One time an internationally known minister approached me about going to a certain country that's known for being hostile to Christianity and to the Gospel. I said to her, "Isn't that where two American diplomats just got killed three weeks ago? Isn't that a place where they shout 'Down with Americans!'? And isn't that a place where they will kill you for being a Christian?" She said, "Yes. Now let's go."

My head said, "Let her go if she wants to - by herself. The Lord hasn't called you to be an evangelist; He called her. Don't put yourself in there with her!" When I prayed about it, and the Lord said, "Go." I said, "Praise you, Jesus."

I got my affairs in order. I knew that if I had missed God, I was going to be in trouble. Ministers from all over the country called us and told us not to go. They told us that we were going to get killed. But the blessings listed in Deuteronomy 28 are for those who diligently and continually do what God says to do. Obedience means you do what He says even when your natural mind doesn't agree or understand.

I told the folks who were supposed to travel with me, "I'm releasing all of you. You don't have to go with me. I will go by myself. You don't have to put yourself in harm's way. You have wives and children, so you don't have to go with me. But I have to go because God told me to go. And I have to obey Him.

To their credit, they all said, "We're going." So they came with me. As soon as we stepped off the plane and went into the building where our bags were supposed to be, we were met by guys with high-powered rifles. Immediately, the devil said to me, "I've got you now. You're dead. You aren't going to get out of here."

Before we could get to our bags, we had to go through a large crowd of people. These people grabbed us and started going through our pockets! This was all before we even reached our bags! I was thinking, "I obeyed God and this is what it got me."

I was concerned about just getting out of the crowd. We were dressed like Americans, and everyone could see the stuff we were carrying with us. People got up in our face as they talked to us, but I thought, I'm not backing down from the devil. And the minister who'd invited me didn't back down, either. She published an ad for the meeting on the front page of a newspaper there. The ad read: "Jesus is Lord in (country name)!" And it listed the date, time, and place of the meeting.

In my hotel room before the meeting, I said, "Lord, I have a wife and three children. I have churches I pastor, Lord." As I started praying, I heard the Lord say to me, "Being in My will is the safest place you could ever be." That's when I relaxed. I said, "Praise God, I'm safe."

We had a tremendous meeting. Thousands of people got saved, healed, and delivered. Whatever we touched was blessed! Today, I oversee sixteen churches in that country and they are prospering.

Now don't tell me that what you are dealing with is tougher than what I dealt with. I know better. God will prosper whatever you do, wherever you go - if you'll hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord your God and do what He says to do. And you must do it over time, not just once or twice, because obedience is a lifestyle.

God may tell you to go somewhere. And when you get there, you may say to yourself the same thing I said when I was in that country: "What in the world am I doing here?" But then you get back up on your faith, and before it's over, you understand why God called you there. I was in that country to give hope to those folks. They needed someone who would underwrite the Gospel in that country. And every month, we send money to keep the doors open and keep the pastors preaching there.

Obedience to God Brings Godly Results!
A year after that initial meeting I held with that minister, we went back and had the largest gathering of any kind - Muslim or Christian! It was the largest gathering ever in the history of the nation. More than 70,000 Muslims got saved and baptized in the Holy Ghost. Blind eyes opened; cripples walked; deaf-mutes heard and spoke. Friend, those are the rewards for obedience!

People also want me to counsel them, but I really don't have a lot of time to counsel. The truth is, I really don't need to counsel, because in very few cases do people actually need counseling. What people really need to do is already written in the Word. If they were doing what's already written, they likely wouldn't be in those situations they're in. The way to get out of those scenarios is to do what is written.

Source: A Seed Will Meet Any Need
Excerpt permission granted by Word Of Faith Publishing