Available and Capable

I was listening to a tape recording of the funeral of A.W. Tozer, and an old deacon was praying. And he was talking to God like he was a great God, like old deacons did in those days. And he said something that stuck with me.

He said, as he talked about how God used Dr. Tozer, he said, Lord, it's a wonder how you can use a man who is just available and capable. And I thought about that comment and chewed on it for a while, because it reminded me of me about 30 years ago. At the time, I didn't have many talents or abilities to serve God.

I really didn't have any. I hadn't been to seminary yet. I hadn't been trained to preach yet.

I was just a guy in church who had a desire to be used of God more. But I was available, and I was capable. I was a praying man, and I began to see God's face on how I could serve him more.

For the last two years before that, I had been discipled by a couple of men each week. I would meet with one man at 6 a.m. Friday mornings at his house, and he would disciple me. And I'd meet with another man Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m. at his house, and he would disciple me.

One man was a Sunday school teacher, and the other was a retired pastor who wanted to pour what he knew about Christ into the lives of others. And I was just a sponge soaking it all up. I wondered if I could have my own discipleship group as well.

So I prayed about it, and I asked the Lord if he wanted me to do that. And I told him that if he provided the men, I would make myself available to disciple them. And I prayed about a format for the group, should God give me one.

And I decided to go ahead and act on faith, and I prepared a format for that discipleship group. I went to a Christian bookstore and bought some scripture memory cards and some paperback biographies on men of faith. I got a world map as well.

And to my utter amazement, within a two-week time period from my first prayer of telling God I was available, I had 14 men sitting in my living room on Tuesday evenings from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. each week. We would sit in a circle and pray over the world map for a particular country for the spread of the gospel there. Then we would go around the room and pray out loud, one by one.

Each man would then share some personal prayer requests with the others, and I would pass around a basket with the scripture memory cards, and each man would take one, and as a commitment to memorize that verse for that week. Then we'd talk about men of faith like D.L. Moody or Hudson Taylor, and I'd loan out those little paperback biographies on the men of faith for the men to read to gain inspiration to live more for the Lord. Then I would teach a brief lesson from my Bible, and we would discuss what God was saying to us.

Well, after a couple of months of meeting like that with these men, I noticed an increased interest among them for spiritual things. I had to give them more meat than I was giving them, so I prayed about it, and one Sunday afternoon while I was at our church bookstore, I saw a book, a copy of Charles Finney's Lectures on Revival, and as I thumbed through it, I knew that was what I was looking for, so I asked the manager of the bookstore to order me 14 copies, and I decided to take the men through the study of what Finney was teaching on revival, and I made sure each man paid for his own copy so he had a vested interest in it. We read a chapter a week and then discussed it on Tuesday evenings in my home as we sat in a circle, and as we were studying about revival, it happened.

I mean, it really happened to us in that little group of 14 men. One by one, these men became convicted of some sin in their life and began to get alarmed. My living room carpet became wet with the tears of those desperate men who were praying broken-hearted prayers as we before God in a seeking of him.

I would get a phone call in the middle of the night from a concerned wife who pleaded with me to come by their house right now and pray with her distressed husband who was beside himself in the next room. Well, I'd get there at say 1 a.m., and there I'd find a man sprawled out on the ground, broken over his sins, and perspiring profusely. God was getting a hold of these men one by one and changing their lives one by one.

It was truly remarkable just to see what God was doing in our midst by bringing personal revival to each of us, those rememberable times. And looking back on that time, I still marvel at what God did amongst us and what God did through one man in particular who had no special talents or training, but who was only available and capable. And that's all God is looking for with any of us, friend.

God wants to use us more. We just need to be available.