This is the sixth in a series of writings on how to discover God’s mission for your life. I am hoping that by now you are starting to get a little excited about God’s vision for your life. Perhaps you have been able to picture you and Jesus talking and sharing together, discussing and developing plans for your life. This is good! But there are a few things that would help you to have your mind open enough to hear ALL the counsel that the Lord might have for you, and I hope to address them here.
GROW and don’t SETTLE for the easy path
There are two verses from 1 Corinthians that have helped me to add the perspective of time to my thinking, and which also reinforce the concept of boldness from the last post. These verses are 1 Corinthians 12:31 and 1 Corinthians 14:1. The idea they present is simple. They tell us that we should desire better spiritual gifts than we have now. In fact, they challenge us to desire the best spiritual gifts possible, so that we can be a greater blessing to the Body of Christ. Throughout the rest of chapter 12 we are informed that the greatest two gifts are apostle and prophet. So it seems to me that we ought to desire these enough to ask God — and keep on asking — for Him to give us these gifts.
An important point from these verses is that what we are today isn’t what we will be in the future. The gifts of God are not static. We can get additional gifts as we grow. Which is to say that when I am praying about what kind of vision God has for my life, I should not limit God to what kind of gifts I have now. What I have are “starter gifts”, or now that I’m in my 50s, they might be “intermediate gifts” — but the gifts I have now are not the gifts I will have as I grow toward completeness in Christ.
Take a look at this passage from John 15:7-8 (ESV), which is just a verse past where we stopped earlier when reading about abiding in Christ. Jesus says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.” These verse are pretty amazing, because they tell us that as long as our objective is for the answer to our prayer to give glory to God, as long as the answer to prayer will help us bear fruit, and as long as we keep abiding in Jesus, God is going to answer our prayer!
So as we continue abiding in Jesus, we will see more and more apparent power in our lives as we stay attuned to the heart of God.
The value of a team
There is another lesson that we need to take to heart from 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12:14,18-19,21-23 (NIV) says “Now the body is not made up of one part but of many… God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.”
The lesson we need to learn is this: sometimes when we are seeking God for a vision for our lives, we tend to get focused on ourselves so much that we forget that while sometimes great things are accomplished through God working through one person, probably more often great things are accomplished through God working through a team. Don’t forget it was God’s idea to call us the Body of Christ. When we are part of a team, our weaknesses are covered by the strengths of another. Perhaps you will be the one to lead the team, or perhaps you will simply be an important member of the team. But keep yourself open to how God can call diverse people together to do great things that He has laid on all of their hearts.
Never give up!
The final point I want to leave you with is DON’T GIVE UP! Don’t give up if it takes some time to discern God’s vision for your life. And don’t give up if, as you are walking out that vision, you hit some serious obstacles or even have some serious losses or failures.
We in the Church quit too easily. Lack of success when you try does not mean that God is not blessing you. It may simply mean that God wants your character to develop. Or it may mean that the time wasn’t right. Or it may mean that you have a thing or two to learn before you will succeed. Our actions are to proceed from God guiding us, not from looking on outward circumstances.
I want to share two verses with analogies to farming that are meant to teach us to persevere. The first is from Galatians 6:9 (NIV) and it says “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” And the second is from Jesus’ parable of the seeds, in which three kinds fail to yield any fruit, but one does yield an abundant harvest. Jesus says about it in Luke 8:15 (NIV) “The seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” You cannot reap a harvest if you don’t plant. You cannot reap a harvest if you give up too soon. It takes time for crops to mature, and it takes time for our missions to succeed.
With these three concepts — believing for God to give you more in the future than He has given you so far, the value of working as part of a team, and the need for perseverance through temporary setback and failure — you now have a much broader perspective that will help you be open to the things God wants to share with you.
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Discussion Questions
1) Of the three main ideas presented here, which one is the one which you need most to add to your normal perspective? Why?
2) Do you have any desire to be an apostle or prophet? Which, and why or why not?
This was the sixth in a series of posts on getting God’s vision and mission for your life. To read other posts in the series, check out the links below.
Part 1 of the series: Hand-crafted for Specific Works
Part 2 of the series: What You Do With Your Life Matters a Lot
Part 3 of the series: Secular Schmecular, It’s All God’s
Part 4 of the series: How Can We Know What God’s Mission for Us Is?
Part 5 of the series: Big Thinking and Boldness
This is part of an earlier message had all the parts posted on this website, but which was very long. That message came out of a sermon given at Harvest Church in Hampstead, Maryland, USA, in April 2012.