An article from "TGIF Today God Is First", by Os Hillman... not an "impressive" or "intellectual" piece per say.. nor a new message that will blow one away.. but want to share this with you coz it invoked thoughts along a couple of lines that are very close to my heart..
praying that it'll be an encouragement for those who might be weary, and an alert for those who might be discouraged in ministry... that it'll be a reminder for those who might be facing cross-roads of any sort... that it'll be Daddy's "shake-shake" for those who are "caught-up in sacrifice" :)
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him. - Acts 5:32
So often we as a society equate numbers with success. The larger the conference, the more successful we deem it. The larger a church, the more we believe that God is blessing. And so on.
I recall planning a conference one time. Registrations were not where I felt they needed to be a few weeks before the date of the event. It wasn't long before I began to get "under the pile" about the level of attendance. My friend, who was organizing this conference with me, called and asked how I was doing. I had to confess where I was. He immediately reminded me of my own teaching in this area.
We are all called to be led by the Spirit, not by outcomes. "If God called us to put on this conference, then the outcome is up to Him if we have done our part." He went on to explain how he learned this lesson in a similar way a few years earlier.
He and a friend were led to host a Bible study group. His friend was to speak. It was nine o'clock and they were the only two people there. His friend was discouraged and was ready to leave."No," said my friend. "We have done what the Holy Spirit directed." He then stood up and began to welcome people as though there were many in the room. (No one was in the room.) He introduced his friend and they began the meeting.
A few minutes later, people began to straggle in. By the time the meeting was over, ten had shown up, and one man in particular was impacted by the meeting.
Being led by the Spirit often means we must not use the world's standard for success as our measuring stick. You never know what an act of obedience will yield at the time. We must leave results to God. Our role is to obey. His role is to bring results from our obedience.
Do you make decisions based on the potential outcome or by the direction of the Holy Spirit in your life? Do you overly evaluate the pros and cons without consideration to what the Holy Spirit might be saying deep inside? We are all prone to make decisions based on reasoning alone. Ask God to give you a willingness and ability to hear the Holy Spirit and to obey His promptings.
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i recall a chiding... so often we are tempted to measure the "succeess" of a meeting in church by numbers.. but honestly, if we do not have true believers who are genuinely after God's heart- but just people who might be there for an emotional experience or fulfilling a certain obligation and all- we have nothing more but a "church-full" of corpses... dead in the spirit, dead to God... and then the more the numbers, the larger the failing of the leader, aint it? *shudder*
and so at all times remember all He seeks is "a broken spirit and a contrite heart"... see the church from His eyes... one heart that is pure and true is worth more than a million that are not... let Him tell you what success in ministry is on the last day... meanwhile just plug on faithfully my dear pilgrims... :)
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*pinch pinch* for me to just keep praying and waiting.. and praying and waiting... and not to try to come up with too many "brillant" ideas for the future, or plan too much by rationale... *silence*...
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