Fear!

I was in Coventry a couple of weeks ago with the Discipleship Training School (DTS) that I am currently working on. We joined with a number of other DTS's from around the country for a week of teaching and evangelism alongside the local churches.

One of the days was a teaching on fear. During this time God started to speak to me about obedience and I realised in that moment that fear had robed me of so much of the life I should have! But more than this, it crushes us as people, and I realised that I was sick of living in fear. I actually walked outside during the session as it hit me that hard and started to pray. As I was talking to God I saw a man on crutches walking along the street and felt God tell me I should go and offer to pray for him, so I said to God that if he comes this way at the junction I will. Obviously he did not, and God reminded me about what he had been talking to me about with obedience, so I got up and ran down the street after this man. When I reached him I told him who I was and what we were doing and asked if I could pray for him and his leg. He simply said no turned round and carried on. As I walked back to the building we were using I asked God what that was all about, why had I run down the street to be told no after He had asked me to go. He said this to me "What I am asking of you is obedience, to do what I am asking, to offer the blessings of my kingdom to all you meet, that is your responsibility. Your responsibility is not what the people you meet do with that offer". God is incredible, so gentle and firm, and so full of love, wanting everyone to be offered the chance to know him and be restored.