I am Empowered to Share the Gospel
“‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’” Acts 1:8
My grieving friend was devastated over the loss of his wife and guilt-ridden over what he’d done—or hadn’t done—in her final days.
“Lightning would strike those stained-glass windows if I even set foot in a church again.” He attempted to joke, but tears glimmered behind his smile. “Why would God want someone like me in there?”
Oh, my dear friend. A sea of sympathy roiled in my belly. Before I knew it the world slowed to a crawl and the Gospel was rolling from my heart off my tongue as we stood there in that darkened hallway—him, me, and the Holy Spirit.
I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t practiced the words that would magically fix this, words to somehow let my stricken friend know God loved him and wants him back among His children. And yet somehow, I—who used to be afraid of talking about my faith—was witnessing the Good News to this lonely soul without even batting an eyelash.
Looking at today’s verse, I know in my core the words from my lips came only from the power of the Holy Spirit, set in motion and just waiting to spring into action the moment I’d chosen to follow Christ. I had nothing to do with it beyond the desire to be God’s instrument in the world and do my best to share His Gospel message.
I still don’t know where my friend is in his faith journey today. He’s in the trenches of grief as I write this. But God knows, and I draw great comfort from understanding that whatever words came from me were spoken through the power of the Spirit directly into this man’s soul. What a blessing to play a small part in this.
Jessica Brodie is an award-winning journalist and a member of the Wholly Loved Ministry team. She’s also an author who currently serves as the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, the oldest newspaper in Methodism. She is the author of More Like Jesus: A Devotional Journey (2018) and editor of Stories of Racial Awakening: Narratives on Changed Hearts and Lives of South Carolina United Methodists (2018), both from her newspaper’s Advocate Press. She also writes contemporary women’s fiction, represented by Bob Hostetler of The Steve Laube Agency. Her novel The Memory Garden won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ 2018 Genesis Contest. She has a faith blog at JessicaBrodie.com.
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Originally published Friday, 18 August 2023.
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