The person appropriately sensitive is willing to humbly turn and freely receive.
“Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.” Proverbs 1:23
“About face! I can revise your life. Look, I’m ready to pour out my spirit on you; I’m ready to tell you all I know. As it is, I’ve called.. I’ve reached out to you.” msg
You know how the 4 Gospels in the New Testament contain only part of Christ’s life here on earth. Sure, and if you put the parts from them together you have 26 days of Jesus’ life on this planet. Days where He went about doing good to revise lives, to help people and to awaken the dead!
Jesus cared. Still does! He convicted people in love by consistently saying what's so with sensitivity. He persuaded people to a better way with the truth. He via the Spirit sold em on it. The Spirit won em and re-won em over and over again to the Father's only Way. Christ listened intently, He heard em well and totally understood. He trained em and then retrained em--with His way, His truth, His timing, His respectful tact! He equipped and encouraged em! He inspired and motivated em! He retrained em some more and He sent out ordinary people (multiple times) with the Good News to change the world!
"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise." Proverbs 11:30
"She is a tree of life to those who embrace her (wisdom), and those who lay hold of her are blessed." Proverbs 3:18
"The wicked desire the plunder of evil men, but the root of the righteous flourishes." Proverbs 12:12
"A truthful witness saves lives, but one who utters lies is deceitful." Proverbs 14:25
"In old age they will still bear fruit; healthy and green they will remain," Psalm 92:14
Please P L E A S E give me a very fiery heart, please give me a heart-totally-aflame by God's Spirit because those people will set the world on fire, but give me one with smart sensitivity! Better yet, give yourself to the Word 100% and not to me!
What kind of men does God delight to use? What kind of women or minors or young adults is God thrilled to use? What kind of people fit into the Father’s world-wide plan?
Dynamic people like Peter -- leaders who can get everybody to do God's will. Yes! Humble people like Andrew who just do it quietly behind the scenes and like James, who don’t really need other people to do it, they just do it with zeal and red-hot passion for His glory! Yes!
A lack of the proper sensitivity can just destroy anyone's ministry. There are many people who try to serve Christ who are utterly insensitive to the flock they are responsible for. I mean towards those congregations under their watch-care or towards their own families, and towards so many watching people around them.
There was this interesting stubborn Norwegian pastor sadly lacking wisdom. What a tragic story!
He had a personal motto; “All or nothing.” And he really tried to live by it. He went around preaching and hurling out lightning-bolts so to speak, and shouting, and screaming thunders on everybody. He wanted to be disciplined--he was very stern, and strong in some ways, and sort of powerful in oratory, and yes spiritually-compromising, and insensitive.
It's been said that his flock (God's people) in that church didn’t even care for him because he didn’t care for them at all. He was so selfishly ambitious but wouldn't ditch his sin. He wanted to advance God's Kingdom his own way. He wanted to uphold the holy standard of God in the world. And he remained blind in multiple areas.. like toward anybody else in need.
Regarding his own family he missed it completely. He and his wife had a little girl, just a frail tiny girl who became ill. And the doctor advised him: You must take her out of this Norwegian coldness where she can come to a warmer climate at this time so she can regain her strength or she will certainly die. Is that what you want?
To which he answered, “All or nothing.” And then stayed there with his family. And then she died there. And when she passed away, her mother was so distraught, lower than the ground, so very shattered, and she found no love in her husband but she had doted all of her love on this little life, that she would then just sit for hours in a chair holding the clothes of her little baby, and fondling them, trying to nurture her CRUSHED, and starved broken heart on those empty garments.
This wasn't allowed to happen for many days at all. It did a little until her husband took those clothes away, out of her hands and then gave them to a poor woman in the street. A stranger. But his wife had tucked underneath her a little bonnet which she kept as the very last vestige of her beloved memory. So he discovered that, and gave that bonnet away too, and gave her an insensitive religious speech on "all or nothing." And in a matter of months, she died of grief and was buried in the dirt.
