Doped

I am fascinated by the Amazon jungle. I absolutely love it there. My wife, Dorcas, and I have been to the jungle about 12 times, and FRC-Lima has even planted a daughter church in the Amazon jungle with the Yagua tribe. Right now FRC-Lima is supporting the Yaguas as they build their own church building in their native community. The church will be used for Yagua and for inter-tribal worship services.

Every time we go to the Amazon jungle, we visit a small, family-owned zoo on the banks of the Amazon. The zoo features giant anacondas. I have seen anacondas as much as 20 feet long at this zoo, and I have even held them across the back of my shoulders. The anacondas are absolutely beautiful, with a green-and-black skin that is smooth like leather. The anacondas also are absolutely deadly. The zoo owner told me that they could strangle and suffocate a fully-grown human being to death in less than 10 minutes.

And yet I have held these killer anacondas on my shoulders, and in my arms, and I am still here to blog about it.

Why?

Because the anacondas that we visit at the jungle zoo are doped.

It's true. The zoo owner lights a cigar, holds the lit cigar under the nose of the anaconda, and the mighty beast is rendered powerless. Something as pedestrian as cigar smoke can reduce a 20-foot-long killer anaconda to almost nothing.

So the question I have for you today is: how have you been doped in your international ministry?

What is it that is keeping you from reaching your full power and potential in international ministry?

What is the cigar smoke that has rendered you powerless, fruitless, sluggish, and as doped out as a 20-foot anaconda?

The enemy has lit his cigar and is waving it under your nose. He's going for the KO punch, hoping to drive you to your knees and to watch you hit the canvas. He doesn't want you to prosper and prevail in your ministry! He wants you to lay down and become as lethargic and drowsy and powerless as a doped-up anaconda.

God has given you anaconda-like power and strength in your international ministry, and He wants you to use it mightily. Yet despite the supernatural strength that God is ready to give us, so many of us fall prey to the cigar smoke doping of the enemy. So many of us are lethargic, sleeping giants, unaware of the great and mighty things that God wants to do through us internationally.

I once heard Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston say at a conference, "God puts in us things that we don't even know we have." That's exactly how it is for the doped-up anacondas. They have no idea of the strength that they possess. And it's exactly the same for us, too. We have no idea of the spiritual strength God will give us, and what God can do through us if we let Him.

Be like the anaconda in its natural state, strong and fierce and fearless. Avoid the enemy's cigar smoke, and watch what great and mighty things God can do through you!