You have a Calling

 The bible tells us that following Jesus is like running a race but in another place God tells us to walk. No one can run all the time. The strongest runners run a set distance and then stop.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 1 Cor 9:24 NIV

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 
and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Eph 5:1–2 NIV

There are times in life when we need to make an intense effort for a limited time. God calls some of us to fast and pray or to spend a whole night in prayer. An evangelist has to spend time in intense prayer and study before he preaches to a crowd. He may have to preach several nights in a row and pray for many seriously sick people after each sermon. 

But then he needs to take time out from time to time. Jesus Himself told his disciples to withdraw from the crowds and rest for a while to recover their strength. 

When Jesus ministered to crowds in Israel, he walked from town to town. When the Apostle Paul did mission work over a vast area, he also walked and prayed as he walked. 

When the bible tells us to run, we are meant to understand that there are times when we often need to make a concentrated effort for a limited time.

When the bible tells us to walk, we should understand that we need to keep steadily moving forward spiritually and in practical ways, day by day and hour by hour. 

Paul tells each one of us to live like a runner in the Olympic Games, but this raises a question. Only one runner can win the race, so how is it that each Christian can expect to win?

The answer is simple. Each man or woman has a unique calling. If you faithfully carry out the assignments that God has planned for your life, God considers you to be the winner of your individual race. You are not competing against other believers. 

Many Christians fail to reach their God given destiny because they try to compete with other believers. 

There are also very gifted evangelists who fail to reach their potential because they try to do the work of pastors or teachers instead of sticking to their calling to be evangelists. 

Is is also important to understand that there are different stages in life. Sometimes we need to make a concerted effort, like running a race. A good example is the hard work of a mother nursing her baby. She must be available around the clock and the effort is constant and very tiring.

I am now a man approaching my 77th birthday. I need to conserve my energy. At my age I need to walk and rest often and get plenty of sleep, but I can still use my gifts to write and encourage others.

Porn Dealer finds God

 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Mt 20:16 NIV

You did not come into this world by chance, no matter how good or evil your parents were, no matter whether your parents planned your birth or did not want you at all. 

God has a calling for every single person. God is our Creator. He created you. God is a good, creative Creator. He does not create anything or anyone without a good purpose. 

John Dawson was a missionary from New Zealand who served in Los Angeles. He wanted to reach the owner of a porn shop for Jesus. He had breakfast with this man every week and explained the gospel to him. The man believed everything, but was still not ready to give his life to Jesus.

Then John Dawson received a new insight from the Holy Spirit.

He told the man that he was hard on the outside but had a soft heart. God had given him the gift of mercy, but he was using that gift wrongly by giving false comfort through pornography.

The porn dealer was deeply moved and he began to hope.

That same day, the man made Jesus the Lord of his life.

Jesus told the religious professionals of His day that they were blind because they were proud know-alls.

… Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 

For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. Mt 21:31–32 NIV
 
There are still such theological experts and high-ranking church leaders today. This story of Jesus and the religious professionals is unfortunately still relevant.

Are you a human being? Then you are called. You have a calling from Jesus, but your calling must be activated. You must believe and repent.

Are you already converted, but somehow stuck? Your life is more or less virtuous, but for you, God's kingdom is only in the Bible and in heaven. 

Jesus has very specific plans for you and important tasks.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph 2:10 NIV

You can continue to strive to be a good, virtuous Christian, or you can take time out to perceive God's guidance and find the true purpose of your life.

“Show me, LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. Ps 39:4 NIV

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 
For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Mt 7:7–8 NIV

How does God see you?

 I just read about Kathryn Kuhlman, a famous American preacher. She had amazing spiritual gifts, preaching, word of knowledge and healings.

She said the secret of her ministry was complete surrender to God. Not my will, but your will be done.
I feel I should be inspired by this, but I feel overwhelmed and intimidated.

As a new convert, I was in a church that preached complete surrender and absolute obedience, week after week, sermon after sermon. The pressure was unbearable and I had a complete nervous breakdown.

So what do you do if you know your trust in God is not at this level? The preacher tells you that if you don’t put your whole life on the altar without reservations, God will not bless you or use you.
So you feel guilty, unloved, a spiritual failure, or even condemned and afraid of God’s judgement.

So if you read testimonies of great faith heroes, and you feel discouraged rather than inspired, what do you do?

Firstly, don't compare yourself with other believers.

What if Luke compared himself with Paul? There is no record in the bible of Luke healing the sick, preaching to crowds or raising the dead.

Luke knew he did not have the same gifts as Paul. He knew he could not do everything Paul did, but he did not let that stop him doing the things that he could do. 

He researched and recorded the history of the earthly life of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.

Secondly, ask God how He sees you right now?

Does he want you to give up something? Or maybe not. Does he want you do do something new? Or maybe not.

Does he want you to keep doing what you are doing? Or maybe not.

Does he want you to dedicate your life in a new way? Or maybe rather rest in his love and mercy just as you are.

Ask God how he sees you right now. You can be sure he will show you his love.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Rom 8:1 NIV

So now, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith in his promises, we can have real peace with him because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.

For because of our faith, he has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to actually becoming all that God has had in mind for us to be. Rom 5:1–2 The Living Bible, Paraphrased

Don't let what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can do.

Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.

