Scripture of The Day
You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I appointed and placed and purposefully planted you, so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting, so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name [as My representative] He may give you. (John 15:16) AMP
The above verse means a lot to me because it holds the reason for sharing the Gospel. It means doing what Jesus did. Loving on people, leading them to the cross, laying hands on the sick, praying for others, sharing my testimony, preaching the Gospel, and any other thing the Holy Spirit tells me to do to cause others to come to know Jesus, His Word, and His ways.
Since 1990 New Life Network has been doing just that. With teams of people and sometimes with just Ed and I. Going into large business meetings, setting up a Christian book table and serving as Chaplains was what we did. That table was a point of contact for many to come and get prayer, get saved, get counseling, or whatever they needed for that moment.
One such time was in Dallas Texas in 2012. We were at the Hyatt Regency. It was late on a Saturday Night and we were putting away the book table in preparation for the Sunday Morning Church service. Some men in suits came and pulled Ed to the side and told him of a horrific event that had just occurred. A precious young man fell from one of the top floors to his death. The state Beta Club was also having a conference at the hotel. The men asked Ed and I to please come and do something. They had hundreds of crying teenagers and they did not know what to do.
We went to that room and spoke to those kids, prayed with them, held many of them in our arms and believed that what the devil meant for harm, God would somehow turn it to the good. This week I got a call from the mother of this precious young man. After 12 years this momma is ministering to other grieving mothers, and is getting ready to share her testimony of how God can turn things for His good and how this boy’s life was not in vain. To me this is fruit that remains. We believe that many young people gave their lives to Jesus as a result of what happened. We believe that this momma is helping countless other mothers who have lost children to allow the healing power of Jesus into their lives. Many other great things have come from this we will never know about. Ed wrote an article called a Divine Appointment that is so good and you can access it by going to our website, scrolling down to Archived Devotionals and typing in the search, Divine Appointment. I pray that we all are doing what Jesus did, bearing fruit that remains.
