You Can

Most of us feel completely inadequate to be ministers of God. We can never memorize enough scriptures or go to enough bible studies to feel adequate. God, His word and His kingdom are a never ending well of knowledge and spiritual understanding. No one knows it all, nor ever will in this life.

We never get to the point where we never make mistakes or sin in one way or another. If we ever start thinking that we have arrived at that point, we are mistaken. There will always be a wrong word, deed, thought or motive to ask Gods forgiveness for and seek His help in turning from. In this life we will continue to deal with our fleshly nature day by day.

This is not to say we will not grow in biblical knowledge, spiritual understanding and holiness. In fact, we must. However, if we wait until we feel we have arrived before we are willing to give ourselves in service to God, we for sure will never grow to the point that we hope to grow. Service promotes and enhances our own spiritual growth.

The responsibilities of service in itself pushes us to be more diligent disciples. It pushes us to study Gods word. It forces us to spend time in prayer and worship seeking direction and insight from God. How else will we have anything of value to give to others. It is easy to be lazy in our efforts to grow up spiritually. There is nothing like responsibilities to face to give us the extra needed motivation.

Gods kingdom works differently from this world. In His kingdom in order to get, we must give. I have never in many, many years of service ever given without it coming back to me right then. Mostly you hear this spiritual principle when it comes to money and it is true, but I have seen it even better illustrated in my service for the Lord.

I can think I am doing a great sacrifice of giving in my service only to see that in fact I am receiving more than I am giving. It never fails and it doesn't matter who the service is extended to. I can prepare to teach children but while I study the Holy Spirit is teaching me. When I teach, the children are teaching me, when I give them love, I get even more love back. I can give the children material things and before I know it they all want to give me even more.

I have found I really cannot out give God. There is always a double channel of blessings flowing as we give, it will stream right back your way. I promise you, you will grow and change and be blessed beyond your wildest dreams as you set out to be a blessing to others. God will see to it. It is how His kingdom works and it works this way all the time. We have found that when we stop worrying about our own needs and desires and just be concerned with Gods kingdom, everything we need or could possible desire begins to flow our way.

Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.

Remember, We are not of this world but are rather citizens of Gods kingdom and it operates differently than this world. People in this world looks for the best, the smartest, the best educated, the best looking, the best dressed, the most skilled and so on. God on the other hand, looks at the heart.

1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

God doesn't mind weak vessels. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 He said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." When we are weak, we must depend on God for strength. When we know we cannot do something, we must rely on Him. It is then that God gets all the glory and we know without doubt that it was Him and not us doing the work.

God is not looking for bible scholars. He would rather have someone that must dig and study and seek the Holy Spirit for understanding. He is not looking for eloquent speakers. He would rather have someone that does not put their trust in their own abilities and relies on Gods power to do the work. He is not looking for the ones that appears wise in the eyes of man but rather someone that looks to Him for all wisdom.

God formed our mouth, he could have given you excellent speech. He could have given you great wisdom, or a charismatic personality. If He did give you those things, great! Use them for Gods glory. But if he didn't is He not strong enough to use you as He formed you? Did he not create you for good works? Of course He did. Rest in Him. Use what He gave you and trust that His strength will be made perfect in your weakness.

Think about Moses. He felt like a washed up, miserable failure that God had given up on and had surely passed over. Moses knew He was to be Israel's deliverer but after 40 years in the desert had given up on the idea. Then God approached Moses to be His own mouth piece. This is pretty incredible considering Moses was a stutterer! Why in the world would God choose a stutterer to speak for Him. I am sure God could have chosen to use the most eloquent speaker on the earth at that time.

Exodus 4:10-17 Then Moses said to the Lord,"O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." So the Lord said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say. But he said, "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else you may send." So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: "Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees yo,. he will be glad in his heart. Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and I will teach you what you shall do. So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you and you shall be to him as God. And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs."

Moses gave up an opportunity to have Gods best for him because he put his faith more in his own inadequacies than in Gods power and ability to work through him. God created us, He can use as we are when we humbly submit ourselves in obedience to His will and His service. When we are weak, God get the greatest glory through us.

God is not looking for bible scholars, the well educated, the wisest according to worldly wisdom, the best looking, the wealthiest. Who is he looking for? The upright in heart, those that love Him, and are willing to be used by Him. Those who will humbly say," not my will, but yours be done Lord, use me anyway you choose". Those who choose to be chosen. He is looking for those that will give Him first place in their lives. Those that will obey His command to love Him with all their heart and their neighbor as themselves, those that will submit themselves to His word and be taught by His Spirit. If we will do this, there is nothing God cannot do through us. God takes the lowly, the despised of this world and lifts us up as kings in His kingdom. Through becoming a servant, we become kings, priests and ambassadors. Then God gets glory from our life and His purposes are accomplished in the earth.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 For consider you calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, "Let Him who boasts, boast in the Lord."

