Chapter 5 | Change Your World
Change Your World: Share Your Jesus Story With Heart | Chapter 5 | "Change Your World"
I awoke early one morning and I couldn’t hardly wait to play the video that Josh Engler had hand delivered to me all the way from San Antonio. Josh, his brothers Justin and Jesse, and Tommy Reavis were all still sound asleep in our apartment living room after their around the clock drive to Charlotte, North Carolina, the day before.
The short several-minute video moved me to tears as it played. It was a prophetic word given to me by Mike Herron at the close of a men’s retreat a couple of years before. Unbeknownst to me, someone video taped that word and saved the recording there at Destiny Church. Josh was aware of the video and felt the Holy Spirit prompt him, with urgency, to bring it to me.
And there I was that morning, reliving the impartation of the Holy Spirit with fresh faith to pastor a church one day. Suddenly, I rediscovered my intended calling and purpose.
At that moment, I knew exactly what to do. I heard the Spirit say to my spirit, in a still small voice that resembles a thought, “Gather these young men for prayer, a prophetic flow, and worship and watch what I will do. Have Josh sing ‘Holy Is The Lord’ by Chris Tomlin and my Spirit is going to fall afresh on you all.”
So I did exactly what the Lord told me to do and His presence did indeed fall and I prophesied the encouraging word of the Lord over these guys and the tears I had experienced earlier that morning were now being shared by my beloved friends. I thought to myself, “Wow, with your help Lord, I can continue to do this Pastor thing if it looks like this. I proclaim your kingdom come and your will be done in my life, for this is my purpose.”
Maybe you have also found yourself in life wondering what your ultimate purpose is? Maybe you feel you are wandering your way through life right now? If that’s you, help is on the way.
Scripture says that, “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (Psalm 139:16) Imagine that. God had a plan for your life before you were a twinkle in your father’s eyes.
And on top of that, God declares in His Word, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) So if this is the case, and it is, then all you need to do is to discover or rediscover what His plan is for your life. And I’m certain if you do that, you will live life with such fulfillment and hope that you will change the world around you for the better.
Only you have your one of a kind finger print, your unique DNA, your personality, your God-given gifts, and your Heavenly assignment. It’s time to hear from the Holy Spirit and get back on the pathway of His blessing for your life.
If you find all of this wonderful, you may wonder how to begin. Well, it all begins through relationships. A closer moment by moment relationship with the Spirit of Christ within you and a closer relationship with friends in the faith that will strengthen your relationship with Christ. Jesus illustrated this lifestyle in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This way of living is called discipleship, and it’s derived from the word discipline. To live a disciplined life.
And if we’ll look carefully at Jesus’s daily life, we discover he spoke with his Heavenly Father daily and even all throughout the day. The Apostle Paul put it this way when he said, “Pray without ceasing.” (I Thessalonians 5:16-18) Have a constant conversation with your Heavenly Father as well. Let Him know how much you appreciate Him, what you need His help with, and let Him in on your hopes and your dreams. He’s like a good earthly father that wants to help you succeed, but He’s even better than that. Jesus said, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11)
This understanding of God being a good Heavenly Father is expressed really well in the song “Change Your World” in the companion worship album that goes along with this book. The song says, “Verse 1: There’s a reason, You keep calling me. There’s a reason, You keep drawing me. You said, come close and I’ll come close to you. I surrender, that’s all I want to do. Chorus: Give me Your heart, I give You my life. And we’ll change this world with Your glory. Verse 2: There’s a reason, I have chosen you. There’s a reason, I keep loving you. Lift your face and I’ll shine my grace on you. Just surrender and watch what I’ll do. Bridge: Here I am, I hold nothing back. Here I am with You.”
What’s beautiful about letting your good Heavenly Father disciple you or lead you is that it puts your heart in a place of overflow. Your heart, the very essence of you or your spirit that will live forever, will begin to bubble over with the life of God. The Greek word for the God-kind of-life is called “Zoe” life. And this kind of life will cause you to flourish like God always intended. Imagine waking up every morning with excitement, anticipation, and a skip in your step. Having hope that what God has invested into you is what the world needs to experience. That you have the good news of salvation, healing, and freedom that can absolutely change your world for the better.
