Stepping Out (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and thank you for the opportunity to come to you and spend a few moments in the word of God and in prayer. This week, I'm just sharing stories from my life, from the early days with the intent that these little anecdotes would be of encouragement to you and inspire you in your walk with God. One of the things that happened in those early days in the year 1982, when I was just about a 13-year-old boy, was I just stepped out in faith wanting to serve God. I remember, in that year, one of the first things that I did, a major thing, as a believer, of course, you know, I began to pray read my bible, spend time with God praying in tongues. One of those things I did was, it happened actually one Sunday when I was in the Methodist church and one evening in the service I was stirred, so I went out of the service and I went into the hall nearby and I was just praying by myself and I felt really impressed by God to ask the pastor of the church if he could give me 10 minutes in the morning service and 10 minutes in the evening service to speak to the congregation. Now, I'm not recommending that you do the same thing. I'm just sharing what happened in my life. So, I went to the pastor after the service. I said, ‘pastor, would you be able to give me 10 minutes to speak to the congregation in the morning service and 10 minutes in the evening service? So, he said he'll get back to me and so after a few weeks he came back, he said ‘okay, Ashish’. Of course, he did ask me what I was going to speak and I just said I'm just going to preach the gospel and I hadn't even read the new testament by that time yet. I was reading the New Testament, but I hadn't finished reading the New Testament, not even touched the old, so I don't know too much. But I was hungry for God. So, he fixed a Sunday, he said, I'll give you 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the evening. So that particular Sunday, I came prepared, I preached from Matthew the seventh chapter in the morning. Nothing happened, not even one person in the congregation moved, nobody responded to the salvation call. I was very discouraged, but I said, I have one more chance, I'll come back in the evening. Remember, I was a 13-year-old boy and all the people, most of them sitting were adults. I don't know what they thought of me, but in the evening, I came back again, preached the gospel, same message and then I gave a salvation call and I said, those who have responded to the call, please stay back after the service, I want to meet you. And to my surprise about 30 young people stayed back and these were students from a nearby school. They all stayed back and even I was surprised and immediately at that moment after I spent a few minutes talking to them, I said tomorrow, that is on Monday, I will come to your school to meet with all of you during the lunch break. And that's how my ministry among the youth, among students started, with these 30 young people. The next day when I went to their school during the lunch break, they were all waiting to hear more about the gospel and from then on from my 8th grade all the way to my 12th grade, I was with them almost every afternoon, sharing with them about Jesus Christ. So, a simple step of faith opened a door of ministry for four years. I never imagined that could happen. The Bible says in Psalm chapter 32, God says ‘I will instruct you and I will lead you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye.’ So, in simple ways when God guides us, we follow and doors of ministry open. Let’s pray, Father, we thank you that in simple promptings, great doors can swing open. I pray that you will prompt every person listening to step out boldly and to see things happen for the sake of your kingdom, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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