Since Paul said in Romans 12:8 that “… if is to lead, do it diligently,” it means he understood that it takes diligence to lead God’s people. It takes a lot of work to bring people on board to follow one vision through discipline. Learn to pray for your leaders.
Peter, for eternity, was called to be a preacher to the Jews. But he was a fisherman till Jesus showed up and turned him to be a fisher of men. Sometimes, it requires one man of vision to step up for God to use him to reorder lives. But should that not happen, or hasn’t yet happened, our hands must always be committed to doing something useful, whether purpose-related or not.
Vision without work is like sleeping, only to never wake up. There are some things you must possess and do if you want to actualise your vision. And today, I’m glad to share three of them with you.
If you want to be first, you must be the last. If you want to become great amongst people, you must serve everyone on that team.
A tree branch with many leaves doesn’t realise it needs pruning to become more fruitful until the owner does it. In the same way, God prunes His children, including you and me, in Christ so we can become more productive in our lives.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” — Romans 8:28 KJV
Timothy was a pastor and not an evangelist. Nevertheless, Paul told him to do the work of an evangelist. Why? Because he knew that without evangelism, people would not encounter Jesus and be saved. What about you?
Everything earthly is temporary, including money, although some are useful. Get divine wisdom, get wealth and other possessions. However, use all of them for God’s glory and not to set your heart on them.
“Where are you sowing now?” This question isn’t about who sees or doesn’t see your work. It’s personal. Are you sowing in the Spirit by engaging in spiritual activities that’ll build you up in Christ — such as prayer, Word study, Christian book reading and fasting? Or are you sowing in the flesh by using your body as an instrument of unrighteousness?
When you don’t understand why God tells you to do something, it’s not the time to complain to Him. You only have to do it as you trust Him. See, God isn’t only your heavenly Father. He’s also your leader. That means there are things He knows that you don’t know, and just because you don’t know something doesn’t give you the audacity to disobey Him.
Your work will be revealed by fire on the second coming of Christ. Whether you build it on the foundation of Christ or with gold, silver, hay, wood or straw, God’s fire will reveal it. So if you do God’s work shabbily, men will not see it, but God will see it. There’s nothing hidden before God. Even the motives of your heart are plain before Him.
We all know that there are some people in this world doing marvellous things, and yet they aren’t born again. So does it mean Jesus is lying? No. What Jesus meant when he said, “Without him, we can do nothing,” is that when God weighs people’s works, those that are relevant before Him are those Jesus is involved in. This is why effective kingdom productivity heavily depends on your intimate fellowship with Jesus, and ministers can attest to this truth.
