Obedience and Fruitfulness: The Story of the Events

// Obedience to God in the details leads to fruitfulness in the big things. //

I am so humbled by the faithfulness of Jesus! I just returned from an incredible two months spent in the Middle East, and wanted to share a few of the sweets things that Jesus has done!

By God’s grace, we ran an evangelistic event every Thursday night the last three weeks of our outreach in the Arab Gulf. 

The first week I sat down with two other leaders to plan it, and we started collaborating. Within 30-45 minutes, we had an incredible plan for an event that was super artsy, creative, strategic, and also bold in proclaiming the Gospel. It seemed perfect! But then it was as if Jesus walked up to our table... “Did you even ask me where to start with this event?” We were immediately humbled to realize that we had planned the entire event without first seeking his direction, wisdom, and strategy! As we began to seek him, he asked us to start with the HEART of the event - not just the practicality of how it was going to work. He brought to our mind a progression of Psalms that began with the idea of our labor being in vain unless God is in it - and led us through waiting upon the Lord, calming and quieting our soul, worshipping him in unity, blessing him, proclaiming what he has done, and again back to relying on Him alone and clinging to Him! At the heart of it, the event was not to be about him for people but about him and FOR Him. 

This changed everything! Once we had the heart of the event right, it was easy to work with him to fill in all the practical details of the planning because we knew what it all was FOR - Jesus alone. From this place, he gave us more and more specifics about ideas, plans, and strategies for how to engage the community, churches, and even our teams. 

Looking back, that was such a significant moment in my life. It started a process of even more intentionally leaning into the Lord to hear his voice even in the small details of where to start, the focus of things, and even down to how events were to be run, who was to share, where we were to go, etc. This has begun to define my life in a crazy way and has brought an incredible freedom that I would never have fathomed without it! Much of what we did on this trip was risky. But as we listened to the Lord and were obedient, it brought an incredible sense of security unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I wasn’t afraid; I knew that if anything went south, I didn’t have to worry because I had done everything just as he told us. No longer was the outcome up to me! I had done my part; now it was up to him. 

And man, did He show up! We were awed by everything that happened and the way peoples’ lives were impacted by Jesus that night as we said yes to him. More stories to come!