This morning I had a dream where I was part of a ministry that was presenting the Good news. In this dream our presentation was so effective that people were being forced to deal with the reality of what they just observed, people being set free and healed.
One funny thing happened in the midst of our presentation, we had a man come out dressed like a chicken, walk around a bit and then leave. I was speaking at that moment and said, "You can't ignore the fact that a man dressed as a chicken just came out, you can chose to not let your life be affected, but you can't deny what you just saw! In the same way, you can't deny what you are seeing in front of you, people being set free and healed in Jesus name!"
As I was thinking back over the dream, upon waking, the thing that was most evident was that we were presenting the Gospel in a loving way! We weren't in people's faces, we weren't barging into people's lives, we were presenting the Gospel of Grace, proclaiming that God loved these people and then letting God demonstrate His love for them by affecting their lives in sometimes radical ways, like healing. We were effectively presenting the Gospel of God's Love in a loving way and people couldn't deny what they were seeing.
I was reminded of the following verses, specifically verse 14 from Matthew 14:13-14 NIV:
[13] "When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. [14] When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick."
Jesus' primary motivation here is compassion, and it results in Him healing their sick! What a great demonstration of the Gospel of God's Love, demonstrated through a loving encounter with God's authority and power!
Oh, that we would represent God's love for all we meet in much the same way! Oh, that we would be overwhelmed with God's love for His people! Oh, that our motivation would be loving others the way we have experienced His love ourselves! In fact, now that I think about it, that is exactly what Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” ( John 13:34-35 NIV )
Lord, help us to demonstrate Your love for others, by loving them and having compassion on them, healing them and setting them free in Your name!
Amen and Amen!
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