Obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit to fulfill God's will
Northern California Taiwan Christian Church
Rev. Tu Xizhi
Mother's Day in 2023 is a memorable day. On May 13, we completed the evangelism ministry entrusted by God. On May 14, the outdoor worship service on Mother's Day Gospel Sunday was also successfully completed with God's grace. When I dragged my extremely tired body back home, I was not sleepy at all, whether it was because I was too excited or tired. I remember that in February, after experiencing the miraculous manifestation of God in Asbury, I responded to the moving of the Holy Spirit there. After returning to the Bay Area, I will start the evangelism work from the community college near the church. On Sunday, I preached this moving to the congregation, and the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit was also revealed in the chairman's heart. He was willing to join the ranks of evangelism, but after we tried to contact several times, there was no progress. Afterwards, I continued to seek God and told Him that I would no longer target college students for evangelism, but would only ask God to open the door for evangelism.
During the Bay Area Prayer Meeting in March, I received an invitation from 123 Let's Go Shopping Mall Gospel Action to become one of the executive committee members. Later, I opened my daily spiritual notes and saw the following on March 22: Cherish the branches! Didn't God say, "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord! He will be like a tree planted by the water, which spreads out its roots by the stream. It will not be afraid when heat comes, but its leaves will remain green, and it will not be afraid in a year of drought, and it will not cease to bear fruit." Yes, Lord! This is impossible for humans, but all things are possible for you.
April 8 was the first time I participated in the Gospel Action. During the morning devotion, God gave me Psalm 92:14, "In old age they will still bear fruit, full of sap and green." I recalled that God has led me to serve in the Bay Area for nearly 17 years. I remember when I first arrived, I happened to meet a senior pastor who served here and asked him how to preach the gospel here. The pastor's reply was: "If you want to preach the gospel, go somewhere else. This place is all hard soil." I was really surprised.
Today, we have truly witnessed that the God we believe in is indeed Jehovah Jireh. For example, the evangelistic action on April 8th, there were six shopping malls that were simultaneously launched in the Bay Area, such as the Dongtai shopping mall that our church joined. The spirit of unity brought together 41 evangelists from more than ten churches to work together for the gospel. There were hymns, prayers, short talks, gospel leaflets, personal talks, and occasional lucky draws. I couldn't help but recall that I had always wanted to enter this shopping mall for evangelistic activities, but I had tried and failed many times and could not get in. Now, in this legal evangelistic ministry, God has miraculously accomplished this great and difficult task. Yes, God has prepared everything on His holy mountain and provided for all needs, waiting for inspired churches and warriors who love to spread the gospel to devote themselves to the vast gospel field of the Bay Area to sow seeds, to rescue unbelieving souls, and to find lost sheep.
On April 24, the Gospel Action Conference was held in the Bay Area. God blessed me and I won the final grand prize. When I left the venue and was about to get into the car, before the door was closed, I heard someone calling Pastor Tu. I quickly got out of the car and saw a car next to me backing up. In the car sat a young senior pastor I knew from the Bay Area Prayer Meeting. He had already opened the window and said with emotion, "Your sharing today really touched me." I asked which part? He replied, "The whole part." I continued to ask, "How do you say that?" The pastor sighed and said, "Oh my! I was really touched by your sharing, especially your persistence here. I finally waited for it." I continued to say, "Yes!" That is why I shared that after participating in the Gospel Action, the joy of the Holy Spirit was in my heart and I could not suppress it. The pastor smiled and nodded and said, "Yes!" So I invited him, "Come on!" Let's do the Gospel work together!" He immediately replied, "Okay." Thank God! In the Gospel Action in May, this church did have 13 brothers and sisters who signed up to participate in the Gospel Action in their neighborhood.
On May 3, I received a call from Pastor Chen, who is in charge of the 123 Let's Go shopping mall evangelism campaign. He said that under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, two new evangelism sites were added in May, but no preacher was willing to take over the evangelism mission. Therefore, with less than ten days to go to the evangelism campaign, I had to take on the evangelism mission in the shopping mall, which was a 40-minute drive from home even without traffic jams. After a moment of quiet time before God, God reminded me of one of the verses when I was called, "Come, follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men." So I prayed, prayed, and prayed again. In the prayer, how will God develop, plan, and plan the specific plan? What facilities are available at the shopping mall? Power supply? We wrote letters and called pastors of nearby churches to promote the event, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we were able to carry out the work step by step. Later, we received a message from the original participant of the Dongtai Shopping Mall, hoping that some members would continue to support the event because they lacked partners who could preach the gospel in Mandarin. Thus, on May 13, our church participated in the gospel ministry in two shopping malls.
On May 13, at the gospel base of El Mercado Plaza, the first gospel campaign was launched. The Holy Spirit moved 31 Christians from eight churches to participate. They waited in different stores to preach the gospel to customers entering and leaving the stores. Most of them preached the whole gospel and prayed for them. But when asked at the end if they were willing to believe in Jesus, they all declined. Thank God, nine friends were still willing to leave their personal information. While waiting for the lucky draw winners to fill out the form, we also opened up the gospel partners to share. Two of them shared their experiences and talked about how they preached the gospel to strangers. Another person shared that this was his first time participating in a gospel action. After the draw, Pastor Zhang of the Lord's Pioneer Church led the team to pray for thanksgiving to God, and then packed up, organized, cleaned, and loaded the car. Then, a group of 22 gospel warriors happily went to the restaurant for dinner. Now, the 9 gospel friends who stayed behind have been handed over to pastors and brothers and sisters to continue to follow up and care for them. Thank God for his wonderful work. In the hasty formation of the army, we saw God's rich preparation. We can only give glory and praise to this supreme, supreme, and glorious Almighty God again! The living Lord!
PS If you live in the Bay Area, you are welcome to join one of the nearby gospel centers. By the way, the next gospel outreach will be on June 17th.