He Makes Us New

There is only one way to make a difference in someone’s life: to have compassion on them. The only way to have compassion on someone is to get involved in their world and to see them the way Father God sees them.

Take, for instance, the witch I met on my first mission trip to Costa Rica. I was with two local boys who had been saved and baptized the night before we trekked into the jungle to find her.

Roseanne was the real deal, and would read your fortune, give you a message from the grave, or pronounce a curse on your enemy.  I knew there was going to be a showdown. One of the boys called out to announce our arrival, but Roseanne yelled that she didn’t know him and he had to leave.

“She’s known me all my life,” he said, confused. I told him she didn’t recognize him anymore because the Holy Spirit now lived in him. When we finally met face-to-face, Roseanne was a pitiful creature.

She was tormented in a way I couldn’t imagine. She was so lonely and self-hating, she’d voluntarily taken up company with a demonic spirit! I began to see her as the Lord sees her. I was filled with compassion. Suddenly, I felt her pain.

I said God loved her. She said, “He has never seen me.” Out of my Spirit, I said, “That’s not true. He saw you when you were a little girl, and your father molested you. Jesus cried when you cried.” I told her God was there, but the devil had tricked her into thinking God didn’t love her.  She said she knew the devil was a liar. She thought he would kill her if she humbled herself to Jesus. We told her the truth – the devil is a defeated wimp – and before long, she was on her knees alongside us, lifting her hands to the Lord as she received Jesus.

Knowing Jesus knew her pain touched her heart. Feeling what God feels means feeling something very painful sometimes. Roseanne’s pain was tremendous, but her joy at salvation was tremendous as well.