S7M11: Doing Our Job

Relating to God

I shared my thoughts about “go and make disciples of all nations.” I have stressed throughout this book that we have a job in our Abba Father’s plan, and bringing others to Heaven with us is critical to his plan.

The United States Marine Corps has a rule that requires every marine to know how to shoot a rifle in combat. My calling is to emulate the USMC and teach everyone to share the Word in combat against ELB. Some people are natural at sharing the Word. Everywhere they go, they engage in the Word with others.

And they rarely get rebuffed because they are so genuine. My nature is a very shy person, and the last thing I want to do is approach a stranger, but the Holy Spirit and I together are not shy at all. Please pray on that. ELB works overtime to stop people from doing their job, and if we are not free of ELB, we should go back and keep reading and praying until we are. If we are free of ELB, we will understand the Holy Spirit will help us and guide us in our job in the Family business.

Our starting point is to forget the concept of making disciples. That is an ELB strategy. A disciple is completely devoted to a teacher, and that relationship goes beyond being a student or an apprentice. Disciples do not simply master a trade or a subject; they learn to emulate their teacher’s life.

As believers, the ideal is for us to become true disciples of Jesus. But until we are, we can do more harm than good trying to make others “disciples.” Instead, let’s learn to share our testimony about our Abba Father and Jesus, the Word in us, with others, and that often means engaging people we do not know well.

Step one is never to ask anyone if they believe in God. Nothing freaks out a non-believer or weak believer more than that. In thirteen years, I have never had a person react negatively to the simple question, do you know Jesus? The difference is that almost everyone has heard of Jesus and knows exactly who he is.

It is easy for people to say, no, I am not into that, which is usual, or yes, and I love him! The word “god” can mean many things that are not attractive to many people, including believers.

In many situations, someone is hurting, and asking them if we can pray for them can make a huge difference when we are unsure what the answer would be.

But overall, I want to stress the book’s theme, relationships. The heart of doing our job is to build relationships and love people. If we do not feel our relationship with our Abba Father, we will never be able to share something we do not have.

Step two is that we can only share what we have to share credibly. And that is our testimony about our relationship, what our Abba Father has done for us. I have all my inmates write their testimony and journal our Abba Father in their life as they learn to change it with the Holy Spirit. It is incredible what I get to see him do in people. If you want a sanctified life, start a journal of what our Abba Father does for you daily.

If your level of faith is attending church, worship, and prayer, but you do not have a testimony, I strongly recommend that you write one and see all the things our Abba Father has done for you. That is the difference between living in ELB with God as an accessory and lifting our lives up to our Abba Father’s world and living in a relationship with him and his Family.

Humans in charge of things love to set goals, so let’s think about our goals in sharing the Word. But first, we have to understand the job. I have never experienced a class on evangelizing that was about anything but ourselves making disciples. But it is the Holy Spirit’s job to move a person’s heart.

Everyone we speak to is a child of our Abba Father, whether they know him or not. Our Abba father already set their plan. The only goal possible in this scenario is to be the human voice at the moment at hand. Just deliver the question, create the opening for the Holy Spirit and let him do his work.

Why does our Abba Father need us for this? Scholars love to say he doesn’t need us; he just chose to do it this way. But that is a very shallow answer. Stop and think, does a coach need a team? I used the line in the beginning that a leader without followers is just someone out for a walk. A coach without a team isn’t a coach of much. A Father without a family is not a father of much. Working with his Family is how our Abba Father’s creation, us, becomes worthy of him. There is no other way. Please pray on that.

We are our Abba Father’s children, which is how the Family works. If we only see a God and his subjects or a judge and his citizens, we cannot possibly experience our Family’s full joy and glory. And we have nothing to share. But when we have the love to share, we can’t help but share it. The asking is the sharing, not the message.

A study shows that, on average, it takes over seven approaches before a person surrenders to our Abba Father. We may be number one through six, but each one is important. Many people tell me when life got tough for them, and they remembered someone in their distant past asking them about Jesus. There is no such thing as a failed attempt at sharing love.

At some point, a person will give us the green light to continue. The Holy Spirit is ready, and we are his voice. And we are his love! Our first reaction should be love for the person, which means getting to know them, and in that process, the Holy Spirit will guide us, but without the feeling of love, we will miss it. Please understand we are sharing the love of the Word, not just the words of the Word, at all times.

