These are the days of Elijah! Called into being. Hidden in plain sight. Use your unique voice. He knew you before you came into being. For He formed your innermost parts; He knit you [together] in your mother’s womb. Give thanks and praise to Him, for you are fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are His works… Psalms 139:13-14 AMP
He responded: Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.Jeremiah 1:5 KJV
A proper response: But when God, who had chosen me and set me apart before I was born, and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles [as the good news—the way of salvation], I did not immediately consult with anyone [for guidance regarding God’s call and His revelation to me]. Galatians 1:15-17 AMP
Give Him a proper response. Dance it… Preach it… Create it… Sing it… Live it… Your unique expression of Christ!
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths (KJV).
God calls us to fulfill destiny. Jesus said He came to ransom many, call men to repent (change their minds), be the light, and show the Father to all humanity. Jesus came into the world to fulfill His destiny. He was clear about His mission. Are you clear about yours?
God does not change His mind about us. I find it interesting that during times in my life that I feel the least hopeful the Spirit of the Lord comes to me and speaks destiny and direction. Have you had similar experiences? God points us to our purpose and not the problem. It is up to us to follow His path trusting Him to provide what is needed to resolve our issue. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus says seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (KJV). It is possible to chase problems and miss our purpose. In tough times, it is essential not to abdicate the call of God in our lives.
God calls us to co-labor with Him to establish His kingdom. I am not necessarily talking about “church work”; what I am referring to is fulfilling your kingdom assignment. It is good to support your local assembly with your time, talent, and treasure. However, if God has gifted and called you to be a brain surgent, but you exchange it for becoming a deacon in the church, you are not fulfilling your kingdom assignment. It is possible to fight the very cause of our existence. To become a brain surgent, it requires disciple and focus. Although a deacon position is admirable, and you might make your church leadership happy, you might be missing your calling. God will hold you accountable for the talent He gave you and the assignment that He created you to fulfill in His Kingdom.
Our call requires us to trust in Him. According to Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”. We must plow, praise, and pray to build. God seems to specialize in things that seem impossible to us. According to Luke 18:27, things which are impossible with men are possible with God (KJV).
God likes to prepare a table for us in the presence of our enemies (Psalms 23:5). He declares to the universe and all that is watching that He has given His stamp of approval. Fear not! Follow His instructions, build it, and see it established in the land your Heavenly Father has appointed for your occupancy. Do not substitute your will or another man’s will for the plan He has for you. Remember, everything else besides His will is vanity
One of our most imposing structures built during antiquity, the pyramids, has as its foundation a triangle. A triangle is sturdy. When you look closely at a triangle, it is a structure that is not easily destroyed or toppled. If triangles are so sturdy, why are they not used in modern architecture? The answer is we do use them as the basis for most of our structures. If you look closely, you will see them in how we structure our modern buildings. What looks like a square or a rectangle is reinforced by triangular underpinnings or structures? The “humble” triangle is the unsung hero of building durable building structures.
There are elements of kingdom prosperity that I likened to a triangle structure. If you utilize all three, the construction you build for God will be sturdy because of these three elements. The three components are time, talent, and treasure. One indication that you believe God is what you do with your time, your talent, and your treasure.
Malachi speaks of giving to support the priesthood. It mentions the tithe, which is 10-30 % of what you produce. Although some do not believe in tithing as such, tithing was an excellent schoolmaster because it taught me to give. Tithing taught me that everything I have belongs to God, and he requires that I be a good steward of what he has given me. I began tithing in 1978, not out of fear but gratefulness. Not only have I been faithful in tithing and giving beyond the tithe, but I also give my time and my talent.
We are blessed to live in a country where we have choices. We can decide what we are going to study. We can strategize to make a better life for ourselves through hard work and determination. We are so blessed to be stewards of opportunities afforded us by living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Even our poor are more prosperous than 95% of the world. However, it is vital that we first seek God in everything. Give him control of your time, your talent, and your treasure. Everything that we have belongs to God and should be used to show adoration and as an act of worship – to glorify God.
I encourage you this week to carve out a specific time that you plan to spend with God. It is good to begin early in the morning as you start your day) or at night in preparation for the next day. Ask God how to bless the body of Christ and the local assembly where you are submitted. Ask God what he wants you to do.
One way to do this is to set aside time in prayer, singing, reading, and studying the word. In my youthful Christian days, I always had something available, a book, or audio that I used to educate myself and retrain my human spirit. My day began with prayer time at 4 am, then I would wake my son up, and while we got dressed, I listened to ministers on the radio. I volunteered my talent to whatever church or ministry that I was a part of by using my gifts of administration. I was part of leadership in my local Women’s Aglow. I developed administrative and training manuals, wrote letters of encouragement, and visited the nursing homes, etc. I made sure that I gave to the church, spent time with God, and sought to be a blessing to the body of Christ. When you surrender your time, your talent, and your treasure, he might give you an assignment that you had not considered but find great delight in accomplishing.
