How to make yourself a candidate for God to use YOU.

Tom Brock

Many times in our walk we have the desire but we don't discipline ourselves to take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to God's word. This is the difference in seeing and missing an experience with God. We will make a thousand and one excuses why we can't or shouldn't do something. We will rationalize and explain away what we have felt and then come up with some noble excuse why we didn't obey; the results being, a mediocre life in the Kingdom.

When I look back at my life, and the times I stepped out because I thought I heard the Lord say come, those are the times that now fill my life with testimonies of God's faithfulness. What about the time's when we are wrong? What then? Well, what then? Let's look at what the Lords response to a mistake is. In part 1 of 'The Yes Factor', we left Peter walking towards the Lord on water. Things are going great. But then something happens. The scripture says that Peter, looking at the wind began to doubt and began to sink. Look at this, look at his thinking. Here he is walking on water and then he sees that the water is choppy and the wind is blowing and he says to himself. "Oh no, its windy out here, I have a heck of a time walking on water when it's windy" Now he begins to sink and he cries out to the Lord and says, "Lord save me!" What was the Lords response? He walked over to Peter, reached down and grabbed him by the hair and dunked him under the water three times and said, "Peter, you fool of a man, you really let me down, shame on you, now swim back to shore." Then he called out to the boat and said "who's next?" Is that what he did? No! He reached out and lifted him up and said "oh Peter you were doing so well, why did you doubt? Now you're all wet, come on".

Man what a break, you see even if we fail, God has mercy on us. His goal is to see us come to a full understanding of his presence and power in our lives; to go beyond the norm and move into a true touch. With that kind of encouragement how can we not step out?

I have made some pretty good mistakes. When I was younger I would open my mouth and insert my foot on a regular basis. One time I spoke over a friend of mine who was expecting a baby I felt that I heard that she was going to have a boy so I told her, later when her daughter was born, there wasn't much to say. That was intimidating and made me fearful to speak out. But the Lord continually showed me things and with much prayer and travail his words began to come out and things happened and people were set free.

One time I was on my way home from a ministry trip. It had been a long two weeks and I had spoken over twenty times and I was ready to get home; When I got on the plane there was only a couple of things on my mind; what was the movie and I hope nobody sits next to me so I can spread out. They closed the doors and started to pull away, the seat next to me was empty! Then they stopped and pulled back to the gate. One of the ground crew boarded and spoke to a couple of pilots sitting across from me. Shortly after they gathered their stuff and got off the plane. Then a young family came on board; a man and his wife and a small child. The woman and the child sat where the pilots were sitting and he came over and sat right next to me.

I couldn't believe it! They never do that! Lord this is unfair! How come you let this happen? Then I heard the Lord speak, "Be quiet! I have something to say to this man and I want you to tell him. This is his day of salvation and you are going to lead him to me." He went on and shared with me about this mans life. That he had had many near death experiences and in fact had just walked away from one and the Lord wanted him to know that now was the time to come to him.

I was thinking, all right how do I share this one? They pushed back the plane again and he turned to me and said 'don't know why they waited so long to let us on the plane?" I said to him we were already gone and they brought the plane back, and asked two pilots to get off so you could get on. Really he replied, I am a pilot too, I asked if he was on stand-by he said no and could not understand what was happening. I said to him well maybe God was watching out for him, and he quickly replied I think your right. I have just recently had an experience. He went on and shard with me that just a month before he was the second in command of a flight that crashed out of Stockholm. I told him that I was also a pilot and he shared with me the story of the crash. It was really something to hear. It took them over nine minutes to go down. But when they finally did hit no one was killed and the two main injuries were a woman who hurt her back and he had split his head open. I told him that my wife had shown me the picture in the paper and that I saw the plane in three pieces, and I had told her that either someone on that plane was on their way to do something for God or the pilot was born again. When I said that he said he thought he was. He went on to share with me that after the crash he got out of the plane and when he looked back he saw all the twinkling lights hovering around the craft and thought it might have been some type of "good karma" that he had heard about. I thought then, this is a good time to jump in with both feet. I shared with him what the Lord had told me when he sat down. Then I took a step of faith and shared with him about two incidents in his life where his life had been spared and others had not. The reason being was that to day is his day of salvation. He looked at me like I was from Mars. Then he said, I don't know what to say to you but what you just said is true. What should I do? I took the next few minutes to share with him about the Lord.

Just about then they brought our meal so I told him to think on it for a while. After dinner I asked him if he had been thinking and he responded that that's all I can think about. I asked then if he wanted to meet the Lord, and he said yes. So we took hands and prayed, after that with tears in his eyes he said I really felt that, Jesus has come into my life. I gave him some basic instructions to move forward with and he shared with me the reason for his trip. The airlines had given him sometime to help his family. His wife and five-year-old son had seen the crash on television and she thought after see the plane that he was surly dead. When she began to cry the little boy began to cry and explain it wasn't his fault. Now every night he would have night terror and his wife was close to a break down. I then shared with him how to minister to his son and how to lead his wife to the Lord. As we touched down he said to me, tonight when we get to the hotel I will lead my wife to Jesus. Then we will pray deliverance over our boy, thank you for sharing with me this message of life. We shook hands and said goodbye.

Whoa what an experience, God you are amazing, you planned that just right. Thank you for letting me be part of that story in the Kingdom. You are mighty. I am amazed that you can use me in spite of my fears and my selfishness you still lift me up and say lets walk back to the boat together.

There is a lot more to share about this yes factor but for now let's remember this, that the Lord wants to release each and every one of us to a full relationship with him. It is not just a chosen few it is anyone who will respond to his call.

What I find sad in the story of Peter on the water is not the fact that he sank but that the others never stepped out. Look at this, here is the opportunity of a lifetime. There was no reason that all of them couldn't have come to Jesus. Wouldn't it be great if the story would have read something like this? So they cried out to the Lord and said Lord if that is you, bid us all to come to you and Jesus answered come. And all of them stepped out of the boat and walked to Jesus on the water and they all then walked to shore and the boat was lost at sea. That would have been a better story, I think. But they didn't and the opportunity was lost. I don't know if they ever got to try it again. And I wonder how many times we have had opportunities come to us that we have reasoned away and missed the chance of a lifetime, to see the Lord make himself famous in our lives.

Oh Lord forgive us and heal us from our fears, allow us to come to a place of confidence with you that when you speak we respond and when you call we answer with our obedience. Come Lord and take your place in my life