Lay It on Me

T HE P ROGRESSION OF THE B LESSING / 41

M OVING FROM THE S EED TO THE M ATURE F RUIT Your life in Christ should progress forward and increase continually. It should not be put on hold while you wait for an open door. After traveling for over 28 years in full-time ministry, I have conversed with hundreds of young people who felt a call into the ministry. I have shared my personal testimony with them and encouraged them to pursue the inner burden they felt. Sometimes, I would return to the church years later, only to find that they were still waiting for the Lord to "open the door." When I remind them that the local jail, nursing home or their own church's bus ministry provides an opportunity for them to minister, most reply, "That's not my call. I am called to preach like you do, behind a pulpit." This makes me realize they were not actually called to preach. Preaching behind the pulpit is the most common type of ministry, but Jesus said, "Go into all the world" (Mark 16:15). Almost 90 percent of all preachers worldwide live in America. Why don't some of those who want to preach, go out where the harvest is? They have a zeal for God, but not a direct call of God. To move into the full blessing of God requires complete obedience! In the late 1980s, I conducted a yearly revival at the Upper Room Church in Orange County, California. There I met a young man named Jonathan Augustine. Jonathan attended the revival every night faithfully. In the course of the meeting, I discovered that he would go to a large youth hangout and