"I Will Change Your Name!"
PART 1I have come to the conclusion that I am no longer happy unless I am sharing Jesus with others. There is nothing else I want to do. My one burning desire is to reach as many people as possible right here at home or in any direction that the Lord sends me.Friday, December thirteen, the pastor, BletJaw and I, took off on two motorbikes for DeeADay village. Now this village is in TAK province about 2 hours motorbike drive from BYT. BletJaw and I were on one motorbike and the pastor carried the large rainbow bag of medical supplies on his bike. I had packed a lot of medicine because there are 4 villages close to DeeADay, and we planned to spend the entire weekend there.I was really anticipating a wonderful time at that village. I remembered the last time I was there 2 years ago. The people were so loving and appreciative of every drop of medicine and every single stammering Karen word that I could speak. I feel very sorry for these people because just two months ago, their lay pastor who had taught them for several years, had gone to America. They are very sad. There is only one old man who lives 2 villages down from them, that can read a very little bit of the scriptures, but they cannot understand it. They go to church and sit down, but they do not know how to worship.They miss the lay pastor, and saddest of all, the lay pastor is miserable in America, it is nothing like he is used to, and there is nothing for him to do. Here he did so much for God and for his people, but he cannot return until he can get a green card which may be 2 or 3 years.
As we completed our 2 hour motorcycle ride into that village, we were greeted with great silence. Nobody was around. The lay pastor’s house was empty and looked very forlorn; the house next door contained one gloomy looking lady who seemed to have a begrudging, difficult time preparing rice for us to eat. It seemed we were a great inconvenience. I treated only 6 patients that afternoon. The last patient looked at me and said:“She can speak Karen, but she doesn’t understand a word I say.”It seemed she turned away from me in great disgust. The painful truth of the matter was that she was correct. I can say quite a lot but cannot understand much. I felt that BletJaw also was disgusted at me. (When in reality this was the farthest from the truth)!! Oh, dear Lord the devil sure likes to attack my weakest side. I can be tormented that I do not understand or speak this language well! I am at the outskirts of every conversation!Later that evening they are trying to figure out where I will sleep. The pastor and BletJaw will sleep in the empty house. The other people really have no place for me. Finally a little boy brought a couple of blankets and they put me in the center of another hut. Thankful for the 2 blankets I curled up in my allotted space with my thoughts. I was greatly disappointed at the cold welcome – or no welcome at all. This is really unlike the Karen people. Worst of all I felt like an outcast on all sides. Other things were also pressing in mercilessly on me just now.I have learned that when the devil presses me down like this, not to give in to the temptation to believe my thoughts and my senses because Satan, "Is a liar and the Father of it.” John 8:44. The Holy Spirit worked on my heart telling me that it is always the darkest just before God does something special. I prayed and read 1Thessalonians. Now I felt such a deep love and pity for the people in this village. Next I turned on my cell phone music. With the ear pieces in my ears, these are the words straight from heaven that the Holy Spirit comforted me with! The Nebblet family sang . . .I will change your name,You shall no longer be called,Wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid.I will change your name,Your new name shall be,Confidence, joyfulness, overcoming one!Faithfulness, friend of God,One who seeks My face!It is so awesome to walk with God! Oh how instant is His strength to reach down and pick you up out of the devils temptations of loneliness, doubt and personal pain when you ask Him!How astonishing when the devil’s lies are unmasked – they had seemed so real!Oh yes, Lord, I am seeking Your face. You fill me with joy and warmth in the midst of cold people and wonderfully change my freezing thoughts. You have sent me here and You have a purpose for my being here – I will trust in YOU alone. Peace and joy flooded my soul and I slept that night. I was even almost warm enough.The pastor had previously asked me to do one worship talk and I had prepared something on the Holy Spirit. Friday evening worship brought only 3 sad people into that little church building. Sabbath morning – was the same. By the time of the Diving Worship, I thought the pastor did not plan for me to talk because he had said nothing, so I relaxed.Just before the bell rang announcing church, BletJaw asked me what I would talk about. He said I would do the church service. I was surprised, but we had time to pray together that God would be with our mouths and teach us what to say, for the Holy Spirit, for the people’s hearts, and for no distractions from the devil.I now stand before a church group from 3 different villages. There must be 25 people in all. (I did not count them). A child, who had been running around commanding all the attention just moments before, now sat silently. As I prayed aloud for the dear Saviour to be in the midst of us that morning, I knew He was already there!I told the story of Nicodemus and how Jesus described the Holy Spirit, and how to be born again. I read John 14:26 to them of how the Holy Spirit would be their teacher, teaching them ALL things. So right now even without a lay pastor they can be taught by the very best teacher. I shared with them Mark Finley’s four steps to receiving the Holy Spirit:
- Ask for it. Luke 11:13
- Be sure you have an undivided heart to please Jesus. John 8:29
- Set aside a time every day to pray with at least one other person
- Saturate you mind with Gods’ word. Listen to it on the radio.
