FAITH
It's Moving Day
By Shannon Kubiak Primicerio
CBN.com – We think God needs big people to do big things--famous people like Billy Graham and Elisabeth Elliot. After all, why would He use us when He could use them, right? Wrong. God wants to move among the nations and across this country, and He also wants to move among the people in your sphere of influence. But many times we simply do not let Him--not because we are strong enough to stop Him, but because He patiently waits for us to grant Him permission to work through us. A lot of times He works in us without our consent, but it is not very often that He uses us to do something incredible until we have agreed to obey, no matter the costs.
When I think about God moving through the life of one individual, a man named Bob comes to mind. He was an insurance salesman, unconnected with government social circles in any way. His friend Doug, though, had a ministry in Washington, D.C. And Doug challenged Bob to pray and ask the Lord to move in one particular place every day for six months. Bob selected Kenya--although he had never been there and didn't know anyone who lived there--and this is what happened:
Bob began to pray, and for a long while nothing happened. Then one night he was at a dinner in Washington. The people around the table explained what they did for a living. One woman said she helped run an orphanage in Kenya--the largest of its kind ... Bob roared to life. He had not said much up until that point, and now he pounded her relentlessly with question after question.
"You're obviously very interested in my country," the woman said to Bob, overwhelmed by his sudden barrage of questions. "You've been to Kenya before?"
"No."
"You know someone in Kenya?"
"No."
"Then how do you happen to be so curious?"
[Bob explained his deal with Doug to pray for God to move in one place.] She asked Bob if he would like to come visit Kenya and tour the orphanage. Bob was so eager to go he would have left that very night if he could.
When Bob arrived in Kenya, he was appalled by the poverty and the lack of basic health care. Upon returning to Washington, he couldn't get the place out of his mind. He began to write large pharmaceutical companies, describing to them the vast need he had seen. He reminded them that every year they would throw away large amounts of medical supplies that went unsold. "Why not send them to this place in Kenya?" he asked.
And some of them did. The orphanage received more than a million dollars' worth of medical supplies.
The woman called Bob up and said, "Bob, this is amazing! We've had the most phenomenal gifts because of the letters you wrote. We would like to fly you back over and have a big party. Will you come?"
So Bob flew back to Kenya. While he was there, the president of Kenya came to the celebration because it was the largest orphanage in the country, and offered to take Bob on a tour of Nairobi, the capital city. In the course of the tour they saw a prison. Bob asked about a group of prisoners there.
"They're political prisoners," he was told.
"That's a bad idea," Bob said brightly. "You should let them out." Bob finished the tour and flew back home. Sometime later, Bob received a phone call from the State Department of the United States government:
"Is this Bob?"
"Yes."
"Were you just in Kenya?"
"Yes."
"Did you make any statements to the president about any political prisoners?"
"Yes."
"What did you say?"
"I told him he should let them out."
The State Department official explained that the department had been working for years to get the release of these prisoners, to no avail. Normal diplomatic channels and political maneuverings had led to a dead end. But now the prisoners had been released, and the State Department was told it had been largely because of ... Bob. So the government was calling to say thanks.
Several months later, the president of Kenya made a phone call to Bob. He was going to rearrange his government and select a new cabinet. Would Bob be willing to fly over and pray for him for three days while he worked on this very important task?
So Bob--who was not politically connected at all--boarded a plane once more and flew back to Kenya, where he prayed and asked God to give wisdom for the leader of the nation as he selected his government. (footnote 1)
All of this happened because one man asked God to move and was willing to move with Him. Sometimes the call to go is preceded by the call to pray. There came a time when Michael (my husband) and I asked the Lord to "give us the nations" and broaden our horizons. And within a few short months we had been invited to speak internationally and two of my books were translated into another language and sold halfway across the world. Our call to go, much like Bob's, began with a call to pray.
Perhaps you have sensed lately that God has been burdening you to pray for some type of movement somewhere. Be ready--He just might ask you to be part of that movement! Take the "Bob challenge" and pray every day for six months that God would move in one particular place--or person--and see what happens.
If you have absolutely no clue about how God might want to use you, then ask Him for direction. After all, He does promise countless times in Scripture to guide us and direct us. Psalm 32:8 says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you." That means God will not only tell us where He would have us go, but He will also keep His watchful and protective eye on us as we boldly move forward in faith. What a comfort that can be when the places He asks us to venture into seem scary and intimidating!
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Excerpted from Being a Girl Who Serves by Shannon Kubiak Primicerio, copyright © 2006; ISBN 0764200909.
Published by Bethany House Publishers.
Used by permission. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
Notes
1. John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on Water You've Got to Get Out of the Boat (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 91–93.
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