By Titto Thomas
“I want to do something for the Lord and his Kingdom” – This would be a very common cry amongst most Born Again Christians. I believe that we at Imrah have an equally important responsibility of equipping saints for purposeful work in the kingdom.
To all the Born Again Christians I want to reiterate the fact that we are just passing through this place. We don’t belong here. God has redeemed us and kept us here so that we would do great damage to the kingdom of darkness that rules this earth.
Therefore, in this post, I want to introduce some concepts from the scripture, relevant in this context.
1. The reality of our Journey
2. Good works
3. Foundations for good works
THE REALITY OF OUR JOURNEY
For most people, if a person is Born Again….Well that’s about it. They can’t think of anything else. “Read your bible, pray and be a good guy”- would be the only advice they could give a convert. Well, I have news for you!
The Bible calls our regeneration as a wicket gate experience. It is a gate. Being born again is the start of a journey-The Goal of which is God (not heaven like most people think!). Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). In other words this journey that God is calling us is ‘IN HIM, BY HIM AND THROUGH HIM’ not to forget it is FOR HIM (Col 1:16)!
Jesus further describes this path of this journey as a narrow one- THE NARROW PATH! Now what happens in this journey! In this journey you decrease and HE INCREASES!
My friends, we cannot be blind to the journey that God is calling us to. He gives us a picture in Exodus as an Old Testament shadow of the New Testament reality. If you have been sleeping by the gate, let me encourage you to wake up and start this journey today!
GOOD WORKS
As I mentioned in the introduction, we all want to be useful vessels. But before we dive into doing something for the Lord we need to consider a verse in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
Ephesians 2:10(NIV): For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
What Paul is explaining here is that God has prepared good works for us in this journey. God saved us to do good works. This also implies that there are ‘specific works’ that the Lord has planned in your life – we aren’t called to do anything and everything. Also, you need to be walking IN HIM if you want to walk in these ‘good works’!
The Greek word used in the above passage signifies a walk. A walk in this context is a sign of abundance- we overflow with good works!
There is a great necessity for the believers to be focused on their calling. Sometimes God can call you to reach a billion people. Maybe God’s calling for you is to reach the man who is going to reach a billion people, or maybe your calling is to be a witness in the place of your work! Whatever you may be called to do, remember that we need to be single-minded and yielded.
Foundation for Good works
If I were traveling with you on the same airplane and I were to tell you “Hey I am gonna try my hand at flying this thing“. You would bang me on my head. Why?? Because I lack the necessary training to fly an aircraft!
In this physical world we understand this concept very well. Take the case of a doctor, a pilot, a lawyer. They are able to do this work because they have the necessary foundation for it. They have been trained to do it!
We understand that through our born again experience we have started a journey. We understand that there are good works to be done, but we fail to understand that the initial part of the journey has to start with laying foundations for doing these great works! Foundations are never easy or exciting, but they are fundamental. I complained about why I had to learn geometry when I was a school student. Now I realize that this application of geometry (in my line of work) helps geologists in accurately interpreting the oil-drill readings.
When we did our schooling we had well-defined curriculums and subjects, divided into topics and sub topics. But when it comes to the word of God, we treat it like a colossal soup. Search scriptures properly and you will find out there is a neat ordering to the Word. The Word has not been placed haphazardly! Likewise, we too need to have a clear distinctive growth. Only rightly dividing God’s word will help us in this.
Foundational learning does not have shortcuts. Unless you understand basic facts like God’s good work, salvation, justification, forgiveness etc. you are going nowhere in your Christian walk. These Good works in our journey is not of ourselves, rather it is God flowing through us. Would you give a knife to your two year old child. No way! Why? Because you love your child. Likewise God in his love for you will not allow you to do greater things unless you are mature enough to handle it. He will not let you jump from the first grade to the 10th grade either. The Holy Spirit makes sure that you learn your lessons before proceeding.
Lastly, foundation building is never short. Just take the case of Jesus. He waited 30 years to do a 3 year ministry and boy! What a ministry that was! If Jesus had to wait before doing His work…what about you? In this journey He spends time training you up before you go for the fights. We can be involved in a lot of things but we need to consider if these ‘things’ are of the Lord! The Holy Spirit is our teacher and we start learning only when we see him as so! I encourage you to submit to him today and allow him to train and discipline you.
Thanks Titto, for your post. An important reminder for all those who want to do good works, but do not have a heart willing to be taught & trained for the work. May Lord enable each one of us to realize the importance of being taught in order to be prepared to do good works. I have been realizing this truth in my life, each passing day, how important it is for us to be taught and led by Him more and more in each and every area of our life. All glory be to our Lord and Saviour, who’s blessed us in such a wonderful way. Amen!
Many a times, we have these religious cliches we use. We say we are doing “His work”, but in actuality it is nothing but the “work of the flesh” coming in a different cover. And this we boast about, supposedly giving glory to God. As you said, Titto, His work has Him as the focus: BY HIM, THROUGH HIM and FOR HIM. God has called us to a place that is far beyond the level of the law….. To the place of HIS finished work, to the place of HIS activity.
The Church needs to hear Paul again,
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? (Galatians 3:1-5).
Are we turning back to putting confidence in weakness, when God has offered Himself as our salvation ?
I pray that none reading this would be blind to what Abba is revealing to us. This truth will transform your living.
Sidharth
All by GRACE..\o/\O/\o/
Hey…Can anyone help me out…about the details n speculations involving :The Different stages of Hell and Heaven??
like paradise,sheol,hades….etc
Hi anup!
There are no stages in hell or heaven. That would imply that there are promotions in hell or heaven!
The bible uses the different greek words you have mentioned here to describe real distinct places.
Sidharth has written about it in detail in the following posts.
1. http://www.imrah.org/2008/10/diverging-destinies/
2.http://www.imrah.org/2007/07/hell-eternal-contd/
But in brief, sheol or hades is just the temporary hell prior to the last judgement. After that hell itself along with satan and antichrist are thrown into the geheena. Likewise abraham’s bossom or paradise is the temporal heaven for believers till Jesus comes back and takes us all to Heaven which is the literal presence of God. That is where we will meet God face to face.
I would agree with the message of this post. My life has been transformed and filled with joy as I have placed my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Yet my faith in Him can only be partial if I do not perform the things He asks me to do. He said “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
I am humbled by the depth of love that He showed others, and the time He spent one on one helping people to know that they were loved. He helped the outcasts of society know that they were worth being saved. He asks us to have that same kind of love for our fellow men (see John 13:34). I do not have the same level of love for others that Jesus has for me, but as I have prayed to have greater love and to have opportunities to show others that I love them, the Lord has mercifully increased my capacity to love and blessed me with opportunities to serve.
I know that no greater joy can come to us in this life than that which we will receive as we follow the example of our Savior. Some of the most precious experiences in my life have been when God has used me to serve another, and that service turned out to be an answer to another person’s prayer. It is always an inspiring sight to see someone who is following the example of our Savior, going “about doing good” (Acts 10:38).