Let’s go into next year, and indeed every year and every moment, by asking God WHAT can we be doing?
How can we be helpful and productive in our church?
How can we be serving?
How can we shine to those around us?
How can we open our lives up more to the purposes of God?
How can God use us MORE to demonstrate His love and power to the world?
How can we be MORE activated to change the world?
And let’s make changes. Let’s be inspired to make changes – because when we catch the fire in our hearts it overflows into lifestyle. Guilt and shoulds don’t motivate from the inside out.
It may require us to pray more.
It may require us to sign up and serve in some capacity at church.
It may require us to change some aspect of our personal lifestyle to line up with the Word of God.
Feed your vision. Feed it with obedience and feed it with fertilizer – books, conversations, worship, prayer, podcasts etc. Fuel your fire.
“You stand here as a Christ follower in a definitive moment in time you are an ordinary person called to usher a holy Kingdom into an increasingly fragmented world. Its the perfect scenario for God to move in big ways just as He always has. Just as God called Esther, Joseph and Paul to go before the world’s kings at appointed times to alter history, He now calls you. While everything changes at warp speed, the holy mandate remains to communicate the gospel in the most relevant channels available, here, there and everywhere!” @stickyjesus
Extraordinary moves of God begin with ordinary acts of obedience.
Let’s have a quick look at Moses’ call.
Moses’ first encounter with God is recorded in exodus 3. The way their meeting goes down should be extremely encouraging for anyone who has ever felt super ordinary and insignificant.
The setting is the far side of the desert.
Moses is tending sheep.
The sheep belong to Moses’ father in law.
A bush catches on fire.
Moses walks over to look…
In reality when you peel back the layers… it’s really quite ordinary. Moses is performing menial manual labour. Working for his father in law. Does it get any more mundane and ordinary?
We position ourselves for encounter by walking with Jesus every day. Being obedient and faithful in our ordinary lives. Having regular time of prayer and worship. Reading the bible regularly, if not daily! We position ourselves to be used by God as we live a life that pleases Him, being transformed and making outward the inward righteousness. Taking up our cross, dying to self daily, refusing to compromise and bow to the status quo of the world around us.
In the ordinaryness of our life God can shine – God WILL SHINE – and do amazing things.
Will you turn aside and check out the bush, like Moses did? Will you remove your shoes, draw close, and receive your assignment? Will you give the Lord permission to ignite your ordinary?
Jesus chose ordinary people to be His first disciples. Fishermen. Blue collar workers. Tax collectors. In the same way He chooses ordinary people now to serve Him. One of my “life verses” (a passage that defines who i am and the life i live!) is 2 Corinthians 4:7 – “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” We are but jars of clay. Humble vessels. The great power is of God. The light is of God. The glory is of God and from God and for God and to God!
God’s mandate for changing the world and saving the lost is to use seemingly ordinary people going about their ordinary lives – but we are not ordinary. While the world around is dead – we are alive. While the world around is lost – we are found. While the world around us is natural – we are supernatural. As children of God we represent our Father and are called by Him to tell others about the Good News we have experienced and found ourselves. The invisible element of our lives is the most important part because it’s eternal. Life is just a blink but what is won and done spiritually will last forever. One day the fabric of this world will tear, the sky will roll up and the physical earth will disappear and we will have accurate perception of God and reality.
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