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“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again,’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is every one who is born of the Spirit.
” (John 3:7-8)
It was another beautiful day in Venezuela. I woke up early to look out our hotel window at the rising sun breaking out over the horizon, reflecting light off the ocean water. It looked like the sun was coming up out of the ocean. I had just picked up a team of Christian volunteers from Tennessee, who had arrived the night before. We were starting work that morning on “el Litoral” (the coastline of Venezuela about 20 miles from Caracas). Our assignment was to work with a small group of Venezuelan Christians who had formed a church in a barrio near the airport. We were going out into the “ranchitos” along the side of the mountain, to talk to people about Christ and share the Gospel. |
Florida Faith is
written by Mike Rogers
Author of:
The Kingdom Agenda
Experiencing God in
Your Workplace |
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We formed two teams to walk door to door and talk with people. On my team, I had two Americans and two Venezuelans. The Americans would share their testimony of how Christ had come in their lives and I would translate for them. One of the Venezuelans was an accomplished classical guitarist and he would play a song, and if the Holy Spirit led, we would share the Gospel with those in the home. We would have 5 days to share the “good news” with the people of that barrio.
I had been a part of “evangelistic marches” such as this before and had seen limited results. But on this day something extraordinary began to happen. God’s Holy Spirit moved in our hearts and lives in a powerful way. After a few hours of door-to-door visitation, we came upon a house where two ladies lived. They invited us in and we began to share with them. They both began to cry and they asked if they could have Christ in their lives. We all knelt down on the dirt floor and prayed with them as each of them received Christ into their life. From that moment on, every house we visited was open and eager to hear what we shared. In every house, people knelt down on their dirt floors and received Christ as their Lord and Savior. Sometimes, entire households prayed, giving their lives to Christ. One house was filled with men who had been busy gambling and drinking and God touched their hearts and they prayed, surrendering their lives to Christ.
Every night we would go back to the hotel, overwhelmed and in awe of God and the work that He was doing in this place. This incredible phenomenon went on throughout the rest of the week. Other signs and miracles began to happen in our midst. We were afraid at times that we might hinder the Holy Spirit in some way and we fervently prayed out of awe and honest humility. The experience was like walking through the book of Acts in modern times. The wind of the Holy Spirit blew threw our lives and the lives of the people in that barrio.
One morning, a few years later, as I was watching the morning news before going to work, the news reporter told about major “mud slides” in Venezuela from the torrential rains they had received. The area of greatest devastation was in this barrio near the Litoral. I went to my knees praying for these people and I realized why God had worked in such a miraculous way in their lives during that awesome week a few years before. Their time was short and God, in His incredible love, had reached out to them, reclaiming them as His.
We spend a lot of time developing techniques, ideas, and methods to do God’s work in churches, schools, businesses, and other places in life, but we cannot manage the activity of God! We can only pray, listen, and respond to the wind of His Holy Spirit as He blows through our life and the lives of those around us. Life is not “all about us” and our accomplishments…it is all about God and His accomplishments and our willingness to join Him in all that He is doing in and around and through our lives.
In His Footsteps,
Mike Rogers |