“God has a great work for you to do Ann. But you’ve got to leave this place and go where you can be trained.”
Mother Downer (deceased) spoke those words to me in 1986 at the church my family attended. In less than a year those same words were spoken to me again.
I was at a church I had never been to before. The visiting evangelist was closing his message when walking past me; he paused, turned around and looked me in the eye and said, “God has a great work for you to do and you will be greatly blessed.”
Without doubt I knew God had spoken to me through Mother Downer and now He was confirming it through this traveling minister from Oklahoma who I had never met before. But what did the Lord mean? For years I sought God for understanding to what this “great work” is I’m suppose to do, and where and how I’m to afford training to do it!
Twenty one years later, having completed ministry assignments in three other churches; God grants me understanding to the “great work” question.
I’m sitting in a Sunday school class taught by my current pastor. He quotes this very familiar passage of scripture. A scripture I know by heart and with understanding but never connected it to God’s call to me till then.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” (John 14:12)
As Pastor Dan expounds on these words Jesus spoke to His disciples, illumination filled my mind like sunlight breaking through gray skies. The “great work” Mother Downer and the traveling evangelist spoke of me doing was greater works---greater in extent; extending in range and in various areas of ministry!
As I sat back and took it all in, I realize that God had brought forth this work in me without me even realizing it. Not only have I shared the gospel within the walls of the church, but also in the county jails and state prisons. The Lord placed me on two college campuses; teaching Systematic Theology in one, with opportunity to share my faith at the other with ex-offenders and substance abusers enrolled in the Life Skills class I taught. Through the writing and distribution of ministry tracts/booklets; and personal website ministry, the gospel has traveled near and far; reaching into Africa, India and the United Kingdom.
The cost of my training was paid for by the churches I served in. God took care of it all.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” (John 14:12)
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