THE INVISIBLE MAN

A True Story

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

One Sunday morning I sat near the back of the church listening to the pastor preach a very moving sermon. It was evident that he was preaching from his heart as he shared God’s word. I knew the Holy Spirit had inspired the pastor’s message and desired to use it to minister to both believers and non-believers alike.

 

After his sermon, the pastor gave his alter call, inviting those desiring to accept Christ as their Savior or recommit their life to Christ by raising their hand. I was a little startled as a man several chairs down from me instantly shot his hand up into the air. His response to the pastor’s invitation contained no sense of hesitation at all as his arm instantaneously stretched upward like an iron rod towards heaven. The pastor acknowledged those raising their hands and he invited them to come forward to have prayer up front.

 

My gaze was fixed on this eager young man. He rose from his seat and proceeded down to the front of the church. The pastor continued with his invitation and several Christians stood waiting to pray with those coming forward. The young man walked faithfully down to the front so that someone could pray with him. I watched as he patiently waited his turn as others before him received prayer. Each person who had come forward received loving prayer, but this young man seemed to go unnoticed. Concern began to grow in my heart and mind. Surely they saw him standing there. The pastor looked right at him, but failed to acknowledge that he existed. People who had come forward returned to their seats. Christians who had been praying with others began to sit down. The pastor started his dismissal of the congregation. What was going on? Was this man invisible? I had to do something!

 

I quickly began to make my way down through the crowd of people towards the front of the church. I strained to keep this young man in my line of sight. He appeared to be confused as to what to do. Finally he turned and began to make his way out of the church. I went up to him and anxiously asked if he needed prayer. He said yes. We talked of his life, his hurts, and his needs. He was a Christian and had gone through numerous struggles this past year. He shared that he wanted to live a more holy life as a believer. We prayed together; that God would work in his life and give him strength to live the Christian life. We exchanged names and addresses and I continued to minister to him for several years.

 

As I reflected on this experience I was confused as to why no one except me responded to this man. I believe God used this situation to show me something about ministry to others. Whether God blinded the eyes of those near this young man from seeing his need so that I could minister; or whether they were just not aware of him for some other reason was not important. What was important, was that I saw a need and obeyed the conviction to minister.

 

Initially, my concerns were about why others were not ministering when I should have been focused on what I could be doing. How often do we worry about why others are not fulfilling their Christian duty when we are failing to see the needs of others before us and responding in an appropriate Christ-like manner?

 

Do we sometimes see an opportunity for ministry, but refuse to step in and be Christ to someone needing intervention because we have grown callous to the needs of others? Possibly we fail to see the opportunities of ministry presented before us because we are too engrossed in our own lives? We need to ask ourselves these questions and pray for the Holy Spirit to convict us to move to action when people need help and assistance. I am as guilty of this as any other Christian and this experience greatly convicted me of my own hesitancy to minister to others.

Jesus was inundated with ministry opportunities during His life and He always responded in an appropriate timely manner. If we desire to live like our Lord and Savior we will emulate His ministry lifestyle, keep in step with the Holy Spirit and let God’s Word manifest loving action in our lives. Our godly motivation should be to seek to be always available when acts of service present themselves, as the Holy Spirit whispers to us to minister to the needs of others.

 

Such opportunities are precious treasures for us to experience the loving power of God in our lives as the Father, Son and Spirit minister through us to those dealing with the storms of life, the traumas of living in this sinful world and the oppressive influence of satanic attacks. Let’s look for those people who are invisible to some, but are visible to us because the Holy Spirit is asking us to minister to their needs!

 

Here are some quotations from Christian servants regarding serving God by ministering to others.

 

“Prayer in action is love, and love in action is service. Try to give unconditionally whatever a person needs in the moment. The point is to do something, however small, and show you care through your actions by giving your time … We are all God’s children so it is important to share His gifts. Do not worry about why problems exist in the world – just respond to people’s needs … We feel what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean, but that ocean would be less without that drop.“ Mother Teresa

 

“One of the principal rules of religion is, to lose no occasion of serving God. And, since he is invisible to our eyes, we are to serve him in our neighbor; which he receives as if done to himself in person, standing visibly before us.”

John Wesley

 

“Selfishness is when we pursue gain at the expense of others. But God doesn’t have a limited number of treasures to distribute. When you store up treasures for yourself in heaven, it doesn’t reduce the treasures available to others. In fact, it is by serving God and others that we store up heavenly treasures. Everyone gains; no one loses.”

Randy Alcorn

 

“Have you ever realized that you can give things to God that are of value to Him? Or are you just sitting around daydreaming about the greatness of His redemption, while neglecting all the things you could be doing for Him? I’m not referring to works which could be regarded as divine and miraculous, but ordinary, simple human things – things which would be evidence to God that you are totally surrendered to Him.”

Oswald Chambers

 

And of course, Holy Scripture always encourages us to love God by loving and serving those around us.

 

Romans 12:11‑16

“Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”

 

Jude 20-23

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear,”

 

1 Corinthians 13:1-8

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails;”

 

As you live your life as a follower of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, may you live the Word, keep in step with the Spirit and seek always to walk as Jesus walked.