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How God called me to preach the Gospel |
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After my
conversion to the Lord (which took place in 1983), within me rose the desire
to attend the weekly 'prayer meeting' and 'Bible Study meeting'. At the time
I was 19 years old. Therefore I began to attend the prayer meetings of an
evangelical church in |
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Now, I
don't remember if it was the first time I went to one of those meetings,
anyway, I'm sure it was one of the first times. It came to pass that, after
the prayer meeting was finished, when I went to greet the brother who was in
charge of conducting the meeting, he said to me something like this: 'Do you
know that some years ago the Lord - through a revelation given to a sister in
the Lord - called you or your brother to preach His Word?' I replied by
instinct: 'It's I!' I said those words for at that time my brother was still
lost, so I thought it could not be him. Now, even though my brother also was
after some time called to preach the Word of God, actually that revelation
that brother spoke about had been given for me. This is what I discovered
after a short time. For, after that meeting, shaken by those words, I asked
my parents if they knew something about that revelation, and their answer was
that they knew about that revelation, but they had never told me about it. My
mother told me that once, when I was about 10-11 years old, at the end of a
meeting, a sister (who was not any longer attending that Church when I was
born again) came to her and said to her these words: 'Sister, the Lord will
use this son of yours, and you will see it!', and she told her a vision she
had had for me. I was a little boy at the time, I was near my mother when
that sister spoke to my mother, and the sister who had had the vision put her
hand on my head caressing me. What did she saw in that vision? She saw a
white dove come down from heaven and remain on me. It was not the first time
that that sister was used by God to let a church know that a certain boy had
been set apart by God for a certain ministry. For afterward she told me that
in her life that had happened several times and in various ways. Obviously, I
looked for other confirmations which I found, for I found some sisters of
that Church who told me that several years before that sister had made a
prediction about me, and they told me that she had written that prediction on
a little paper which was read on the pulpit by the pastor or someone else. |
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When I
received the confirmation of the revelation concerning my call to the
ministry I was very happy but I was seized by the fear of God. I knew that I
had heard something about me that was very important, something coming from
heaven and thus I had to obey the holy call. |
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However,
that revelation, which was so clear, was not sufficient to me, so I asked God
to confirm to me - after several years since that heavenly vision - that it
was really Him who had called me to preach His Word. Nobody except God knew
my request. I prayed to God secretly for several months, weeping before Him,
that He might confirm to me that revelation given by Him years before, for I
wanted to be absolutely sure to do His will. |
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Well, the
confirmation came during the days of Easter in 1985. One sister in the faith,
while she was in the place of worship, just a few moments before partaking of
the Lord's Supper, while she was praying she had the following heavenly
vision: she saw me dressed normally with my Bible in my left hand and with my
right arm outstretched, standing between two heavenly beings dressed in white
robes and with golden hair. |
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When that
sister told me this vision, I exclaimed: 'Thanks be to God, He has answered my
prayer. I have prayed to God for a long time that He might confirm to me His
call to preach'. My joy was indeed great. |
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Therefore,
from that moment on I began to study the Scripture as I had never done before
in my life and I began also to pray much more. I had to prepare myself in
order to fulfil the ministry to which God had called me in His grace. |
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To God be the glory now and forever. Amen |
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Giacinto
Butindaro |