During our last faith course I had an encounter with the religious spirit trying to operate in my own life. Because of the truths I've been meditating in lately, I was able to recognize it, press through, and lead three people to salvation. Our assignment took us to Po-Dunk, North Carolina where we spent the day doing various ministries and outreaches. One of the assignments was praying for the sick in a hospital. After we finished this assignment we were exiting the building when I heard to girls start laughing at my ministry partner, Sam. Sam is a scary looking guy with long dread locks, a beard down to his chest, and several tattoos. But the ladies were captivated by his hair, so we figured we'd talk to them a few minutes and see if we could find an opportunity to minister to them.
One of the ladies (Jessica) was in a patient's gown with an IV inserted in the back of one hand, and a cigarette in the other. She very overweight too. I hadn't realized it, but I was already making judgments that she wasn't really worthy of our time to minister to her because here she was in the hospital sick, and still coming outside for a smoke. The more we talked, the angrier I became. I discovered that she was pregnant without a husband, and had a disorder that prevented her from being able to keep food down. She and her friend began telling us about their boyfriends, and drugs, and pregnancies of other friends without husbands, and the more she talked, the angrier I got. How could she be smoking when she knew it would harm her baby? Why would she have so many boyfriends and live such a loose life? How could they be proud about using drugs and brag about all of her exploits the way she was doing? By that time she was half way through sharing, I had decided that she was definitely just a trashy girl who wasn't deserving of my Jesus.
But as these judgments started rolling through my head, I began to realize how evil these thoughts were. In my mind, I said a quick prayer of repentance, and ask the Lord to give me his heart for these two girls. After they had spilled their whole shameful story to us I could not see any feelings of guilt in their eyes or faces. They seemed rather cavalier about their stories. But I was beginning to feel God's compassion for these girls who had come from fatherless homes and not been raised to know the Lord. At first, we just offered to pray for Jessica's healing, which caught her off guard to realize she had just spilled her story to some Christians. But she was very receptive, so we prayed for her healing. After we finished, I could feel the battle inside me trying to keep me from sharing the gospel and inviting them to accept Jesus into their hearts. I knew it was their time, so I asked them if they would like to invite Jesus into their lives and have a new start on life. These 2 girls who had been bragging about their exploits just 2 minutes ago began weeping before we could even pray as their hearts began to open up to the Lord. They told us how they had been in church before, but had left the Lord for other things in life. They both wanted to pray for salvation, and they even brought into our circle another woman who had been standing back listening to the conversation. She also gave her life to the Lord that day after watching how the events unfolded.
At the end of our time with them, I gave them some brief pointers on having a relationship with Jesus in hopes to keep them from falling into dead religion. They were all weeping and hugging us and thanking us for being there to pray with them. Jessica said she wanted to take her children to church for the first time so they could grow up knowing the Lord. I walked away from that situation realizing the impact that we had just made for these 3 young ladies, and how the religious spirit had attempted to shut down the ministry by attacking my thoughts. Now I keep reminding myself; lights are only useful in the darkness. If you are a Christian, you are the fragrance of Christ. Your candle is lit. No go take it out into the darkness.
Blessings...
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