Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser
I hope that many believers desire, beyond everything else, to be useful to their fellow human beings. I hope that you don’t want to go to Heaven alone – you are most eager to lead others to salvation! So, with this premise that all of us who have a relationship with the Lord want to be useful, it’s necessary to take into account the need for urgency. Are you going to be winning souls? Well, then don’t delay!
It’s a wonderful thing to be sensitive to Almighty God when it comes to serving Him, so that when He speaks to us, we hear His voice and respond without delaying, but taking immediate action. We do it now! There’s a time when God speaks, a time when his voice is being heard. It’s at that moment that you need to respond. When God, by the Holy Spirit, speaks to your heart, that’s the moment you respond, not tomorrow, not tonight, but now.
In Luke 9:59-62 Jesus was speaking to some of his followers about discipleship and the importance of their immediate response to the call of God. “Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” 61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
This is actually a warning that is intended to stress the importance of commitment, so that we can succeed in our Christian walk. Jesus doesn’t want us to delay following and serving Him until such time as convenient to us. He made it perfectly clear that putting any person or thing first before following Him was unacceptable. Jesus’ command to His followers still applies to us today. He expects our immediate response and asks us to sacrifice everything and put His service as top priority in order to live for Him and preach His good news. No matter how hard or difficult life has been, you have to continue to recognise the seasons of opportunities that God gives you.
Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4). It’s a statement to us as followers of Christ, commending to us promptness, determination and practical earnestness. This text of scripture reminds us that we have a work to do. Again, Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:21). We are sent in the same way that the Father sent Jesus. We have the same mission of reconciling people to God (2 Corinthians 5:19-20) and the same empowering of the Holy Spirit to accomplish that mission (John 1:16; Matthew 3:16 with Acts 1:8, and 2:1-4).
Inasmuch as we have but one life here on earth, we should diligently accomplish all our God given purposes in this world. This is because once we die, we cannot return, nor in the grave can we carry out any of our assignments. We should move quickly to serve the Lord, win souls, and disciple them.
" No matter how hard or difficult life has been, you have to continue to recognise the seasons of opportunities that God gives you. "
We are not saved by good works. We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). We cannot work to save ourselves. That is done – Our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ finished it on the cross. He said “It is finished,” and that is great for us. But now we have work to do because we are saved. We are workers together with the Lord. So don’t receive the grace of God in vain. We were not created to be idle. God didn’t choose us to be idle. He chose us to go and bear fruit. Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you” (John 15:16).
We were not baptised in the Holy Spirit to be idle and we are not set apart by God’s Grace to be idle. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We were not redeemed to be idle. The Christian life is a total commitment to God. “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Corinthians. 5:15). The Christian life demands quality of devotion and utter self-sacrifice to God. It’s about going hard after Christ and all-out commitment and abandonment of self. That’s why the apostle Paul said his goal was that “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20).
Every true Christian is to remain steadfast in the work of the Lord throughout his or her entire lifetime on this earth. “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). It is a total lifetime of commitment from that moment we received Christ as our Master, Lord and Saviour. Our Lord Jesus promises to praise and reward us for such faithful living. He will say: ‘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” (Mathew 25:21).
There is a divine work added to every believer’s plate. Not only are you a wife, a husband, a student, a labourer, or a particular professional, but you have been appointed an ambassador for Christ. The apostle Paul considered himself an ambassador for Christ (Ephesians 6:20) and applied this title to all believers. According to the Bible, the position gives every believer specific responsibility for sharing the gospel and pleading with unbelievers to be reconciled to God. “20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Before we received Christ as our Lord and personal saviour, we were children of disobedience, working for the devil (Ephesians 2:1-4). But having been saved by the grace of God, our new appointment comes with different responsibilities. “Ambassador” is a messenger, spokesperson, or a representative of a ruler or king. Therefore, every believer is a representative of King Jesus on this earth. We have been vested with the full power of the Holy Spirit to act on behalf of the government of God, typically in every nation. I pray that you will carry out your duties as commanded.
