Do You Really Believe?

A number of years ago the church I was working with at the time engaged the ministry of "Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames." Our Pastor said he felt God wanted to bring 1,000 people to the altars during this outreach. And when he spoke these words, something inside me said, "Yes!"

The outreach was announced and we began to promote it along with the idea that we would see 1,000 come to the altar. There was a lot of excitement to say the least! It was going to be great!

Little did we know that OVER 1,000 people would literally rush to the altars for prayer during this outreach.

The stories that came to us in the weeks that followed were amazing. We heard stories of deacons, treasurers, Sunday school teachers and other leaders within the Christian community who had come forward for prayer and to confess sin that had been part of their lives. It was a great awakening for our community. Many churches benefited from this time of outreach. But it almost didn't happen and here's why.

Two or three weeks prior to the outreach, after we had started announcing that we were believing for 1,000 people to come forward, I was awakened in the night and God began to speak to me. (Not in an audible voice but in that place that you know you know......you know, your knower.)

What God had to say changed my life. He said, "You really don't believe that 1,000 people are coming forward." Being a great man of God....I argued. "Yes I do believe that!" "We've announced it; started recruiting volunteers; put training together.....on and on. What do you mean I don't believe?"

The next thing communicated to me was, "Do you have enough materials to give to the altar workers and to those who come forward? And are you prepared for a larger than ever New Believer's class?"

So, when I got to the office after a few more sleepless hours I requested an inventory to be taken of these supplies. We didn't even have enough pens for our altar workers to use not to mention copies of the booklets, Gospels, forms, invites to the class.....etc. You get the picture. Our actions had not matched our words. We said we believed...........but we weren't prepared.

Later that morning we put an order in.....soon our inventories added up to MORE than 1,000 of each needed supply. In addition, we had to create a new storage space! Had to set up a new system to track what we used each night and how we processed the forms for follow-up, etc. It took some work on our part but finally our actions matched our words.

Our church grew; other churches grew; lives were changed and lives were challenged. But I have to admit, there are times when I think back to this great event and I shudder about what might have happened....or better yet, what might not have happened if God hadn't confronted me about my unbelief.

Faith is more than just saying the right things. Faith is putting action behind our words so that what we say matches what we do. And when we really believe....we'll make sure that we have everything in place, to the best of our abilities for God to do what He has promised.

There are a lot of applications that could be used here but perhaps none more important than these questions, "What is it that God has promised you but you aren't prepared for Him to do it?" "What do you need to do differently in order to be prepared?"

Do you really believe? Better get ready then.....this might have been what James was talking about when he said that faith without deeds........is dead. I want my faith to be alive! How about you?

Give it some thought.......I am......

Always in Pursuit!