What makes us fully usable before God? The ability to work well with others, my brothers and sisters in Christ.
We must recognize that the church is both an army and a family.
Managing both types of relationship and roles could be quite a skill. How do we do that?
- Key #1 Learn to work well with one another and don’t resist change.
Change is inevitable in kingdom-building.
The first reason we came to live and serve Jesus is asking Him to change our hearts. Repentance is turning away from sin. That requires change!
Why do we resist change when it’s what catapults us to new levels in our walk with the Lord and with one another? If the children of Israel didn’t walk through the desert, they would never have crossed over into what God had promised.
- Key #2 Risks must be taken to embrace change.
We can’t keep going over the same territory, or going round and round the same mountain. There are other mountains to climb in the horizon. If we look far enough out, we’ll see them for God has them in our view. The beauty in discovering what God has created is to see the bigger picture.
I started asking Him for the larger view of things, a wide-angle lens. It’s amazing what is captured, what I was missing, with only a single focused lens. I learned that a single focus lens or fixed focus lens is only one focal length, so it is not possible to change your angle or view of things.
Asking God to see as He sees changes the size of the lens by which we see through.
If we don’t change or move out in new or different things, we may end up like King Saul. He was called by God but chose not to obey Him. He operated in the flesh, was jealous, and had some pretty wicked thoughts, like how to kill David. He no longer led under God’s anointing, he wanted control to do what he thought was right. He fed his own insecurities, afraid of launching out and embracing God’s will. Many times he failed for he didn’t seek God’s direction nor His will.
Seeking and yielding are important attributes of a Kingdom-minded follower of Jesus.
We must remember God’s call is for His people to possess the land. This requires change and moving out–moving out of our comfort zone.
Are we choosing comfort over cost? If we get too comfortable or lack the confidence in trying a new direction, this can keep us from going all the way with God. I am not saying to run aimlessly or recklessly without a plan or direction. However, the Father’s love is an overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love that chases us down and fights till we’re found.
Kingdom-minded believers know the cost of sharing this reckless love.
This kind of love may take us places that we would never go, or make us do things we would never do. For those who decide to follow Jesus completely, there will be a cost.
- Key # 3 Changes, challenges, and commissions are all part of being made fully usable for God.
Going to church once a week and having a good message weekly is not enough when you’re called to lead an army and a family. Families included multiple generations.
Being equipped is part of our calling. We are the army of God, not pew-warmers. We have been armed for battle. We have been given weapons, clothed and suited in armor, not to just sit and come to church once a week. This is vitally important, but there’s more!
KINGDOM PRINCIPLE: Always be available to receive His plans, there’s more for Him to give for every child, woman, and man.
KINGDOM ASSURANCE
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