A great way to be an encouragement to someone is through our actions. Through our actions we can show we care for others or that we don’t care for them. Too often I fall in the trap of the latter! Only if I let Jesus be my guide and I yield my all to Jesus can I really show my caring towards others through my actions. Jesus being my example I want to follow His lead!
Look how Jesus was reaching out towards others 2000 years ago.
Matt 4:24-25 “So the report of Him spread throughout all Syria, and they brought Him all who were sick, those afflicted with various diseases and torments, those under the power of demons, and epileptics, and paralyzed people, and He healed them. And great crowds joined and accompanied Him about, coming from Galilee and Decapolis [the district of the ten cities east of the Sea of Galilee] and Jerusalem and Judea and from the other [the east] side of the Jordan.” AMP
He “healed” people and used this opportunity to preach the gospel message. The results were outstanding: “great crowds joined and accompanied Him”. His message was clear and succinct:
Matt 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach, crying out, Repent ( change your mind for the better, heartily amend your ways, with abhorrence of your past sins), for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” AMP
If I would like to reach out to others, I should follow His lead. What worked for Jesus 2000 years ago, will work for me as well. There are many ways we can show we care for others. Giving them food to eat, water to drink, clothing to be dressed in, giving them a helping hand. These are all important. However power has been given to us as well to perform miracles, not on our own, but through the power of God’s Spirit.
Jesus gave the power to his disciples and to us to:
Luke 9:1-2 “When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” NIV
Luke 10:17 “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. Jesus has given us the power to perform miracles, to heal, to drive out demons.” NIV
Here is one example of how God permitted me to show I cared for someone I hadn’t met before through His power and action:
A couple of years ago I went as an usher to one of Benny Hinn’s crusades in Toronto. Some believe he is from the devil. Others that he is a fake. All I can say to you is what I experienced: the gospel message was preached: salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. Around 2000 people were healed. The lame walked, the deaf started hearing, the blind got their vision, cancer was healed… God was glorified throughout it all.
Around 9:30 p.m. an usher came running up to me and said “I need your help. Someone is convulsing in my section. I think she may be epileptic. I do not know what to do.” My first inclination was to tell her: “Call the doctor. I can’t help you!” But God told me with His peaceful voice ” I am in charge. Follow this lady”. I started to climb the stairs, trying to pinpoint who was in trouble. As I reached a certain row, all of a sudden people got up and made way for me to get through. I followed their lead and was brought to a bleak looking lady who was convulsing badly.
She was surrounded by 4 ladies who were praying for her, one of them turned around and told me that she was a nurse and that she never had seen anything like this. She told me this was not a seizure and that this poor lady was battling a spiritual battle. In other words, demons were possessing her!
I stretched my hand towards her and started to pray. The convulsing stopped. The ladies around her tried to encourage her to go down (we were on the third floor) to share her testimony with Benny Hinn. She was terrified and said the demons would punish her if she did. Finally she decided to go, terrified. I was wondering what to do, but the Lord told me clearly to go and lead the way.
As we started to go down the first few steps, she started to convulse worse that ever. She would not listen to anyone. The Lord impressed me to talk boldly to her. I was led to say: “You will be healed my friend. Jesus loves you and he has paid for your healing 2000 years ago. By His stripes you are healed! Do you believe this?” All during this speech, she had riveted her attention on. She very weakly answered: “Yes”.
We started to pray for her and cast the demons out of her life, inviting God’s Holy Spirit to come and take His dwelling in her and as we were concluding our prayers, all convulsing stopped and she looked so peaceful. She had been freed from those demons. Praise the Lord! All of us, including herself were praising the Lord!
During this whole event God was in charge! I did not cast those demons out. God did! She could not be healed until she proclaimed she believed. Once she did that, God freed her!
Please know that this was made possible because Jesus had become real to me. Christianity is such a stress -less and relaxing life. All we need to do is depend on Jesus to be our guide. How can we get wrong reaching out to others, if we depend solely on Him! So, why wait any longer? Let us reach out and touch someone, depending on Jesus to be our guide!
In His love,
Rob Chaffart
Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org
(To access the entire “Encouragement” mini-series, please click here.)