“How did you learn to do this,” she asked.
Last weekend Adventures in Missions hosted a conference open to the entire community of Gainesville. It was called the Hearing the Voice of God Conference. The vision of the conference was pretty simple. We gathered to learn about the voice of God. As the morning continued, it quickly turned from a time of teaching to a time of actively seeking the voice of God.
An area God has been working on in my life lately is confidence. Confidence in my gifts, in my voice, in my leadership abilities. A few weeks ago I prayed for opportunities to grow in this, not really considering that He would actually take me up on that offer.
Right before the first worship set, I was asked to serve on one of the prophetic teams during the lunch break. My immediate thought was, “I’m not qualified for this. I don’t know what I’m doing.” But I took the leap and said, “yes”.
When I stepped back into the room for worship, doubt upon doubt entered my mind.
“Why would they ask me?”
“God, I’m not qualified for this.”
And He replies, “What are you talking about? You hear from me, you have wisdom, you are an encourager. If you trust me, what else do you need?”
Early in the afternoon, my team prayed with eight people. We listened and God spoke. God gave us words of encouragement for people dealing with unforgiveness, pain, or uncertainty of which direction to head next. I was amazed that, time after time, the scripture and words of encouragement we shared with them were exactly what they needed to hear that day.
When we finished praying with the last woman of the day, we had a short conversation before returning to the conference. She was amazed by how the Lord spoke to her during this time. She asked how we became qualified to lead such a prayer session.
“How did you learn to do this?”
I remembered my conversation with God earlier that morning. I remembered the questions of, “why me?” So I shared the same truth that God shared with me just a few hours earlier.
We hear from God
We have wisdom
We can encourage
Trust Him
I could have said “no” that morning. I could have stayed where it was comfortable. But so much would have been lost. Yes, it was an incredible, eye-opening experience for me. However, it was much more than that.
Because I said, “yes,” God used me to encourage her to step into her gifts as well. She left that afternoon knowing she hears from God and that He will use her voice to speak to the people in her life.
How is God challenging you today? What is He leading you to do, where is He taking you, and how could you grow in the process?
Are you going to say “no, I’m not qualified for that, I am fine right where I am” or are you going to trust that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
I know my answer.
