Remember how yesterday we talked about Jesus and Peter needing to pay their taxes, and Jesus tells Peter to do what he’s always done – go fishing. But this would be a completely different fishing experience because this time, Peter was fishing with Jesus – and Jesus is the difference maker. God had perfectly aligned just the right fish with a valuable coin in its mouth to bite Peter’s hook. That coin was the extraordinary way Jesus would provide that day. Right place at the right time. Not an accident – absolutely miraculously divine.

Well let me tell you what happened yesterday at retreat. We had taken a train from Venice to Lake Garda. Not the original train we had planned – a different train, so our arrival had been a little delayed. Once at the lake, we hopped on our private chartered boat for the most gorgeous adventure. About 1 hour into our adventure on the water, our captain drove the boat under the drawbridge of a castle where we docked for lunch.

At the precise moment all 11 of us are stepping off our boat, a frantic mother comes running up screaming, “Have you seen my son?” She can barely put together a cohesive sentence. “My son, my son, he’s missing. 5 years old. My son.”

All the BIG Life girls spring into action. We scatter in all directions, yelling, “5 year old boy. White shirt. Missing.”

Most everyone we encounter responds with, “Haven’t seen him” then continues on with their day. But not my girls – we’re searching for this missing boy. It’s one thing to be missing your child in a crowd. It’s another thing to be missing your child in a crowd on the edge of deep water. We all felt the desperation.

Eventually, far from where we had started, someone heard us and shouted back, “He’s here!” We found him. And he was in the complete opposite direction of where the mother had run. There was no way the boy would have heard his mom. There was no way she was going to find him with such a distance between them. BUT GOD. God perfectly placed a boat full of 11 BIG Life Girls from all the way around the world at precisely the right moment to step onto that dock, hear her desperate cry and spread out on a mission to find her boy.

Watching that reunion left every one of us in tears. Right place, right time. We got to be part of Jesus’ extraordinary plans. We were the fish with the coin. Ordinary girls with a changed travel plan, stepping on shore later than scheduled, equipped with precisely what was needed.

That, my friends, is how God works!
Now, let’s go even further.

Here in Venice we seem to be having encounters with hurting souls in need of the Jesus we carry. I bet it’s not just Venice – I bet it’s in your town too. Hurting souls – they’re absolutely everywhere. In need of what we have.

But have you ever just gotten in your own way? Have you ever talked yourself right out of doing precisely what the Holy Spirit has prompted you to do? Have you ever felt way too ordinary to be used for God’s extraordinary purposes? How can you possibly be their answer?
Well, you’re not their answer. You simply CARRY THEIR ANSWER! Remember that. You’re a contagious carrier of Jesus. Allow contact so it spreads! That’s it. Why make it more complicated than that?

Here’s the barrier with the hurting souls we’ve been coming into contact with here in Venice … we don’t speak their language and they don’t speak ours. Well that’s simply NOT a problem for our EXTRAORDINARY GOD!

Let me tell you a little story from your Bible. Imagine you’re in the middle of this story.
Okay, picture this … you’re one of Jesus’ closest friends. You’ve given up your job and your home, you’ve left everything and everyone you’ve ever known, to go with Jesus on his mission. You’ve been personally walking with Jesus. You’ve been part of some absolutely crazy miracles. You’ve seen his power. You know it’s real. And you thought you would be doing this with Jesus for the rest of your life.

But just 3 years into you and your tribe of 12 doing all these miraculous things, Jesus gets killed. Your leader is crucified. And now what?

It’s easy for us to rush to the rest of the story, but remember this – Jesus’ friends didn’t know the rest of the story as they were sitting in it. They never saw this hardship coming. They never, in a million years, thought Jesus could be killed. Now what were they going to do? They had given up everything to go with him.

They are afraid. Afraid they too would be killed. Afraid everything they had believed in and worked for was ruined. They were confused.

