One of my fondest memories growing up was going bass fishing with my father. I can remember getting so excited that I couldn’t even sleep the night before. I am 68 years old now and I still love to bass fish and I still get excited about it. I have caught a lot of big bass over the years but the really big ones (over 10 pounds) are few and far between. In the bass fishing world anything over 10 pounds falls into the lunker, donkey, hog or just plain miracle territory. I was reflecting on that with my best fishing buddy the other day and I said to him that it appears to me that lately I catch more big bass by accident than I do on purpose. For example, I recently caught an 11 pounder while my spinner bait was hung on and dangling in the water over a bush branch. A few weeks later I caught a 7 pounder reeling my bait in at top speed trying to get out of the way of my fishing buddy that was fighting a bass of his own. What’s up with that? Well, I started thinking about it and the Lord brought a few ministry situations back to my memory that were very similar in nature metaphorically.
We recently had a major business meeting in Florida where we serve as Chaplains for The Healthy Home Company. We had invited a woman minister friend of ours (Lisa Mitts) to come and lead worship for the Sunday morning service. On Saturday, during a break of the business meeting, she set up her keyboard and was practicing with two other invited musicians. These three had never played together before. My wife and I were in the next room setting up our book table and several other people were sitting in a separate speaker’s room just behind our table. Well, as these three musicians started practicing the presence and power of God came into that place and my wife and I started to weep. I told my wife I could not work any longer. It was that strong! We found out later that one of the guests that was sitting in the speaker’s room was affected so strongly that she rededicated her life to the Lord right there. It was a bass lure hanging over a branch and a big one grabbed it.
Here is the point. They (musicians) showed up, and God showed up. This was not a full blown concert with lights, sound and musicians that had played together for years.This was a practice session, and God came to listen. Honduras was no different. We just needed to show up and look what happened. Two thirds of God’s name is GO!
Just recently I had a neighbor, who I do not know very well at all, knock on my front door unexpectedly and he was visibly upset and shaking. He told me that he had to go before a judge that very day related to a custody hearing for his two sons. I wont go into all the details but he was very distraught and desperately needed someone to pray with him about this situation. We prayed together on the front porch and asked God for His favor in this situation. Later that same day my neighbor came back and his countenance had completely changed. He related to me that the judge had ruled in his favor and a great weight had been lifted. An unexpected knock at the door, a front porch prayer, and another big one caught by accident.
Several years ago my wife Cheryl and I were ministering in a women’s prison in Memphis TN. A real nice Hindu lady from India was responsible for inviting people in to talk to the women and she had called and asked us to come. We have no clue how she got our names. We went a couple of times and spoke to the women inmates in the prison chapel and this Hindu lady would sit on the front row and cry through each service. On the second time that we went this same lady stopped us in the hall outside the chapel after the service and asked to speak to us. She told us that her doctors had told her she had a disease in her eyes that would soon render her blind and she wanted us to pray with her. We prayed for her in the prison hallway as we were leaving and did not think anything else about it. We were back in that prison several months later and this same Hindu lady came up to us and wanted to talk. She was noticeably excited and happy and she told us she had been back to those same doctors and they said they could not find any trace of her eye disease. She was really happy!! Thank you Jesus!!!
Listen, this did not happen in a prayer line, at a powerful anointing service, or in a big crusade. We did not feel extra Holy or get a special word from God. We were just there and we were just obedient to do the Word (lay hands on the sick and pray). It was a bass lure hanging over a branch and a big one grabbed it. One plants, one waters, but it is God that causes the increase, and sometimes that increase is in times you least expect it. And then sometimes God will work in large crusades like the one pictured above that we were recently a part of in Honduras. That is why you need to be ready at all times (in season and out) and don’t be afraid or ashamed to pray for people. Don’t just say you are going to pray for them, pray for them right there!
A devotional in “My Utmost for His Highest” puts it like this:
“The greatest hindrance in our spiritual life is that we will only look for big things to do. Yet, Jesus…. took a towel…. and began to wash the disciples feet…..” (John 13:3-5). We must realize that our obedience even in the smallest detail of life has all the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. If we will do our duty, not for duty’s sake but because we believe God is engineering our circumstances, then at the very point of our obedience all of the magnificent grace of God is ours through the glorious atonement by the Cross of Christ.
Joyce Meyer Ministries has faithfully supported this ministry each month for over 15 years and Shelly Meyer, who is the International Relations Officer for “Hand of Hope” (Joyce Meyer’s mission outreach program), writes us each month with a letter of encouragement. This last month Shelly dealt with this same subject and this is how she phrased it:
“With the purest intentions, we all endeavor to do great exploits for God; however, in our pursuit of those, we must never overlook the significance in the ordinary details of life. We must intentionally live every moment–whether grandiose or small, thrilling or mundane–in the grace, power and presence of the Lord”.
Just remember, you are someone’s miracle just waiting to happen (Home2Home, Heart2Heart).
It is the little things that sometimes mean the most. You may be the only Jesus that some people ever see or touch so just be aware that God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and He will use you and me in the most unusual situations to do great things if we will only be obedient to go and to do. You and I are Alive2Love so GO, catch a big one, even if it is by accident.
In His Service,
Rev. Ed & Cheryl Henderson,
