Good morning.
I wish I could have known Paul. The Lord has a tendency to choose the unimpressive people as His impressive servants. We learn a little about Paul from these words of his in 2 Corinthians 10:10 about himself: “For some say, ‘His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.’”
In 2 Corinthians 10:1 Paul said: “By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am 'timid' when face to face with you, but 'bold' when away!” How do you feel when you need to exercise your gift in obedience to the Lord? Maybe you have spent years to get the courage together to do for the Lord what you are supposed to do. Maybe you have been bullied in life and have become withdrawn.
Paul said he was timid when he was with the people and others commented that he was unimpressive and he seemed to struggle to express himself verbally. Yet he was this powerful apostle who exposed thousands of people to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why would this have been? It is because the Lord’s “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). The less impressive we feel, the more powerful He is through us.
I have learned not to look for results, but to simply do as I was told. I say what I need to say, write what I need to write, help where I need to help and it is up to the Lord what effect my contribution may have on His Kingdom. People who become great in man’s eyes often compromise to impress. The Lord’s plan to win the world for Jesus involves a team effort, which is a united church working together under His guidance as a team, each using their gift in their immediate surroundings, in their country and in the entire world, in order to work a change in people’s hearts. Some are sent, some are called to work locally, but we all are called to allow the Lord to exercise His power through us.
The self-proclaimed ‘timid’ Paul then continued his letter in 2 Corinthians 10:2-5: “I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
He called us to the urgency of the task: ‘Please stop being so worldly and realise that there are forces out there that would do anything to discredit God, and the only soldiers the Lord has, are us. So let us get involved in the war using the weapons the Lord makes available to us.’
Are you involved in the war? Do you use your gift, empowered by the anointing from the Holy Spirit, to demolish strongholds against God, which you see in other people’s lives? The power of life to your household is contained behind the handy little instrument called a water tap. Unless you open the tap to release the power, your family will go thirsty, won’t have cooked food and will go dirty. Only believing that the power is behind that tap, and exercising the faith to turn it will release the power to change your family’s life.
The same spiritual power is within you if you are born again and Spirit filled. You have a gift with which you are born (Romans 12:6-8 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2012:6-8&version=NIV1984) and you have the gifts of the Holy Spirit available. All you need to do is to exercise faith and start doing what you know you should do and the anointing will follow.
Lord, I am going to obey.
Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.
Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.
No comments:
Post a Comment