A New Passion

Over these past few months I’ve discovered how much I enjoy teaching others about God and His great love for us. There is no other subject I have a passion for, no other subject I desire to teach others about. Sure I know about other things like computers, cooking, photography, etc, but there is nothing that fans the passion within me like encouraging others in their daily walk with Jesus.

In recent weeks I’ve found myself having a desire to not only teach in a classroom setting but to “preach” to a congregation. It’s hard to visualize this, however, because in my mind I think of “preaching” as being very loud and animated….like most Pentecostal preachers back home. You know, the kind of preaching that is sure to keep you awake even if you stayed up too late Saturday night. I also think of my dear friend, Shelley Hollis, and how every time I hear her preach I am just captivated by her fire and passion for God.

Then I look at myself and think of how I am usually a pretty quiet person in a group setting. How could I ever “preach?” Then God began to reveal to me that preaching is simply teaching. It’s simply delivering the word of God to others to build them up and encourage them to keep pushing through the hard times and to keep their eyes focused on Him. In a sense then, preaching about God and teaching about God are one in the same. The audience is just different.

Realizing this has certainly helped me to feel a little more comfortable with the idea. The desire is certainly there. I just didn’t have confidence in myself to preach because of the way that I viewed preaching to be.

So last week I prayed that if it was truly His will for me to preach (which He’d already told me this when we were in India) that He would provide me opportunities to do so while we are here in Mozambique. The next day, Pastor Seica invited me and Jason to preach at the church here on the base. It was our first invitation to do so. Jason quickly said, “Susan has been wanting to preach, so I’m sure she’d be glad to.”

I think my heart skipped a beat when he said it. Yes, I was thrilled at the opportunity, but it was also a scary thought because the church here on base usually has 125-150 people present. Despite the slight fear at the thought, I accepted the invitation. I knew that it was God’s will, and that He was providing this opportunity. I knew that He would help me.

Pastor Abel, Co-Director of the base and our dear friend, volunteered to be my translator. I was really glad to have him there with me (both for the encouragement and because he is very skilled at translating).

And so on Sunday, March 28th, two years to the date since our life-changing journey with the Lord began, I delivered my first sermon. I had shared my testimony several times, but I had never really prepared an actual sermon before. God laid it on my heart to speak about the importance of praise and praising him during the difficult times, “Praising God in the Midst of Life’s Storms.” As I prepared my speaking outline, God reminded me of certain scriptures, accounts in the Bible, etc, and I came with a well prepared sermon. The message was very well received. As we closed the service, He laid it on my heart to do an altar call for those who are going through a trial or difficult time and need prayer for God’s strength and guidance.

I expected that a few would come forward, but to my surprise nearly 30 people came forward! What a privilege it is to pray for others; to join with them in saying “God, I’m not big enough for this, but I know YOU are. I need your help to get through this.” We also had a young lady accept Christ into her life.

A couple of days later I was invited to join Miguel and Lino to speak/preach to prisoners in the local jail. Lino began the jail ministry 10 years ago, and Miguel has been helping him for a while as well. They go every Wednesday afternoon, and have seen so many people brought to Jesus, so many lives transformed. I have wanted to go to the jail ministry ever since we first arrived in Dondo, but I had never made the time to do so.

I felt so honored to be invited to go and speak there. I struggled for a couple of days with what I should speak about. I felt like I shouldn’t necessarily deliver the exact same sermon I gave at the church.

The past two years God has been laying on my heart the desire to share with those who feel God could never forgive them the fact that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set (us) free from the law of sin and of death” (Rom 8:1-2).

I wasn’t sure that preparing a sermon was what I should do though or whether I should just go and wait on God to give me what He wanted me to say. In some ways I felt like it would be irresponsible of me to not do my part and be prepared. I wondered if it would be wrong of me to always expect God to “bail me out” so to speak. So I went back and forth wondering what I should do.

Then Jason reminded me of the fact that if I structure and plan things out too much it doesn’t give God room to move. He reminded me also that God has already prepared me, and that His word is written in my heart. I said, “I know, but I’m afraid I’ll ramble and be unorganized.” He reminded me of the unexpected sermon he delivered at Pastor Cheia’s church (see blog post “Brother Jason Will Deliver The Message Now”) and how he was totally unprepared for it, but the Holy Spirit stepped in and took over.

I remember that. It was delivered in a very organized way. One would have thought Jason prepared hours for it, but in truth it was God’s Spirit speaking through Jason. God knows what needs to be said more than we do. So, I prayed for God to use me as his instrument--that the words that come forth from me would be His words and not my own.

On the way to the jail, I still didn’t know what I was going to speak. I just continued to pray. But the moment I set foot on that facility God gave me the topic and reassured me that He would give me the words to follow. He wanted me to speak to them about freedom--true freedom. And as I spoke, the words came. One after another they came. The thought processes came--better than I could have written on paper---better than I could have ever planned out.

God had me ask them if they wanted freedom to which all shouted and nodded, “YES!” Then He had me tell them that there is a far greater freedom available to them than what’s found outside “these walls” ….and from there it just flowed. I was never at a loss for words. I did not lose my train of thought, which always happens to me in the natural if I don’t have an outline to read from. But I was not operating in the natural. God’s spirit was speaking through me. We could feel Him in the atmosphere. I could see in those 40 men the lives that had already been and continue to be changed by God, something that only God can do.

I realize now that God wanted me to learn to relinquish control to Him. The first sermon He helped me prepare in advance….letting me take baby steps and helping me along the way, but the next time He wanted me to trust in Him and rely on Him to speak through me, and it was better than I could have ever imagined.