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Jim's PERSPECTIVEOctober 21, 2013And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13 We are told in 1 Corinthians 12:7 that “to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” That is to say, Spirit-endowed giftedness is available to everyone for the building up of the Body of Christ. The question is, how you are to make use of your God-given ability? There are basically just two components: God-in-Christ-through-the Holy Spirit himself and you. On the "you" side is your ability, your desires, and your will. If you didn't have the ability, we would not be having this discussion. But you do. Your desires are another matter. Sometimes it's just answering the simple question, "What do I really want in my heart-of-hearts?" You could say a number of things. Using a musical example, you could say, "I want to be the leader of a praise and worship band.” That's one thing, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you say, "I want to play for God," then that begs the question, how do you go about actually doing it? Do you say to yourself, "I'm going to get up there and offer my talent and play for God's people?" Or do you say, "Lord, what I have is not worthy of you to begin with, and I'm just going to lay down my gift before you to do with it however you see fit?" I believe the second way is the right way, if ministering for God is in fact what you want to end up doing. I think, too, that it is important for one to think not in terms of being, say, a guitar player (or a pianist, organist, pastor, teacher, mechanic, accountant) who plays—or works—for the Body of Christ, but rather, as a member of the Body of Christ who happens to play, or do, whatever. Only the Spirit of God can unlock one’s true and authentic spiritual potential. For that matter, only the Spirit of God can cause one honestly to know and comprehend one’s actual desires. You will be shooting under the mark if you rely on your own understanding in trying to figure that out. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart," but that presupposes that the Lord is the only one who really knows what those desires are. And it also suggests that God has to “fix” (read: sanctify) one’s desires. Because there is a problem if the desire is skewed in some way, and our desires are, in fact, a little off-target more often than not. For instance, if you said that you longed to be the biggest crack dealer in the U.S., I'm thinking that your desire, in the scheme of eternal reality, is not legitimate. In your natural self (mine, too) you don't want to please God. You want to please you. But if your heart’s desire is to please God—and that of course is a legitimate desire—first of all, because that desire comes from God himself and not so much from you, that is an indication that God is working in you. And because it is God, it isn’t something that you can pride yourself in or take credit for. Secondly, the desire, if properly oriented, subjects itself to your will. Your will makes qualitative and quantitative (what, how, and how much) decisions based on your desire. Your will makes choices that affect your desires, which in turn affects whether or not those desires are realized. Forgive this self-indulgence, but to use again the same—but slightly altered—musical example, if you were to say, "I want to be used of God in a real ministry that is music-related," then your will kicks in and begins weighing in on what is required for you to actually do it, what you are truly prepared to do to make that happen, and what it will mean in relation to time and mental and psychological investment. As we all know, it's a little presumptuous --not to mention ridiculous--to think that anyone could do anything "for God" without God himself having something to say about it. And there is the issue of what it will cost. In 2 Samuel 24:24, David says, “I will not offer God that which has cost me nothing.” It is supposed to cost you, and that’s a large part of why Jesus said to “Count the cost.” What has to happen is, the desire must be subject to the will, and the will must be surrendered to Jesus. I believe that then, and only then, is God willing to accept our will because the Holy Spirit wants—reserves the right—to reshape and redefine our desires to conform to God's own will. And God’s will is to include our own will when it is properly aligned. But it has to be clearly understood that it truly must be God's will and not simply one's own "wishful thinking" or "vain imagination," as the scripture mentions. In Romans 9:16, Paul puts it this way: “It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort (will), but on God's mercy.” This is the only way I know to know that what we have to offer God can truly be of use to him. As Jesus said, in John’s gospel, “He who wills to know...will know.” - Jim Radford |
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©2013 Jim Radford. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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