It's been awhile, and I have so many stories to tell you, But I will save time by just relating this one encounter I had with "ARNOLD"(not the Gover-nator) yesterday! As my son Joseph and I were out on a stroll, on a beautiful, sunny California day (we are so blessed!), I saw a man sitting on a park bench with a fully "LOADED" shopping cart, I felt that familiar prompting of the Spirit to give this man a Gospel Tract, and of course my flesh is already trying to justify not being obedient, crossroads my friends, crossroads! Jojo and I approached the man and I said "Hey, you gotta a mighty nice cart there, but I bet in all that stuff, you don't have one of these?" and I handed him a "million" tract. He looked down,and the first thing he said, is "This must be a Jesus" and looked up at me and said "NO THANKS" He was polite enough and quite jovial, so I asked him, "you gotta lot of books, just use it as a bookmark, it has a great message on the back" hoping to move from the natural to the Spiritual. He then started to remark about how this "Whole thing" is wrong, and started off on some eastern religion thing, 'round and around. We listened to him politely, and then when I had the opportunity to share a Gospel truth, I no sooner would start sharing, then I would get all confused, and lose my train of thought. Usually when this happens (happens plenty!) I just go back to the basics, of our sin, Gods Holiness, Judgement, hell, Jesus salvation,repentance, etc...
But this time I could not seem to get back to the basics, and I soon realized I was in a losing battle, well... Jojo to the rescue... My son was getting very restless and wanting to go, so I left Him with this thought, please think about what we've talked about today, and think about what if you are wrong? As I was leaving, I noticed he was smoking a cigarette, and I said to him, "Better quit smoking those things, or your gonna find out soon enough!" He was saying that the Lord would return on smoke..and continued to pursue that remark as Joseph and I bid him farewell, his voice trailing off as we left.
WOW.. I was thinking to myself, that was one of the worse witnessing opportunities I've had in a while, when It came to me, It's one of the ONLY ones I've had in a while! As we we're returning home, I just poured out my heart to our Lord, and confessed my lack of commitment to Him lately. These kind of encounters always help us to grow... I knew that I had not prepared my heart well prior to witnessing, Although I had prayed before this witness encounter, I was not pouring out my heart for HIS glory, I had been away from "intentional" witnessing for a season(always ready to share my faith, when I can) and, it seemed my lack of preparation for "BATTLE" caused me to "fall" on the battlefield! The lesson........witnessing IS spiritual warfare, and like in battle, if we do not prepare, don our armor correctly, or not be diligent to practice with,and use our weapons(Gods Word)skillfully, The enemy will gain the upper hand, and you will get defeated!
Please... Prepare your heart,stay in Gods Word, Know it and how to use it wisely! Don your spiritual armor (Ephesian 6:10-18) and Run to the battle, R U N with all your might!
Until the nets are full!
Robert and Joseph