And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 1 Cor 12:14–17 NIV

NO ONE IS ORDINARY

There is no such thing as an ordinary Christian or an ordinary person. 

In the beginning God created Adam and Eve to be like Himself, special representatives of God on earth, immortal spiritual beings created to be like God Himself, created in the image and likeness of God.

How can a perfect and glorious immortal spiritual being be ordinary? 

We know that Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and they lost their immortal glory. Every man and woman since then has been born full of faults and defects.

Imagine an artistic masterpiece, a painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Suppose it is lost, damaged by fire, torn and covered with dirt. 

It might start to look ordinary. But it is not ordinary. 

Supposing an artistic genius were to find the damaged art work. He gets to work and cleans it, repairs the canvass and fully restores the masterpiece.

• It is clearly not ordinary and it never was ordinary.

You and I are the damaged art works of the greatest of all creative masters, God.

You and I were so badly damaged, that we were fit only for destruction. But Jesus died on the cross and opened the way for you and me to be restored.

Jn 3:16 (NKJV)  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

When you allow God to change your heart and you place your entire life in the loving hands of Jesus, something extraordinary happens.

2Co 5:17 (NKJV)  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 

If you are a new creation of God, you cannot be ordinary. 

• Who would dare say an original masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci was an ordinary painting?

If you have been guilty of thinking you are just an ordinary Christian, it is time to repent! Change your mind. 

• Open your heart and let God show you who He is and who You really are.

You are enormously precious and wonderful because you are created in the image of God who is glorious beyond human imagination. 

I don’t want you to become proud. You did not make yourself but you were created by God.

You are special but so is every other believer special. And the people around you who have not yet believed are also special beyond measure, even though they are badly damaged because they were also created in the image of God.

We need to change our thinking and the way we speak about ourselves and about other people.

James 3:9-11 (NIV)  With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness.

• Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 

Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 

God does not like everything about you and me BUT he is working to restore us day by day. 

He is not happy about everything in our lives but He loves His children and that is what we are if we belong to Jesus by trusting Him.

If you belong to Jesus through faith, God not only loves you but He likes what He has done in your life. He likes the real you inside. You are special and God created you with a special purpose in mind. No one else on earth is quite like you. 

God does not despise or hate people. 

• He even sees bad people as His lost children. 

• He longs to restore them and bring them home. 

If you seek to know the heart of God and you search with all your heart, He will show you His heart and He will show you how He sees you. 

• He will show you wonderful things that will transform your life. 
• God will change you into a world changer.

GOD MADE YOU UNIQUE..DISCOVER YOUR DESTINY

1Co 4:7 (NKJV)  For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

THIS TEXT TEACHES US NOT TO BE PROUD. 

You and I must not claim the credit for what God has called us to do because with the calling, 

• God also gives the inspiration, the wisdom, the faith, the love, the knowledge, the strength and the skill to fulfil HIS purpose in His way.

However, there are other lessons hidden in this text.

Firstly, we do differ from one another. Some of the differences are by God’s design.

• God did not call Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel to be preachers, but to write some of the most glorious music ever heard on this earth.

• God did not call Billy Graham or Reinhard Bonnke to teach theology in a Bible college, but to preach to great crowds to bring millions of lost men and women into the Kingdom of Heaven.

If God has gifted you to transform the lives of children, He may not have given you the gift of preaching to crowds of adults. 

One of the saddest things in churches is the low value we put on children and children’s ministry.

• Samuel was a child when he heard the voice of God and became a prophet.

• Mary was a young teenager when she conceived the Son of God.

• In Mozambique, Heidi Baker adopts abandoned children and raises them up to preach the Good News of Jesus to hostile Muslims and witchcraft workers. 

  • Little boys and girls open blind eyes and deaf ears and whole villages come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Children’s ministry can be a place of training for preachers to adults. However, we should not only see children in this way.

• I often hear people speak of children as “the church of tomorrow.” I hate this saying. 

  • Although it is partly true, it poisons the church with unbelief concerning the potential of children to be heroes of faith right now.

• In churches where these thoughts are accepted, the adults are often spiritual underachievers as well. God save our children from becoming mediocre unbelieving believers!

Another reason for differences between believers is simply that only some believers have learned the secret of receiving in order to give.

“For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive?”

Lk 7:47 (NKJV)  Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little."

• The first thing we all need to receive is forgiveness for our sins. 

  • If we have a revelation of the wonderful goodness of God, we will see more and more how much we need His forgiveness and how great is His mercy and grace.

Some of us strive to be good but we are really trying to cover our weaknesses and faults.

• Paul wrote:

2Co 12:9 (NLT)  Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

I love to hear preachers talk about their weaknesses and faults and how God has helped them overcome them. Unfortunately, few preaches dare to be so transparent.

There are other believers who depend on their knowledge and abilities instead of opening themselves to the wisdom and direction of God. 

• If you empty yourself and receive revelation, wisdom and direction from God, He will also use your knowledge and talents but your own ability must never be your starting point or the thing you rely on.

The Apostle Paul and John Wesley were both brilliant scholars but they laid down their lives to learn from the Holy Spirit. 

• God redirected their thinking and used their minds for His Kingdom.

1Co 1:21 (NKJV)  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

• We must also not go to the other extreme by despising intellect. 

  • We would not have bibles and study resources without highly educated believers. 

  • We also need believing doctors, teachers, writers and politicians.