Outside your comfort zone?

Outside your comfort zone?

These are strange and exciting days. Strange in that we never know what trivia or seriousness will take up all the banner headlines today. Exciting because there is that ‘feeling in the air’ that the Lord is doing, or about to do, something big. If there is any problem at all with all of this it is that God is moving us ever further out of our comfort zone.

I can only example myself to describe what I mean by this. Until recently, I had spent four years going all round Europe ministering in a team. We spoke, we preached, we prophesied, and we prayed. I felt no difficulty doing any of this, especially prophesying individually to groups of people, using an interpreter, and being told how accurate we all were. Fine – no problem with any of that, and well inside my comfort zone.

Then, in preparation for the days to come, God brought me to a new home, found me a new wife – I was a widower – and moved us from the South to the Midlands area of the UK. No problem with that either. He brought us into a wonderful new church too and we determined to say nothing about our past, just to settle in quietly and to move at the Lord’s pace in whatever ministry He gave us. We have retained our ministries but I now feel way outside my comfort zone prophesying in church. However, I also feel out of the zone when doing a few other things – and I have no idea why.

So it is with very many of the Lord’s people at the moment. He is moving all of us way out of our comfort zones in order that His plans be met and fulfilled. How many of us feel at ease confronting someone with the Name of Jesus? I hear some say, “But that is an evangelists job and I’m not an evangelist.”

Pardon me for asking but what does the Word of God say in Acts 1:4-8 “ And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;  for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”  Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”  And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.  But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” “ This was speaking about the first Christian Pentecost - the Jewish Pentecost, or Shavuot was originally a festival for expressing thankfulness to the Lord for the blessing of the harvest, and because it occurred at the conclusion of the Passover, 7 weeks after the second day of Passover to be precise, it acquired the name "Latter First fruits."

Do tell me the difference between an evangelist and this kind of witness? It is my understanding from scripture that we are ALL to be witnesses to Jesus – wherever we are and whenever called upon. Our lives are a witness as much, or more so, than our words. As St Francis of Assisi so eloquently put it, “Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.”

The main thing is that, for most of us, this kind of witnessing is outside of our comfort zone. I really do wonder why? It is something we are supposed to do. It is why Holy Spirit was sent or given to us – to teach us and lead us into all truth after He has baptised us. Holy Spirit takes us, with confidence, outside our comfort zone. This is beginning to become an interesting concept isn’t it? I am even out of my comfort zone writing this.

I guess the bottom line must be this – The Lord is taking us, under Holy Spirit direction, into new territory which is outside our present experience or comfort zone. The purpose is to prepare us, and all those around us or in our sphere of influence, for the end times. These, as we already know, include revival and rapture.

That being the case, all I can say is, “I am willing Lord, here am I, send me. Fill me, mould me, and use me, Lord, for your kingdom and for your glory.”