His will

Matthew 26

63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!”

64 Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

65 Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy!

66 What do you think?”

They answered and said, “He is deserving of death.”

67 Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands,

68 saying, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?”

Jesus knew what He was born to do, why He was sent to this earth and what God had for Him to carry out. He was sent here for a specific and special purpose. So were you.

God has placed within each of us specific talents and we are housing very special gifts. Too many have no idea what they carry.

Jesus was on a mission and He knew that mission full and well. His whole purpose in life for being on earth was to save you and me, from the very sins that keep us bound. Then He planned to make disciples of these. That’s what we were in turn brought here to do, make disciples and tell about the good news of what Christ came to do.

Jesus knew and didn’t waver from His why and His mission. Even when He was disregarded, disrespected, despised, rejected, mocked, hated without cause and eventually killed for living out His purpose. He never wavered. Why was such a man hated so badly? The enemy knew how powerful His purpose was. Just like he knows the same for you and me. Fact is, he doesn’t want us to follow through…

What are we willing to lay down in order to follow Him!? What people think? Our hindering thoughts that tell us we can’t? Fear of persecution? Whatever hinders us, we must lay it down down. We have to lay down our idea of how we think it should look, in order to truly follow His will.

Jesus clearly told us if they (the people of the world) persecuted Him, that they would persecute us (His followers) too. He loved the sinner but He was unbothered about what they thought of Him and He was unapologetic. We should be too. Are we not to follow and heed His lead? He was only concerned about His Fathers will. Why aren’t we unbothered by people’s opinions and more concerned about what God thinks, more than man? Why are we so worried about the what ifs and not the flip side of the what if? We are clearly told to fear Him Who takes the body and soul, not him who can take your body alone.

Too many of us are so worried about messing up, being judged, and not getting it right that we mess up anyway. We miss the mark by doing this and we are caught up in a loop, but going nowhere when we live like this. We are all going to be judged anyway when we stand before God and we’re all going to give an account of how we lived our lives. That’s the only judgment that matters. So face the judgment and backlash of man now or God later?

God is a loving God but He expects born again believers and professors of faith to fear and to follow Him, not the world. That’s who we use to be.

He created us all with purpose and on purpose, and it’s ashamed not to live that purpose out. When Jesus was about to be crucified the people tortured and mocked Him. They didn’t believe that He was Who He said He was. They were trying to prove that He wasn’t in fact the Son of God like He was claiming. They were questioning Him. He simply stated the fact of what they asked and spoke no further about the matter. He was silent before His accusers. He didn’t try to argue or beg people to see His worth, value or point of view. He knew Who and Whose He was, and we must too.

We must know our worth and value and that hinges on where we came from. It doesn’t come from earthly facts or what family we were born into. That’s where most of us get hung up. God is our Father and Creator, and He is the One Who created us in our mothers womb.

Jesus had nothing prove. God would do that for Him and He will do it for us. The only thing that we must prove is our love for Him by our faithfulness and allegiance to Him. Jesus made no apologies when it came to His walk or obedience. He didn’t make any excuses nor did He try to justify Himself. He didn’t seek anyone else’s approval but Gods, and He knew He already had that. He didn’t ask for permission because He knew what He was sent to do and that God had ordained and ordered it. It was already granted. He knew what was about to happen and He didn’t want to face the cross, but nevertheless……. Again, He knew what He was sent to do…

He was mocked, spit on, struck and brutally beaten. He was hung upon a cruel cruel cross - all for you and me that we might LIVE and live out our purpose while we have life down here. We were put here to make an eternal and everlasting effect. You have something that no one else has that’s unique to you.

Doesn’t what Jesus did on the cross truly matter? It was for you if it was for no one else. We must live like it truly matters. It should be the driving force of everything we do. So many of us know but too many forget. We too often just go on about our lives without making Him center.

Jesus give us life and life more abundantly, and that means to the fullest! He didn’t die in vain or so that we’d live half in and half out. He did it so that we could walk in our God given call and it’s high time that we stop waiting and start walking in and living out our purpose. What’s holding you back? Truly dig into that question so that you can get dig out the lies.

Everyone (including myself) wants to start New Year’s resolutions and that’s fine and great, but every day is a new opportunity. All we are promised and given is right here and now. It’s a gift. Just like that, now is gone and it’s suddenly a new time. I believe time was given to us so that we’d use it wisely. I don’t believe that God needs time like we do. We must not be sidetracked by people, what anyone thinks, the pleasures of this world, or approval. And so we must learn to start taking authority over what God has assigned us to do.

