Life isn’t lotto
649, no my friend. So you’re thinking that the events just happens by chance,
randomly, that it moves aimlessly through space and time with no set purpose.
If you are thinking it is this way then you need to think again. Your life has
a specific design; it comes with a set of blueprints and manual.
Seriously,
I’m going to share with you insight from the Word of God with the intent purpose
of setting you on the right path of thinking. The truth is; God created you, He
loves you, He sent His Son to die on the cross to save you and He sent Holy Spirit
to speak truth into your heart.
The hand of
God can be clearly seen on the many characters in the Bible. I see this to be
true in every chapter, every verse and in every line written in the Word of
God.
Consider Abram,
“The LORD had said him, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s
household and go to the land I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1) God literally
spoke to Abram. It wasn’t his father, mother, wife or some friend that spoke to
him; it was God who spoke to Abram. “So Abram left, as the LORD had told him...
he was seven-five years old when he set out from Haran.” (v.2)
Why God did call
a seven-five year old man to uproot and move to a new location? It sounds crazy
at first until you hear the explanation. God said to Abram, “I will make you
into a great nation...I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.”
(v.2, 3)
Greatness
and blessing go together. Are you
getting the revelation? God singled out one man and assigned him a place of great honor. In the same manner in which God entered into a covenant with Abram (Genesis 15) He enters into a covenant with you and I. It's a covenant relationship; one with a specific mission.
Moses was a shepherd attending to the flock of his father-in-law near Hored, the mountain
of God, when He spoke to Him through a burning bush that didn’t burn up. God
said, “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of
Egypt.”
But Moses
said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites of
Egypt? And God said, “I will be with you.” (Exodus 3:11 & 12) Moses thought the idea to be crazy; he was under qualified. He was by no means a match for Pharoah. Why would God assign him such an overwhelling mission? He wasn't a trained operative. He didn't have a Central Intellegence Agency working for him. He didn't have a standing army to challenge Pharoah. He had nothing but a promise from God; for he needed nothing else. With reluctance Moses obeyed
and went to Egypt. (Exodus 3:10)
Are you
getting the revelation? God is calling you and is giving you an assignment.
He's calling you and sending you out to
help someone in distress, someone in darkness, someone in bondage, someone
in despair; He’s sending you out to bring that someone out of darkness, to lift
that someone out of the pit, to rescue a soul. He has a ministry for you, He
has a mission for you; will you go?
Don’t you
worry about the outcome; the LORD who helped Moses will help you and give you
great success. He will equip you for the task. He will equip
you for the mission; just go in faith and believe His promises. Jesus sent
twelve disciples out and “gave them authority over evil spirits...they went out
and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed
many sick people with oil and healed them.” (Mark 6:7-12)
I hear the Holy Spirit saying, "there's someone reading this message who is called to
the “Ministry of Bringing”. You are to bring others out of slavery and bring
them into freedom. God is anointing you for this work and, this anointing
will cause others to follow you. They will follow you as you follow Christ.
They will follow you to church. They will follow your conversation. They will
follow you just to hear you speak Words of Life.
When two men heard John the Baptist say,
“Look, the Lamb of God!” they immediately followed Jesus. Jesus saw them
following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi where are you
staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
“So they went...and
spent the day with Jesus. (John 1:35-43) Andrew, one of the two who heard what
John had said, followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his
brother Simon...to bring him to Jesus”. There’s an Andrew present who’s called
to bring others to Christ.
The Holy
Spirit just reminded me of Samuel who was just a young boy when God spoke to
him. There’s some young boy, in his adolences, whom God is calling to preach the gospel
of the kingdom of heaven. Obey and go!
The Word of
God says that “Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD...when God spoke
to Him.” (1 Samuel 3)
Samuel did not
recognize the voice of God at first. He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, you
called me. But Eli said, “I did not call you, go back and lie down.” Three
times God called Samuel by name before he realized it was God. God called
Samuel to a specific task; to warn Eli’s family of coming judgement for sins committed.
God anointed Samuel to warn them of judgment to come.