What moronic stupidity, what horrific insensitivity! Learn never to be like that! Have you met some stupid nominal believers? God alone knows if they are saved, but that type of behavior.. being so un-mellowed.. is worse than tragic! Repent. Yes, choose to turn and live as a KIND-hearted witness! Don't miss, rep! Rep like Christ rep-ed His (our) Father. There are many undiscerning and insensitive men and women around us these days -- it's So SO UNlike the Lord and it's beyond cruel!
Please pause and think of the great evangelist Billy Sunday and all of his dear children who died in unbelief. Yes, all of those kids sadly did. Was Billy utterly insensitive to the ones around him while he'd got out winning the world? He won so many to faith in Jesus (far Far, FAR more than I have)! He and His family were beloved of God. Due to strong enemy opposition did the PK-kids get distracted? Did Billy become too busy for family-time at home ..or for his quiet time alone with Jesus? The fruit of the Spirit is love.. where did it go? What happened, Billy?
Q: Are you deaf to the Holy Spirit? Do you read the room well.. do you even enter that room where the kids are anymore? There are many pastors, Christian para-church leaders, and lay ministers, and evangelists too, who aren’t even listening to what’s going on in their own households or to those people around them.. who've become so task-oriented that they miss it by a mile. They miss the people before them as they pass by! Have you put public ministry ahead of Jesus or your family? Stop it! Choose to live sensitive.. not too sensitive with weird sentimentalism!
Zeal minus sensitivity, minus the godly wisdom that prioritizes.. misses it! Why fail to intercede for others and gain God's heart for them? Why miss the Lord's will for you? Zeal with insensitivity is SO very cruel and religious (dead and deadly).
Please think about James–he had to become refined spiritually. I mean, he had to get from the place where he said, “Just burn them up, Lord, if they don’t cooperate, burn them up,” to the much better place where he genuinely cared!!!
James had to learn wise-sensitivity. We do too.. more so than before! James had to learn to quiet his ambition, but James did just that, and God used him mightily!
"..consider this: whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover over a multitude of sins." James 5:20
Jesus DELIGHTS TO USE FLAWED PEOPLE like John, James and like leader Simon. Yes, impulsive, dynamic, impetuous, strong-minded, initiators like Pete. So bold in speech, who very often talk a better game than they play but are willing to learn, who sometimes mess up.. the dynamic kind of people who love God ahead of all else. Oh O, He uses those kind of people. He uses those on the second list of disciples too: Andrew, his brother; Andrew, Peter’s quieter brother. By the way, his name means manly cuz he is a man's man. No confusion! Hey men.. "act (just) like men" (of God)!
"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." 1 Corinthians 16:13 esv
That's wisdom. We need that now! Turn, trust more, humble yourself, believer. Turn from your wickedness, pray and earnestly seek God’s face! That’s good for all of us to do cuz then God says I “will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
Please think about the Great Awakening -- it was an outpouring of God’s Spirit on ordinary people who turned and prayed. Who each went and told ordinary people about Jesus.
Sure there were great reforms in society as a result, but it was more about people repenting and getting saved. It was about prayer, forgiveness in the Lord and then people leading others back to Jesus.. and to Christ for the very first time! God is thrilled to awaken the dead and to revive those in slumber!
What is a spiritual awakening?
Who was George Whitefield?
This Land needs a biblical revival not mere revivalism!
What was the First Great Awakening? What was the Second Great Awakening?
Who was Jonathan Edwards?
What is the “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon?
Who was Charles Finney?
Four Awakenings have spawned authentic revival among common folk. Let’s pray for a fifth and see those still asleep shakened and awakened!
Turning and Talking of Revival Upwards With God and Then Outwards with Ordinary People.. Spawns Revival!
Check it out in the book of Acts! God mightily used the unqualified. Yes, ordinary believers in the church of the first century and He can do that with you and your church! That was the church that turned their world upside down for Christ (which really was upside down, so that means right side up)!