Now, what’s progressively better about having a growing relationship with your Heavenly Father is that it will enhance your earthly relationships with your family and friends. You see, these people that you love dearly have the same dilemma as human beings. Their lives also require God’s “Zoe” life for completeness. They, too, are searching for their purpose. They also needed hope for a better future, and that's where you come in. You, overflowing with the life of God from your early morning fellowship with the Father, are ready and willing to speak the heart of the Father into their hearts. We strengthen the circle of life in God's family to combat the enemy's lies, life's disappointments, and our deferred hopes. The Father will lead you to the specific ones that asked Him for help and for an answer. And there you come to say, “Your Heavenly Father loves you, has a noble purpose for your life, and if you will just hold on and trust Him completely, help is on the way. He’s dispatching His angels on your behalf. He is mobilizing Heaven's armies to win your battle and allocating His resources to abundantly meet your needs. And that’s how much He loves you, believer. You are the apple of His eye. You are the pinnacle of His creation because, when He made humanity, He said you were, “Very good!” (Genesis 1:31)
To bring this book to a close and send you out with a blessing to share your Jesus story with heart, I want to finish with a Bible story and a personal story of God’s faithfulness.
When the Apostle Peter first came to know Jesus, he was having a crisis of faith. He and his friends had fished all night, and even though they were expert fishermen, they couldn’t seem to catch any fish. And that was a problem because fishing was their livelihood. The Bible says, “If a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat.” (1 Thessalonians 3:10) Peter was completely exasperated until this guy by the name of Jesus comes along.
And with a simple command, Jesus says, “Why don’t you try to cast your nets on the other side of the boat?” Peter entertained Jesus‘s idea, thinking, “I didn’t do much better all night fishing, so I might as well try it.” And to his amazement, Jesus was right. Peter and his friends caught a boatload of fish. They caught so many fish that their boat began to sink. It took all their strength to pull their nets ashore and sort through their miraculous catch.
And instead of Peter simply saying, “Thank you” and receiving the miraculous gift from the Master, he expressed feelings that he wasn’t worthy. He said, “Go away from me, Master, because I’m a sinful man.” And Jesus had none of it, but said, “Get up because I’m going to make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19)
Isn’t it interesting that Jesus, the Son of God, saw Peter so much greater than he saw himself? Scripture says in James 1, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.” (James 1:17-18) Jesus could see his perfect spirit being perfected in Peter through the born again experience. If Peter could only receive and believe Jesus’s “Zoe” words of life, the seeds of His word would give him abundant life in the temporal world and eternal life in the everlasting world. And that’s exactly what Peter did that day. Peter responded positively to Jesus’ words and said “yes” to Jesus’s saving faith and he let Jesus disciple him and make him that fisher of men He had destined him to be.
And from that day forward, Peter became an incredible force for good in the early church. Jesus prepared him and used him mightily to be the key leader of the church in Jerusalem. The once unworthy Peter was now standing strong on the worthiness of Christ alone. And for the rest of Peter’s life, Jesus could utilize him to change his world. By faithfully sharing his Jesus story with heart, Peter could lead others into Jesus’s overflowing salvation, healing, and freedom. And Jesus wants to do the same thing with you, my friend.
I remember Jesus coming through for me and my family during a difficult season of our lives. My father was struggling with some health issues and we were doing everything we could to help him, but ultimately it was the wisdom of the Lord and His healing touch that brought my dad to the other side.
On the tail end of that trial, as my dad felt better, Jesus was gracious to give us all a special miracle to let us know everything was going to be all right. My wife Anna was pregnant with our third child and was due to go to the doctor for a checkup to determine the gender of our soon coming baby. To my surprise, Anna called me one afternoon and gave me the good news that our little gift from God was going to be a baby boy.
