From the desk of Steve Shultz:
I know many saints are "believing for" and "waiting" for their prayers to be answered concerning the salvation of friends and family. The testimonies of loved ones coming to the Lord are the best...and I never get tired of hearing them.
This word by Bill Yount will greatly encourage you to keep praying for the unsaved and for your city and nation. I always enjoy reading Bill's own personal stories too, which he fits right into the subject. He sure shares some good ones!
Be blessed and enjoy.
Bill Yount:
"Your Unsaved Children, City and Nation Are Now Waiting in the 'LOST AND FOUND' Department... Come and Get Them!"
2 Peter 3:9 ...(God) is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Isaiah 40:9 Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"
I remember when I was a little boy and my mother would take me shopping with her. Time and again, I would keep getting lost from her in big department stores. Many times someone in the store would find me and take me to the customer service desk, where the "lost and found" department was, and they would call out over the intercom that they have found a little, lost boy. My mother quickly would come and get me. After a while she knew where she could find me if I got lost.
I sense in the Spirit that many have thought that their children, city and nation are surely lost with no hope. Your children, city, and nation may be lost, but they are now waiting to be found. God is calling out to us to come and reach out to embrace them and receive them, because they belong to Him and it's time for all who are lost to be found by us. And if we don't, we will lose them through utter neglect.
The ball is in our court now. Our response is vital. We must reach out now as they are beginning to call on us for help in many ways. It may appear at first that they are wanting us to come their way to help their personal agendas and selfish goals, but as we are stretched in practical and creative ways to reach out beyond our comfort zone, the common ground of practical helping will lead to supernatural happenings throughout our nation and in the lives of many people!
Where Did We Ever Get the Notion that People Shouldn't Like Us?
Luke 2:52 And Jesus grew...in favor with God and men.
Acts 17:6 ...These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
Somehow we have gotten the notion that the world shouldn't like us. And if we think that way, they won't! But people liked Jesus! It was the religious people of His day that hated Him. The religious rulers were intensely jealous of Jesus' popularity. So many multitudes followed Him that they feared that their whole nation might turn to Him!
Jesus said, "If I be lifted up...I will draw all men unto Me." We should be growing in favor with God and with man. People should like us! Of course we don't partake of the sin the lost do, but we love them in spite of their sin.
Has anyone reading this message lived a perfect life this past week, or did you fall short of the glory of God? Be encouraged, you are not alone. I don't know of any saint who doesn't struggle against sin. If they say they don't, they are struggling with lying or have given up the fight.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
I believe our struggle against sin as Christians helps us to relate to and to have mercy on the lost.
How far did Jesus allow the lost to stretch Him into their world, to touch them? Jesus was constantly blowing the minds of His disciples as He kept stretching them in showing love to people. I believe the disciples often thought that Jesus was going too far in reaching out to the lost. They were right. In every case He was found guilty of love in the first degree, in loving people and reaching out "too far"! Even when crucified, His arms were nailed wide open!
"Don't Do that 'Wine' Thing!"
1. The wedding feast at Cana (John 2:1). Looking back, I wonder how many of us may have wanted to advise Jesus, "No, not this! Don't do that wine thing! Don't change that water into wine! Down through generations people will wonder and argue if that stuff was real wine or partially fermented grape juice, or just water that looked and tasted like wine! This could even mess them up taking communion! Jesus, please don't do it!"
I can picture Jesus, "Fill the water pots up with water and let's see what the Father has in mind. Let's see how far He wants to go with this celebration. Yep, it sure looks like it's the real stuff, and they are really having a great time!" I personally believe the Father was giving them a taste of the best wine on earth as a foretaste of a still better wine coming soon with the Holy Spirit, about to be poured out on the day of Pentecost:
Acts 2:15 For these are not drunken as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
Ephesians 5:18 Be not drunk with wine...but be filled with the Spirit!
Yes, He was found guilty of love in the first degree of going too far from the very first miracle!
2. The woman who was a sinner was washing Jesus' feet with her tears and drying them with the hairs of her head (Luke 7:37-39).
Can you picture the Pharisee who invited Jesus to dinner thinking within himself: "This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him; for she is a sinner" (Luke 7:39). Jesus says to him, "Hey, Simon, you know what? You didn't wash My feet or kiss Me. You have never done to Me what this woman is doing. To whom much is forgiven the same loveth much!" (Luke 7:44, paraphrased). Again, Jesus was guilty of going "too far" to reach the lost.
Our Unsaved Children, City and Nation will Bring Out the Best in Us!
A religious Spirit will accuse us and try to convince us that "that doesn't look holy, and what will people think and say if you reach out that far to the lost?" Of course, we must pray for discernment, but when you hear the cries of people dying and going to hell, you reach into the fire if need be. You cross the line into their habitations to be the life-line in their lives. Jude 1:22-23 says, "And of some having compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh."
We must remember that our main goal is to become a "friend" to the lost. Jesus was a friend to sinners. He became their friend in order that they could be found! How many sinner friends do you hang out with?
Our sphere of influence in the world will depend on how far Jesus can stretch through us to reach the lost.
Jesus Always Shakes the Economy on Earth When He Wants to Bring in a Great Harvest!
Jesus calls His disciples to leave the security of their fishing business, shaking their economy: "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men!" Jesus shakes their economy to stretch their faith in Him to supply their every need. Jesus Himself had nowhere to lay His head: "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has no place to lay His head" (Luke 9:58), yet He lacked nothing in His life on earth. He told His disciples to take nothing for their journey. And the disciples lacked nothing either! Why? Because they were about the Father's business of winning the lost.
When you see the economy being shaken, know that you are about to be stretched in order to meet the lack in people's lives.
Jesus reveals Himself through lack more than He does through abundance! Jesus uses a little boy's bag lunch to cater a fish fry for five thousand people! One disciple thought, "Five loaves and two fishes, what is that among so many?" The five thousand hungry men and women and children were being used to stretch the disciple's thoughts on limitations...with twelve baskets leftover!
As our city and nation continues to take a pounding by the economy, know that this is a set-up for us to be stretched by their needs for help.
The Coming Storms of Darkness Will Cause People to Pull the "Living" Daylights Out of Us!
Jesus allowed a raging storm at sea to pound on the disciples' ship to build their faith. Why? Because on the other side of the sea they were going to be confronted and stretched by a man who was possessed with a legion of demons. Their faith needed to go deeper in order to be stretched by this man to deliver him! But what made the disciples afraid at sea put Jesus to sleep!
Even the storm didn't wake Jesus up, the disciples did! Jesus was showing them, by His example of resting in His Father's love for Him in the storm, and even falling asleep in the Father's presence...this is what gives you power over the enemy! His rest came from believing the Father's prophetic word to them: "We are going over to the other side!"
Even in the Natural, Resting Comes Before the Stretching!
Have you noticed that when you wake up from a good night's rest, that it is natural and refreshing to want to stretch your arms out wide as far as you can?
Resting in the Father's love for you will cause you to want to stretch out as far as you can to reach your unsaved children, city and nation. As you rest in His love for you, it dawns on you, "If God saved me, He can save anybody!"
Maybe you need a good nap, and then stretch out your arms as far as you can toward your unsaved child, city and nation. Maybe what they need is a good hug!
Romans 2:4 "The goodness of God leads (men) to repentance."
Bill Yount
Blowing the Shofar Ministries
Email: theshofarhasblown@juno.com