“For this is what the high and exalted One says— He who lives forever, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.’" Isaiah 57:15
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” Psalms 85:6
The psalmist prayed, “Won’t you revive us again, so your people can rejoice in you?” Psalm 85:6 nlt
Psalm 80:19 says, “Turn us again to yourself, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved” nlt
Revival is real refreshment. Revival is real restoration. Are you awake and alert? For the believer, revival is getting back to that first bloom of a red-hot-passionate love relationship with Jesus!
“Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name.” Psalms 80:18
“After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.” Hosea 6:2
“LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.” Habakkuk 3:22
What kind of people does God use for His purposes? What kind of men did Jesus choose while here? When we think of the 12 apostles we are prone to think of colorful stained glass saints with haloes. People without faults, people who have been canonized, people who manifest none of the failures of humanness in business or anywhere that usually beset us. And if we do that, we’re wrong because..
God uses people just like us, that have been uniquely called, specially regenerated and transformed.. intentionally trained, and specifically sent by Christ.. ordinary people just like you and me. Yep, common peeps that are unqualified.
Where in the Bible does it say that Jesus chose the 12 because they were honest, fair, and good in their careers? It doesn’t say that? Where does it say they were good? We don’t know if they had integrity or how they all worked. The Bible is silent on how good they each were. So we too are to remain silent on this. Christ died for sinners like you and me. We know they weren’t qualified to be used of God, and yet God forgave and mightily used them! That should give us hope!
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
“Elijah was as human as we are (with a nature like ours), and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! 18 Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.” James 5:17–18 nlt
“Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly..” Berean Study Bible
Now, you and I live in a very qualification-conscious society. There are qualifications for just about everything. It’s interesting to read through all of the classified section on job opportunities, and refresh one’s mind about qualifications, and what the world demands!!!! All the jobs being offered today are fascinating in terms of qualifications. You should check em out.
“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. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.” Acts 4:13–14
“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” 1 Corinthians 1:26–29
“In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” Luke 10:21 kjv
“No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.” Acts 2:16–18
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
Why did God give some people a higher IQ than He gave to others?
What can ordinary people non-religious folk do about sinful religious leaders (Zephaniah 3:4)?
Can God use those weak or with a low IQ? Yep!
Who was Abraham in the Bible?
Why did God choose the ordinary people of Israel to be His chosen folk?
Does it seem to you that women have a small role in the Bible?
Who was Mary Magdalene?
Was Mary sinless? Was Mary without any sin? Nope.
Are there any black people mentioned in the Bible?
Who did Jesus find to become his twelve apostles? Common unqualified folk.
Who was Moses’ father? He also was an ordinary man used of God.
The Lord has good plans and He cares for you! He delights to encourage, comfort, edify, challenge and fill you with His Spirit for a purpose! He joys in using ordinary people like you and me to do extraordinary exploits of faith in glorifying the Father!
Moses the shepherd, Daniel the captive slave, Peter and John the fishermen, and you if you’ll allow Him to save and use you! God can use you too. Turn, trust and give Him your heart. Why wait? Turn from sin to Him -- give your whole life over to Jesus Christ!
Wanted: copywriter, must be self-motivated, able to work under pressure, willing to travel, journalism graduate, minimum three years’ experience, 50 words per minute typing, must have own transportation.
It didn’t say a word about whether he could write or spell.
Another one went: Wanted: chef, must be able to prepare all Japanese specialty foods and make French pastry, and must have had minimum two years’ experience at both.
Man, are you able to find and serve up some sushi in your French eclair?
Another one said: Wanted: senior tax consultant and accountant by fast growing Century City firm, applicant must be familiar with the taxation of estates and trusts and be able to do tax research, a minimum of two years tax experience and a certified public accountant are necessary, softball skill is not required but would be helpful.”
What exactly is expected of you? The world says you must become qualified, Barney!