I introduced them to the audio Bible that we had brought for them to hear the Word of God. It has a solar unit built onto it so that it can be recharged without electricity. They too can saturate their minds with the powerful Word of God!
I told of the power in the Bible. All the creative power that called the earth and everything in it into existence is packed into the Words of the Bible. This same creative power will create a love and knowledge of God in their hearts as they pray and claim the Bible promises.I ended with a story to illustrate the change that is wrought on the heart when they are born again. God creates a love of the truth where once was sin, a desire to please God where once was only the desire to please self, peace where once was chaos and unrest, understanding where once was confusion, and happiness where once was discouragement and doubt.The child remained quiet the entire time. The attention of those dear people was not interrupted. I prayed for them and knew that God was working on their hearts.We left Sabbath afternoon instead of Sunday because the pastor suggested that we go to LaGlah and do worship with them. We were thrilled to do so.(By the way, God orchestrated this move, because if we had left on Sunday as we were planning to do originally, we would not have been able to get home because it rained hard all day long Sunday, a cold driving rain just as if it were rainy season)!! I WILL CHANGE YOUR NAME PART 2Two hours of driving the motorbike and two snakes later we arrived at ChaDree’s house.We have been earnestly praying about ChaDree and how to relate to him now that we know his dangerous, illegal situation in dealing opium. We have concluded that we will not expose his crime and thus humiliate him. We will meet in his house as usual, love them all as usual and let the Holy Spirit do the work of exposing, convicting and converting. His soul is much too precious to jeopardize in any way. God will protect us as He has done all along the way! So we prayed that we would have the right occasion and the right words to speak.After all the patients were treated we began worship. After the song, the pastor asked me to conduct the worship. I was delighted and presented the beautiful Saviour and His Holy Spirit to them as I had before only in a shorter more simplified version!Oh how I wish you could have been there to see ChaDree and his attentive face! It was like a dog when he hears a high pitched squeal, head tilted slightly, fully alert, eyes staring in strict attention, body leaning forward. We all noted his riveted expression, and sensed his hunger for righteousness and longing desire to hear and understand fully. We were praying for him!God gave me a chance to tell about the change of heart we receive from God when we are born again by the Holy Spirit. The things we once loved, like alcohol, smoking, and opium, we will hate. The God who created all things out of nothing can also create in us a new heart and a right spirit. At the end I asked them if they would like me to pray for them to receive God’s Holy Spirit into their hearts and be born again. ChaDree was first to raise his hand high! Oh how thrilling this is to me!
God wants to do a great work through each one of us, but doubts and fears paralyze us. If we cling to these lies of the devil, there is great loss, because not only do we grow cold and imperil our own salvation, but also the souls that He wants us to reach could be lost!Yes, God changes my name continuously so that I can work for Him. He will change your name too!“At all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all afflictions, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing, and we feel helpless and alone, the Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith. Circumstances may separate us from every earthly friend; but no circumstance, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always at our right hand to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer.” DA 669.4Oh Amen and Amen! Thank you precious Jesus!