Being An Instrument
Friday, April 20th, 2007INTRODUCTION
The walk with Christ is one awesome ride. One of the greatest highs on this ride is the moment that you are used as an instrument for God’s grace. In that moment, when you know that you are doing exactly what God wants you to do at the moment God wants you to do it. Allow me to share one of those moments.
BEING AN INSTRUMENT
My family and I had packed ourselves into the car and headed off to Good Friday service at our church. We were looking forward to it because our church does this awesome Reflection service ending with us writing down things we want God to forgive us for and placing it on the cross. It really drives home the power of the cross and all that Jesus has done for us. We couldn’t wait to get there.
On the way, we pulled up to a particular stoplight and waited for the light to change. My wife and kids noticed on the side street to our right a car had gotten a flat and broken down. I barely got a glimpse of the car before a mini-van pulled up along side us and blocked our view. The light changed and I started up the road. I felt God speak in my spirit that I needed to go back and help the lady. I would like to tell you that I turned the car right around, but I didn’t. I was dressed nice. I was short on time to get to church. I have had trouble changing my own flat in the past. I had one excuse after another.
At some point during my guilt ridden excuse fest, I muttered that I didn’t have time. My wife asked what I didn’t have time for. I told her that I feel like we should go back and help the person with the flat, but we didn’t have time. My wife, God bless her and this is the reason that us men need our wives, said to me, “If God is telling you to stop then we have time.” And she was right, I immediately turned the car around and went back.
As we pulled up, I could not see the car at first because of some trucks and the fact that the lady had moved it. But it was still there on the road, just a bit farther back. As we turned on to the road, we saw the owner, a nice elderly lady, walking towards a service station that was closed. We pulled up along side her and asked her if she needed help. I immediately offered to change the tire for her and her eyes light up. She was so happy that someone stopped to help.
We parked and my wife and I got out to change the tire. As we were preparing to help her, the lady told us, “I had been praying to Jesus that someone would stop and help me because I have no idea what to do.” At that moment, I didn’t need to hear anything else. I knew I where God wanted me and doing what God wanted me to do. I was on cloud nine.
As I began to change the tire, I felt a supernatural strength that I knew was not my own. With ease, I quickly jacked up the car and removed the other tire. I popped all five lug nuts without even breaking a sweat. The last time I changed a tire, I had sweat pouring off of me and have difficulty remove the tire, but not this time. Everything that involved strength came so easy that I knew it was God.
After getting the car jacked up and the tire off, I shifted my attention to getting her spare down. On this car, the spare was under the back of the car and I had never encountered having to remove the spare from this type of storage. I crawled under the car, which is no easy feat for me because I am not good with tight spaces and especially ones under something that could crashing down on me but God gave me strength. I tried everything I could to get that tire off to no avail. Finally, I prayed to God. “Father, you have given me the strength of Samson to help this lady, I now need the Wisdom of Solomon on how to get this spare off.” Immediately, and I mean immediately, I heard God tell me I was looking at the problem upside down. You see, I had crawled under the car and tried to get the tire off from the bottom. God told me to look at it from the top. I came out from under the car and looked in the back of the car. After moving some stuff around, I found the release that I needed to get the tire down.
Once I got the tire down, the rest was a piece of cake. We encourage the lady by telling her what she needed to do to get the flat tire repaired. She was very thankful and even handed us some money. We told her we were just glad to be a blessing to her. And as it turned out, she was going to be able to make her Good Friday service.
We returned to our car excited to have helped. In the end, I got some of the dirt on my hands, but I never broke a sweat nor got my nice clothes dirty. In fact, you could hardly tell I did anything from the condition I was in which was a welcome change from how I have looked in the past after changing a tire. And I knew that this was part of God’s blessing on me for doing what he called me to do.
SCRIPTURE
27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;”
I heard the voice of God and with my wife’s help heed his call. This opened a door for me to be a blessing to someone else and perhaps share the love of Jesus.
12 For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help, The afflicted also, and him who has no helper.
13 He will have compassion on the poor and needy, And the lives of the needy he will save.
14 He will rescue their life from oppression and violence, And their blood will be precious in his sight;
The lady had cried out for help and God sent my family to be her helper. This is the picture of the body of Christ, helping those who need help.
CONCLUSION
God often calls on us to be blessings to other people. In fact, I believe that is the number one way God likes to pass his blessings around. By having one person be a blessing to the second, they get the joy of knowing they did God’s will and God in turn will bless them back. And the blessings just keep going around and around all by the power of God.
Until Next Time,
I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.
Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.
Love in Christ,
Sir Jesterhawk
My name is Jester of the Hawk
Adopted Prince of the Kingdom of God
Commander of the Armies of the FireKnights
General of the Spirit-Filled Legions
Loyal servant to the one true God
Father to kids on fire for Jesus Christ
Husband to a praying wife
And I will have my blessings, in this life and the next.
