6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. Isaiah 55:6-7 (NIV)
Yesterday was our first full day with the Upper Room Prayer ministry and I want to share with you some of the things that happened as a result of our focused attention on intercession. Hudson Taylor, that great missionary to China in the late 1800’s has a quote that I have used many times, “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.” Ever since I read his book years ago I have been convinced that the responsibility of the church is to do God’s work in God’s way so that we will always have what we need to reach the nations with the Gospel of Christ.
As you have heard for several months now that the first and foremost thing God desires his church to be is a house of prayer for all nations. Well we are on the way of obeying His Word in this regard. His Word commands us to seek the Lord while he may be found and to call on him while he is near. As we have sought God in His Word and have begun to respond to what His Word tells us to become we are just now beginning to see Him respond to our prayers in some very unique ways.
Yesterday was a day when God seemed to be confirming this direction in some rather unusual encounters. I will share them with you for your encouragement and to help you grow in your desire to pray for the nations and participate with us in this great last day’s endeavor of interceding for the nations.
As you read yesterday, the first prayer prayed in the Upper Room was a prayer over our own members getting ready to board a plane that would take them to Honduras so they could share Christ with the masses in Honduras. A few hours later I was praying for a friend of mine who is not yet a believer and we had an appointment for lunch so we could meet one more time before he left the area.
We met for lunch and I had already asked God to cause my friend to begin the discussion about the gospel so I would know that God was working in his life. We had not sat down five minutes when he began to share about his encounters with Christians in his travels in the New England states this past year. He shared with me how he had continued to read the Bible and was beginning to see his life slowly change.
It seemed to be the appropriate time to talk to him about where he was in his relationship to Christ. As I began to open the truth of Scripture across our lunch table his water glass all of a sudden slid over to the edge of the table and fell off onto the floor. He was quite amazed at how that had happened. It looked as if someone had just taken their hand and pushed it off on to the floor. It was rather eerie.
I then looked at my friend and said, “There is an enemy of your soul who does not want you to know this truth and he will do whatever he can to stop you or distract you from hearing it, even if he can cause water glasses to fall off tables to keep you from hearing he will do that.”
We talked for about another thirty minutes and he was very open to the things of God as a result. Please pray for this friend of mine that he will come to Christ before he leaves this area.
This took me to about 1:30 p.m. I returned to the office and spent the rest of the day getting ready to head to Indy 500 outreach with No Greater Love this weekend. I continued to pray through the afternoon that prayer would become our first response and not our last resort.
Earlier in the week I had received word from Cuba and other sources that we were cleared to go to Cuba and we could now make flight arrangements and everything was good to go. As I continued to pray about God’s direction and timing of our going to Cuba I received a phone call from Fernando Herrera in North Carolina. Now I do not know Fernando from anyone but here is how the phone call proceeded.
“This is Fernando Herrera, is this Phil Nelson?
“Yes it is.”
“Do you know a man from Cuba named Libir?”
“Yes I do.”
“Well he is in the states now and he wants to come and minister with you in your church for a season”
(What you need to know is that Libir has worked with me on the University of Havana’s campus for the past seven years and together we saw the Christian student group grow from 15 to several hundred. Libir is one of the most dedicated believers in Cuba that I know of.)
“That is awesome.” I replied. “When can he come?”
“He is already scheduled to be in Springfield on Sunday, June 14 and he would like to be with you from the 15th to the 22 of June”
I quickly do some calculating and discover that means he could be here the Sunday before our team flies to Cuba. He could also work with our new Hispanic Congregation to help reach the Hispanic population in Carbondale area.
There is only one problem, how can we pay for the travel and all the rest of the details of housing and everything for the week he will be with us? I then ask Fernando about the necessary arrangements we need to make to have Libir and his whole family with us for a week. It was then that I heard these words from Fernando,
“God has prospered me in my business and I have more money than I can spend. I have this as a ministry. I will pay for all their travel and expenses so they can minister the gospel with you. I spend my life now finding Latinos and Hispanics who are gifted in preaching the gospel to the masses and I finance their ministries completely so there is no cost to you.”
Needless to say Libir and his family will be staying at my house for the week that is a no brainer. But to have this dream of having Libir in our church family for a week, this is something I never thought would be a possibility and now we are only weeks away from such a thing. Libir grew up in a strong Communist family. His father was a guard in one of Castro’s prisons. When Libir became a Christian his father was very harsh towards him. But about nine years ago his father received Christ as a result of a dream he had one night. You will have a chance to hear his testimony on Sunday June 21 and you will not want to miss it. Make plans now to be here at least for this Sunday.
Fernando and I talked a few more minutes and then we prayed together for the glory of God to be magnified and increase on the face of the whole earth and I left the office with the stunned assurance that God desires to bless his people who set their hearts on seeking his face in these days.
I said all of that to say this, “God is drawing near to those who draw near to Him in intercession. I believe we are on the threshold of something mighty of God and I do not want anyone to be left behind. Let us do exactly what the Scripture tells us this day, “Seek the Lord while he may be found,” Do whatever you must to seek the Lord. Turn aside from frivolous pursuits and meaningless activities and set your heart’s affections on the things of God and His Kingdom.
Now some of you may be asking how did all of this happen on one day? Let me answer that as clearly as I can. We had five or more of our members spend at least one hour in the Upper Room Prayer Center praying for the nations during the day yesterday. Now do you get the picture?
A day without intercession for the nations is a day that is wasted in some way or other.
Turning to Prayer that the Nations will turn to Christ,
Pastor Phil
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