Only God: Breakthrough Faith

You know, when I see statistics about the number of people that die everyday; when I see those numbers I just wonder; what would God do if we would just see the reality of people that we know right now, that maybe next week, or maybe next month, or maybe next year, that we may not ever have the chance to share Jesus with them again. And in these days we’re talking about, what does it mean to have an ’Only God’ life? I was thinking about my life and how I came to Christ twenty years ago in 1988. I came to Christ, and like some of you, my heart was broken and I genuinely wanted to go tell people about God. I mean, do you know that feeling when you just, when there’s that sense in you?

Well, God would bring people in my life and would, you know, kind of share with some of them. But there was this one guy, his name was Doug, I never shared with him. I mean, God would give me opportunities. I would run into him at a restaurant and I’d share something with him; and he’d talk and I’d feel the spirit of God, kind of encouraging me, "Tell him about Me," and I’m like, "Next time." Then we’d run into each other again and it’d be like, "Next time." We went to junior high, elementary school, and high school together so it wasn’t like we didn’t know each other, but we weren’t like super close. We were really good, kind of, acquaintances. But I’d run into him, and I really believe God has these divine appointments in all of our lives; and how many times do we say, "Next time." Why is it that we can’t see people in a way that’s real about them; that everyone is someone that will spend eternity somewhere?

Well, it was about a couple years into being a Christian, and all of a sudden I ran into his brother; not him, his brother David. I said, "Oh dude, I haven’t seen...how’s your brother Doug?" He does a one-eighty and says, "Dude, you haven’t heard? My brother died." I made a commitment at that point: One, I was just riddled with guilt as you could imagine, but I made a commitment that I would never again, to the best of my ability, with the Spirit and the strength of God, I just made this kind of thing with God, "I will never miss another opportunity for You for eternity." God agitated my heart with what I call, ’holy agitation’ and I said, "I’m never going to miss again a chance to tell someone about God."

You see, we all have relationships and God wants us to bring those people to Him. It’s one thing to say we’re an ’Only God’ church, but I want you to have an ’Only God’ life. I want us all to, in this moment right now, just bow our heads, and we’re going to spend just a minute and I want you to think, ’who’s the person for you?’ Who’s the one person you say, "Next time," about? Who’s the brother you’ve said, "You know, they’re never going to come to God." You know, you’ve kind of given up on them?

I want you to get that person in your heart right now. I want you to get that person in your mind right now and I want you to see a picture of them; and I want to ask you, will you believe for them? Will you have faith, right now, that God could save their life? Would you do that? And would you tell God kind of, "I will do whatever it takes." Maybe it’s a husband, maybe it’s a wife. Maybe it’s somebody, as students, you go to school with and there’s this person that God keeps, somehow, making this divine appointment.

I want you to pray right now with me and commit these names that are in your minds, that are written on the heart of God; and when we have broken hearts, we will have breakthrough faith. When our hearts are shattered by the reality that the story is real, that you were a sinner redeemed by the blood of Christ. When that reality sinks deep into your heart, not much else will ever matter than telling people about this unthinkable love.

PRAYER: Father, I want to pray right now. You know, I think about God, if you had a list, a bucket list of, it would absolutely be people. You can’t read the story of the Bible and miss that You always were about people. You can’t say that you’re mature in your faith and say that the people that matter to you, that you know, that we know, that may not be here next week, or next month, or next year. So I pray that the words, ’next time’, or ’tomorrow’, that we wouldn’t have in our vocabulary. That we would take ’today’, and we would take ’today’, and we would allow our hearts to be broken ’today’, and we would have a faith that’s breakthrough faith ’today’, for You and only You God. That you would do what only You can do God, as we bring people into the presence of Jesus; that there would be this kind of subtle revolution that would just kind of turn the world upside down. Because we would be people that are free from religion, and are pursuing a relationship with the God that put breath in our bodies. I thank You for this, in Jesus name, amen, amen...