Preparing for the Latter Rain
Like many kids in the church today, I did not come from a Christian family. Although my mother was not a dedicated Christian woman, she would go to church occasionally. At our home in Haiti, we were surrounded by Pentecostal churches, which had a positive influence over my mother. At times, she would gather the family and would have us sing some hymns and pray. As a child, I grew up with both my father and my mother until I was six years old. Then, my father left us for a better life in the United States. After that, my mother began to play the role of my father as well as hers. Some years after my father left, something occurred between Mom and Dad, and they split, leaving us solely under the care of my mother.
As the eldest of a family of three children, I and my two sisters, I noticed that my mother kept a closer eye on me. At first, I thought she did not love me because I was punished the most. But I also realized that I was the one who caused her more problems. I loved to hang out with friends of the neighborhood. Those friends were not the best kids to get in contact with. We would engage in fighting without our parents knowing. At times, we would go fishing on the seaside or get into the water with great risk of being drowned. On several occasions, God spared my life as I adventured many dangerous things in the company of those friends. As I look back, I could see the hand of God guiding my life.
As I grew up, I met different kinds of friends—smokers, singers, robbers, and even some gangsters, both in school and in my neighborhood. At times I would sit and listen to them share their experiences; I remember one of them explaining how he robbed a gas station with a gun in his hand. I also had some cousins with whom I learned to sing hip-hop. Then some others started introducing me into smoking cigarettes, but when my mother found out, she would rebuke those friends, until finally she moved to another city to protect me. Thank God, I did not continue smoking cigarettes as I was away from those friends.
On one occasion, a friend of mine from school visited me one day and told me he wanted to take me to a place to borrow a gun. I was very young and was a little afraid at first, but I decided to go. That place where we went later became so bad that even the police could go there only at the risk of their own lives. When we arrived at the house of the person who was supposed to lend us the gun, the man looked at me, and a little while after, my friend who took me to that place came to me and said, “he said no.” That’s how God saved me from even touching a gun. Who knows what could have happened had I taken it home.
Later, my cousins started having more experiences; they also began to smoke marijuana. One day, one of my cousins handed me a bag full of marijuana to keep at home for some days. My mother did not even have any idea of what that was. After some time, in my curiosity, I smoked a little, but at this time I was already in the process of leaving that lifestyle and getting into the church.
In my country, during every carnival season, groups of singers would unite and rehearse songs they would record and post them on the radio and TV for the public. At the place where my mother had moved in order to separate me from my other friends, I got to meet some new friends who were planning to record a hip-hop song for the carnival. So, they invited me to join them. The song was ready, my part in the song was all set. I remember asking my mother permission to go to the recording studio. That was the first time my mother allowed something like that without refusing me. But God was in control. We began recording. But the project could not continue. I wanted my part to enter in a different way, but the person doing the recording did not have the experience and the equipment to do it that way. We had to stop the recording, and that was when things started to change in my life. At that moment, if the project had worked, I probably would have ended up deep in the world. But the Lord answered the prayers of my mother.
In this new neighborhood, I also started to make some new friends who were Pentecostals. Next to my house there used to be a house where they would hold prayer meetings. One day I was standing outside of the house. And I heard a pastor preaching about avoiding the things of the world. I really did not want to hear about what he was saying. It all sounded bothersome to me. But, I felt indignation in my heart. Something that came up to my mind was the attitude of some Christians, as I did not see a good example in many. And I remember I said in myself, “If one day, I should become a Christian, I have to be a true Christian.”
Later, some friends invited me to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I started attending that church. Then after a while, I decided to give myself to the Lord. But there is something that I cannot forget. I had not been an easy child; I remember having caused a lot of problems and worries to my mother. I could not understand her in many things. When it came to coming back home, I was always the last one to come into the house at night. That really disturbed the peace of my mother because it was not safe to stay out late. But one day, my mother was in prayer before leaving for work; as I was still in bed, I could hear her praying loudly saying, “Lord change Jackson,” “change him.” As I heard her praying on my behalf, loving my former life, I asked her why she was praying for me, and that I did not need prayer and requested her to leave me alone, but she would pray even louder; the words, “change Jackson” would keep resounding from her lips and fall as a hammer on my head. I felt disturbed, but not too long after, God answered those prayers. When I look back I could see how much damage I caused to my mother as I did not understand many things. After I became a Christian, there was such a link between me and my mother that it was amazing. She loved me more, and I also began to love her more. Besides that, she could not understand my dedication to the Lord and how devoted I was in the things of God. The Lord is good, and by experience, I know He hears the prayers of a mom.
