Ordering our Footsteps

Continuation of personal testimony

Ordering our Footsteps

Delaying in decisions

Eccl 5:4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it.

I have been quite delayed in wanting to complete my personal testimony and delays can be quite costly as I have experienced in the past. I was quite involved now in the local fellowship but our stay  was short lived owing to us having to re-locate to another suburb quite a distance away.

I joined another ministry in the new area and was later given the responsibility of giving oversight to a small fellowship with about seven people who met in a home. The vision of the leader was to bring church to where the people are which gave rise to fellowships in schools, garages and homes etc. All the little fellowships met together on a Sunday evening for co-operate fellowship and week after week I would witness men and women committing themselves to full-time ministry. This used to scare me as I would often think that I would never be able to handle this should it be my turn. But it happened one day when the overseer asked me “so when are you going into full-time ministry?” I said next year July just to dismiss it and keep the overseer quiet. My wife even had a little prophetic note from him giving details of my full-time call. Of course I kept it away very safely and even forgot about it.

I would always mention to my supervisor at work that I would like to go into full-time ministry but lacked the faith to really make a decision. I knew and understood that the five-fold ministry gifts were for equipping of the saints and once read an article that mentioned that the five-fold ministry gifts were a full-time ministry gifts and this stuck with me always.

Eph 4:11-13 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,

July 1994 came and went as any other month. Friday 5 August was a normal busy day at the office and full-time ministry was furthest from my mind. Two robbers entered the office and the one with the gun came straight at me as I was the one with the keys to the safe. When the office started getting a more busy he put the gun on my leg and at point blank range pulled the trigger. In that frenzy as I lay on the ground unable to move the robber escaped. As I lay there my mind raced with thoughts about my family and I asked the Lord for strength but I could hear these words so clearly “oh, now that you are hurt you are calling upon the name of the Lord.

Ps 50:15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me."

Ps 55:16-17 As for me, I will call upon God, And the LORD shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice.

Ps 145:18-20 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.  He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them. The LORD preserves all who love Him,

To make an even bigger dent on the devil’s ego my supervisor who is a church elder had just come into the office laid his hands on me and prayed.

James 5:14-15 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.

As my supervisor prayed and probably just being overcome with emotional I said that I will not be returning to work but going into the ministry full-time. But as soon as I was in the ambulance I had these thoughts that the bullet would be removed and I would be back at work. The paramedics had to hold up my leg whilst being transported to the hospital as it was in a bent position and it could not be straightened.

At the hospital the orthopaedic surgeon gave me the grim news that I was shot with a hollow point bullet that exploded on impact shattering my femur and fracturing my knee. I had to undergo another big operation so that, what is called in medical terms a half metre nail could be inserted with screws to hold the femur together. Because of the bullet exploding two pieces are still lodged in my leg with one being in the bone. It could not be removed as I will not be able to walk. Every thought of going back to work the next day, next week or even the next month were dismissed.

I wanted to go into full-time ministry in my own time at the age of forty with enough money, a good house and vehicle. Even as I sit now contemplating the WHAT IF’S and YOU SHOULD HAVE’S I will still not have the answers but gratefulness runs in my heart that I was not hit on the head with the butt of the gun nor shot in the heart or head.

1 Thess 5:16-18 Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

To be continued...            Solomon Gopaul