Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - A Good Soldier of Jesus Christ - Part 3

In the previous blog we discussed the importance of spending meaningful time with God each day worshiping Him and receiving His divine guidance (a.k.a. marching orders) from His word. One part of personal worship that is often neglected or at best is added on as an "attachment" is focused prayer. For many of us, this is what our prayer life looks like on any given day and takes place only over meals: " Lord, thank you for this day and your many blessings. Bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies. Be with us today and keep us safe. Amen."

Now, before anyone decides to throw darts, let me say that any prayer at all is a good thing. And there are times when this prayer above reflects what takes place around the dinner table at my house, especially as my young children are learning how to talk to God. But for the believer who is serious about becoming a good soldier of Jesus Christ, there is too much at stake for us to allow our prayer life to remain there. Exercising childlike faith is a must. Praying with no genuine hunger and sense of expectation of God doing something that only He could get the credit for is not an option anymore. So I want to talk about leaving home each day with an expectation.

Through my daily time with God, along with expressing specific concerns or needs for my family and others within the Body of Christ, I usually also express a desire for opportunities to get involved in the lives of lost people. I find that this alone often enables me (or fuels me) to leave home with an expectation of God doing something great during the day and allowing me to be a part of it. In fact, here is a simple prayer that is taught by Ron Hutchcraft, taken from Colossians 4:3-4 , that I try to pray daily and would encourage you to begin praying immediately as a way of asking God to cross the paths of your life with someone who does not yet know Him. We call it the Three Open Prayer and it goes like this:

"Lord, open a door." By asking God to open a door for us, we are asking Him to provide a natural opportunity to share Jesus with someone. It's not an "oh, yeah, about Jesus" moment. But rather it is a genuine opportunity to have a spiritual conversation with someone without it being forced or putting someone on the spot.

Secondly, "Lord, open their heart." Like Lydia in the book of Acts, we need the Lord to open the hearts of those He wants us to talk to. What would it do for your faith if you found out that God was intentionally at work in the heart of someone who is lost that you are burdened for? Would it not help you be more confident in talking to them about Jesus? I can tell you that without a doubt, God was at work behind the scenes in the lives of the last two lost people I have had spiritual conversations with. And it gave me confidence to tell them the story of Jesus.

Thirdly, "Lord, open my mouth." Here is where the rubber meets the road. Have you ever noticed the layers of peanut butter that grow on the roof of your mouth the moment you decide to bring up Jesus to someone? But have you also noticed how much easier it is to talk to others about "church", or about "God" or "the Lord"? I have found that even among lost people, it is typically acceptable to mention how "The Lord has given us a beautiful day" and it not be looked down on.

But something happens when you bring up the name of Jesus. People get ants in their pants. When you say the name Jesus, you're actually saying His mission, "The Lord Saves!" And I believe that the reason we sometimes stumble over His name is because the enemy knows there is no other name under heaven through whom we are saved, and he knows if he can get us to stumble over even mentioning the name Jesus, he can keep us from being successful in our mission of reaching others with the Gospel. So e ask God to open our mouths and give us the words to say. And give us the courage we need to act.

I want to challenge you this week to begin praying the Three Open Prayer, and in your daily conversations with people, use the name Jesus in place of where you would usually only refer to "God" or "the Lord" and see how God uses it in the lives of others.