Sickness and Salvations
On Tuesday I was not feeling very well – tired, aching and an upset tummy (this latter was helped by several doses of GastroStop, but the sick feeling remained.) I would really have preferred to rest rather than minister, but I felt it was important to go ahead with the meeting, even though I advised the pastor that I might not be able to speak for the full hour. I did end up speaking for the full hour, but by the time I finished I was ready to collapse.
Yesterday I woke up feeling somewhat better, but still not on top of the world. As the day wore on, however, I was feeling worse and worse, till by the time came for me to minister I felt every bit as bad as I had the night before. The only thing that carried me through the session was the anointing.
Then, when I gave an altar call, a young woman came forward to receive the Lord. I am in awe that God can work in spite of what I personally might be feeling or going through.
Actually what is happening with people getting saved amazes me. I am not an evangelist, and I don’t preach an evangelistic message – in fact I regard most of the evangelistic messages I have heard over the years as froth and bubble. What I preach is a solid, often heavy, message to the saints, yet people are responding to it.
Over the years I have very rarely given a salvation call, simply because I am normally ministering in church or conference settings, where I have assumed everyone is a Christian.
But now the Lord has made it clear to me that I must not do that – evidence: nine salvations over the past month, all in Christian gatherings.
This has led me to thinking about the number of “fish” that I might have missed over the years, just because I have failed to throw out a net! I have had to do some heavy-duty repenting!
I am still not an evangelist, and I will continue to preach solid, and at times heavy, messages aimed at the saints, but from now on a salvation call will always be part of my ministry.