Never despise the days of small beginnings

Felt something bubbling up inside of me. I started writing, and decided to share it. Hope you enjoy it. :)

If you want to climb a tree you have to start at the bottom. If somebody would just lift you up to the top, you would not know how to climb and you’d be in deep trouble. Yet when you start climbing you can’t be good at it at once. You may lose the grip and get some scratches, but as long as you keep climbing you’ll keep going up all the time.

 When I got born again in the summer of -08, I thought everybody would be happy and ready to spread the Gospel with me. I was surprised to notice it’s not that way. Some people from the church even told me to calm down. Yet I was pushing on. In school I started a prayer group, but very often I was there alone. That does not mean I wouldn’t have prayed, doesn’t matter who was or wasn’t there. The teachers didn’t always like it. I also made myself a t-shirt that said “I’m a Jesus people”,and people really made fun of me in that t-shirt. A lady from church said it’s bad to wear such a shirt, “you’ll never melt in”. I thought I was supposed to be separated (2 Cor 6:17), not be like everybody else?

 By the grace of God I kept pressing on. I organized prayer meetings for the youth, sometimes they came but sometimes I was alone. I started going to the hospital sharing with the old people, most of the time alone. One time we had prepared everything and were supposed to go with a big team, and I had even printed out the lyrics to worship songs so that we could sing. When the day came nobody was there, so I did it alone. Me, my guitar and Jesus – we had a good time that day with the patients! One of the older men was listening really eagerly, while two women were chitchatting next to him. After a while this man got stressed and shouted: “Somebody should push a bread in your mouth so that you could shut up!” (doesn’t sound as funny as it did in Swedish…)

  Last year the Lord spoke to me a lot about my hometown, and I arranged for a meeting for all the pastors because I knew we needed to pray together from all denominations. Nobody showed up. Why would they? I was just 18 by the time. But they should not have focused on me but heard the voice behind the voice. On my nineteenth birthday I was sharing in a youth gathering in a place called Nedervetil. It’s not a cool place, definitely not where you’d like to spend your 19^th birthday – but I obeyed.  I was supposed to go with a group, and I thank God one of my friends joined me that day!

 What’s the purpose of this status? To boast? Definitely not. I just want to show you that you should never despise the days of small beginnings  – not your own or anybody else’s. If I wouldn’t have obeyed the Lord in those small things, how could He ever have called me to Kenya? If I didn’t know the pain of doing those things alone, how could He ever have put me in the pulpit before a big congregation? No, we need to be faithful in the small things. Faithfulness in little brings more, and faithfulness in somebody else’s brings your own (Luke 16: 10-12). If I would have said “ Okay, nobody came so there’s no need for me to sit here and pray alone”, then I would have been doing it all for men. Never do anything out of selfish ambition – seek to please the Lord, not men. If I wouldn’t have obeyed the Lord by going to those senior homes, the hospital and small places like Nedervetil and Lohtaja, how could He ever have taken me to the bush in Africa? And if I hadn’t come to Kenya, how could He have prepared me for the work that is waiting in Finland? No, if you want to go up, you have to be ready to start at the bottom. Then when God promotes you to a new level, you need to be ready to be a “baby” at that level, you can’t become the best at that level at once. It takes time. 

 I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna keep climbing.  I’m gonna keep climbing higher and higher, seeing the purposes of God for my life being fulfilled. It isn’t easy, and it’s not comfortable, but you’ll never walk on the waters if you don’t step out of the boat. And you know what? Some people say gold or diamond mines are the places  on earth where you find  the biggest concentration of riches. That’s not true. You find the biggest riches at the graveyard: dreams and visions that were never fulfilled, books never written and songs never sung. People who took all that with them to the grave. So much potential  wasted. Well you know what? I’m going to the grave EMPTY. I’m not gonna leave a single vision behind me, a single dream unfulfilled.  No one is going to need to come to my grave and say “ I wish he had had the courage to try”. No, I’m gonna try, and man I’m gonna  succeed! Not by might, not by power but by the Spirit of the living God! (Zech 4:6)

  God has taken me this far. He has brought me from preaching alone in the senior homes to the bush of Africa, fighting demons I never knew even existed. If He who is Faithful has brought me this far, then why wouldn’t He bring to completion the good work He has started in me? (Phil 1:6). He is Ebenezer! (1 Sam 7:12) 

  Do you have a God-given dream, a vision? I hope you know God created and saved you with a purpose? (Eph 2:10) I hope you can make up your mind to achieve that dream, no matter the obstacles coming against you. Even e tree has branches, but they’re not there to stop you from climbing, they’re there to make it easier. You just have to use them to your advantage! NEVER give up, and NEVER let anybody say “that’s never gonna happen”. Never let anybody write you out, because there is resurrection power!!! People thought the story of Jesus was over and done with when He was put into the grave – but three days later He rose from the dead to change the world! You have that same resurrection power! (Rom 8:11) Keep working, keep pressing on. There is a reward at the end!