Let’s look at the Scripture. Romans 10:14-16, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? even as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things! But they did not all hearken to the glad tidings. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?”

The more we love the “fish on the line” (an homage to Mathew 4:19. “Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of people.”), the better our life becomes. Remember, the Holy Spirit will get them to the preacher. Being a preacher is not our job if we are not a preacher. But if not a preacher, what? That leads us to “gifts” from the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 4:16, “from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.” 1 Corinthians 12:1- 7, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that when ye were Gentiles ye were led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever ye might be led. Wherefore I make known unto you, that no man speaking in the Spirit of God saith, Jesus is anathema; and no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministrations and the same Lord. And there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who worketh all things in all. But each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal.”

What follows next is a list of nine gifts handed out by the Holy Spirit, v12:8, “for to one is given through the Spirit . . ., to another . . .” But only three apply to us, wisdom, knowledge and faith. The others were given to the original disciples and died with them, but that is for another day.

But the most important words in 1 Corinthians 12:1-7 are differences of ministries and diversities of activities. The Greek word for ministries is “diakonia” which best means “Spirit-empowered service guided by faith.” The Greek word for activities is “energéma” and best means “focusing on the results of God’s “energy” (power) in people.” The point of the Scripture is our partnership with the Holy Spirit but in ELB this passage gets treated like renting snow skis and our day is dependent on our ability to ride them. Our Abba Father’s skis come with a pro and a harness. Please pray on that.

But even more important is the last verse in 1 Corinthians 12 NKJV, “But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.” Many in ELB are left here in great wonder. What way is that? The chapter just ended? I will let you in a Holy Bible secret; turn the page!)

1 Corinthians 13:3 NKJV, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Conclusion

Everything starts with our redemption but that is only the start.
Redemption is one point of action in time, followed by the lifelong sanctification process.
Our redemption is presented in Romans 10:1-13 and it is not very complicated.
The rest of the Scripture informs our relationship with our Abba Father and the sanctification process, we must move beyond our redemption.
We must recognize that our Abba Father wants to be with us as a loving Family, not a ruler.
We must focus this life on building our relationship with our Abba Father and his Family.
The goal of all our teaching, study and worship should be pointed to strengthening our relationship through the Holy Spirit and the Scripture, not just for knowledge or pain relief.
We must be our Abba Father’s image to others that people will see and want what we have for themselves. Imaging our Abba Father must be our own self-image. We must do our part in our Abba Father’s plan that he has delegated to us believers to finish. We were created to glorify our Abba Father and we can believe and love passively but we cannot glorify him passively and that is the missing link in most people’s faith.
This all comes together as Abba Father Life Bias.

Hopefully, the conclusion looks familiar.

Spirit Gifts

The subject of our gifts from the Holy Spirit is a great relationship builder with him. Too many believers conflate our gifts from the Holy Spirit and the skills we are born with. We will fail if we look for our Spirit gifts outside ourselves because the Holy Spirit places them in our hearts. The only way we will find our gift or gifts is to tune in and get a sense of what the Holy Spirit is guiding us to do as our job in the Family business. The gifts are not for our pleasure; they are what we need to do our job.

We start with what the Scripture says. I made it easy; go to this URL:

(https://www.openbible.info/topics/spiritual_gifts)[i]

Let the Holy Spirit guide you as you read the Scripture. While you are there, try other subjects, perhaps demons, and make it a tool you use often. I will include the first two passages.

Romans 12:6-8 ESV, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.“

1 Peter 4:10-11 ESV, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.“

There is nothing wrong with using your God-given skills. But ELB prefers that to us building our relationship and finding our calling. That is personal for me because the Holy Spirit led me in a direction that was the exact opposite of my skills. We must tune in to the Holy Spirit in prayer and listening.

If you research spiritual gifts on the internet, you will quickly arrive at some form of the Wesleyan Inventory of Spiritual Gifts. You answer 100+ questions, and it reveals what you wish your gift were.

And that is the problem; humans are trying to discern their intimate relationship with our Abba Father using self-reflective tools in our minds. Please don’t take the easy way out. If you can’t resist doing the survey, do the exact opposite of what it says your gifts are. At least you will be sure your heart is in the relationship. Please pray and listen for your calling from the Holy Spirit.

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