When you heat water in a kettle, you can always tell when it’s getting ready to boil. As the pressure builds, you begin to hear a bubbling noise before the whistle.
People are a lot like kettles. When they are going through a stressful time and the pressure is mounting, you can hear warning signs in their conversation. These warnings are like little God-opportunities landing on your lap. Do you see them as opportunities?
If someone tells you that their week isn’t going very well, that’s a chance for you to say, “Tell me all about it,” or “Hey, let’s go for coffee this week.” Although these opportunities rarely happen at convenient times, I’ve found that there’s nothing more rewarding than being there for someone who needs a bit of encouragement.
Christians often talk about being “called to the ministry” or being “used by God.” I think we overcomplicate things. When you really think about it, God wants to use each and every one of us in our everyday lives. In fact, he’s counting on us to shine a light of hope for people when their situation feels hopeless.
Being used by God isn’t necessarily about moving to Timbuktu to be a missionary. It’s about keeping your eyes open to the opportunities around you every day. In fact, I’ll bet God has already been leading you to “minister to others” without you even being aware of it, because he tends to do it in such a normal, natural way.
God often leads us to the people he wants us to help simply by drawing our attention to them. When you’re walking through a grocery store or into a coffee shop, someone in particular might stand out to you for some reason. Maybe all you need to do is pray a silent prayer for that person and move on, or maybe you can look for a normal, natural way to start up a conversation.
Being used by God can be as simple as just chatting with someone who looks a little down for a few minutes. You just never know what kind of impact you might make just by being willing to start up a conversation.
This normal and natural yet Spirit-led kind of approach is what I like to call Spirit Contemporary. It’s about learning how to let God lead us and empower us to be the difference in this world, and it’s about discovering how to do it in a way that genuinely accepts people where they are.
For the majority of Christians, this is exactly how they want to live out their faith. Unfortunately, it’s the minority that gets all the press—the extremists who give Christianity a bad name. If you’re a Christian who’s tired of having to apologize for your faith, then this concept is for you. Not only will it change your life, but through it, you can help to completely transform the way the rest of the world looks at Christians.
Spirit Contemporary is not about putting a new face on Christianity; it’s about getting back to the basics of what Christianity was always meant to be!
Leon Fontaine is the author of The Spirit Contemporary Life: Unleashing the Miraculous in Your Everyday World (to be released June 21, 2016). Preorder your copy today!
Are you tired of the way Christianity has represented over the years? Comment below…I’d love to hear what you think!