Then, Jesus shows up in the room where they are hiding. Now remember, Jesus has died. They saw him hanging on the cross. They knew his body was put in the tomb. They also knew the doors to the room where they were hiding were locked. And boom, here’s Jesus, standing right there among them.

And this is what Jesus says to them, Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” Then Jesus is taken into heaven.

Jesus tells them to go. But HOW? Jesus, how are we supposed to go into ALL the world and preach to EVERYONE? We don’t have an airplane. The internet sucks here. We are poor fishermen, how are we supposed to go do all of this? We have no education. We have no resources. We have no connections. Jesus, I heard what you said, but we’re just so ordinary.
For 10 days they waited. For 10 days they must have wondered how Jesus expected them to tell everyone about God. For 10 days they must have felt so unequipped and unqualified for the calling.

But on the 10th day, they were all together for the day of Pentecost. This was the day all of Israel gathered in Jerusalem to offer to God their first harvest of wheat for the season. There were people from Judea, people from Asia, people from Egypt and Rome, people from every nation all gathered to make their offering. Also there were Jesus’ 12 friends, his disciples.
Suddenly God’s power came and rested on each of them and Acts 2:4 says, “Everyone present was filled with the Hoy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.” These ordinary men spoke Aramaic, but now filled with the Holy Spirit, they were speaking every language of the entire crowd. All of these people from every nation, all with their own languages, miraculously heard the magnificent acts of God being declared in THEIR OWN language.

This is how God would use these 12 common friends of Jesus to fulfill his purposes. This is how they would go into ALL the world and preach the Good News to EVERYONE as Jesus had told them. God would do it through them in ways they could have never imagined. He would speak through them. His power would flow from them. He would give them the words which they couldn’t even possibly know. Literally a different language – hundreds of languages, spoken perfectly through common men who were unsure how God could use them.

Now, back to you, Miss Ordinary. Why not you?
Whatever it is that has been blocking you from being the hands and feet of Jesus wherever you are – you just need to know the Holy Spirit can perfectly equip you with absolutely anything and everything needed to spread what you’re carrying.

You’re a contagious carrier of Jesus. Make contact!
How exactly? Well I don’t know. When exactly? Well I don’t know that either.
But here’s what I do know … you will have to show up unsure, uncertain, feeling totally unequipped, and be available for God’s Spirit to equip you.

The disciples spent 10 days wondering how they were ever going to do what Jesus had asked them to do. It seemed an impossible task for them to tell the world about the good news of Jesus. And in that 10 days, they must have been drawing maps and making plans. They must have been overwhelmed with such a huge task and unanswered questions.

Just like you … you’re in your 10 day waiting period that may have stretched out to cover a few years. You’re waiting and wondering. Questioning. Planning and preparing, but all of it seems inadequate. But my sister, the answers you’re seeking can’t be found in your elaborate 10 year plans. These answers are only found in the power of the Holy Spirit.

God will equip you! He will enable you to do what you’ve never done before. He will bring everything together just as it needs to be, and you just need to show up and be available for it.

At the end of Acts chapter 2, we see what God was doing by enabling Jesus’ 12 friends to speak all these different languages – THREE THOUSNAD WERE BAPTIZED THAT DAY!!!!!!!!!!!
What the Bible doesn’t tell us is the conversation Jesus’ friends must have had AFTER Pentecost. Imagine their after work dinner that night. Matthew says, “Dude, I was speaking to an Egyptian in his language, saying things I don’t even know how to say.” Then John says, “Dude, me too! Did you hear me talking in Latin?” And of course, here comes my favorite, wild and impulsive Peter and he says, “Guys, I don’t even know what language I was speaking, but that was awesome!!!”

Then there’s a pause and they all realize … ohhhhh, so THIS is how we’re going to go into all the world and preach the Good News to all people.” God has given us the power to do it and it’s already started. Now, let’s just keep going!

You are the contagious carrier of what every person in this world needs. You’re surrounded by hurting souls who are desperate for the Jesus you carry within you. MAKE CONTACT!

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