instructed me to invite one of my friends to church. God was so specific that He even gave me precise instruction on what to text the girl. I text her and she agrees to come to church with me. However, she told me, “If I don’t text you by 10AM, then I am sleep and I probably won’t go to church with you.” Now doubt starts to creep in. But instead of letting doubt overtake me, I let God have His way.

I wake up that Sunday morning and begin to ready myself for church. 10 o’clock strolls by, I look at my phone, and I see no text from my friend. Doubt attempted to show up again. I began praying, “God wake her up!” At exactly 10:14AM, my phone vibrates on the corner of my bed. It’s my friend! She was awake and ready to go with me to church. I began to thank the Lord. However, throughout the entire church service, I was a little anxious. Mostly because I desired for years that my friend would receive salvation.

I was so moved by the sermon, that I go to the altar. After I am done at the altar, I noticed my friend was still in her seat. Once again, doubt tries to creep in. My Pastor then makes a call for anyone who needed salvation. At this point I started praying harder than I ever had before. God quietly whispered, “I got this.” As I heard footsteps coming from the stairs, I was praying that it was my friend coming up for salvation. The footsteps drew closer and as my head was down, I glanced over and saw my friends’ shoes. When I saw her shoes, I lost it. Tears began to flow uncontrollably.  I couldn’t believe my friend was actually receiving Jesus into her heart for the first time. I continued to weep as she received Christ.

The Lord gives us instructions that we are either absolutely for or sometimes against. In our walk with Christ it is important to obey the voice of the Lord even when it seems like His instruction is not going to work. In my anxiety, the Lord overrode my doubt. When our hearts long to do things for the Lord, it is vital that we listen to every instruction. When I saw her shoes, I knew why God was telling me to obey Him. You never know who might need salvation or a breakthrough. But God does. So it’s important we ask Him questions like, “What do You want me to do for You Lord?” God will certainly answer. Once He gives the instruction, trust that He will do it. “For I know what I have planned for you…” (Jeremiah 29:11 NET) When we don’t trust God’s plan/instruction, we are telling God that every plan He has for our lives is a lie.

"Your obedience is tied to someone's salvation." -Pastor Yvonne Hudson

3 comments:

  1. P O W E R F U L!!!!!!!! GLORY!!! ~Mom

    ReplyDelete
  2. this is very powerful and inspirational. touched my heart.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow. Thanks for sharing that :) really inspirational. Like I said before, it's amazing how God works :D

    ReplyDelete