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God uses what we have

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On Monday I wrote a blog called Activism is necessary for understanding. The point of it was, we don’t have to become perfect to serve God, we just have to put ourselves in motion. It provoked some pointed exchanges. Anonymous was the first comment. He said, “What is a simple way of stepping o…
By Seth Barnes
On Monday I wrote a blog called Activism is necessary for understanding. The point of it was, we don’t have to become perfect to serve God, we just have to put ourselves in motion.
It provoked some pointed exchanges. Anonymous was the first comment. He said, “What is a simple way of stepping out? A very good, simple first step? This is coming from someone who is a  loner with no community or church and has only God and himself. He wants to give up his life and believe wholeheartedly in God but is confused.”
I replied, “Ask the Lord to bring to mind one other person who needs encouragement today.
Then ask him, “How can I encourage that person?”
Then do it.

That’s a start. Share with us the results and then repeat.”
It’s not rocket science. God just wants us to ask him a question or two, listen and then obey. He doesn’t want us to be perfect, he just wants us to bring to him what we have and start there. If we’ll do that, my experience is, he shows up.
So, 14 comments later, at 7:58 pm, Anonymous reported in as I had requested. His response was lengthy, so I edited it some here:
“Ok so I’m reporting back with the results of my first adventure into this unknown territory.

After I read your simple advice I prayed about it and went back to my normal day at work and tried my best to be on the lookout for whoever the spirit was going to lead me to.

To let you know I’ve never done anything like this in my life. This is all new so I didn’t know what to expect or look out for.

Well, there is this one coworker of mine who is sort of slow (almost retarded but he isn’t) and I figured I would give it a try and ask God about this man.

Well, the second I started praying and asked God if I was supposed to encourage my coworker the spirit literally just flooded into me and felt like it was vibrating inside of me. I actually had to catch my breath; it was pretty quick and intense, which felt great.

God wanted me to encourage him about how much of a good job he does at the warehouse. I stood up, went right up to him and then walked away…

So I missed my first opportunity, but nevertheless I went back to him at the end of the day and and complimented his work at the warehouse. He got a big smile across his face and appreciated that I noticed his work and he was very happy and grateful. He left in his truck with a smile.

It took coming out of some comfort to randomly compliment a person the spirit led me to encourage. I can’t remember ever just throwing out encouragement like that to anyone.

So Seth, I take it I repeat this process every day and learn how to listen to God? This must be like learning my spiritual ABC’s until I’m grown and have more authority in the spirit to begin doing bigger things. But I take it I could keep this going for the rest of my life. This was a very exciting day to be able to do this and actively hear God.

The fact that you did say to report back kept me somewhat accountable to go through with this. Had you not said that, I would have probably nodded at your advice and walked on, maybe never doing it.

So…what’s next after I make this a habit?”

What was next is that I linked him up with a couple of friends in town who have strong church communities. We’ll see where it goes from there.
The lesson I take away is that we don’t need to be super-spiritual to talk to God or to do his work. We just have to give him what we have and start there. And we don’t even have to get it right in our obedience. Like Anonymous, we may start to obey and then walk away, only to go back on the second pass and do it right (this was the story of Peter’s life – messing up, but then dusting himself off and trying again).
So, dear reader, I challenge you to take the step that Anonymous took. Like he said, it’s the spiritual ABCs. It’s how Jesus intended for his disciples to live their lives. Ask God, “Who can I encourage today?” Then do what he says and then report back to us. The results may surprise you.

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