Shadow Ministry

Are there times the enemy tries to thwart your ongoing ministry? In this week's clip, Jane Hansen Hoyt shares a powerful story that reveals it is the power of His life coming forth at all times that casts His shadow through YOU.

Ephesians 1:11
Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

When we are willing and open to what God has for us, He works things together that we could never do on our own.

• Have you had a similar experience of how God orchestrated an encounter or interaction that could only be explained by His hand?
• How has the enemy tried to hinder or deter God's plan for your life, but you've seen the Lord step in?

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

There can be times when the enemy tries to thwart your ongoing ministry by whispering to you that you're not effective. You may feel that what you are doing or what you're not doing is not yielding the fruit that you had hoped to see in your life and in the life of others. Listen to this wonderful example, a story told by Jamie Buckingham at the New Orleans international conference in 1991. He started by sharing the scripture out of Acts about Peter walking with his eyes on Jesus, and how they brought people out to the streets and hoped that Peter’s shadow would fall on them and they would be healed. You'll see that in Acts 5:15. Jamie then went on to encourage each of us to walk with our eyes on Jesus, and thereby allowing our shadow to fall on others in a way of influence. Jamie began to tell how he was in Israel doing research for a book. He was planning to be at the summit of Mount Sinai by daybreak for a prayer meeting. He had spent the night at the foot of the mountain.  About halfway up the mountain a tribe of Aborigines passed him - some of them elderly, some barefooted with a white man. When Jamie arrived at the summit a little past daybreak, the Aborigines and the men were already involved in a prayer meeting. At the conclusion of their meeting, Jamie went over to talk with the white man and asked who these men were. The man told Jamie they were Aborigines from Papua New Guinea. He said that he used to be a biker in Australia. He had read a book written by an American, that so influenced his life, that he gave his heart to the Lord. The Lord sent him then to New Guinea. These men were the elders of the tribes that had received Jesus. They had pooled their money so that they could come to Israel to see if the things that they had read about were real, like Mount Sinai and the Sea of Galilee. The man then turned to Jamie and asked what he did, and Jamie said he was an author and he was in Israel doing research for a book. The white man said he knew it would be a great coincidence, but when he happened to know Jamie Buckingham, as he was the man that had written the book that had so changed the men's lives. Can you imagine, halfway around the world, with the thought that you had come to Israel to hike Mount Sinai, yet God's miraculous purpose was working so far beyond just reaching the summit of the mountain? He was about to introduce this biker from Australia, this new believer in Jesus - the very author who had been used to change the Australian man's life, of the miraculous workings of Jesus. 

Aren't you amazed? Jamie humbly went on to share with the Australian, as they stood halfway up the mountain, that he indeed was Jamie Buckingham, the very man who had written the book that utterly means the new believers life. Think of it - it was all due to Jamie’s God-given talent to write a book, and he had now cast his shadow halfway across the earth to touch an Australian man's life. 

My friend, let me say, from the fullness of my heart, you too are casting a shadow. It comes in the simplest of ways. Perhaps, hiking a mountain in Israel sounds like something of biblical proportions, but my life, your life, lived out in the natural ways God has planned as we go about our daily tasks. We also cast a shadow. You will never be aware of how many times and how many ways that Jesus has shown up through you. It is the power of his life in you, coming forth at all times, to cast his shadow through you. Live in a way that you are unconscious of yourself. Let Jesus just flow through you every day, in every way. Psalms 91 says “he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty”. Think of it, we live under his shadow, and then we cast his shadow in the earth as we live out our lives on earth. I'm sending my love today, I’m a fellow shadow caster. God bless you.