Position Yourself to Be Used(7)

I want us to continue from where we left off on ‘Position yourself to be used.’ We have been looking at the need for us to place ourselves where God is able to use us for whatever good work He wants to use us for. Remember that Paul says in Ephesians 2:10 that God created us in Christ Jesus to do the good works that He prepared ahead of time for us to do. But for God to be able to use us to do these good works, we first have to make ourselves available to Him. Apart from making ourselves available, we also need to be made competent: competent to do whatever good work He wants to use us for. In other words, being available is not enough. We also have to be fit to do whatever it is that God wants to use us for. If we are not fit, then even though we are available, God will not be able to use us for certain good works that He may want to use us for. We have to keep that in mind.

Yes, in becoming fit to be used by God for any kind of good work, the only One who can make us fit is God Himself. But we have to give ourselves to Him so that He can make us fit. He made the apostles of old fit to serve Him. Paul mentions this in 2 Corinthians 3. Let me read a little from there, from verse 5:

“Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:5-6NIV)

You see that? The One who made Paul and the other apostles of old competent is God. And He is still the One making His people competent to serve Him. But it is important that we give ourselves to Him, so that He can make us fit for whatever good works He wants to do through us.

God determines the good works He does through us
Now I also need to announce this to you: the One who determines the sort of good works that He does through us is God Himself. We are not the ones to tell Him what sort of good works He is going to do through us. He is the one to tell us. We may think that certain good works are meant for us, but God may not think so. That you think some good works are meant for you does not mean that God wants you to do them. It does not mean that God has made you fit to do them. You may even think of yourself as fit to do them. Until you begin to do them and start experiencing some measure of failure, you may not admit that you have not been made fit for the good works you are seeking to do.

God wants us to do good works, but not every good work is meant for each of us to do. That is because it is not every good work that we have been made fit to do. It is also not every good work that God will give us the opportunity to do. And besides, it is not every good work that God will stand by us to do.

Any good work that God wants us to do, He will make us fit for it. He will provide us with the opportunity to do it. Then He will also stand by us to do it. In other words, we are going to have His resources in doing it. We are going to have His presence, His wisdom, His boldness and His strength. We are also going to have His protection. If we try to force ourselves to do good works that God has not made us fit to do, we are bound to fail.
The example of David (1 Chronicles 17, 28 &29)
Remember that David wanted to build God a temple. But God told him that it was not meant for him to do so. Why? He had shed much blood. Of course, the thought of building God a temple came to him from God. God can give us good thoughts. You need to understand that. Remember that the Word of God says that it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose (Philippians 2:13). That means God is the one filling us with the desire to do what is right. He is the one filling us with good thoughts and good desires. Satan will never give you the desire to do what is right, good and righteous. The only one who gives people the desire to do what is good and righteous is God, God alone.

But God not only gives us the desire to do what is good; He also equips us to do it. If it is His wish for us to do a good work, He will not just bring the thought to us; He will also equip us with what we need to do it. God gave David that good thought, that good desire, and David wanted to work with it. That is what every one of us must also keep in mind. If God has given you a good thought, you should want to work with it. You should love to work with it. That is one of the ways to show that you are available, that is, available for God to use to do any kind of good work. God will praise you for embracing whatever good thought He has given you and for being willing to work with it.

That, however, still does not mean that God wants you to do that particular thing. If God wants you to do that particular thing, He will make you fit to do it. He will equip you with everything you need. Not only that, He will provide you with the opportunity to do it, and you will have His backing in doing it. I want you to keep those things in mind.

David had a good thought of building God a temple. He wanted to do it. He had the resources, and since he was alive, he had the opportunity. But he was not going to have God’s backing. God Himself told him so. That job had not been assigned to him. It had been assigned to someone else, and the reason was that he had shed much blood. He had been a warrior, and God did not consider him fit, in that sense, to build Him a temple.

That, by the way, is not to say that God did not use David for other kinds of good work. God used him for several other good works. But that particular good work was not for him, because of his status as a warrior.

Did David, then, try to force himself to do it? No. The moment he received God’s instruction not to build the temple but to leave it for his son who would be king after him, he decided to let go. Of course, he provided as many resources as he could for the building of the temple. In fact, he worked on the plans for it. He did whatever he could in supporting the one who would build it. But he did not try to force himself to do something that God had clearly told him was not for him to do. There is a lesson for us to learn there.

