Two Great Instruments of The Gospel — Capability and Grace: Capability (I)
Two Great Instruments of The Gospel — Capability and Grace: Capability (I)
In areas where life is hard and poor, in addition to human input and hard work, if you can add two other instruments, the fruits of evangelism can be more significant.
These two kinds of sharp instruments are grace and power. What is competence? Competence is in the process of evangelism, allowing the unearned people or pagans to see the manifestation of God's power, the miracle we usually speak of.
The demonstration of ability is impossible to ask for. It's all about What God is doing. But a lot of the time it's also about prayer. The experience of many farms tells us that God's power, the opportunities to show up in the gospel workshop ahead, are actually very great. Many people agree that the manifestation of this ability is to make those who do not know God truly experience His power, and then believe in this Creator.
I think you must have heard a lot of testimony in this regard. I'll give you an example of my own experience here.
In October 2012, I joined a short-tweetteam team to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The short-spread team was divided into A and B groups, visiting different ethnic groups near the capital. One day at noon when the two groups met, another group told me that when they went to visit the ghetto in the morning, a family met a 15-year-old girl who had been paralysed for six months, bedridden.
They know I'm a doctor, and i hope my afternoon trip changes, visit her and find out what's going on. When several of our crews arrived at the family, we saw a bamboo bed next to the living room, lying down with the little girl they said.
The girl's parents showed me x-rays of her chest, as well as a simple medical summary, and I learned that she was a tuberculosis patient. The images show edgy a 10-centimeter tuberculosis lesions (medically known as cold abscec) on her upper chest that erode a section of her vertebrae in her chest. The spinal nerves should have been severely damaged. That's why she's paralysed in bed.
I spoke to the team members at this time, and we began to pray, asking the Holy Spirit to heal the great will come to her. Then I sat down by the bed, and asked her to sit up in a very firm tone. My "request" through the interpreter of the preacher, attracted the room crowded with neighbors, I later know that they are saying "impossible, impossible, have been paralysed for half a year, … ".
I still said to her very firmly, try to sit up,.. After several "requests", I asked the team members to pick her up and sit in a small chair by the bed. With our help, she can really sit down at this time. I want the players to continue their prayers at this time. The neighbors, watching, wide-eyed, watched what we were going to do with "strange things".
After a while, I made a further request to the little girl sitting there, and I asked her to stand up. At this time the drum noise of the whole house of neighbors was even louder. And talking to each other, and although I don't understand what they're talking about, I'm sure they must be big doubt ingress with what we're doing, or are we crazy?
After a few delays, they couldn't stand up to my "uncompromising" demands, so with the help of a few team members, the girl stood up, and we tried to let go. See if she can stand still. Incredibly, she did.
This time I made a further request, asked the team to help her to the wall, to hold a rope, which was tied for her by her parents, hoping that she could practice walking here, but never used it.
By the time she stood on the rope, we began to pray again, and this time I wanted her to try to walk, and she hesitated for a long time and couldnot take the first step. But then she walked slowly step by step. And it came to the end of the rope.
In a short period of time, the little girl went from lying on a bed to a paraplegic, to being able to walk along the wall, clearly displayed in front of some Muslims.
I seized the opportunity at this time, through an interpreter to one or twenty Muslim neighbors in the small house, said, What just happened, in your opinion, is incredible, and in my opinion, it is, but it is really happening before our eyes.
Such an incredible thing, not what I did, not all the people on the short-term team. There is really a powerful God, in this place in power, who has just listened to our cut-out prayers and prayers, so the power of healing comes to this little girl next door to you.
I went on saying to them, I know what I said to God, you can't see, you don't know, and of course I didn't believe it before. But today you do see his wonderfulpower.
I don't know if you have faith before, what you believe in, but I will tell you, the Lord who created the universe, is truly clear to you today.
I say to them again, here, who wants to know this God who created heaven and earth, please raise your hand, i will take you to pray. The Bible says, believe in the heart, and admit it in the mouth is necessary to be saved. To my surprise, almost everyone raised their hands to accept the Lord, and read aloud with me word for word through an interpreter, a declaration of faith.
The above description, in less than an hour, took place in a slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a wonderful experience of a family cottage.
Six months later, when another team visited, she had seen the little girl, with her crutches, "getting on her feet" in the ghetto. Some time later, when another short-tweeting team went to visit, the little girl was completely free to walk without crutches.
According to a missionary institution in charge of the slum told me, the little girl's healing miracles spread quickly throughout the ghetto, allowing them to successfully advance their later gospel work in the area, and setting up a cultural center to work in the gospel of many children.
This example of my own experience in Bangladesh many years ago, it is clear that in the gospel workshop, God's great power appears, to the fruits of the gospel!
Dear brothers and sisters, don't be surprised to read what I describe, like this miracle, which is very similar to the biblical description, is not a rarity in the gospel workshop on the front line. Didn't Jesus say we were going to do something bigger than Him? The miracle that Jesus did in the Bible, do you want to experience it? Put your confidence of a step, step out there. Bless you.