And that was a big deal for me because I came from a family of four girls and I was the only boy. I hoped and prayed with all my heart for a brother, but I guess it was not to be. But now, in the Providence of God, my wife let me know God was giving us a son. As quickly as possible, I called my dad to give him the good news. And I will always remember that my dad couldn’t hold back the tears of joy and thanksgiving. We both felt that the season of my dad's struggle was now over and Jesus was bringing him into a place of abundance.
The Holy Spirit quickly spoke to me. We were to name this son, Timothy Peter Thevaos. So later that day, I went to share the good news with my father. I wanted to make sure that he understood why we would not follow the Greek family tradition and name Timothy, Pete Theodore Thevaos, after my dad. This family tradition goes back generations and calls father‘s to name their firstborn son after the grandfather. I explained how I wanted to give Timothy his own unique identity, and that the Lord had spoken to me he was going to be a great follower and one day a great leader like Timothy in the Bible, who humbly followed and supported the Apostle Paul until his time came to be a great leader. Of course, my father was thrilled and in complete agreement. And to top it off, his father and my grandfather, Theodore Pete Thevaos, was still alive in his 90s to give the head nod to the name Timothy Peter Thevaos. I guess he was probably thankful that we still chose a 100% Greek name for his grandson. Understand, he was kind of partial to everything Greek. He wholeheartedly favored all things Greek. It kind of reminds me of a movie that I saw in the early 2000s.
So there you have it. “Every good and perfect gift does come down from the Father of heavenly lights.” (James 1:17) And that’s the good news story, known as the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we share with others. Jesus is calling you to share your story of the miracles that He’s done in your life, like he did for Peter and he’s done for me. There’s nothing more powerful than a story to capture someone’s attention and to encourage their heart toward Christ. Jesus is the eternal hope of the world and He’s the only reason worth living. The power of Jesus’s Spirit, and the fruit of Jesus’s Spirit, is what heals and transforms people’s hearts to become children of God. And this happens when they respond in faith to the Jesus story that you have shared. Their hopes arise that they too will experience their own Jesus story, and in that moment, the love of God will come alive in their hearts. From that point forward, the very nature of God takes root within their hearts. The scripture says in Galatians 5, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)
In closing, I have provided a useful tool for you to write your own Jesus story and how you became a disciple or follower of Christ. This tool is what’s called a gospel tract. Christians have been using these little flyers for years to share the good news of Jesus’s, love and salvation for the world. Why not be a Christian that personalizes a gospel tract, or your own Jesus story, for the people that you share Christ with? Think about how much more meaningful that will be to them. And actually, it is hard for people to argue with your own story. No one has ever tried to disagree with my story. It would be like they were calling you a liar to your face. Most people have more decency than to do that. So let me encourage you to do what the Bible says, “The person who wins souls is wise.” (Proverbs 11:30) You will be wise because you will save those you love from eternal death and instead take them, with you, to eternal life in heaven. What an incredible gift and message that Jesus has entrusted to us, to share with the world.
Go to www.TedThevaos.com/ShareYourJesusStoryWithHeart and fill out the “Your Jesus Story” form and it will automatically create a personalized gospel tract for you. It will insert the story of when and why you surrendered your life to Christ into the beginning of a gospel tract and then it will add some Bible truth to your Jesus Story to round out a transformational tool to help you share the gospel. Use the gospel truth, including the Scriptures that I’ve provided, or make it completely an original with your own Bible explanation.
I sincerely thank you for taking the time to read my book and let the Holy Spirit speak to you and enrich your life. Email me at tthevaos@gmail.com and let me know how this book has impacted your life. That would mean the world to me.
Last, remember that you have a good Heavenly Father the loves you more than anything and has wonderful plans for your life. He’s made you His child through Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. And He’s preparing an incredible reward for you in Heaven. Jesus loves you more than you’ll ever know, and He’s going to do more through you than you ever thought possible. And I’m confident that, above all, good things are going to happen to you!