His Tools for His Glory

1 John 3:1
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

Pastor Marty is constantly reminding us of our responsibility to God to share the Gospel with others.  I have shared with you on other occasions that fear gets in the way of sharing.  It's not only fear, but also not fully understanding what God's call is on our lives and how we are to live into that call.  I am truly discovering all of this myself.  I wanted to share some thoughts with you to get you thinking about your own call.  We each have our own call and need to seek that out with God individually.  One of the things I have learned is that the presence of God in my life is key to discerning my call.  I have the head knowledge that I have asked Jesus to live in my heart.  I know that God is everywhere; that the Holy Spirit lives in me.  So if God's presence is at my disposal, why am I still not sharing the gospel with others?

We must first know who God is and be in acceptance of that belief entirely.  There has to be little to no doubt in our minds that the Creator God loves us without limits and that he has expectations on our lives as his followers.  God's plans are perfect.  His promises are always kept.  Trusting in God completely is necessary to being used by Him to increase His kingdom.

Satan rejoices when God's children trust in their own power more than the power to the Holy Spirit.  One of satan's strategies is to get the Christ follower to ignore the Holy Spirit.  The very power of God that is in us is what brought about Satan's demise.  If he can get us to ignore the power of Jesus in us, then we will always feel helpless, lost, powerless and distant from God.  Jesus left the world physically so his spirit could live in our bodies.  If we ignore this power, this Holy presence, we are ignoring the Jesus we say we love, the Jesus we celebrate at Christmas and Easter; the Jesus we take communion to remember; the Jesus we turn to in prayer.  How can we be totally surrendered to Jesus and yet ignore the power of the Holy Spirit to help us do what he has called us to do?  People say, "I'm too scared to witness to others about Jesus."  We are minimizing the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us!  We are the tool and He does the work!  Surrender and trust in Him!

To be a tool of the Lord's choosing, think of yourself as a hammer.  A hammer in and of itself cannot accomplish a task without someone to pick it up and apply it to the nails.  We are God's tool - his hammer.  The only difference is that we have to give God our hearts and minds so that he can pick us and do His work.

Our confidence to serve God as His witnesses is severely compromised when we forget the power of the Holy Spirit.  The same power that can raise the dead; the same power that can heal the sick; the same power that gave us salvation in His name are the keys to becoming a well used tool.  My personal motivation to pursue a relationship with the Lord to become a well used hammer is to hear my God say to me on my day of judgement, "Well done my good and faithful servant."  Focusing on this treasure of heaven makes what the world has to offer unappealing.  Pleasing God has helped me to see people, both known to me and unknown to me, in a different light.  Pray for God to show you who He is in your life so that in that relationship you will have all confidence in Him to use you often to make His kingdom bigger!

Acts 4:13 (NIV)
13 “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

As believers, we are with Jesus everyday!  We are ordinary people chosen by God to be His children, His tools for His Glory!  

Living in His presence,

Sandra Pierce - Ruling Elder, HOPE Church Raleigh

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