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Experiencing God A Wonderful Series - Part 3 In the last article we talked about what it takes to be a servant of God. To continue in this study let’s look further into what this means. Most of us continue to think that serving God means to do busy work, volunteering for every new thing that comes along until we drop, or get exhausted or even burned out. After all, we are doing it for God right? Or are we? When you get burned out it means that something is not right. Have you ever been in charge of a project where you got so over-worked and tired it failed? Or you did all you could to make everything work well but somehow it didn’t? Or you worked on a project making everything perfect and then you fell apart afterwards? You tried to go off by yourself and make a project happen but it failed or you fell apart because you relied on your own resources. Frequently God has something completely different in mind than what you have in mind. Where is God at workaround you? Once you have developed a firm foundation in your relationship with God, He will show you where He is at work. Then all you need to do is join Him in that work. The difference here is that you aren’t the one who is doing all the planning, preparing and scheduling of what to do. God already has a plan. He just wants you to be apart of it. He wants you to focus on Him, develop your relationship with Him, be obedient to Him, listen to Him and stay in constant prayer with Him. Then you will be working with Him not by yourself. You will be letting Him work through you so that He will be glorified not that you will be glorified. The first time I went through the workbook study of the Experiencing God series I kept hearing from God for me to be still. Each time I would pray about what God wanted me to do with my life I heard "Be still." I realized through this study that God wanted me to develop a strong love relationship with Him first before He would use me. I’ve loved the Lord for a long time but needed to grow and come even closer to Him before He would use me in a bigger project. I needed to learn to rely totally on God for direction and purpose in my life. I needed to go through a period of time when I was still. I needed to spend more time with God with no other distractions and take the time to pray and listen and be still. Since I didn’t quit my job at the time and had to support myself I prayed through out my day as I went through daily routines. I prayed at night and in the morning when I was alone. I focused on God all the time. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5) Apart from God you can do nothing is a pretty powerful statement. This verse in John means that we must remain together with God in order to accomplish anything. Have you failed at your jobs? Have you failed at your home life? Have you failed at anything? Well maybe you didn’t include God when you made your decisions. Maybe you didn’t listen and let God lead you. Maybe you went out on your own. Maybe you weren’t where God wanted you to be. Or maybe those difficult times and changes in your life were periods of growth. Our society does not encourage the kind of relationship this study talks about. In fact the world encourages us to be self-reliant. If you truly want to be a servant of God you will get to know God first, see what He is up to and join Him in the work He already has in progress. You may have to make some sacrifices along the way. But God will lead the way. He will show you where He wants you to be. You don’t even have to be an expert. You don’t even have to be somebody great. It’s a matter of being obedient to Him. Back about five years ago during my prayer time one morning I heard God wanted me to teach this course. At first I brushed it off thinking I wasn’t qualified enough. But the thought came back again and after a full morning of this strong urging to teach this course I finally called my minister and volunteered to teach the Experiencing God course during the next quarter. I was nervous and felt inadequate but was obedient. My minister didn’t know what to say at that moment so I told him to think about it and let me know and then I quickly got off the phone. Well the rest is history, I have been teaching this course ever since. It has been a very rewarding experience for me because I’ve learned a lot. One of the things Henry Blackaby teaches in this material is that if you feel weak, limited and ordinary, you are the best material through which God can work. God picks people like this because He can receive the greatest glory. I am certainly weak, limited and ordinary so I guess I qualify. How about you? I highly recommend purchasing the Experiencing God workbook from your local Christian bookstore. It will make it easier to follow along with the articles as I continue sharing my experiences with you from week to week. * * *
To purchase the Experiencing God workbook or get more information, click here.
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