God willing, we will be putting some audio messages up on this page soon.
Failing successfully
The LORD says, "Here is my servant, whom I strengthen--- the one I have chosen, with whom I am pleased. I have filled him with my Spirit, and he will bring justice to every nation.
He will not shout or raise his voice or make loud speeches in the streets.
He will not break off a bent reed nor put out a flickering lamp. He will bring lasting justice to all.
He will not lose hope or courage; he will establish justice on the earth. Distant lands eagerly wait for his teaching." (Isa 42:1 - 4)
While I was living with Don Double in Cornwall, I felt led to pray for open doors to evangelise. For some reason I was filled with a desire to preach in a pub and a Catholic Church. Not sure why but anyway, that’s how I felt I should pray.
I got to preach in a pub nearly immediately but I had to wait a bit longer to preach in the Catholic Church. It was during a trip to Pakistan. I was working with Baba Divan. Baba Divan always reminded me of Moses, he sported a long flowing white beard and was well over 80 years of age but as fit as a fiddle. He used to cycle about 14 miles a day and preached all over the country right up to the day he died.
This particular meeting was to be in a Catholic Church in the Punjab, right near the Indian border. When I was preaching everything seemed to be going well. Folk were a little restless but that was normal, I mean it was about 40 degrees centigrade and there was no air con! At the appeal a lot of folk responded and seemed very genuine about it. I thought, great, let’s really go for it. I talked about the baptism in the Holy Spirit as well. They started leaving in droves, it was all too much, the folk in this tiny, remote village had never heard teaching about this before. I thought I should make an appeal for the baptism in the Spirit while I still had a congregation.
One man and one woman responded, they prayed and both started speaking in tongues.
A couple of weeks later I got a call from Baba Divan. He wanted to see me. On arrival he shared very excitedly about what had happened. Following the meeting the villagers were so touched by the change in the two that got baptised in the Spirit that they went to them and asked for prayer. A real move of God had followed and most of the village had been baptised in the Holy Spirit and were prophesying and speaking in tongues.
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Don’t worry when it seems like things are going wrong. It’s OK, don’t stress. You do your part, let God do His. God is an expert at turning situations around. The passage above from Isaiah, in referring to Christ says that ‘He will not lose hope or courage..’ I love that. Jesus was a man of courage, He didn’t allow setbacks to get to Him, He was focused and resolute.
Space doesn’t permit me to talk about all the mistakes I’ve learned from. See your mistakes as a natural part of development and learn from them. I mean you don’t think a baby isn’t meant to walk because he or she falls over a few times do you? It’s normal. Ministry is much the same. It’s a skill that has to be learned. You get better at it. You learn what’s natural to you and what isn’t, trial and error are involved. Only small minded people criticise or put down those that are stepping out and get it wrong. Keep going forward.
God often uses apparent failure to birth His biggest success stories anyway. Look at the cross. It didn’t look like a success at the time. It seemed as if the devil had the upper hand. An empty tomb put that right.
Winston Churchill once said that ‘success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.’
Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb said, “I failed my way to success”.
Sometimes bearing an embarrassing setback with a grin and no apparent loss of drive can be a testimony in itself. It’s not circumstantial success that counts, it’s an inner attitude that says, ‘I’m not quitting. I’m going to keep believing and keep trying’. I’d call that being a success wouldn’t you?