“Jesus isn’t asking you to be something that you’re not.

He’s asking you to be what you are.”

The statement above came to me when I was addressing a couple of teenagers a few weeks ago. I thought I was just giving some good advice when I realized the Holy Spirit had said something simply profound that applied to all of us.

Whether it’s the “political correctness” still rampant in the U.S. or the fear of actual persecution (of Christians) in (increasingly more) nations of the world, many of us think we have to shift gears, become “spiritual,” stir up our courage and take a stab at witnessing for Jesus. Others may feel the need to “draw aside and pray up” before meeting the challenge in front of them.

In actuality, neither of those approaches to sharing Jesus and His power with the lost and needy should be necessary and neither of them is terribly effective.

What the Holy Spirit is reminding us is that ministry comes out of fellowship. Ministry is the natural outflow of what we are putting in – time in prayer, praise and the Word. It’s there that we discover who we are in Christ and who He is in us.

The other day, I heard Curry Blake (on a DVD) say something to this effect: that if we have to shift gears from what we were doing to get spiritual enough to meet the present need for someone else then, perhaps, we shouldn’t have been doing what we were doing. That certainly gives one pause!

In other words, God wants His spirit to flow out of us, naturally super-natural! We shouldn’t find ourselves saying, “I have to be spiritual now…” or, “Let me go and pray awhile and see what God wants me to do…” Yes, Jesus spent times in prayer but that was His private life, not (for the most part) His public one.

The Bible tells us, “…the earth is groaning and awaiting the manifested sons and daughters of God…” (Rom. 8:19)

They’re waiting for us. Let’s be ready!

Mary