13/07/2022
AS YOU SERVE GOD, HE DOES NOT WANT THESE SEVEN THINGS FROM YOU….
Every believer is SAVED TO SERVE God in one capacity or the other. However, in this end-time, there will be a SIGNIFICANT SHIFT in the way that God wants us to serve Him. And we must pay attention to this shift.
God will take us right back to the TRUE biblical basis for serving Him. A basis that had become neglected as the church went into lukewarmness in the last few centuries.
In that lukewarmness, believers sought to work for God through a GOD-MAN partnership. That is, God gives an assignment. And then, working with God, the believer deploys his personal resources to carry out the assignment.
Such resources include man’s intellect, his initiatives, his strategies, his perspectives, his opinions, his strength, his wisdom, and so on.
All these elements are invested in the work of God until it is accomplished. Some believers will even leave the pursuit of a secular career to focus on the work of God full-time! That is an indication of how dedicated they are to the work of God.
(Here’s something that many believers may not know. When we bring our personal resources to work for God, it is inevitable that we’ll share in His glory!)
However, the days of using our personal resources to serve God, and sharing His glory are over. In this end-time, God is returning His TRUE church back to the biblical model of serving Him.
In this model, it is ONLY God that does ALL the work Himself. All as in ALL! Man becomes only A VESSEL through which God Himself does ALL HIS WORK.
But, before God will work with a believer on this basis, He would have to, FIRST OF ALL, break that believer down and strip him of the POWER OF SELF. It is only when this POWER OF SELF has been dealt a CRUSHING, divine blow that the believer can become a carrier/container of the POWER OF THE SPIRIT that will do the work of God.
In the life of a believer, this CRUSHING, DIVINE BLOW is not a one-time event. It is a blow that will keep falling day after day – until the believer dies. And this is so that the POWER OF SELF will no longer return to gain ascendancy in that life.
The crushing, divine blow will come in various forms of trials, tribulations, and suffering that God will allow the believer to pass through. It is for this reason that the pain, suffering, and shame that genuine believers will experience in these days will be COMPLETELY UNPRECEDENTED in the modern history of the Church of God.
This will be God’s way of preparing His TRUE church to serve Him in the WORK OF PREPARATION that will precede the return of Jesus. For this reason, God will work in our lives, again and again, and with greater intensity, to break the POWER OF SELF in our lives.
For it is from this POWER OF SELF that man derives his strength, wisdom, intellect, initiative, opinion, methodology, and power.
Friends, these are the SEVEN ELEMENTS that God does NOT want in His glorious work in this end-time!!! And that is because the delicate WORK OF PREPARATION must never, ever be contaminated by the energy of SELF. For SELF cannot prepare the way for THE SPIRIT. Let’s repeat this line - SELF cannot prepare the way for THE SPIRIT!
Therefore, in these days, all that God wants are EMPTY VESSELS into which He will pour Himself. Pour Himself to do His own work, by Himself ALONE.
When God works by Himself in this way, His work becomes ENDURING. A perfect example of this is God’s work of salvation through Jesus Christ. In this respect, here are the words of Jesus: “… the Father who dwells in me DOES HIS WORKS” (John 14:10). Please, think about this.
Jesus emptied Himself to become THE VESSEL into which the Father could pour Himself to do His work. “I can of mine own self do nothing….”, He repeated again and again (John 5:19, 30; 8:28, etc). It is on this basis that Jesus served God to bring salvation to mankind.
When that message of salvation would come to us - the Gentiles - God chose a man, called Saul at that time. He struck him down on his way to Damascus (Acts 9:3-4), sent him to the deserts of Arabia (Gal 1:15-18), and sustained the crushing blows on him all the days of his life (2 Cor 11:24-27, etc). This is why the ministry of Apostle Paul bore so much power and effectiveness for God.
Power and effectiveness. Just like the ministries of the other Apostles of Christ, who lived under the CRUSHING BLOW of suffering all their lives. Forsaking THEIR ALL when they met Christ (Luke 18:28), and living as strangers and pilgrims all their days on earth (1 Pet 2:11).
Just so that they could be EMPTIED of the POWER OF SELF. Just so that they could become MERE VESSELS in which God could pour Himself to do His own work – by Himself ALONE.
All these happened at the beginning of the Church Age. In these closing days of the Church Age, God is reverting to this tested and trusted pattern of serving Him. This is why He is casting aside the OLD ORDER, raising NEW VESSELS to serve Him in this end-time. EMPTY vessels that He’ll use – so that the excellency of the power may belong to Him ALONE (2 Cor 4:7).
Brethren, this is the way that God has chosen to prepare His church for the imminent return of His Son to rule the world in glory.
Do YOU want to be a part of this glorious company of EMPTY VESSELS? Then, get ready!
Get ready to be ‘CRUSHED’ by God – as He takes away all your power and confidence in your SELF. Get ready for the painful and shameful work of THE CROSS, as God uses this ‘crude tool’ to crucify you to the world and crucify the world to you (Gal 6:14). Get ready to FORSAKE EVERYTHING that you possess (Luke 14:33), and to HATE your life in this world (John 12:25) – so that you can gain it in eternity.
But, please note that all these will NOT happen unless you, by God’s grace, PRESENT YOURSELF to Him as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1). God will NOT force this end-time agenda on any believer. He will work in, and work with, ONLY those that hear His knock on the door of their hearts and open the door to Him in intimacy (Rev 3:20).
That is, believers that are ready to be PATIENT in tribulation (Rom 12:12), ready to REJOICE in persecution (Matt 5:11-12), ready to give thanks to God in ALL things, both good and bad (1 Thess 5:18). Men and women of faith whose entire lives revolve around God ALONE.
Let’s be candid. Jesus made it clear that He’ll barely find such faith on earth when He returns (Luke 18:8). For, abounding iniquities in this end-time will cause the love of many for Him to wax cold (Matt 24:12). With many believers turning their back on God’s sound doctrines, preferring to listen to fables (2 Tim 4:3-4).
That will be the state of Christianity when Jesus returns – according to Bible prophecies. May He not find YOU among the lukewarm group that would be cast away in that day!
Rather, may He find you ready with extra oil, watching and waiting, so that you can open to Him IMMEDIATELY when He arrives (Luke 12:35-36).
If this is your heartfelt desire, please turn to God in earnest prayer and TOTAL surrender now. His grace is waiting to help the willing soul. Souls that are ready to be ‘CRUSHED’ and rendered COMPLETELY EMPTY for God to fill for His work in this end-time.
“… for IT IS GOD who works in you, both TO WILL and TO WORK for his good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13)
Thanks for reading, God bless you.
