A Rewarding Time in the Presence of God!
For the past two weeks now, we have had a rewarding life each day in the presence of God, although, when I (Dixon) was in college, I had a habit of waking-up each morning to study before beginning my classes for the day. When I came out of college and my wife and I got married, this habit of waking-up early morning slowed down. However, when we became missionaries and now that we have finally been approved as missionaries to Tanzania, I asked God to help me continue this habit of waking-up early to study His word and asked Him to give me a message each morning that will help us as a family live out our Christian lives each day. Not just that, but to come into His presence to intercede as a family for our ministries, our families in Nigeria and Liberia and for friends all over the World. Also, to bring Christians and nations before the Throne of God, that have not had the opportunity to live out their Christian faith as we have, both in some parts of Africa and the Western World.
One thing my wife and I agreed on as a family is that, if we are to lead people to Christ, we must first of all live the Christian life so that people can see us an know that we are different. Our lives should be a gospel that people can read before having the opportunity to read the Bible and hear the Good News of Christ we will present to them.
The first night of my commitment to wake up early in the morning was a challenged for me. I wanted to start with a few days commitment before my wife can joined. I had to fight sleep the first morning but before that I asked God that night before going to bed to help me wake up and commune with Him at exactly 2am in the morning. Was my prayer answered? Yes it was! The Lord woke me up at exactly 1:45am, which was 15mins early. When this happened, I knew that God was ready to commune with me as an individual and as family.
I started the first night to read the gospel of Luke, which I believe is a detailed historical account of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. This for me was a good place to start, since Luke gospel was not just a gospel to the Jews but particularly for the Gentiles nations. Like Theophilus, I believe Luke is not writing to me as a new believer is Christ, but as a person who is eager to know more about the “certainty of the things I will teach” as a disciple of Christ. To understand the life of Christ as recorded in Luke’s gospel, I told myself, I will have to read five (5) chapters each morning and digest it and learn something about the life of Christ that will order my steps each day. Not just that, but I should have a message for someone who will called on me in their moment of need. Did God answer this prayer? Yes He did! After an hour prayer the first morning, I received a phone called around 4pm that same day from a friend who had just gone to the United States to be united with his wife and two boys. This is how my friend started our conversation that evening, “Man of God I need you to pray for me, I can’t take this any longer”. After listening quietly to his complains, I just told him, let commit it to God in prayers, which was something that calms him down. After complaining, he thought that as a man of God he knows me to be, I would have just given him the solution to his problem, but at that moment I heard God telling me to just bring it to Him and He will handle the problem and not me. Although, my friend is considering divorce as a way out of the marital challenges he is facing, but I still believe that God can still reconcile the both of them. Since we had this conversation, I have not stopped praying for him and his wife every morning.
Since my conversation with my friend, I have asked God to help me be an intercessor for those that are facing challenges in their marriages and families. After three (3) days into my early morning prayers, a friend of my in our church came up to me during the service when we were praying and having a time of confessions before the Holy Communion, that God has asked him to let me be the God-parent to their first son born to them in June of this year and who was going to be baptized the following Sunday being the second Sunday in July. This was very shocking to me because, since I became a Christian, I have never been a God parent or a spiritual father to anyone. This was another sign that God was preparing me for the ministry He has called me to here on earth. Since then, I have taken it as a responsibility to pray for this child as long as I live, and for little children and all infants. I could go on to say how rewarding our time with God has been every morning, but space and time will not allow me do so.
Since I started this journey with God every morning, the rewarding aspect of it all is that my wife joined me after just four days into the journey. Every morning we pray together as a family for our various ministries and gifts. We both have seen great improvements in our spiritual lives and the way we relate to people that are going through challenges and how every day I received calls and emails on social medias asking me to either pray for them or help them in one areas of their lives or another.
We tell ourselves each day that we must be the kind of people that God wants us to be. If we must go to Tanzania, we must be the kind of people that will propagate the kingdom of God here on earth.
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