Come Forth as Gold
Shelley Rogers, National Prayer Coordinator for Aglow Canada, recently enjoyed a day with her three year old grandson, spending time playing with him in the backyard sandbox.
Shelley hid three loonies* in the sand telling him gold was buried in the sand.
After she gave him a small strainer, he began to dig and sift the sand for gold. Each time he discovered one of the loonies, he would shout, “We’re rich!” Then he would give the loonies back to his grandmother so she could bury them again.
Shelley said, “It wasn’t just the gold he enjoyed, but the excitement of discovering the coins over and over.”
In Luke 22:31-32, Jesus was talking to Peter. “Peter, My dear friend, listen to what I’m about to tell you. Satan has demanded to come and sift you like wheat and test your faith. BUT I have prayed for you, Peter, that you would stay faithful to Me no matter what comes. Remember this: after you have turned back to Me and have been restored, make it your life mission to strengthened the faith of your brothers.”
The enemy tried to shake Peter’s faith because he knew Peter was going to be used to build God’s Kingdom on earth. The enemy’s plan backfired and brought true gold in Peter when he recognized who he truly was.
In Aglow we have been on a journey of discovery ourselves. We have been discovering who we are in Christ and we love discovering who others are in Christ, too! It makes us rich! When you understand how you are known in Heaven and how those around you are known in Heaven, it causes you to stand in the earth realm in a different way. When you know who God will be for you in every situation you face, both faith and confidence rise.
Like Peter, each of us will have times when life situations come to ‘sift us like wheat and to test our faith’. Confidence in knowing who God will be for us, knowing how we are known in Heaven, and knowing that God is always with us will cause us to become encouragers to others who are going through trying times.
God has placed each of us in the city we live in to bring forth His Kingdom. Acts 17:26-27 says And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. He placed you on the very street you live on and He knows that you will seek out other Kingdom-minded people who will work together to see His plans for your community come forth as gold!
Every soul saved, every heart healed, every lame person who walks, everyone blind who sees because of your group providing a welcoming place for His Spirit to rest are like the loonies hidden in the sandbox. He has hidden them for you to find because people are His prize!
* The loonie, formally the Canadian one-dollar coin, is a gold-colored coin that was introduced in 1987 and is produced by the Royal Canadian Mint at its facility in Winnipeg.
Practical Application
Have those in attendance match up with someone in the group that they do not know well and have them introduce themselves to each other with basic information like:
- Name and marital status
- Children, grandchildren
- How long they have been in Aglow
- One interesting fact about themselves
Next, pass out sheets with more specific questions so the pair can discover hidden treasure in each other. You can prepare your own question sheets or draw from questions here:
- In no more than 2 minutes, share something you feel you do well.
- In no more than 2 minutes, share a need you see in your community.
- In no more than 2 minutes, share how you would meet the need you see.
- Share a prophetic word or an inheritance scripture that you feel defines you and is important that others know.
- Share something you perceive to be a weakness in yourself and ask the person you are sharing with to become a partner for accountability to see the weakness turned into a strength.
- Share something you perceive to be a strength in yourself and ask the person you are sharing with comment on that strength in an encouraging way and/or to share other strengths they see in you.
From the above exercise, have the group call out the strengths that they have discovered in each other and, if possible, to make a list for all to see. In the future, this list of strengths will help the group as they discover needs in the community and who to build a team with to see those needs met.
