We once owned a strange little dog named Taz. He was a Lhasa mix and very strong for his size. He loved the great outdoors. He never barked to get let out, instead he would let us know by charging the door head-on and “WHAM!” (Tough little mutt!)
Now Taz also had a smelly dark secret.
He HATED getting wet. For the fourteen years we owned that dog this never changed. In fact, weekly bath time was similar to a calf-roping event.
So on rainy days I really had some mischievous fun with him. I would tease him, “Taaaaz. You wanna go outside? Come on boy!”
As soon as I opened the door and Taz smelled the rain he would apply the brakes and shift into reverse.
A tug of war would ensue and most of the time we would both end up soaking wet.
I was thinking about that dog the other day after I heard a church sermon urging people to share their testimonies about their relationship with the Lord.
And I began to reflect on the thought that we shouldn’t have to be coaxed or “guilted” into telling people about Jesus. Especially when the full Gospel is presented correctly to us, allowing us to open our hearts and just receive the goodness of God’s love toward us.
As we embrace the word of God we will become Jesus conscious, instead of self-conscious because of His deep love and affection for us.
There is a friend of mine who was born again (received Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior) many years ago and loved God but she often describes her spiritual growth in the Lord as being “saved and stuck.”
She wasn’t experiencing the fullness of God’s love so she wasn’t producing any real fruit in her life. The living waters that Jesus said should be “flowing” through every born again believer were only a trickle from time to time for my friend.
An introvert (when it came to expressing her Christian faith), she lacked boldness to speak to anyone about Christ and praying out loud with others was rare and extremely uncomfortable for her.
Until one day, when she prayed for and received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (with the evidence of speaking in tongues), in her own words “it was as if someone has flipped on a light switch inside of me.”
A hunger for the word of God ignited in her heart as the power of God was unleashed from her born again spirit, and sprang to life in her soul.
She began, with excitement, to study the Bible, listen to teachings, and experience the joy of the Lord at a much deeper level. Her church family also became very important to her.
And soon afterward, she was able to believe/receive a miraculous healing.
She had a shoulder injury (torn rotator cuff) that had plagued her for years, leaving her unable to lift her right arm completely and causing her pain much of the time.
But one Saturday she was with a group of women at a church who were praying for each other. As she placed her left hand on her right shoulder she opened up her heart to believe God and released her faith to receive healing power flowing through her to that area of her body.
At the same time another person behind her also placed a hand on my friend’s shoulder and agreed that she was healed.
Immediately, my friend experienced a “powerful icy sensation that went all the way down to the bone” and her arm was healed.
For the first time in many years, the pain was completely gone and she was able to lift her right arm straight up in the air, and rotate it full circle.
(Now, not everyone “feels” or sees an immediate healing like that. I myself have believed, when I prayed, that God has healed me in the spiritual but sometimes it has taken a period of time to see, feel/experience the physical results. From hours to several days and sometimes weeks or more.)
But it is important to understand that God did not suddenly decide to heal my friend (or any person) because the healing took place over 2,000 ago as part of Christ’s atonement for our salvation, and “by whose stripes we WERE healed.” 1 Peter 2:24
It was already provided by grace, waiting for her to believe and receive it through faith.
After she received this healing, the Pastor handed her the microphone and without hesitation my friend gladly accepted it, and with a grateful heart she poured out her testimony of the love of Jesus Christ. And she hasn’t stopped testifying! To anyone who will listen. Lol!
No one has to push her. No prodding. No guilt ridden sermon about “winning souls for Christ.”
Let’s not quench His Holy Spirit from doing a work in us and through us. I pray that each one of us will put aside some of our denominational doctrines, or rituals, and allow the simplicity of the word of God to take effect in our hearts and lives.
Because His unconditional love is the power and motivation behind … love unleashed.
“Do not quench the Spirit” 1 Thes. 5:19
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38
“But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” Matt. 13:23
“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Matt. 18:19-20
Contact Brenda Groves at:bkgroves1996@yahoo.com
