Eternity Daily Bible Study
(A ministry of Eternity Christian Fellowship)
Walking In The Spirit - 75
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Topic: How To Fulfill Your Spiritual Ministry And Destiny
Date: 19th November 2009
God has spoken to you about a great and wonderful spiritual ministry – now how do you bring it to birth? The following verse was spoken by Elizabeth to her cousin Mary:
Luke 1:45 ASV And blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a fulfillment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord.
We are pregnant with things from God. God has spoken to us about them and we groan within and long to bring them to birth. But they seem impossible. We say “How can these things be?”
The angel's pronouncement to Mary ends with a verse that if translated literally from the Greek would read: Luke 1:37 ASV For no (rhema) word from God shall be void of power. But which is generally rendered: Luke 1:37 MKJV For with God nothing shall be impossible.
Pulling these diverse threads together we find that Mary's faith led to a fulfillment of the things that were spoken to her by the Lord, even though they were humanly impossible at the time, because nothing is impossible with God and every word spoken by God has power.
Every worthwhile spiritual ministry flows from something which the Lord speaks into the inner world of our spirit and which, over time, becomes a reality in the outer world. Ministry is first created inside us through our faith agreement with the plans and purposes of God and our trust in His ability to bring those things to pass.
Our ministry will be 'birthed' through enduring faith alone. First the promise of the impossible, then the exercise of faith in the promise, then the testing of that faith, then the fulfillment of the promise. You cannot create a true spiritual ministry through the flesh or through human organization alone. In such cases you just end up with Ishmael instead of Isaac.
The faith that finds fulfillment is undeterred. Like Paul it presses on relentlessly toward the goal. We have to stop stumbling over difficulties and being put off by 'impossibilities' such as finances. The difficulties and impossibilities are God's business. Our business is to believe what He has spoken to us.
It took Abraham twenty-five years to see the birth of Isaac. Abraham believed and was not stumbled by the long delay and the advanced age of his body and of Sarah's body, and it was this unwavering faith that brought the promise to fulfillment!
Romans 4:19-22 MKJV And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead (being about a hundred years old) or the deadening of Sarah's womb. (20) He did not stagger at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, (21) and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was also able to perform. (22) And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Verse 21 is a great spiritual principle: being fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was also able to perform.
When God speaks a great promise into your heart, when you know for certain that you are called to do something impossible, then believe in the Lord! Know that even if it takes 25 years, that it will come to birth! For what God has promised He is also able to perform.
God does not promise you things then abandon you. Nor does He promise you things and make you do them all on your own. God looks for your faith and when your faith rises up then He will do the miracle. Then you will see the fulfillment of all that the Lord has spoken to you about!
It is our continued believing that unlocks the promises of God. If we 'believe' one day then don't believe the next because 'the feeling' isn't there then we will not behold the works of God. Or of we believe in a moment of excitement but give up as soon as it gets tough, then we will not reap. Or of we believe in the bible study but forget as soon as we are at work or at home and the cares of this world choke our faith and kill our dream then we will be fruitless. We must take that thing spoken by God and plant it deep in our hearts like Mary did and believe it with a humble and gracious attitude:
Luke 1:38 MKJV And Mary said, Behold the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.
Fulfillment comes through faith - tough, gritty faith that marches on through all the years and all the difficulties. When we look at the 'heroes of faith' in Hebrews 11 we find a list of people who made sacrifices for their dream - from Abraham leaving his family behind to Moses refusing to be called a son of Pharaoh.
Faith is nearly always associated with things such as risk and endurance. Jericho's walls did not fall down until they had been encircled for seven days and until the risk of obedience to a seemingly strange command was taken. David had to step right up to the fierce giant Goliath. Gideon had to fight the vast armies of the Midianites with only 300 men. Faith is closer to courage than it is to magic!
Faith is being an entrepreneur with only promises as your capital and only God as your banker. But you CAN bank on the promises of God! They are as real and certain as the ground under your feet.
When you have faith of any kind you are moved to take action. If you believe that pone day you will be a great golfer then you will go out and play lots of golf. If you believe that one day you will be a great evangelist, you start preaching. And when Abraham heard God's call about the land, he moved from Ur of the Chaldees to a land he did not know.
As Abraham took action and journeyed into the promised land his promises came true. As we take faith-based action, that which God has spoken into our spirit will come true. As you do your small part, God does His much greater part.
There is always a moment of consent where we say: Behold the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. Perplexed, yet agreeing with the Presence of Almighty God. Trusting, though we do not yet understand.
Perhaps there is no greater example of this than Abraham's prompt obedience when he was told to go and sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering at the place that God would show him. Nothing about this made sense, and much of it contradicted what he knew about God's promises and character, yet Abraham knew it was God speaking, so he obeyed.
Faith consents to the impossible, the unthinkable and the perplexing. Faith is content to be confused. What young virgin, full of faith and purity, wants to be pregnant out of wedlock? What happened to Mary was confusing and difficult to say the least. She had to go and stay with her cousin Elizabeth for a while.
God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind. And the transforming voice of God might come to you from the midst of the most difficult circumstances that you have ever faced.
Why do so many ministries fail and so many God-given dreams never succeed? Some are destroyed by the devil, or by sin, or by the apathy of men. But quite a number fail because there is a lack of enduring faith. For every dream there is nearly always a time of testing. A time of pain, confusion and perplexity when finances dry up and complications arise. It is when the ministry seems 'dead' that the resurrection comes!
The blessing for believing is a fulfillment of the promises of God. But that believing might just take every ounce of spiritual fiber that you have. I am not talking about academic believing in the propositions of theology. Rather I am talking about believing God for the actual real tangible fulfillment of a rhema-word promise in your life. Destiny is not handed to us on a silver platter. It comes through much testing and much trusting in the promises of God.
Blessings,
John Edmiston ([email protected])
Pastor – Eternity Christian Fellowship
Chairman/ CEO Cybermissions
http://www.eternitychristian.com
http://www.cybermissions.org
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