So many qualifications. Our society in the USA has set up standards for everything and for everyone. Yes, it’s like that in many Lands today. Life is made up of qualifying.
“Every time you want to buy a house, you have to qualify. And when you want to buy a car, you have to qualify. And when you want to get a credit card, you have to qualify. And when you want to apply for a job, you have to qualify. And when you want to get into a career area, you have to qualify. When you want to sign up at a school, you have to qualify. When you want to be trained for something, you have to qualify. When you want to join a team, you have to qualify. It seems like everything you have to do requires qualifying. Somebody establishes standards that you have to meet. Society has determined that it’s only going to use qualified people. Now, what qualifications does God have? What does God require of those who serve Him? Of those who are called to be His disciples, His apostles? What kind of people does Jesus use in His ministry? What kind of people does it take to advance His eternal Kingdom? Are you ready for this? Frankly, folks, nobody is qualified. Nobody. Therefore, God only has one alternative: use the unqualified to do the impossible. That is essentially how God works. He takes the unqualified. Does that make you feel better? It does me. God uses unqualified people, moves into their life with saving sanctifying grace, and Himself transforms them into usefulness.” ~ John MacArthur
Do you get kind of discouraged about your own failures? I’ve been there before. Most of the time the basis of our discouragement stems from our own failures in different areas. I know right? And I often question how God can use me and why God doesn’t use somebody else. Go to the Bible again to check out the people God used in there. Aren’t they frankly weak, non-high-IQ like, competitive, easily-distracted and a fairly pitiable lot?
Really! Noah got drunk and conducted himself in a very lewd sort of way. Think about Abraham who doubted God, then lied about his wife, and then committed adultery. Think about Isaac who learned how to sin from his own father, and then did the same thing with his wife Rebekah lying to Abimelech. Think about selfish Jacob! He literally extorted the birthright from Esau his bro. He deceived his father and raised a whole bunch of immoral children. Think about Joseph and his family. He was fiercely hated by all his brothers. Think about Mo -- Moses was a murderer. He acted in pride trying to steal God’s glory, and struck the rock instead of obediently speaking to the rock as God clearly said and he never entered the Promised Land he had led God’s people up to. Think about Aaron real good. He was the high priest rep of God who led Israel in the worship of the golden calf with that accompanying orgy. God ain’t like that, never was and never will be like that. He is holy. Think about Joshua. God told him to wipe out the wicked Gibeonites, but he was so deceived by the Gibeonites that he made a friendly treaty with them instead of destroying them, and then they just hung out around God’s people to trouble Israel endlessly. Think about Gideon. He who had zero confidence in himself and even less confidence in God’s plan and God’s power. Think about Samson, a he-man with a she-weakness. He was listened as a man with a lustful kind of love for a wretched creepy woman. Think about Ruth in the Messianic-line and yet she had lived as an accursed Moabitess. Think about Samuel! He began to serve God as a small child, what did he even know? What could he know at his young age? Think about discontented David that leader of leaders and yet he was an all-time ladies man. Seems like every time he glanced at a pleasant looking lady he just up and married her. It didn’t matter how many other wives he had. He was an adulterer and an outright murderer. He was a lousy father with such bloody hands that God wouldn’t even let him build a temple for worship. Think about wise king Solomon who became the world’s leading polygamist of his day. Why didn’t he better consider all those proverbs he penned.
Think about Isaiah. He had put his trust in a human king. Think about how God used Ezekiel who was a brash, bullheaded, tough-minded, crusty kind of character, a say-exactly-what-you-think kind of priest. Think about how God used Daniel who was educated in a pagan country and was taught the wisdom of the bitter and hasty Chaldeans. Think about how God used Hosea who literally married a prostitute. Think about how God used Jonah who defied Him in disobedience (yes, defied direct Authority) and then he took a short ride on a long fish. And then, when the Gentiles were converted due to his words, he didn’t like it at all cuz he didn’t care about them. He had wanted God to judge them instead. Think about how God used Habakkuk who questioned the good divine plan. Think about how God used Elijah who could handle 850 false priests and prophets no prob, but then ran away like a fearful-maniac from one weak woman, Jezebel. Think about how God used Paul who sought out and killed Christians. I wonder, did His thoughts of Stephan dying bug his conscience a bit? Think about how God used Timothy who was timid and pretty much ashamed of serving Jesus Christ, and had to be told so by the Apostle Paul.