Are you getting
the revelation? God calls individuals to warn of coming judgement. It’s
a specific assignment given to warn others about God’s wrath and plead with
them to repent and stop offending God.
The Holy
Spirit just spoke again saying, "that many are being called with a special
anointing to warn this generation of the wrath to come". God raised up Jeremiah
to warn the whole nation of Israel of the coming calamity. Few listened and
because they refused to repent, a nation of people went into captivity. Jeremiah
was anointed for the task. Whenever he spoke he cried nothing but violence and
destruction; the messagethat brought him insult and reproach all day long. It got so bad
for Jeremiah, he thought, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name".
But he could hold it in, he said, “His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire
shut up in my bones.” (Jeremiah 20:9)
There's
a whole generation of believers who lack courage. When Christians lose courage they lose hope.
When they lose hope they’re weakened in their resolve to defend family, church or the home land. Men will only follow a man with courage. God is calling you
to be a man of courage. He’s calling you by the power of the Spirit to proclaim
the Kingdom of Heaven. He’s calling you to be a general in His army.
Phillips Brooks said, Courage...is
the indispensable requisite of any true ministry...Courage is good everywhere,
but it is necessary here. If you are afraid of men and a slave to their
opinion, go and do something else. Go and make shoes to fit them...But do not
keep on all your life preaching sermons which shall say not what God sent you
to declare, but what they hire you to say. *
Let me give
you a picture of how bad things can be with men. Saul and the Israelites
gathered their forces for war against the Philistines. When David showed up on
the front lines he found Saul and all the Israelites dismayed and terrified. As
he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion...stepped out from
his lines and shouted defiance and David heard it. When the Israelites saw the
man, they ran from him in great fear.” (1 Samuel 17:24) The men were hiding in
caves. They lost hope and were paralyzed with fear. “For forty days the
Philistines came forward every morning and evening and took their stand.”
God called
David, anointed Him with courage and sent him out to the battle line to break
the spirit of fear and intimidation. David gave
the army Israel a renewed hope. The revelation here is that a generation of men
have lost their moral and spiritual courage and are paralyzed with fear but,
things are going to change. God is sending His man to the front lines of
battle. His mission to break the curse of dispair and hopelessness. His mission is to lead God's army into battle to destroy the works of the devil.
C.S. Lewis
said, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the
form of every virtue at the testing point.”
God is
sending a band of brothers anointed with confidence to fight against the
Philistines and to decapitate Lucifer. No longer
will men retreat, no longer will they recoil.
They will run to the battle line to face their adversary in the power of the
Spirit. They will reach into the bag of God's promise as David reached for a stone
to slain the enemy. God is sending His “Special Forces” who’s trained,
disciplined, equipped and dangerous!
Over and
over we hear the words of the LORD in the scriptures saying, “Be strong and of
good courage, fear not...be strong and of good courage, fear not...be strong
and of good courage, fear not.” In other words “never back down from a fight.”
Polycarp refused to back down and we bend to forces of opposition.
John Foxe - After the
respite, the Christians again came under persecution, this time from Marcus
Aurelius, in A.D. 61. One of those who suffered this time was Polycarp, the
venerable bishop of Smyrna...As he entered the stadium with his guards, a voice
from heaven was heard to say, "Be strong, Polycarp, and play the
man." No one nearby saw anyone speaking but many people heard the voice.
Brought before the tribunal and the crowd, Polycarp refused to deny Christ,
although the proconsul begged him to "consider yourself and have pity on
your great age. Reproach Christ and I will release you." Polycarp replied,
"Eighty-six years I have served Him, and He never once wronged me. How can
I blaspheme my King, who saved me?" Threatened with wild beasts and fire,
Polycarp stood his ground.(From Foxe’s Christian Martyrs,
published by Barbour Publishing, Inc., Uhrichsville, OH. Page 11. Used by
permission)Polycarp refused to back down and we bend to forces of opposition.
Psalm 27:1-3 says, “The Lord is my light and my
salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom
shall I be afraid? When the wicked advance against me to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will
not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.”
·
(Quoted in:
Who Will Be Saved? Edited by: House, Paul and Thornbury, Gregory, Crossway,
2000, p. 101.)
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