I don’t know about you but I’m tired of sitting on the side lines. God has called us to so much more than just being bench warmers. He has called us to be active duty soldiers. He enlisted us, we signed up and He called us to DO.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Before you were even born, He knew you. He knew the mistakes you’d make, He knew your failures, and your potential. He fully knew you and formed you anyway. If you and I were perfect, why would we need Him? It’s why He came. He knit you together in your mothers womb. He’s got a plan for you. Just as God sent Jesus for a special purpose, He also told Jeremiah that he was created for a special purpose, and so He is telling you. No matter how young or old we are, we were called for that specific purpose and it’s for an eternal advancement and advantage.

We are accountable for how we use our gifts. God’s plan doesn’t just fall off of your life and the word says that the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. In other words, irrevocable, even if you’ve messed up. We all do! But how and if we use them are up to us. He didn’t make a mistake. We weren’t put here to just merely exist; to be born, live how we want to and then to just die. He created us for so much more. He created us for His will and it’s good.

Just read the parable of the men each holding his masters talents in Matthew 25. They were all given talents to invest while the master was gone. The master wanted a return on his investment when he returned back from his journey. God has given each of us specific talents just like these men and we will also give an account for how and if we used them when He returns. The only way to increase those talents are to use them and rightly. God calls us each to increase, we were never born to remain the same. He told us early on to be fruitful and to multiply. A seed can only increase much from that one tiny seed if the seed is first planted. Seeds were not meant to merely stay seeds. There is a time to plant. How can we ever expect the harvest unless we first do?

In the parable of the talents there were 3 men. 1 was entrusted with 10 talents, another with 5 and the other with 1. God has entrusted us all with something, whether you think so or not. The men with 5 and 10 invested and increased. They got double the amount back. The man with only one talent didn’t use his. He decided to play it safe and hid it in the ground, but that wasn’t so safe at all. His thought was something like this: at least he wouldn’t lose it and he’d still have it to show for when his master returned to get his accounts. Wrong! Thing is, he lost it all anyway on the day of account.

There will come “a give an account day” for everyone. But up until then, we have great opportunity and chance to use our gifts and talents. No matter how many years we have waited or wasted them, today is new and His mercies are too. That which the man had and even that which he didn’t have was taken from him, because he was unfaithful. God says those who are faithful in little will be trusted with more. Don’t expect to increase where you don’t sow. It just don’t work that way.

This man was considered wicked and lazy because he was too scared to use what he had been given. Now let’s face it, God knows that we all face fears and we are all scared at times, but that doesn’t call for us to just doing nothing. That’s exactly what the enemy wants. Would we allow our children to just do nothing because they are scared, or would we challenge and encourage the potential within?

God didn’t call us “do nothings” but “doers of the word, and not just mere hearers only.” Faith faces fear and eventually overrides it. We all have fear but we don’t have to let it rule. Faith isn’t the absent of fear, but rather making a stand against it. We must drop the excuses and just begin. We must push through. We must face the very things that we’re scared of because it’s on the other side of those thing that we will find the true freedom that we are looking and longing for. It’s within us. It’s been with us this whole time, we just didn’t know it or was too afraid to use it. If we have Christ, we have His power too.

You may say well give the guy a break, but he had ample time. God has given us this time too. To everyone He’s given a measure of faith and an allotted amount of time to live. I heard it said recently that “the sand is running out beginning day 1.” No one knows how long that is.

We aren’t in a race against time, we are to be using our time wisely. Every good and perfect gift comes from God and we are only stewards and managers of what He has first given. We will all report back to Him and give our accounts of what first belonged to Him. He wants us to be doing and will return to see what we have done. If that story doesn’t get you or convince you, then maybe this next scripture will.

This is not to scare you but to move and to drive you as a motivating force. It’s truth. The truth is: God loves you! There is absolutely nothing you can do to change that. He doesn’t want you to perish in the sin of not living out your full potential. It’s not His will that any should perish but that every single person would come to repentance. It’s time to turn around if you’re not going the right way. The enemy of your soul is the only one who’s against you. Don’t buy into the lie.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Matthew 7:21-23

The only words that we should live for, live by and long to hear are these word: “Well done.”

His lord said to him, “Well done,good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” Matthew 25:21

Are we faithful over the things, people and gifts that God has so graciously given, blessed and entrusted us with? We all far short but we all have a brand new opportunity every single day, as long as we have breath and up till His return. Time is running out and that’s a truth that we none like to hear, but all need to be reminded of. All we have is right here and right now.

I’ve come to tell you and to remind us all that as long as we have breath and life, we have purpose and opportunity! No better time than right now. Don’t wait another minute to do what God has put in your heart to do. If you don’t know what to do, seek Him. He says to seek Him with your whole heart and you’ll find Him. He also says to ask for wisdom and He will give it liberally and without fault finding. He won’t be looking for your faults because we all fall short, He just longs to do good to you. We must cooperate with His plan. He will give us wisdom in abundance if we will just sincerely seek and ask. We were all put here to serve. This I do know. To advance His kingdom in whatever way that service may look like.

