Do you desire for God to use you in powerful ways for His Kingdom? In order for this to happen, you can’t escape an essential element: having constant spiritual intimacy with the Lord.

A great picture of this is in the Gospel of Matthew, where we read about the transfiguration. You remember — The Lord takes Peter, James, and John up to the mountain where Jesus is transfigured into His true state of glory.

Peter gets so excited, he just starts talking. But God says, “Peter, this is my beloved Son. Listen to Him.” Through this amazing story, we see that intimacy comes from spending time with God and listening to His Son.

The Lord chose Peter, James, and John to experience that closeness for a special purpose. After they came down from the mountain, they were different men. They went on to greatly influence their generation, and future generations, for the purposes of God.

Just as God the Father exhorted the disciples to listen to Jesus, He says the same thing to us: “Listen to me,” He says. “I’ve got so much to tell you. I want to teach you. I want to build you up. I want to use you in a mighty way in this generation.”

When we have that kind of closeness with the Lord, we can’t help but draw people to His heart.

Cameron Townsend was a missionary who was working on translating the Bible for a tribe in Guatemala but was frustrated that he couldn’t reach more tribes with Bibles in their languages. So he came up with an idea.

Dr. Townsend’s goal was to go into the jungles of South America with groups of linguists, learn the languages, form alphabets, teach the people how to read, and translate the Bible into those languages.

Now, Cameron Townsend had no funding, no linguists, no help of any kind. But he had faith that God would bring it all together.

Townsend went back to the United States to begin recruiting the finances and volunteers. Only a few months later, he returned to Guatemala with a group of linguists to start his project.

Essentially, that’s how Wycliffe Bible Translators began. Because of Cameron Townsend’s vision and faith, there are now people groups all over the world who have the Bible in their own language.

What is God calling you to do? Where is He calling you to go? Who is He calling you to serve? Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”

So take a step of faith right where you are. Watch the Lord work in miraculous ways as you reach your world for Jesus Christ.

Years ago I was listening to a woman on the radio program. She was reading Galatians 5 where it says, “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things there is no law.”

Then this woman said, “You know, there is no law against too much love. There is no law against too much joy… and so on and so on.”

That simple thought really struck me. Think about that for a moment - there is no law against too much joy! We are told by the Lord to rejoice. Even in bad times, the potential for joy is there, because the Spirit of God is within us.

Philippians 4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say, rejoice!” It’s a choice, yes! Sometimes it’s a difficult choice, but we can rejoice because the blessed Holy Spirit, who produces joy, lives within us.

So, what does this have to do with evangelism? Everything! A joyful spirit is what makes followers of Jesus stand out from the rest of the crowd.

As you and I choose to rejoice ‘always,’ no matter what the circumstances, we are setting ourselves apart. We are letting the light of Christ, the joy of Christ, shine through our situation. By choosing to rejoice, we can be powerful witnesses to those in need of the Savior’s joy.

There is a little verse that I love in Psalm 25:14. It says, “The Lord confides in those who fear him. He makes his covenant known to them.” Now the Lord has no favorites, but he does have intimates. My pastor said that and I like it. The intimates are those who have a holy fear of God, a love for holiness, and who repent and confess their sins. The result is intimacy with God.

This intimacy is what helps us in sharing our faith. When there’s this kind of closeness in our relationship with Christ, we can hear His voice speak to us very directly about certain situations and people. We can walk in confidence knowing that when the right time and place come, the Lord will reveal exactly what He wants us to do or say. We will be willing vessels for the Holy Spirit to flow through us onto others.

Every believer has a right to intimacy and depth with God where God explains things that are close to His heart. But in order to have this intimacy, we need to walk closely with the Lord with a broken and contrite spirit. Then, we’ll understand where He wants us to go, and how He wants to use us to draw people to Himself.