Doers, Not Observers
Have you ever watched some sort of competition or sporting event? Did you notice that even if you rooted for the winner, you didn’t receive the prize or get any accolades? The trophy is reserved for those who compete and win, not those who watch.
I don’t ever want to do anything and not get the most I can out of it. What a shame to have access to greatness and yet fail to ever lay hold of it. Yet this is something that many Christians do everyday. I mention often what Christians don’t do and my purpose for this is not to condemn or judge them. My purpose is to make people aware so that they will strive for more. God is calling us all higher, but only those who climb will ever get there.
At some point, people started thinking that to receive from God, all you can do is ask and maybe He will respond. That sounds good in human theory, but the truth is it is truth-less. James 1:22 says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Being doers means that you must do something with the Word, if you want to get what the Word produces. What the Word produces is the very power and ability of God in your life. People are saying, “Please God,” and He is saying, “I already did. Now you do your part”. God says doing it any other way is simply deceiving yourself.
What do you want from your life, your faith, your church, your pastor, your God? People often want what faithful men and women have obtained. They will envy what they have but the question that needs answered is, “Are they willing to do what the others did?” Sure Jesus died for all of us, but why do some have more? The reason is not because God loves one more, but sometimes one is hungrier and thirstier (Matthew 5:6). It is the desire with right motives that God fills, not someone’s complacency.
Look at what Jesus said in Matthew 7:7-8. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” Notice the key part to receiving, finding, and opening is all based first in what one is willing to do. If you don’t ask, you won’t receive. If you don’t seek, you won’t find.
When we felt a call to ministry, we started after it with all our hearts. That does not mean that we became ambitious trying to get preaching gigs. It means that we did all we could to be in and connected to the church. We served when no one watched, we gave up so we could give more, and we determined in our hearts to be a blessing to our God, our pastor, and our church in and by any means necessary. Now, many years later, having a church of our own, that determination only grows. We don’t do less for God than we did before, we do more! My life and that of my family’s is the ministry. Not because we have a church but because we recognize we are the Church. If only believers would get that revelation! God never leaves us without but as we fulfill His plan, He keeps us full to overflowing. Whenever I am led, or simply know to do right in my spirit, I do my best to take heed and do it. When it’s stirring on the inside, I have my direction because as Psalms 37:4-5 says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” When you have a heart after God, then that leading inside is from Him!
Learn to follow the Holy Ghost by listening to that direction from inside and then doing it. Learn what the Word says and then let Him guide you into all truth. Jesus already paid for it, the Holy Ghost guarantees it, now all you have to do is receive it. God will always lead you right and always lead you to more. He wants you blessed but blessing needs to be picked up and put on.
Be Blessed,
Pastor Jeff
We’d love to have you join us for a service sometime. Sunday mornings at 10:30 at Family Church Mayville and Saturday evenings at 6:30 at Family Church Corry. You’ll be Blessed.
