God took the little nation of Israel and isolated them in a wilderness. He was placing them in a school of testing to produce a people who would trust in him no matter the circumstances. He wanted Israel to testify, “I can go through any test, any difficulty, even those beyond my abilities. How? I know that my God is with me in every trial. He will always bring me through.”
No one on earth can place you in ministry. You may be given a diploma by a seminary, ordained by a bishop or commissioned by a denomination; but the apostle Paul reveals the only source of any true call to ministry: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry” (1 Timothy 1:12, NKJV).
Contentment was a huge test in Paul’s life. After all, God said he would use him mightily: “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15, NKJV). When Paul first received this commission, “Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20).
Surrender. What does this word tell you? In literal terms, surrender means “to give up something to another person.” It also means to relinquish something granted to you. This could include your possessions, power, goals or even your life. Christians today hear much about the surrendered life, but what does it mean exactly?
When a crisis strikes, you don’t have time to build yourself up in prayer and faith. Those who spend their time in the prayer closet with Jesus, though, are always ready.
A couple wrote to our ministry recently in a spirit that revealed they’d been with Jesus. Their 24-year-old daughter had been out with a friend when a madman kidnapped both young women. He murdered their daughter in a grisly fashion. The couple was in shock. Their friends and neighbors wondered, “How could any parent survive this kind of tragedy?”
In Acts 3, we find Peter and John going to the temple to worship. Just outside the temple gate sat a beggar who had been crippled from birth. Peter told him to stand and walk in the name of Jesus, and the man was healed!
Joseph had a vision that his life would be used mightily by God, but that vision seemed like a pipe dream after his jealous brothers sold him into slavery. The following years of Joseph’s life were filled with hardship and injustice. Just when Joseph seemed to get back on his feet, he was falsely accused of attempted rape and sent to prison. Finally, after years of turmoil, Joseph ended up serving in Pharaoh’s house. Pharaoh eventually appointed Joseph ruler over all of Egypt.
We who know Christ’s righteousness are not to live as those who are without hope. We have been blessed with both the love and the fear of God.
You cannot work effectively for Christ unless you are willing to take a few risks, and Jesus warned his followers that there would be the risk of encountering serpents.
I think it is significant that the Bible calls Satan “that serpent of old” (Revelation 12:9, NKJV), and Jesus said, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23), but in Ecclesiastes, we are warned: “…whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him” (Ecclesiastes 10:8, KJV).
“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ Then Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven’” (Matthew 18:1-3, NKJV).