I have shared some of my own experiences in former devotions I have written. My youngest son, Jeff Dahl, recently sent me an email that I would like to share with you. It is so important for all of us to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. The Lord wants to use all of us who know Him to reach out to others. May you be encouraged in the Lord as you read the following. Betty

Jeff begins his email by saying, Even when he is old he will not depart from it…….

Sometimes witnessing comes rather spontaneously for me. Two days ago, I had a customer drop by who needed the wheel of his motorcycle repaired as the sprocket bolts had all sheared off. When I first met this man June 4th of 2014, I immediately saw something about him that caused me to see that this was no ordinary man.

We discussed the job, decided what to do and the cost to fix it. Somehow he mentioned to me that he as a boy knew God but his parental figure had been less than a good example of Christ to him. This had caused much harm and doubt in him. Yet he heard the message as a boy. I asked him if he reads the Bible and he said “No”, but when he told me I said, “That is going to change”.

I immediately walked towards my office to get a gift Bible that I had in there. As we entered the office I suddenly felt a rush of God’s presence come all over me. I looked at him and I said to him, “Did you just feel God’s presence?” I could see that he visibly did feel what I did and was nearly in tears.

Suddenly I realized God had shown up! A huge boldness came over me and I told him I wanted to give him a Bible. I felt compelled to shake his hand, (a rather large hand on a rather large man of over 350 lbs.) and look him in the eye and tell him as a mountain of a man that God loved him. He told me there was a day that he would punch someone for saying such a thing to him!

God’s presence clearly shook this man and this gave me confidence to witness in the same way a boxer gains confidence when a cut forms over the eye of their opponent. It is probably frowned upon by someone to never mix business with witnessing, yet I cannot stop when I see an open door. This time was extra special I could see. I offered him the Bible and he said, “Well, when I pick up the wheel, I will decide then if I will take it or not.”

Needless to say, I came on VERY STRONG and to the point. I could see that it was a divine appointment and sensing God’s presence come all over me made all the difference from “trying to convince” vs. just exuberating God’s love onto another. I am finding that witnessing is one thing and being His witness is another entirely. It’s like the difference between talking to someone about where you work vs. discussing to someone how you love your wife.

When His presence enters the picture, then it becomes effortless and sharing the goodness of our God is generously given and graciously received. I am sure God’s presence is different for each person and how they perceive it. For me when I am in that place of perfect peace and the hull is trimmed out, it is as if there is no resistance and even sound changes in my senses. It’s like the difference between driving vs. flying.

I must say at times God’s presence causes this middle-aged machinist to mount up with wings of eagles. The fourth man in the fiery furnace stands right with us as we speak of His greatness. To me, there is nothing else in life that compares with this “presence rush”. The closest thing I can liken it to naturally is when I used to jump off Hayden Bridge into the McKenzie River.

God’s presence takes my breath away and gives me Hind’s feet to navigate what normally is utterly impossible. As I write this I am reminded that I actually crave God’s Holy Presence. Oh what I would give to see the Shekinah Glory Cloud that filled the Tabernacle of Moses and filled it to the point where the priests could no longer perform their duties!

It is in these special times that scripture takes on new meaning for me. Childhood songs begin to rush into my mind as they were mostly pure scripture set to music. I can run thru a troop and leap over a wall!

Some trust in Chariots and some in horses but we put our trust in the name of the Lord. I bask in His presence in times like these for they are rare, yet as I grow older I am finding more and more desire to have basking points with my God. Maybe I shall hunger and thirst after righteousness and be filled!

Yet, God chose to show up when both I and this customer had least expected it. I wasn’t “on my game” with the Lord especially. I didn’t feel especially close to Him and was ripe and ready to share. It just happened. In our weakness He becomes strong and He shows me that His grace is sufficient.

I was just as caught off guard with God’s presence equally as this man was. I think we were both participating together in God’s presence rather than me being the teacher and he the pupil. The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want.

So needless to say, Satan attacked me after he left and accused me. Who do you think you are? (He always says that to me, that is how I know it is him). I felt a lot of angst about facing this man the next day as I feared he would reject God’s word, the Bible I was going to give to him.