You and I follow in the flow of history. We walk in the soldier’s march of the unqualified. It’s true, with feet of clay up to our armpits so to speak. The 12 disciples of Jesus were a group of unqualified folks just like all the rest. And these 12 were divided into three groups of four.
"These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him." Matthew 10:2-4 niv
They’re always in three groups: four, four and four. And there are four different lists in the Bible of those 12 unqualified people, and always each name appears in the same group of four. The first four were the most intimate (Peter James John and Andrew).
The next most intimate were the next four. And finally the last group is the least intimate with Jesus Christ. Even Jesus on earth couldn’t be so intimate with everybody. You and I can’t either. By His Spirit you can become an intimate close follower of Him now. But they were all there with Him, and they were all trained by the Word of God, and they were all sent out by Him, and they all had a marvelous and effective ministry, with the exception of Judas Iscariot who got himself replaced. Not all of them had the same level of intimacy with Christ. Not all of them had the same giftings or talents and ministries. Yet, they all preached, all taught, and they all proclaimed Christ’s Message. Even though unqualified, they all advanced the Kingdom here. They all carried the greatest Message of all messages. They were very special unique individuals.
In the business arena today if a boss was coming along saying, I want 12 people to do this or that for my company, there would be a string of qualifications a mile long and they with their team would have figured out exactly the kind of person the company needed / wanted, and then gain 12 people just like that. Not Jesus Christ -- He picked 12 unqualified people with problems and sin-history who were so diverse it’s way incredible. Even the best of them did. Matthew 10:2-4 is a list of the unqualified.
Christ never intended to go through the work of proclaiming the Kingdom all alone. He had the Father and the Father had a will for Him to do. That’s why when Jesus began His ministry He began it not only by preaching and teaching but by training unqualified ordinary men there with Him at the same time. The Spirit was with Him and on the horizontal plain, Jesus never intended to be alone with the task.
God doesn’t need us, but He opts to use us if we’re willing.
He was training them all the while so that when He ascended they’d carry on with the Great Commission His way.
“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong..” 1 Corinthians 1:27 esv
Who can be washed, approved, taught and then moved? Anyone! Education in some places with some teachers can be good if Jesus calls you to this, but must you or I become qualified or Seminary-educated to be used of God? Nope. The Lord uses ordinary people that are humble, in-touch, and available. Yes, common, everyday folks like you.
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 esv
Know Him well. Make Him well known. Give Him all the glory!
Never forget this. God uses ordinary people! Moses the shepherd, Daniel the captive slave, Peter and John the fishermen, and you if you’ll allow Him to save and use you! God can use you. Turn, trust and give Him your heart. Give your whole life over to Jesus Christ! (Photo by Tyler Nix. Read more.. blog)
Smart apologetics needs no apology.
Be spiritually sensitive and answer the questions (of these times) that people are actually asking. Yes, be ready to give a good (biblical - 1 Pet. 3:15) answer.
If you stick someone with the sword (of the word) enough times they indeed will bleed (so to speak). Do they "not believe in the Bible"? With gentleness and respect keep on wisely sharing your story of faith and the Scriptures when the time is right. Facebook.com/shareJesus
Only 2 types of leaders in this world:
1. Those who lead by public consensus (Matt. 16:13). Q: Do your kids and what they want lead in your home?
2. Those who lead by personal conviction (Matt. 16:15). Peter was this type (16:16).
