I don’t want to be misleading and make you think that sanctification only happens within 48 hours. It’s a lifetime journey for those who decide to follow Christ. This is simply a story of what I experienced recently in regards to my own personal sanctification and I hope it encourages you with whatever God is calling you to do next.
We have been involved in a series at my Church involving God’s relentless love towards us. How He is faithful and how salvation is available for all of us through what Jesus has done on the cross. I had a conversation with my Pastor and he asked me to share my story…in front of the Church.
Sharing my story…no problem. In front of the Church? Problem.
I was immediately sent into a whirlwind of emotions thinking through how to get over the fear of speaking in front of a large crowd of people (1500 over the weekend). I went back and forth in between moving forward with sharing my story or to just cancel overall. Just ask my wife, she probably saw me go back and forth about 50 times leading up to it!
Being that my emotions were all over the place, I decided to take some extended time to pray to just hear from the Lord on what He wanted me to do. And of course, the hard (convicting) part began…
I Want To Do Great Things For The Lord, But…
I’ve been praying to do great things for the Lord, even on a large scale. I can’t think of anything else to do with my life besides make much of Him in everything I do. So God graciously reminded me of these prayers I’ve made over and over again…just to tell me something along these lines:
“So you want to do great things for me? I guess where you draw the line is at 1,500 people?”
Ok, Ok, I get it…I’m in.
Is This About Me Or About God?
After deciding that I’m all in and I’m going to prepare everything and get ready for Sunday, I was hit with another realization. I was trying to make my story about me…or at least make it about certain points I thought were important.
I had teaching points. I had 12 minutes of a story. I felt prepared and ready to go. I almost had the whole thing memorized. I was ready to tell my story. Then God did another work on me through prayer asking me if my story was about me and what I wanted to do….or was it about Him and the work He has done in my life?
Now, I had a whole new process to go through with less than 24 hours to go before Sunday. God removed all my teaching points, shaved my story down to less than 5 minutes, and made me depend on Him even more to pull this off by the next morning.
Here’s what ended up happening:
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Now that the story has been shared and I’m past those 48 hours, I can see exactly what God was doing. He had specifics that He wanted to share through me by the Holy Spirit. He moved me to emotions that I was definitely not expecting. He spoke through me clearly and concisely to share what Jesus has done in my life and what He can do for you.
What Is God Calling You To Do?
No matter what God is asking you to do next, remember Jesus. Before you get anxious, nervous, or embarrassed about anything…remember Him who was stripped naked and beaten in front of everyone and eventually was nailed to the cross.
As Christ rose from the grave, defeating death and sin in victory, we can be assured that there’s nothing too big that Jesus hasn’t already handled for us.
God is calling you to do specifically whatever it is for a reason. He has put you in the place you are with the opportunity you have right in front of you for a specific purpose.
You are God’s Plan A.
He doesn’t make mistakes, He isn’t shocked that He’s calling you, and He knows perfectly what He’s doing in the exact amount of time it will take to happen. My encouragement for you is to trust Him and be courageous in what He’s asking you to do.
Looking back over those 48 hours, I can’t imagine now NOT doing what He asked me to do. The sanctification that took place and the opportunity that was seized is something that I’ll always be able to look back on and remember for whatever it is He is calling me to do next.