I hesitated to inscribe his name in the front pages of the Bible as I feared that he would in fact reject it. What good is an inscribed Bible if someone rejects it? Would I have to tear out that page later? Yet I just decided to inscribe his name nonetheless.

God can still use us when we are in a weakened state for His glory. Our pride gets out of the way and just like battles in the Old Testament, God went before me! I carry the Ark of the Covenant within me and He has written His law upon my heart of flesh, not stone. I prayed for this man that God would get ahold of his heart.

The word of God says that the carnal sinful mind cannot understand spiritual things. It is a miracle of God when a carnal man comes to the place of being able to listen and respond to the pneuma of God, the breath of God. We must remember this as all of our reasoning cannot supersede this miracle of understanding.
The following day, he came by and got his wheel. It wasn’t the usual post witnessing awkwardness either but appreciation for a job well done on his motorcycle wheel. I fixed it better than before and actually the Lord showed me how to properly fix it as He often does.

I always know when God is showing me something as it usually is the very first thought in my mind when I wake up. If He can create the heavens and the earth, what is a Harley Davidson rear wheel fix to His great wisdom? The customer paid me and then I was anticipating Him wanting to leave quickly, yet he didn’t.
He told me that what happened the previous day totally took him by surprise (as it did me too). I told him that I could see that there was something about him that was extra special the previous day and not just his personality. Then the Lord began to show me that this man was to speak into the lives of other men.

He was a leader and a speaker to proclaim the goodness of God. When I told this to him, he received it and actually told me that he knows this to be true. He also told me that his stepfather spoke the word of God to him but turned out to be a fraud and was asked to leave his church. Yet he told me that the message still rang true in spite of the person who gave it to him.

All walls had come down and we were suddenly finding ourselves sharing about the goodness of God. I went back in the shop and got the small King James Version Bible that I had and gave it to him. I DELIBERATELY DIDN’T ASK IF HE WANTED IT OR NOT, I just gave it to him.

He asked me what translation it was and I told him KJV. He then told me that he had read the King James Bible from age 4 to age 10 and knew it quite well. It was confirmation that God had prepared this man to receive from him.

I went on to tell him about how God put another man in my path a few years back at the Saturday Market. How that man had asked God to send someone to him to show him that He still cared and loved him. We must all remember that the coarse exterior of people coupled with their personal tastes and pride often can get in the way of reaching someone.

This is what God is teaching me. We truly have no idea where someone is coming from most of the time. People let us know what they are willing to divulge to us and even if someone talks a lot that doesn’t mean they are telling us vital information about themselves.

I feel honored to be a spokesman for Jesus when HE CHOOSES to set things up. He truly ushers us into majesty at times to declare His glory and we must dive in head long when we see that this is what is happening. This is why Revelation says, “Let him who has an ear, hear what the Spirit is saying”.

We must as Christians be ready to act when an unbeliever is at a place of repentance. It is an act of obedience and not a role to be reserved solely to the evangelist, but to all of those who love Christ. All believers should know how to reproduce themselves spiritually in someone else with God’s help of course.

Honestly, most of the time I feel unworthy to share Christ to anyone as I am too busy doing my own thing and caught up in the things of this world, YET there are times of refreshing from this life where Heaven meets Earth; times where the Lion lays with the lamb, times where all strife ceases momentarily. God’s grace punches through the darkness of our lives and our situation and changes everything once again.

Amazing Grace! Amazing Love! Amazing Peace! When I find this amazing utopia I just find that I want it to last! I would do anything to feel that bold, that natural and peaceful all the time! Yet even those who walked this earth with Christ were unable to do this, meaning His disciples. If that is what Heaven is like, then sign me up!

When we finally parted ways, he looked at me and said, “God Bless You!” I turned and went back into my shop and remembered the scripture that states, It is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. It was then that I shed many tears of gratitude to my God who showed His kindness to both of us that day as we spoke so highly of his wonderful Majesty.

Having God “show up” like He did in this story truly blesses me as I was not expecting this to happen and He gave me a greater boldness than I have ever known before to share of Him. He gives you hind’s feet of a mountain goat when you may think all you have is two left feet! I feel encouraged and blessed writing this and I trust that you, too, will be strengthened and encouraged by the reading of what God did in the lives of two men in June of 2014.

Sincerely,

Jeff Dahl