Boldness to Act Part 1

Boldness to Act Part 1

1 Cor. 16:9 For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

When I got back from my last trip to Mexico, I had Dr. Jim Harris come up to me and ask me to explain how the trip went in three words. It got me to think a little bit. I thought pushing through was the first two words because there were so many obstacles to overcome. I had to believe the Lord for a lot more finances than the last trips I had been on in Mexico and to top it off; I came down with a virus before I was to leave. I was so congested and weak. To be honest, I didn’t know if I was going to make it. Thanks to all of my friends and family praying for me; I gained strength from the Lord and pushed through. Tami, John and I loaded the toys in the truck and I was off to Mexico. Praise the Lord I had the strength to push through, drive the truck all the way to Mexico, unload the toys and help prepare the food bags and toy bags for the outreach.

The third word that hit my mind was rewarding. We had several folks give their lives to Jesus at the outreach and that’s what it’s all about. Souls coming to Jesus! Folk’s receiving Jesus was so rewarding! Suddenly all the things I had to push through to get to this point was in a distant memory and I was overcome with tears of joy! Jesus is faithful! Toys were then given to the children and the families were given the food bags. It was an amazing day of answered prayer!

While talking to my friend Dr. Jim 1 Corinthians 16:9 came to my mind which says “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” I immediately started thinking about this scripture and what had happened to me. The Lord had a great and effective door for me. On the other side of the door was blessing and souls to be won into the kingdom. The enemy didn’t want me to go through that door because ultimately the Kingdom of Heaven would be populated, so he brought against me many adversaries to try to stop me. Praise the Lord!  I was able to push through on the prayers of the saints and by the grace of the Lord and the Kingdom of Heaven was populated!

You see the enemy uses fear, sickness etc. to slow us down or stop us from going through the door that God has called us to. I believe the main one is fear and intimidation and this is something I have always struggled with. I remember in school when I had a project to speak in front of a crowd of students I would be overwhelmed with fear and intimidation. Later in my life,  I  gave my life to Jesus and the Lord would speak to me to do something, but immediately that fear would come and thoughts would enter my mind telling me that it wouldn’t work.  All those what if questions would come to my mind to try to stop me. It used to work most of the time until something amazing happened in my life! 

The Lord continues to remind me of this mission’s trip that I went on about 15 years ago in Cameroon, Africa. The mission was to have 10 teams to surround the city of Kumba to preach the gospel. I was going just serve and be part of a team. I had no idea what was about to happen.  I will never forget it and when my mentor Bro. Bert Farias put me in as a leader of one of the teams immediately the fear of the enemy had gripped my heart to try and stop me. Bro. Bert said something to me that I will never forget. He said I know you can preach because I heard you pray. I was completely changed and had the courage and boldness to preach, but I still had to push through. Later, on the trip I was about to share at a Bible School and the enemy was having a hay day with my mind. What was I going to say? I asked the Lord? The enemy was whispering in my ears that I was going to make a fool of myself. Suddenly an African brother came up to me named Joseph and said brother Rudy I see in the spirit that the enemy has you in a snare. I immediately knew what he was talking about. I asked him to pray and break it off of me and he did. Immediately Prov. 29:25 came into my mind (The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe) and I knew I was to share this scripture with the class. The Lord wanted the students to be free of the fear of man, as well. He wanted to use me to share and pray for these precious students to be free. I will never forget it! The students were all in fear of the unknown. Most of them would be sent out on mission assignments and many of them were dealing with a lot of the same things I had been dealing with. I shared the scripture with them, preached a little bit and prayed to break off the fear of man in the kids’ lives. The Holy Spirit came and ministered to them in a powerful way! We were all changed by the wonderful presence of the Lord!