Stepping Out in Faith & Trusting in God’s Faithfulness

“Obedience today unlocks the will of God for me tomorrow. And if I try to have it all figured out before I take the first steps, I'm not ever going to do anything.”

Below is a snippet of a conversation with Rodney and Nita Lloyd (76 and 75 years old)— the first couple to be featured! Rodney and Nita have decades of experience in ministry, from church planting and pastoring to teaching at Bible schools and doing missionary work across remote parts of Africa. Through it all, they’ve learned that when you follow the call of God and step out in faith, His grace is sufficient and He is faithful to equip you with everything you need. Join us for a conversation rich in wisdom and insight. If you prefer listening, you can listen to or watch the full conversation on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.

What have you learned about God that you wish you knew when you were younger?

Rodney: I would say that the thing about the Lord, it's like, I use this illustration often, that any commitment, there's a lot more to it than you're aware of when you make the commitment. It's like marriage. I use the illustration that two people should come to the altar very much in love. But there's a lot more to learn about that person after you get married. And, after 50 some years, I’ll say that, when I was a kid, when I got married, if I had known all the changes I was gonna have to go through in order to walk with this woman. And she got the raw end of the deal. I promise you that. But I probably would have said no, because I wouldn't have the grace. And that's the same way it is with the Lord.

When I surrendered to God, I like to say it like this: I had an itch I could not scratch. And that's why I came to the Lord. I needed help. I didn't realize the commitment. I didn't realize what He was gonna call me to do. I thank God for it and there's been grace for every step. But if I'd seen it all the way back then, I'm not sure I would have said yes. And so that's one of the most significant things I've ever learned, that the will of God unfolds day by day and obedience today unlocks the will of God for me tomorrow. And if I try to have it all figured out before I take the first steps, I'm not ever going to do anything. And so that's probably one of the greatest lessons that I've learned in walking with Him.

Nita: The way God works in our lives was that just being faithful to respond to an invitation to go and minister the Gospel would open another door. And just walking through that door and then another door and another door and another door. That’s how we started going throughout all the nations of South Africa, up and down the country, just in different churches. But then going up into Africa, there were a number of nations we would go up into. And again, we would find ourselves going into really remote areas and what some people would refer to as very difficult, hard places to go to. But we just always felt that the call was sure and that the Lord was saying, I want you to go.

And I asked the Lord one time, why are we going? Why did you ask us to go? And I felt like He was saying, because I knew you would go. Just to know the love of God, I can't hold back on that. There's others that need to hear about His goodness. And so we've just really loved responding, even though it has been in a lot of challenging places. But the more we went into those challenging places, the more normal it seemed.

One of the things that going to Africa did for me was just realizing the faithfulness of God. I was always the type of person who, gee, and I still don't like spiders or snakes. Yet, when I would go into places that were so different than what I was used to, it was just like there would be such a grace of God on us to do it. And so we just would do it.

In the Congo, we started working with churches and Rodney would often meet with a group of pastors and have one-on-ones. But then I met a doctor in the Congo. And he was medical director of a hospital and also a chief surgeon there. But he began to tell me about the girls that he would take care of, girls that were victims of sexual violence, girls that were sometimes kidnapped from their villages and taken into the forest to live by rebels, people that had crossed over the border from Rwanda after the genocide. In fact, the DRC has been known for a long time to be called the rape capital of the world.

So anyway, this doctor really befriended me. I would go into surgery with him from time to time and he would say, I'll operate, you pray. And that's what I would do. So just the opportunity of being with him and helping him, even though in the early days he would do operations by the light from the window because there would be no overhead lighting over the operating table. And there was very little anesthesia for the patients and just keeping them asleep during the operations would be difficult. So to see how he's trusted the Lord, how he just started stepping out and wanting to increase the facility there. And how God's added to it. That's another whole story. But just walking the journey of faith with him.

But through the years now, I have ministered to a number of women that are victims of sexual violence and we started taking teams with us, teams of women that would go with me into the hospital and we would meet with these women, counsel them. I had no professional counseling, nothing of that nature. Again, the grace of God, the Holy Spirit will enable you to really know how to help in those situations.

What’s the most important lesson the Lord has taught you over the years?

Nita: For me, I think it’s just not even entertaining the thought that He’s not going to be faithful. As we've aged, it's the experiences that we've had with Him and seeing His faithfulness is just a sure thing. Anything that we face, we just know that we know that we know that He’s gonna be there for us, He’s gonna see us through, that He’s got a plan. He always has a plan and He always has grace for every season. We've just learned that so much.