Most of the first disciples were common uneducated, men. Jesus did not choose the "wise" men of that day to use to begin His church or to carry out His ministry when He was gone. He did not choose the educated or the wealthy or the eloquent speakers. Paul himself said he was not an eloquent speaker but rather depended on the power of God to do the work. Jesus did not choose the priest of the time or the men that were the spiritual leaders of that day. Most of them put all their faith in their own wisdom, and knowledge and abilities. God wanted to use people that had to depend upon Him, people that was open to listening and learning from Him rather than thinking they already had all the answers.

I don't know about you but we fit into this category. All our training and teaching has come from God himself. He has used many teachers at various times to teach various things but they were inspired and ordained by Him to assist in our spiritual growth. Of course God will use people with gifts, abilities and education if they will humbly submit to His will, but my point is that God can even better use the very people that think they have nothing to offer God, as long as they will put their trust in Him and His abilities and power. After all, God is the one who gives us our gifts and abilities so if we have many or not, is not an issue to God. He will give us many gifts and abilities and much knowledge and wisdom as we spend time with Him. That is the way it was with the first disciples, people were astounded at them seeing how powerful they were and knowing they were uneducated men.

Acts 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

It is no different for you and me, the more time we spend with Jesus the more we begin to look life Him and the more His power and glory shines through us. He can and will give us every ability we need as we spend time with Him and depend upon Him.

Even Jesus Himself depended upon His father, not on His own abilities. This should be our heart as well.

John 5:30 (Jesus speaking) I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who went Me.

The Fathers heart is that His creation would come to know and love Him, He wants children. His heart also is that His children learn His ways and learn to live like the children of God that we are. God wants souls won and those people discipled. He wants His kingdom in the earth built. He wants us to realize what is important in this life and what is not. He wants us to seek His will and not our own and when we do we have laid down our life. He promises that when we lay down our life that is when we will find life.

Matthew 10: He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

If we belong to God, service to Him is really not a option, at least not a smart one. We are expected to lay down our life and follow Him but we are promised that when we do we will find our life. This means that God expects total surrender to His will from us and when we do He will lead us to His perfect will for our life.

We all have a purpose, a destiny. God has a plan for everyone's life. But we will never find that plan if we rebelliously choose to plan our own life and not surrender to His plan. We find this awesome life that God has for us by obediently following Him, one step at a time. If we fail to take step one when He directs, we will never be able to take step 2 and so on. Even God cannot lead us if we refuse to follow.

Some people think that if they surrender to God, they will hate what He has for them. I was afraid to surrender to God because I was afraid He may send me to some hot, horrible place. Nothing could be further from the truth. That is a tactic of Satan to keep us as from away from God plan as possible. God loves us. He knows us. He knows what it will take to make us happy better than we know. His plan for us will far outshine anything we could come up with on our own. We can trust God with our life better than we can trust ourselves with it. Besides, whatever God has for us He will cause us to want it. I have found this true in my life, even though I have had to take that initial step of surrender first in some cases, by saying, " God, I don't really want to do that but nevertheless, not my will be done but yours" Then he changed my heart and I wanted to do it more than anything, and it brought tremendous blessings into my life that would not have come any other way. God is so good.

Philippians 2:12 -13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

This scripture is referring to the service or work that we do for the Lord because we are saved. He is saying to do it with respect and reverence being very mindful of God because it is God Himself who causes us to want to do this service and to do the service. It goes on to say that the service that we do because we are saved brings God pleasure.

The fruit that our service produces brings God pleasure too. Being a fruit bearer is another thing that most Christians think is an option, but according to the bible it is not. Fruit is the results of our labor and our life in Christ.

John 15:1-8 I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

As children of God, we are His disciples and must be fruit bearers. If not, then we are useless to the kingdom of God. In order to be fruit bearers in our service to Him all we have to do is abide in Him: read His word, apply it to our life, spend time with Him, put our trust in Him and not in our own wisdom, or giftings, or education, or ability. Without God, we can do nothing.

Chosen Explosion House Churches are fruit producers. Our vision and our methods are to evangelize, disciple, mentor, equip and send. When you do these things the fruit is tremendous. People are saved, then made into strong Christians and strong leaders then they are encouraged to go and do the same reproducing themselves over and over. A great harvest of souls cannot help but to come fourth with this kind of effort. We saw more souls saved our first 10 months than we did in 15 years of leadership service in the church. We have seen lives changed and spiritual awareness raised in our community.

The best thing about it is that the efforts for each person are minimal. Our groups are broken down into very small groups of 12 with at least 2 leaders. The family group may have up to 36 but when that time comes for your house church you will have other pastors and leaders to help you. The Family pastor is responsible for discipling and mentoring just the adults, the children's leaders the children, and the youth leader the youth. Everyone works together on going door to door to invite the neighbors to come to the Bible studies. The children and youth can help too. We also have used newsletters to invite neighbors and let them know what the kids and youth are doing in their neighborhood. There are all kinds of method for reaching out to the neighbors. House church pastors and leaders can feel free to try any methods they like.

I hope the message I have portrayed in this Chapter is that you really can do this. It is not hard or burdensome. It is a real blessing to be such a blessing to so many. You many not even have the ability to read or write, but if you will put your trust in God and put His will above your own, you will be amazed at what He will do through you!

 

 

 

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