But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. --Romans 5:8-9 (NASB)

It's very easy to become so involved in the work of the Lord that we lose sight of the Lord of the work. Precisely at this point, we need an awakening in our hearts.

I had been a successful pastor when I began to realize that truth. God had blessed my ministry; however, there seemed to be a lack of the joy in my life that I had known in previous years. I struggled to understand this lack, but I could find no answers. I was serving the Lord faithfully and had no known sin in my life.

One evening, I was in West Berlin with a group of friends, preparing to go the next day to the national travel agency in East Berlin to get a visa to travel in East Germany. My friends and I were praying when the Lord spoke on word to my heart: Availability. I knew that God wanted my availability more than He wanted my ability to preach and to serve.

I began to discover what God can do with us when we're simply making our lives available to the Holy Spirit to manifest the life of Jesus in and through us. Jesus is the joy giver. He's the greatest soul winner ever. We need simply to let Jesus be Jesus in us.

That night I asked God to teach me how to be available to His Son. The next day, after we made all the arrangements for travel into East Germany, we walked to a restaurant for lunch. As we passed a group of young people, the Holy Spirit quickened my heart. I remembered my prayer from the night before, and I said, "God, I'm available to You. If You want me to witness, I'm ready.'

I began talking with the young people about their eternal destiny. At first they were shocked, but the more we talked, the more interested they became. After several minutes, I left them some literature and returned to my friends. Joy filled me because I knew that I had simply been available to the Father.

Because we were running late, there was a long line in the restaurant. A family in front of us kept staring at us and smiling and then whispering to each other.

I told my son, Dave, that I thought they wanted one of our stickers that proclaimed, "I LOVE JESUS." He gave them a sticker, and they became very excited. They were Christians from a city in the southern part of East Germany who had decided to conclude their vacation by eating at this restaurant in East Berlin. It was an amazing meeting, and we became very close friends.

They asked me if I would come to their city and preach about Jesus. I have and many have come to Christ. It all began by simply becoming available to the Lord.

The Holy Spirit had me stop and witness to young people, which made us late to the restaurant, so that we could meet these beautiful Christians at the perfect moment. As a result an entire city was opened to the gospel.

When I returned to the United States I determined to place myself in a position of constant availability to the Lord.

It has been a most exciting experiment. On an airplane I witnessed to the wife of a medical doctor whose mother-in-law had unsuccessfully tried to witness of Jesus to her and her husband. She had told them, "I am going to ask God to send someone to explain to you what has happened to me."

And there I sat, an answer to the mother-in-law's prayer, telling this lady about Jesus. She wept as she received the gospel. Joy flooded my heart.

Many Christians are always asking God to use them in His service. If we will just make ourselves available to Him, our prayers will become, "Lord, give me some rest!" God is willing to use us more than we will ever know. As we understand this principle, we have a new motivation to witness.

Jesus becomes our motivation. The more clearly we are able to see Him, the more highly motivated we become.

William Nicholson's mother was converted during the Great Revival of 1859 in North Ireland. Nicholson himself experienced complete surrender after his conversion, which made him highly motivated to reach people for Jesus.

The turning point in his Christian life came at a Salvation Army evangelistic street meeting.

He described the experience: "As I walked down the street that Saturday, it seemed as if every friend and relative I ever had were out and about. When I came to the open-air meeting and saw the two wee Salvation Army girls singing and rattling their tambourines, and poor Daft Jimmy holding the flag, I nearly turned back. Talk about dying. I was dying hard that night. I stepped off the footpath, and stood in the ring. The soldiers looked at me. Then to my horror, one of them said, 'The people don't stop and listen: let us get down on our knees and pray.' What could I do? I couldn't run away. So down I got on my knees."

The crowd gathered. Nicholson could hear their laughter and jeers. The officers prayed. Then to his horror, she said, "Brother! Take this tambourine and lead the march down the street to the barracks."

"I couldn't let a girl beat me, so I took it. That did it. My shackles fell off, and I was free. My fears were all gone!

"That is, I lost my reputation and fear of the overflowing fullness of the Spirit. Hallelujah!"

Nicholson was later used of God to bring people to Jesus in the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and South Africa. But he had first had to come to absolute surrender to Jesus before he could be His witness.

Absolute surrender of our lives does not mean that we're perfect Christians. It does mean that we're committed to being perfected by Him. The more we begin to think and feel as He thinks and feels, the more we begin to see through the eyes of Jesus.

The greatest need of this generation is to view life, the world, and a lost humanity with the eyes of God. The 1960s and early 1970s were years of radicalism and individualism. The late 1970s and early 1980s have been characterized by conservatism and apathy. The latter part of the 1980s until the end of the century must be a time of revival within the church. The population explosion demands that the church see the world through the eyes of Jesus. Militant, atheistic, communist movements and extremist Islamic groups have forced the church to her knees to cry out, "Have mercy on me for my apathy!"

We need a generation of youth and adults who will stand as a mighty army, saluting General Jesus. We must listen to Him and be motivated by Him. Then we must move out to with the world to Him.