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The Fearless Servant
Posted : 15 May, 2011 09:37 AM
Our lives are impacted daily by situations and curcumstances that effect our dailly living. But what many people don't understand is that the purpose of these situation and curcimstances are placed in our path to help make us grow and mature as individuals and spiritually. These situatons and circumstances are to teach us how to properly resond to God, which will strengthen our faith and trust in God, so that we may become overcomers in all situations and curcumstances we face in life.
As the apostle James points out in his writings in chapter 1: My brothers/sisters, count it all joy (a postive work) when you fall (encounter) into different temptations (trials), knowing that the trying( testing) of your faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect (complete) works in you until the end, so that you will have no need to want for nothing."
How long or how short our stay in a particular trial depends on how we respond to whatever is going on in our life whether positively or negatively, and whether we are learning the life lessons we are to learn from what we are going through. All in all God has a perfect purpose and plan according to His will as to why and how long, or how short we stay in a trial based on our reaction and response, and how we handle our problems.
When God's divine plan calls for a major impact on the world, He chooses and uses those men and women who will not fail Him in times of their own personal struggles. He seeks out those who have endured hardships and have handled them by faith and have overcome problems with patience and have grown up into maturity spiritually... and understand what it means to trust in the Lord with all your hearts and not depend or lean on your own understanding, and have accept responsibility for whatever has casue the trials or problems in our lives.
God seeks out those who display inner qualities of strength and are fearlessness. As we see thoughtout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, men and women God has used who fought and stood for the thnggs of God without fear. God chooses men and women of valor who are fealess and determined to carry out His will, regardless of how difficult the task or circumstance or how heated the situation. In thimes of crisis, God needs fealess men and women to go the battle and finish the course.
John the Baptist was an ordained leader whom God choose in his mother's womb, becasue God knew John was going to be a fighter and not a murmurer or a complainer, and would stand for justice and righteousness in obedience to what God had given to him to do. The Bible tells us that the angel Gabriel declared that John. "shall be filled the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb" Luke chapter 1:15.
Of course, this does nto mean that John was saved in his mother's womb, it just means that God had chosen and anointed John as a leader from his mother's womb, and divinely equipped and empower John with power to carrying out God's plans as a forerunner (messenger of the gospel going before Jesus). This is not something new, God equips and empowers all of us with His power in our mother's womb, but what is done with this power depends on what our parents do in our growing up teachings as we grow up as chidren, and what we do with this powr after we are grown. Many parents recognize things that are special in their children and rasie them to accept these special gifts as being from and of God, while many parents don't or either they will use the gifts of the cild for personal gains for the works of the devil. Many people after they are grown see they hav e speacial gifts from God but reject God in disobedience and refuse to use their gifts from God in ministry for his works.
The religious leaders of Israel did not respond well to John the Baptist's ministry. They were hypocrites, unholy, puffed up with pride, and lived luxuriously. John was going in a totally different direction. Their rejection of John's ministry was not in a passive manner, it was not always an aggressively hostile, but it was subtle hostility, because John became popular with the people which brought about the leaders overtly opposing him.
John knew his purpose in the ministry was to prepare the people for the coming of the Lord, and to turn them back to a focus on their faith. His goal was to bring the people to Christ., and the leaders opposed this becasue they were turning the people away from Chirst with their own false teachings.
Fear tests a person character. Many people succumb to their oppressors and leaders out of fearout of losing friendships, or losing a position, rather than stand their ground and refuse to compromise especial when you know what is right and just. John the Baptist was a fighter, and he knew that God would send a liberator to right the worngs of his day, if only he would hold on and stand firm in what he believed and knew to be true of God.
Johm was known as a "wild man" who broke the mold of the common man and sought to separate himself from sins of the world. He was wild in the sense that he was fearless and unafraid to come against all odd or the leaders to take a stand aginst their wrongs. Regardless of what they called him or the outcome, John was determined to speak the truth to all who could and would hear him.
John knew about fear, but his healthy fear outweighted his fear of man, or what they called him, or what they thought of him.John's healthy fear enabled him to satnd against the wrath of the Pharises. His healthy fear of God gave him courage and power, and directions and movation to make the right choices and live within the divine plans of God.
Most of the world's problems can be traced to a lack of fear of God, most of the problems in people's daily lives can be traced to their lack of fear(honor) of God and His wrath. Sin runs rampant becasue people do not fear the wrath of God in punsihment, even those who claim to believe in God are bold enough to continue to commit blatant sins in spite of their Chirstian beliefs.
Knowing God and knowing about God are two different things To have an intellectual knowledge of God is not the same as having a faith knowledge in and of God in your life. Knowing about God is not the same as having a close personal intimate relationship with God. Knowing God involves far more that just kowning about God and being a good church goer or a thither.
A perosn may know all about theteachings of scripture and about God, and the need for repentance and the meaning of all the church and religious stuff, but without the constant work of cultivation of your faith spiritually in God, spiritual weeds will sprout up to weaken and eventually overppower your true faith in God and close personal relationship with God. Your faith crop and knowledge and closeness to, and in God become weak and worthless. A person with a healthy fear of God has taken the time to cultivate his/her relatiionship with God through diligent study and prayer before God.
John the baptist was a fearless servant who cultivated his relationship with God in the wilderness, and was able to stand in his faith against the challenges of the enemy by faith and his personal relationship with God in obedience in his service for the Lord.
Every believer pught to be living a life style that points to Christ as His forerunner with the gospel of Jesus Christ, in a personal realtionship with God. Your life as a fearless servant would be proof of your obedience to God and fear of God in honor, which will enocurage others and turn them from their sins to the Savior. And when asked what is your hope of glory, you will be able to affirm that God is the author and finisher of your faith, and Lord over your life thorugh Jesus Christ.
God has decided to use you for a world changing task, are you fearless adn understand your purpose in service to speak out aginst injustice without compromise, knowing that God is on your side? Are you empowered and equipped with the Holy Spirit of God to prepare the way of the Lord for sinners and backslider to come to Christ without compomise?
What is the purpose of your ministry?
A fearless servant is a person whose faith will stand against the adversary at all cost, for the name sake of Jesus Christ.
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