Now, as I go from place to place as a missionary, I can see families where parents are sad and feeling pained because their children are not in the church. Many happen to be discouraged as they see no hope. Others have done all they could in the training of their children but have not seen results. Some have also realized their mistakes in the education of their little ones. But, whatever the case has been, my words of encouragement for you is, do not give up the fight. Besides God, the life I now live is the result of my mother’s prayers. There was a time when the words my mother would tell me did not have any effect on me. I was bold in the things that I was doing, and she could not stop me. This kind of struggle is not a fight between flesh and blood, but it is one against principalities in high places (See Ephesians 3:10).
Dear mothers, present the case of your children to the Lord. He will hear the cry of your hearts just like He did in my case. Fast and pray and wait unto the Lord. He has His own time. Remember the experience of those mothers who brought their children to Christ and how He blessed them.
“[Christ] is as verily the helper of mothers today as when He gathered the little ones to His arms in Judea. The children of our hearths are as much the purchase of His blood as were the children of long ago.”1
There is nothing that passes unnoticed by our Lord Jesus. He knows the struggles and suffering of every parent. And He will reach out to everyone who seeks Him for help. Mothers, always remember that your children belong to God. The psalmist declares under inspiration that “children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward” (Psalm 127:3). Will not Jesus save those children who are His own? Will He not have mercy on them? Will He not listen to the cry of a worried mother? He “knows the burden of every mother’s heart. He who had a mother that struggled with poverty and privation sympathizes with every mother in her labors. He who made a long journey in order to relieve the anxious heart of a Canaanite woman will do as much for the mothers of today. He who gave back to the widow of Nain her only son, and who in His agony upon the cross remembered His own mother, is touched today by the mother’s sorrow.”2
A story is told of the experience of a mother who prayed all her life for the conversion of her son, but she died and did not get to see the answer to her prayer. The son became a captain in the marines, but he would avoid all religious matters. While in the army, one day, he was hit by an explosion and lost his heels; and as a result, he could not walk. He now became a disabled man in a wheelchair. As the years went by, he became old. One day, some of his friends took him to a meeting where the gospel was being preached. Charles Stanley, the speaker for that meeting, said that he felt inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak about Mephibosheth, a story found in 2 Samuel, chapter 9. Using this illustration, he spoke about the complete loss of a man, his moral handicapped condition, and the grace of God manifested through Christ. He also pointed out that God seeks the sinner to brings him to himself just like David went for Mephibosheth who was a lame and received him in his palace. As he concluded his sermon, he appealed to the congregation, “How about you, poor sinner, old and paralyzed, you whom they sought in order to bring you in the presence of God, where are you?” The captain felt that this was a direct call from God. He also felt that God knew about all his life. Trying to straighten up his body from his wheelchair, he cried, “Here I am.” That night God answered the prayer of his mother and saved him. May his story give hope to all parents! God has His own time.
While talking about my conversion and relating it to the youth of our church, there are two major things that I would like for parents to consider as they pray for their children:
Parents should pray and ask the Lord for wisdom and spiritual discernment, so they can be a good example for their children. A young pastor was visiting a family from the church. The pastor asked one of church member’s son about his decision and if he had any desire to go to church and decide for Christ. The boy answered, “I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I would not like to be one type of person at home and another person at church.”
Besides failing to be an example, there is another mistake committed when parents talk about their church to their children in a negative way. The inspired pen states that it happens that “the minister’s character, motives, and actions, and the conduct of fellow members of the church, are freely discussed. Severe judgment is pronounced, gossip or slander repeated. . . . Often these things are spoken by parents in the hearing of their own children.”3 This may lead to a condition where “the good seed finds no place to take root, and Satan catches it away.”4
Parents, if you want to see your sons and daughters in church and giving themselves to Christ, do not speak in front of them about the mistakes or defects of the church members. If the pastor of the church and the members are depicted as bad people, they will not go to them for advice or help.
Parents, if you have done all that is in your power, by God’s grace, to be an example for your children in everything, and avoid those things mentioned above, pray that the Lord may save your children. Be still and wait upon the Lord. He will help you in the battle. Some parents die before they can see the results of their prayers. But if their prayers went to God constantly, they will see in Heaven their children whom they loved and prayed for.
And dear youth, ask the Lord to help you to show love to your parents and listen to them. “Do not wound and grieve their hearts and cause them to spend sleepless nights in anxiety and distress over your case.”5
One thing I did not tell you in the story of my conversion is that my mother died some years after we became very good friends, and after I became a Christian. This is what she prayed for—a change in my life. But now that I have more knowledge in the things of God, she is no more. I wish she were alive, so I could show more love to her, but this is not possible. My friends, if you have parents, especially believing parents, cherish them, love them, and obey them. Now is the time to do so. “If you have sinned in not rendering love and obedience to them, begin now to redeem the past. You cannot afford to take any other course; for it means to you the loss of eternal life.”6