God Speaks with a Purpose

Monday, October 03, 2011

God Speaks with a Purpose

God develops character to match the assignment.

Personalized: The moment God speaks to me is the time He wants me to respond to Him.

Personalized: I usually want God to speak to me so He can give me a devotional thought to make me feel good for the rest of the day.  If I want the God of the universe to speak to me, I need to be ready for Him to reveal what He is doing where I am.  In Scripture God is not often seen coming and speaking to people just for conversation’s sake.  He was always working to accomplish His purposes.  When God speaks to me through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, the church, or another way, He has a purposed in mind for my life.

Personalized: As God enters the mainstream of my life, the timing of my response is crucial.  When God speaks to me, I need to believe and obey Him.  I cannot assume, however, that the moment God calls me, I that I am prepared for the assignment.  How long was it from the time God spoke to Abram (later named Abraham) until Isaac, the child of promise, was born? Twenty-five years!  Why did God wait 25 years?  Because it took God 25 years to make Abraham a father suitable for Isaac.  He could not wait until Isaac was born and then try to become the kind of father required to raise a patriarch of God’s people.

From reading this section I now understand why God called me 12 years ago but only this year has He begun to really use me.  It took 12 years to get me ready!  I should never doubt God’s purposes because I don’t understand His timing!

You cannot bypass character!

How long was it after the living Lord called the Apostle Paul until Paul went on his first missionary journey?  Maybe 10 or 11 years.  The focus was not on Paul the focus was on God.  God wanted to redeem a lost world, and He wanted to redeem the Gentiles through Paul.  God took that much time to prepare Paul for the assignment.

Wow it is so clear now, God wanted to use me to reach hurting hearts, and I knew that, but I didn’t know at the time that the hurting hearts were of those who were incarcerated.  God brought me through all that has happened in the last 11 years to bring me to where I am right now!  God is an awesome God!

Personalized:  I am so oriented to a quick response I abandon the word from God long before He has developed my character.  When God speaks, He has a purpose in mind for my life.  The moment He speaks is the time we need to begin responding to Him.

When God called Abram, He said, “I will make your name great” (Genesis 12:2   "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing).  That means “I will develop your character to match your assignment.”  Nothing is more pathetic than having a small character when you have a big assignment.  Many of us don’t want to give attention to the development of our characters; we just want God to give us a big assignment.

Human reasoning will not give you God’s perspective.  If you can’t be faithful in a little, God will not give you a larger assignment.  He may want to adjust your life and character in smaller assignments first to prepare you for the larger ones.  That is where God starts to work.  When you make the adjustments and start to obey Him, you come to know Him by experience.  This is the goal of God’s activity in your life-that you come to know Him.  Do you want to experience God mightily working in and through your life? Definitely YES! Then adjust your life to God and pursue the kind of relationship which you follow Him wherever He leads you-even if the assignment seems to be small or insignificant.  One day you will hear it said of you, “Well done. good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21: "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!') I am eagerly anticipating that day, and only recently did I come to believe that I would hear it.

Personalized:  Should I automatically assume every small assignment is from God? No.  Whether the assignment is large or small in my eyes, I must still find out whether it is from God.  I should however, always let God tell me.  I will not rule out an assignment, large or small on the basis of my preconceived ideas.  I must remember that I will know what I should do through my relationship with God.  I can never bypass the relationship.

Personalized:  If God has a great task for me, He will expand my character to match the assignment.  I wonder if that will hurt?  I have always wanted a great assignment but the truth is that I have never fully understand the concept of character nor relationship.  But praise God, He is changing that!

When God tells you a direction, you accept it, and you understand it clearly, then give God all the time He wants to make you the kind of person He can trust with that assignment.  Is it for your sake God takes time to prepare you for His assignments?  No, not for you alone but also for the sake of those He wants to influence through you.  For their sake, give yourself to an obedient love relationship with God.   Then when He gives you and assignment, He will achieve everything He wants in the lives of those around you.

What was the most meaningful statement or Scripture I read today?:

Human reasoning will not give you God’s perspective.  If you can’t be faithful in a little, God will not give you a larger assignment.  He may want to adjust your life and character in smaller assignments first to prepare you for the larger ones.

My Prayer is:

Daddy, I realize that You want me to be faithful in the smaller assignments before You will give me larger ones, but I must be honest, I don’t know the difference between the big ones and the small ones.  Please teach me and guide me and draw me closer to You!  In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!

What does God want me to do in response to today’s study?

I believe God wants me to start trying to see things from His perspective and be patient!  

The Memory verse for this unit is:

Some may trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will trust in the name of the lord our God.  Psalm 20:7