“When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking – it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:19-20 NLT)
A few days ago, I shared with you about a conversation I had with a young technician who was connecting the line for the medication for my infusion. The remarkable part of this conversation was it wasn’t contrived or forced in any way. The Lord opened my mouth, and His words flowed, not only into her ears, but into her heart. I invited her to church, not because I felt compelled, but because it “fit,” it was just the right thing to do given the context.
This conversation reminded me of an experience one of my former Pastor’s had while speaking in another country. He was speaking in English to a Spanish-speaking audience, through an interpreter, but a short time into his message the interpreter stopped, because His words spoken in English were now being heard in Spanish. But that’s impossible, right? Not when God is the Author of the message.
We often have this ongoing conversation with ourselves when it comes to “witnessing.” It’s like everyone is “fair game,” but are they? Other people came into my room the day of my infusion, but the Lord didn’t prompt me to speak to anyone else about Him than the one young woman. We torment ourselves with questions that don’t need to be asked.
It’s not a matter of “With whom should I speak,” it’s only a matter of “Father, whose heart have you prepared to hear the words you have given me?” We’re not “looking” for anyone, we’re simply “listening” for our instructions. We make sharing our faith much too complicated. It needs to flow out of a heart that is in tune with our Savior.
It almost literally made me laugh out loud when I realized what the Lord was doing. Sharing with this young woman wasn’t nerve-wracking or difficult in any way, it was simply two people having a natural conversation based on mutual interests that resulted in a next step for her and a sense of deep satisfaction for me. God had spoken, I had listened, and someone was blessed to receive what He had opened her heart to receive.
Too often we try to anticipate how someone will respond so we can have the proverbial “gun” loaded to answer them, but that’s not necessary when the Lord is leading. He will prompt us to say what needs to be said and give us insight into how we should respond, IF, a response is called for.
I don’t have words to explain how close the Lord is to me in this season of my life. Whatever I face, He guides and helps me. I recently bought a new printer/scanner. Normally, I’m intuitive when it comes to things like that, but not now. It took me an hour to figure out how to print an envelope, and that’s with going online, checking the manual, in short, doing everything I knew to do.
Finally, being the spiritual giant that I am, I asked the Lord for His help. In minutes the envelope was printed. “Yeh, sure, that’s because you finally figured it out.” No, it’s because I finally listened to the One who had it figured out all along, but I was too distracted by my busyness to listen to Him.
With the Lord, the hardest part of communication for us is the listening piece. We love to hear ourselves wax eloquent, but it’s much more fruitful when we simply listen to the One who IS eloquent!
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 