Rodney: There's such an important thing that really everybody has to learn: if you stay faithful, like the scripture says, your gift makes room for you. You never need to promote yourself. As a matter of fact, if you get into self-promotion, you're working against yourself because it's always ego-driven. And I look at the life of David and David is most known for two big events. One was killing Goliath, the other was his unfaithfulness and sin against Bathsheba and arranging for your Uriah’s death.

And the thing that's amazing, though, is how could he recover from such a horrible sin? Well, I look at it like this: he proved himself in obscurity. Goliath was a piece of cake when you consider the fact he'd killed a bear and a lion with his bare hands in obscurity. And so a lot of people want the big platform, they want the lights and everything else, and notoriety and fame. And that's vain stuff. And David never looked for that. And so I think it's so important for people to learn: prove yourself right where you are. Faithfulness today, being faithful with what's at hand, will prepare you for what's ahead.

And that’s one of the most important lessons I think the Lord showed me: stay humble. I mean, the only time that Jesus said “learn of me,” was after He described Himself as being humble and teachable or meek or gentle. And that word “meek” means teachable or gentle. And He learned by the Spirit and He learned from the Father. And so if you stay humble and teachable, then God will use you. If He doesn't have a big platform for you, it does not make any difference whatsoever. Just be faithful where you are, do what you're supposed to do, and you'll be rewarded. But the biggest reward is your heart is secure.

And there were four things that just dropped into my heart one day. “God speaks and faith comes.” I mean, the word of the Lord brings faith, but it came like this: “God speaks, faith comes. We obey and faith grows.” Many times we leave the last two off. We just think if I hear a good message, my faith is going to be strong. No, it's important to hear a good message. It's important to hear the Lord, but then you obey it. And it's as you walk it out, that's where your faith grows. You exercise your faith. That's where it grows. And we have to understand that we develop as we obey. And if we don't obey, we never develop. We can get head knowledge, but we don't really develop in the way that we're supposed to.

What words of wisdom would you pass onto the next generation?

Nita: Respond to God, give Him your life, just be willing to do anything because He’s got a plan, that's the thing. I really firmly believe that God has things in mind for each one of us that He wants us to do. And I would just hate to live and really die without having fulfilled all the purposes that He has for me.

But I often encourage young people to really want to be fruitful in life, to want to be productive, to want to leave something that's bigger than yourself. In other words, not living your life for yourself, but helping others. And there's so much in this world that we can do and so being willing to take those steps, be courageous in God, and know His faithfulness will be there. But just find what it is that He’s speaking to your heart about. For me it was Africa, go to Africa. I didn't know what all was there, but when I got there then He unfolded more.

Rodney: I would really encourage young people in this regard to develop early on a healthy prayer life. And when I say prayer life, prayer is not just giving your desires and wants and requests, but it's a communication with God and there's a two-way communication that God is a being and beings speak and He wants to speak to us. Of course, He speaks to us through his word, but there's things He wants to say to us. And so develop that healthy daily prayer life and get to enjoy the Lord.

And then not only an individual prayer life, but a corporate prayer life. There's such value to praying with other believers in large setting like we have at the church here. I mean, look at Acts 2. They were corporately praying for 10 days.

But then also develop a serious study habit of the scriptures. Devour the Word. I think it was Jeremiah who said, ‘I found your word and I ate it or devoured it. It became the rejoicing of my heart.’ Because that's what gets us thinking the way God thinks. And that's so important in the culture in which we live in.

And then thirdly, and this is so vital, the very first act of the Holy Spirit is that he connects us. He joins us to the body of Christ. We're connected with people. And having a sense that I cannot grow by myself. The Bible doesn't say we're monolithic stones being built. We're living stones being built together. And we need each other. And we have a tendency to say, all I need is God. And in a way that is very true. But yet, in God's economy, He intended that we need each other. We have to have relationship.

I tell people, do not ever casually miss the gathering of the saints. If you can casually miss the gathering of the saints, you haven't had your mind renewed to understand the way God really wants us. He wants us to be part of a local New Testament church where we can grow together and impact the culture. That's why we're still here. If there's no reason for being saved but to go to heaven, then let's go today. He left us here for influence.

So those three things: life of prayer, both individual and corporate, spend time in the Word, and be connected with other believers in a kingdom mindset.

Listen to or watch the full conversation on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.

Thank you for being here,

Katharine

P.S. Eternal Echoes is free today. But if you’d like to partner with me in passing on faith and wisdom to future generations, I’d be so grateful if you consider supporting my work. I thank you truly, kindly and sincerely.

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