TITLE: Following God's Lead By leon youngblood 07/12/06 |
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Following God's Lead
When we follow God's lead we can never go wrong, I will explain what that means to me. My style of witnessing to people is do it by being a living example. People are always watching and the life you live everyday says more for Jesus than anyone on some street corner yelling with a bullhorn can ever say.
I work for the largest telecommunications company in the world, hundreds of people are in my office everyday, some are searching for Jesus in one way or another. In a society where examples of a wholesome life and speech is rare, eager hearts are always on the lookout for something different than what the world is offering them.
I work in close quarters with other customer service reps and we all encounter various and sundry excuses why our customers can not pay their phone bills. Some of us handle the situations with calm and resolve but 75% of us let the situations affect us personally. This often causes shouting matches between the customers and representatives.
This leads to complaints and customer dissatisfaction, I however have an unique prospective on how to handle all my calls. I look at all my calls as an opportunity to show kindness to someone who may be going through financial problems or who may be dealing with a break up or recent tragedy in their life.
What people around me have observed and commented on is this: they can not believe that I do not get upset, yell or scream back at the person who may be using profanity while communicating with me. There are different reasons why the customer may do this, one being they are upset over their high phone bills. This problem may have been caused by someone in their family accepting very expensive calls from a detention facility or making overseas calls without a calling plan.
During my breaks at work we are allowed to go into the lobby and use the phones for free, its just one the perks of working for the phone company. Co-workers have actually sat next to me and listened in on my conversations while I was on the phones talking to family, friends and relatives.
Some of the comments they made reassure me of the living witness theory. They have said such things as: "Why are you so nice, you don't have to be nice, your not on the job at this minute, you don't need to continue to put on an act. (some people actually think I am acting because I speak with a soft tone and I am respectful towards others while I am not on the job.) Eventually, after further review they come to realize that this is who I am.
I say that to reinforce the fact that your everyday life is a much more powerful witness than anything you can say or do to try and convince someone that Jesus is the one for them. They will see it in your walk, in your talk and in your lifestyle, you can live a life that is wholesome without trying to be "holly'er than thou" I know many phony Christians who are so transparent with their highfalutin attitudes.
Sometimes following God's lead takes you out of your comfort zone, case and point, my wife works in a city that I believe time forgot. Some people in this town are very proud to be racist. They display their KKK robes on the porch of their homes and proudly display their Skinhead propaganda on their vehicles. The Confederate Flag is draped over everything that is not tied down.
My wife asked me to go to the store for her and of course I did, I am one of God's children that he made with a darker shade than some of the people in this city. I pulled into the store's driveway to park on my way to getting my wife a few things from the store. I noticed a man sitting on the ground in the driveway directly in front of me, he was talking to himself.
It was an extremely hot day and I noticed that he was a Skinhead, his head was shaved clean, and he had the word Skinhead tattooed on the back of his scalp in green ink. He also was sporting the Nazi lighting bolt on his knuckles and arms. What was obvious to me was the fact that he was mentally disturbed because he was sitting in the hot sun, it routinely get between 102-108 degrees in the afternoon in this town and he was having a conversation with an imaginary person albeit real to him.
As I excited the vehicle I noticed another man sitting in a car next to me, both of his windows was down and he also was watching the man talk to himself. I heard the small voice of God say to me, offer this man a drink. I wondered for a moment, "Lord are you telling me to ask this man does he want a drink, Lord I know this man hates black people and plus he is obviously crazy and you want me at 5'6 to ask a man who is 6'4 250 pounds and obviously crazy does he want a black man to get him something to drink?".
The Lord said yes, in his still small voice, assured that God was speaking to me I abandon all fear and walked up to the man while he was still talking to himself and said excuse me sir would you like something to drink? and to my amazement he stopped talking to himself and looked directly at me and said "yes, I would like a soda pop if that's okay".
I went to the store gathered up my wife's items and then purchased a 2 liter soda for the man. While leaving the store I stopped in the parking lot and gave the man his soda. He said thank you and began immediately talking to himself again. This was being observed by the person who was parked next to me in the parking lot. I opened the door to my car, sat down and began to back out of the driveway. I pulled back about five feet, then the Lord said to me get out and go witness to him, he needs to know that I love him.
"!OH LORD NOT AGAIN, I said in my mind," so I put the car in drive and pulled forward into my parking spot, at this point the gentleman parked next to me was wondering what in the world I was doing, needless to say I was wondering the same thing as I chuckled inside. I prayed for a moment as I got out the car and walked over to the man who was in a full blown conversation with himself.
I sat down next to him and asked him if I could pray for him, to my amazement his eyes lit up for the first time and he nodded yes. He then told me his name, I took his hands that was tattooed with the Nazi Swastika across his knuckles and I began to pray for him. I said the following words: "Sir, Jesus loves you, he cares about your condition and situation. He is concerned about your health and welfare. He loves us all no matter what shade he made us, and we are all his children." Sir, you may not have been everything God called you to be or did the things he told you to do or acted the way he designed you to be, but he wants to call you into a right relationship with him because he loves you, and I love you also that is why I am praying for you".
Then I asked him to repeat after me as I quoted a prayer: "God I believe that Jesus died for my sins, and you raised him up on the third day, and he has risen into heaven with all glory and power in his hands, I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that God raised Jesus from the dead and I am saved". He repeated it perfectly word for word.
I also asked God to remove anything that is tormenting him mentally or physically so that he does not continue to talk to himself and experience psychotic symptoms. When we both finished praying I looked up and three Muslims where huddled silently next to their vehicles and had listened to my prayers and heard the man repeating them. The Muslims stood their with their car doors opened afraid to make even the slightest noise as they observed what had just taken place.
It was obvious to them that this man was a Skinhead from the huge tattoo he had across his cleanly shaved head and from the signature clothing Skinhead wear. I got up to go into my vehicle and the man who was parked next to me could not stop the tears from flowing down his face, he was white man and he said to me "good job brother, very good job, it took a lot of courage for you to do what you did and the Lord used you".
On a personal note: I do not advocate doing anything that God has not called you to do, he will tell you when, where and how to do what he is calling you to do. He will keep you safe according to his perfect plan and will. When you follow God's lead you can lead a subtle life and have a wonderful impact on people or he may choose to take you out of your comfort zone like he did me .
I know the first part of my story sounds like the typical everyday life that you see or hear about and its all safe, cushy and comfy, however we have to be open and receptive to the voice of the Lord. It is still His Spirit that preforms great and wondrous things and we need to be in prayer and mediation on his word so that we hear his voice and know it is him and then we can follow his perfect plan for our lives.
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