We were all born to serve and influence others in our own unique way. You can reach people that I may never have access to and vice versa. See are all in this together. We need to get more serious about our call. He’s calling but will we answer?

It’s easy to look at those who influence and are walking boldly in their call and think they have something more than us. But they don’t. They just use what they’ve been given. They stepped out. All this stuff around us is gonna pass away and the thought of what others thought will no longer matter. But what we do here and now will never pass away, if done with a right heart and attitude. What we did from the heart will be remembered and we will reap accordingly. Aren’t we looking for our harvest day?

The only difference in doers and non doers, is just that. One does and one doesn’t. But both have potential. No matter why you’re not doing, now is the time to push past it. Maybe what bothers me, doesn’t bother you but we all face challenges. A question my mom asked me years ago when I was in a challenge, or I guess I should say “in a place that I didn’t like.” Her question really got me thinking. “What are you gonna do about it”, she asked! That question really shook me. It made me realize that the ball was in my court. I wasn’t and I am not a victim. I do have a choice. My sister in law came up to me one night after church and said: “you hold the power”. In other words, I had given my power away and only I could take it back.

We can’t control everything or anyone but we are in control of our actions and obedience. We’re also accountable. We do hold the power. The power is within us.  It’s up to us if and how we use it! God has equipped us and that simple question that my mom asked really got me thinking. No matter how bad I’ve messed up, that reality still holds just as true today. We are victims or we’re victors. We hear it said all of the time: “we can be one or the other, but we can’t be both.” It’s true. Some things are out of our hands but it is in our hands to use what we’ve been given. That’s up to you. That’s up to me. And God wants us to use faithfully and wisely.

We can trust God. We can take Him at His word. We must fear Him only and that’s a reverential fear that moves us to obey. This world is not our home. This is our platform. Our ministry. Our mission field. Our battle field. Our call. It’s all to win as many souls as possible and to know that everything else will pass away, except for those souls. We must stop building only on temporal things and instead use the temporal things as a means to advance His eternal purpose in us. We are to seek first the Kingdom and the Kingdom is with-in. We must not fear doing what He has called but instead, to fear not to. We must start stepping out by faith. At some point we gotta put our wishes and want to’s into gear. We must put feet to our faith and be people of action as we were called to.

Many have a plan of action but never begin. This has been my story for years but in every minute I have, with whom I have it with, I wanna be the best me. I wanna do what is burning inside of me and begging me to pursue. I wanna make the most of my time hear on earth and truly live life each and every moment of each and every day. That looks different for all of us and remember: comparison is thief. It’ll stop you from doing what you were meant to. Don’t get to the end and say “I meant to.” Life’s too short to wait another minute or another day. It’s too precious not to love and live. If the year 2020 taught us anything, it should be that. I don’t want to disappoint get to the end of my life and realize how much I disappointed God and I don’t want the blood of others to be on my hands. I want to give it all. At some point I must move, for He can’t steer a parked car.

So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16

We don’t know what tomorrow holds but we do know Who holds tomorrow. We aren’t promised tomorrow nor do we know anyone’s last second, so that’s why we are being taught to number our days and to so gain a heart of wisdom. If we truly grasp this fact then we would love and live differently. Truly we would. It’s not our way but His. He is the Master builder. I want to live according to that plan and in a way that not only pleases God. May we make the most of our time that we’ve been granted and not waste more of it, but to manage the allotted time that we’ve each been given in such a way that’s pleasing to Him. Every second. Every day. More intentional and less haphazardly.

If someone is called to write but doesn’t, then there’s many unwritten books and words that God could have used. In the same way they could use it all wrong. There’s many songs that we’ll never hear, messages that we missed out and mighty things that could have been invented or built that we may never see, all because someone didn’t live out their why.

What are you waiting for? Make the first move. Do what He’s put in your heart TO DO. If not now, when? Make a step in the right direction and watch what He will do. Keep doing it. Write the first page. Make the first call. Take the first trip. Whatever it is you truly believe He is calling you to. If you’re go the wrong direction, at least you tried something and as long as you’re going, He can turn you around. Like I said: be afraid not to. Do try is better than to live with regrets.

The days are full of evil and there’s many opportunities that will come at us to sin. They aren’t from God but the evil one - who remind you, comes to do nothing other than to get us off track so that we won’t win our crown or hear well done. See to it that no man takes your crown. Walk wisely and carefully, redeeming the time. Making the most of every single second, breath and opportunity. Life is but a vapor, here today, gone tomorrow. Amen.

Don’t get to the end of your life to realize you waited to late. Time is ticking… It’s just a matter of time.⏰ You did or didn’t prepare.

Song of the day: “Days go by” by Keith Urban

Be a fan or not, the words hold true.