LOOKING LIKE A FOOL PRODUCES FRUIT

1 Corinthians 4:10 “We are fools for Christ.”

I just want to show you what can happen when we simply do what God says to do, even if it sounds crazy. I believe God gave me a promise that He would lead me to people who are hungry for God. Now, how He said to do it was not what I had in mind. I feel like He said I was to carry a cross around and just go love and pray for people. Through this I was going to find hungry people, and help them learn about God. 

Honestly, at least for me, I cannot think of anything more foolish. Especially in our culture, many people were going to ridicule me and laugh at me. Oh, how many times I have thought about how crazy I must be. Am I hearing God right?

For this particular outreach, I was going to be carrying the cross in an international community, made up of mostly Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. How would they react? Would they laugh at me? Would they get mad at me? Would they threaten me? I had to deal will all of these questions and most of all, be ok with any outcome. 

The night before I was to carry the cross, I was so nervous. I was constantly trying to talk myself out of it. I even had a team that was going to meet me out there, and I texted their leader the night before and told him I was canceling.  He totally called me out and asked me if this was from God. I immediately knew that my doubt was not from God. I didn’t sleep much that night and in the morning I was just as nervous. But about two hours before the outreach, I just started to pray and God completely changed me. This is what I believe and He does this with me all the time. He fills me with His Spirit, just like in the book of Acts. He filled me that morning and I just became a different person. Absolutely no fear. Full of joy. I knew exactly what to do. Difficult to explain, but I felt like I was literally being pushed or walking with God. Wow, what a feeling!

Most of us are so fearful of sharing God with others. I know I am too! Do you want to know the key to sharing with others? It is being filled with His Spirit. It is a real thing. Jesus’ disciples were fearful and timid before the Holy Spirit came. But when the Holy Spirit came, they were as bold as lions and the rest is history. We can have the same thing! Do you believe this?

Okay, so I was ready to go. I was believing God by faith that I would carry this cross and He would lead to me to a hungry person. I arrived at the outreach location, talked and prayed with the team and then I took the cross out of the truck and walked it about 20 yards away and stopped. A Hindu man immediately came up to me and just started telling me that he wanted Jesus! I mean, just writing this, it is still so crazy to me. One minute out of my truck! This man invited me to his home. I met his family and they wanted me to teach them about Jesus. This was a week ago, and a few nights ago, I met with this family again to talk about Jesus and it went great!  They even invited some of their friends. This family wants to continue meeting to learn about Jesus and who knows where this will lead.

The rest of the cross outreach went great. Nothing but great responses. All positive. We prayed for many and made some new friends out of it that we hope leads to more. As I was putting my cross in the truck to leave, another man came up to me and didn’t want me to leave because he had not heard the message I was bringing. We talked and he invited me to his home later in the week. I met at their home just yesterday and they want me to come back to help them learn about Jesus! 

Crazy, crazy stuff. God can do amazing things if we are filled with Him and we do what He wants to do even if it seems foolish to us.  Look what can happen. People who didn’t know God can now know him and live for eternity forever! Which is more important? Somebody’s eternal salvation or us looking like a fool!