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm,well-balanced mind and self-control] (2 Timothy 1:7 AMP). At first, when we look at society, it seems that there is too much to do on any given day. Mundane tasks such as getting from point A to B, washing clothes, heating our homes, and gathering food take less time now than 100 years ago. Information technology has given us access to knowledge from great minds. Much of this information preceded the information was gathered by candlelight and oil lamps. These minds did not have a mechanized process of retrieving data, artificial intelligence, word processing to write books, research theories, and mass media communications. However, with all of this high speed technology even the sluggard complains of not enough time. Could procrastination be the cause for not having enough time.
Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Procrastination involves putting off necessary tasks until the last minute or ignoring them altogether. It is possible to fill our day with busywork and non-essentials and miss strategic deadlines or stress ourselves by trying to do things at the last minute. We often blame the lack of time or time management for missed deadlines, forgotten appointments, ignored essential requests, or missed opportunities. Sicknesses such as headaches, high blood pressure, diabetes can be a signal of stress in the life of a person that procrastinates, which complicates the situation even more. In large part, procrastination reflects our perpetual struggle with moving in the power of God and maintaining self-control as well as our inability to predict how we will feel tomorrow accurately, or the next day. We are presumptuous that we can depend on another day when God has instructed us in Proverbs 27:1 – “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”. We are not to live as though tomorrow will come or that we are in control of all the circumstances that tomorrow will bring. Procrastination ignores our inability to know the future accurately. We are to depend on the Lord to give us what we need in even a given day. According to Matthew 6:25-34:
Therefore I tell you, stop being worried or anxious (perpetually uneasy, distracted) about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, as to what you will wear. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow [seed] nor reap [the harvest] nor gather [the crops] into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by worrying can add one hour to [the length of] his life?
Overcoming procrastination is possible when you realize that at the root of procrastination is fear. According to several Christian blogs, there are at least 365 references to “fear not” in the Bible, which indicates to me that God understands the impact of fear on our lives.
Fear will stop a person from living their highest and best life. According to Webster’s Dictionary 1828, fear is painful emotion or passion excited by an expectation of evil or the apprehension of impending danger. Fear expresses less anxiety than dread, and dread less than terror and fright. The anxiety caused by fears brings an uneasiness of mind. It might be a fear of success, failure, rejection, or fear of the unknown. It might be on a conscious level or at a subconscious level, but it is often why a person procrastinates. In 2 Timothy 1:7, the Greek word for fear is “deilias,” which means cowardice or lack of bravery. God tells us not to be a coward but to face situations through His power, His love, and personal self-discipline. II Timothy 1:7 refers to the difficult tasks of sharing the good news of salvation, but salvation is not just about going to heaven or hell. The good news is about the reconciliation of man back to God. God desires that humanity transfers citizenship from the kingdom of this world to the Kingdom of God. Our lives are to reflect ambassadorship in the Kingdom of God to a world in chaos and confusion. To do this, we must be open to Holy Spirit, showing us the fears that cause us to procrastinate and to be open to His instruction on how to make changes in our lives so that we can stop procrastinating.
2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV) For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Has God called you to climb higher, go deeper, be bolder, speak louder, be quieter, move swiftly, or be still? I do not know what your mountain looks like or where He is taking you, but somehow it is always something that will require a change. Why? God knows that if He needed us to change instantly, we would appear altered on the outside but never become different on the inside. It is easy to go from one “front” to another. It is easier to clean the outside of a cup and leave the inside dirty.
According to Luke 11:39, Jesus said, “Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness”. Religion will make us like the Pharisees. We will appear clean on the outside but have not made any “heart” changes. We will choose a mask for every role we play and never becoming a pure vessel of God – clean on the inside and the outside. A genuine relationship with God will clean the inside of the cup, giving us hearts that reflect God’s love. What difference does it make if I impress you with my dress, words, and deeds if they do not reflect a changed heart? Without a relationship with God, we will have a form of godliness but no power, judgment without love, and a lack of soundness of mind—self-control.
What does this have to do with mountain climbing? When we are merely religious as were the Pharisees, we will deceive ourselves and others while keeping up appearances without any real substance. Religion will cause you to climb the wrong mountain, become the sacrifice (instead of receiving the finished work of Calvary), and miss out on the benefits of salvation. Mere religious service will cause you to live a double life—Christ in you will war with your fears, doubt, and unbelief. However, you must be willing to lay aside every fear and weight that hinders you from running your race. An intimate relationship (getting to know God in the secret places of your heart and to be known of God) with God may not impress anyone at first, but it will give you the power to climb your mountain, walk in love, and have a sound mind (self-control).
Declaration: I declare that I will not settle for a form of godliness; I will be godly. I hear you, my Heavenly Father calling me to climb higher, go deeper, and be bolder to move into place. Moving in syncopation with you, Father requires intimacy with you, and I chose to grow in my relationship with you. I chose to synchronize with you and your heart for humanity. I will climb my mountain and possess my Canaan land. I know there will be giants in my land – but I will not back down in fear. I choose to take my place and occupy my space in your Kingdom as a Kingdom Ambassador. Whether in corporate America, the church, or the community, I choose to represent the Kingdom of God in all godliness, power, love, and a sound mind.
