Hello friends,
So last I left y’all with Mitch and I discussing how it was important to have our skit serious but spirit led, because not all outreach will have happy endings. Then we headed to worship. In worship we were given a time of reflection and in that moment I surrendered the skit to God and asked the Holy Spirit to give me the words to say and how to say them. I had to quiet my mind and listen while keeping my mind from trying to create possible scenarios and answers to questions.
So we all sit down to start the next session and one of our leaders stands in front of us and said, “we are running a behind does the last group want to come up and do there skit?” Mitch jumped up so fast and my heart was going so fast i could feel it in my throat. We began the skit:
Cami started with introducing us; “these are a group of racers in the country of tanzania, Africa, working with a local farmer putting up a fence to keep out the elephants”
Then we walk on the “stage” with one of the girls saying “let’s put on the full armor God” we read off the scripture. We start to pretend to build a fence with folding chairs.
Mitch who was acting as the witch doctor walks up to us and points to me and starts shouting “why are you here? This is my land, you have no place here!”
I look at him and say “we are building a fence to help out this farmer and share the love of God”
He says “NO!! YOu cannot do that here!
At this point my heart is pounding and I asked Holy spirit for the words to say
With a stern loving voice I say“God has Given me a voice and I am not afraid of you. Because God has given me power over fear and I will not be shaken.”
One of the girls started flipping through her bible. “There’s gotta be a answer in here somewhere”
The room starts to fill up with laughter and I could see that it was bothering Mitch. So I prayed that God give him peace and clarity of what to say next I hear him shout “shut up”
The room goes silent
In that moment I heard “tell him he is LOVED over and over, because I (God) loves all of my children no matter what.”
I point to Mitch’s heart and look deep in his eyes and say “but GOD LOVES YOU!”
Then Mitch being the witch doctor said with such confliction “NO! Jesus cannot love me. He doesn’t know what I’ve done. How many girls I have raped, how many I have killed. He cannot love me.” At that point his eyes where starting to wellup.
At this point the room was in shock and it so quite that you could hear a pin drop. I said to the Holy Spirit Give me the words to say and he did. So I say calmly and reassuringly “He doesn’t see all those mistakes. He look at you with love. God takes you as you are and wipes your slate clean. God loves you so much. He loves you! As I point to Mitch’s heart again.
“I like my power! This village, they fear me. I walk with the devil. He gives me power you could never imagine. I’ve raised people from the dead too. Show ME proof that your Jesus is more powerful than me.
The room went silent once again. At that point I was thinking God, Holy Spirit you are going to have to move through me in this skit to answer this question. Right after I asked for help from the Holy Spirit and God. I hear…
“Alright, and we’re going to have to call that good…” the leader in the back called out.
We started to sit down and people started to ask “Where did that come from? What was that all about?”
We started explaining that Mitch did not tell us what he was going to do, it was all improv.” A lot of people were still shocked and wondering if that just happened.
As I sat down I had a realization. All year I have asked God to help me be bold and use my words but I have not declared it over my life in front of people. When I said “God has Given me a voice and i am not afraid of you. Because God has given me power over fear and I will not be shaken.” In that moment I did just that, I reclaimed my voice and power over fear. I was grinning ear to ear. I found my voice! I found that I love speaking into people who feel like they are unworthy to be loved by anyone including God. But they are loved so much, I just want the love I have from God to overflow onto them.
Life is hard and some people let the world harden them against the love of God. You’re not always going to have a happy ending when sharing the gospel because you are talking to broken people that are just trying to keep all their pieces together with what little they have. Our Job as believers is to speak love and truth into the people we talk with. We are not the ones who save people, Jesus is. By speaking truth and life we can help create a space of love in the person’s life for God to work in. Once they realize that GOD is the glue that holds us together, they can be broken and not alone because God loves and holds us together. That does not mean that life will be easy, it means that we don’t have to go through it alone. We have a beautiful father who knows what is best for us, even if that means going through some very hard things in life. He is preparing us for things to come.
If you were in a similar situation, what would you do? Would you stand up and speak life into someone or would you stay silent. I challenge you to think about this.
What would you do?
I want to thank everyone who reads my blog and supports me. It really means a lot. I am sorry that it has taken me so long to get this post out, life just caught up with me. I hope this blog made you think about what you would do. I want to thank you again for reading.
With Love,
Lydia Strickland
