A Touch from God

For years I have prayed for people, loved ones, friends, relatives, and neighbors, pleading with God for the miracle of their salvation. I have neighbors who are humble, religious, sullen, friendly, unfriendly, indifferent, helpful, political, apolitical, modest, and outgoing. All creatures of God, all in need of God.

Unlike Europe or other regions of the world, the Caribbean, and Cuba particularly, is a country where you truly get to know your neighborhood. The shortages and needs of an entire generation in Cuba have simultaneously fostered a necessary sense of human solidarity where it's not unusual for a neighbor to knock on your door to ask for help, requesting anything from an aspirin to a blood donation for a family member's operation (I'm not exaggerating).

I often wondered for a long time if any of them were in God's plans. I recognize that this is the tendency of our own humanity: selectivity. — Ah, how good it would be if Enrique the architect knew the gospel, or Marta the hairdresser who is so helpful, or perhaps Luis who is a sick man and has done so much good helping others— And so we go through the world mentally choosing those we would like to be saved. The saddest part is that we choose them beforehand for the good things they do or what they appear to be, and we put their sinful condition in second place. Mankind's problem is sin, and we all need Christ.

What is the truth? The truth is that God's plan of salvation is for everyone. Every person around you is in God's plans, without exception. Whether everyone will be saved or not, that is God's business, not ours. Christ died for everyone, and sometimes we want to apply the power of His saving blood only to those we love, to those close to us, to those whom, in our foolishness, we believe can be candidates to be part of God's family according to our standards and desires. Pure pride. It is about God, not me; it is about the blood of the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world... of the whole world.

God's touch for those around us begins with us. When we compassionately see them as creatures in need of salvation and raise a prayer of mercy, crying out to the Holy Spirit to use us for His glory by preaching the word to them. Let us not ask for power; we already have it! A special anointing? What better anointing than to have been forgiven and accepted by the merits of Christ and His victory on the cross! Two words whose meaning is vital for the Christian. He who has not experienced God's forgiveness and feels accepted in His mercy, adopted as a legitimate child, blessed from the heart of God, is not fully equipped to understand that their hands, their mind, and their heart can be channels of blessing for those we wish to win.

God's touch begins with a simple smile or an outstretched hand; it has the indispensable component of anointed prayer born of supernatural faith. I have seen the brokenness of murderers and wiped the tears of “hardened” repentant thugs, touched by the Holy Spirit of God. I have praised the Almighty alongside Sauls who had their Damascus road experience, mockers of the church, being struck to the ground by the light of His presence. You too are light, and your hands can be the instruments God is longing to use to touch a heart around you.

God bless His Word!