How do we know whether God wants us to do something?
That something is good, and that you consider it as something that will please God, does not mean that God wants you to do it. How would you know that God does not want you to do something good that has come to your mind? I have already listed some things for you to consider.
First of all, consider your ability. Do you have the ability to do it? If you do not, it may just mean that God does not want you to do it. That, however, does not mean that you cannot pray to God for the ability. If you pray and He gives it to you, then, it may mean that He wants you to do it.

Second, if God wants you to do a particular good work that has come to your mind, He will provide you with the opportunity to do it. The opportunity may not be readily available, but if you go out looking for it, since God wants you to do it, He will clear the way. If you pray to Him for the opportunity, and He wants you to do it, He will clear the way for you.

Not only that, God will back you up. He will stand by you in doing it. Of course, God has made us a general promise that He will never leave us and never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). He has promised to always be with us. Being with us in that sense goes beyond just standing by us and walking with us. It also has to do with participating in whatever we are doing.

When we speak of God’s presence with somebody, it goes beyond God merely standing by the person. The Scriptures make certain statements about God leaving certain people. For instance, God left King Saul; the Spirit of God departed from him. What did that mean? Does it mean that wherever Saul was, the Spirit of God was not there? Or that whenever King Saul went somewhere, the Spirit of God would stay away from there? No. The Spirit of God is everywhere. God is everywhere. He is even with those who are not believers, in the sense that wherever they are, He is present. God fills everywhere; He is omnipresent. There is no escaping from Him. (Cf. 1 Samuel 16:14)

See, God does not run away from where people are because of their sins or because they are no longer listening to Him. God is everywhere. He is going nowhere. Our sins will not make Him run away. However, God will not participate in what the sinner is doing. That is the point.

So when we say God is not with someone, we are talking about God not participating in what that person is doing. God is present with the person, but He is not fellowshipping with the person in what he is doing. So when the Bible says that the Spirit of God left King Saul, it is not saying that the Spirit disappeared from Saul’s vicinity. What the Bible is telling us is that the Spirit of God was no longer participating, no longer working with King Saul in his reigning over Israel.

I use that illustration to draw your attention to something: if God does not want you to do something, He is not going to participate with you in doing it. If you insist on doing something that God does not want you to do, you will not have His participation. So, that thing is not going to work well. It will fail. It will not accomplish the results that God desires, because He is not participating in it with you.

You may not even have God’s protection while doing it. Out of His mercy, He may protect you from the danger associated with doing something He does not want you to do. But that is out of mercy. He is under no obligation to protect someone who is in disobedience. Can you relate to what I am talking about?

Somebody may ask, “I understand that. But how do I get to know that God is not going to participate with me in what I am doing?” He will make it known to you. He will make it clear. If God does not want you to do something, and He knows that you have the ability, the opportunity and the resources to do it, He will speak to you. God loves us, and He does not want us to waste our time on irrelevances or non-essentials or on tasks that He has not approved for us.

God is an intelligent being. At least, we are intelligent beings. And since God created us, we should know that He too must be intelligent. Saying “God is intelligent” may even be an understatement when we are dealing with the One who gives intelligence to people. But I am saying that God is not foolish. God can reason. God can think.

So if God does not want you to do something, He has ways of communicating it: “Yes, I know you have the resources to do this. You have the opportunity. You have the time. But I do not want you to do it.” It may be through a prophetic instruction. It may be through a vision or a dream. Or it may be through some combination of circumstances that God lets you know that the good work you want to embark on is not something He has approved for you. He did that in David’s case. He sent a prophet to let him know that the good work he wanted to do was not something He had approved for him.

Therefore, you do not need to worry yourself about how to know whether God wants you to do a particular good work. You can know. The Scriptures have given us enough instruction to help us know. Let me reiterate: if God wants you to do some good work that has come to your mind, He will furnish you with the abilities to do it. He will provide you with the opportunity. And you will have His backing.

The example of Paul (Acts 22:17-21)
Also, Paul wanted the Lord Jesus Christ to send him to the Jews. He believed he had what it would take to minister to them, because he had been a Pharisee. Also, he had persecuted the children of God, and so he felt he was one of the best candidates to send to the Jews. But the Lord Jesus Christ told him that the Jews would not listen to him. That must have come as a rude shock to him. All along he had been meditating on going back to his own people to share with them the truths that had been revealed to him by the Lord Jesus Christ. So he must have been a little disappointed when the Lord told him that He was sending him not to the Jews but to the Gentiles.

But the Lord told him why. The Jews would not listen to him. And guess what? Wherever Paul went, the Jews troubled him more than the Gentiles did. They continually worked against him, trying to tear him apart. And it was because of them that he ended up becoming a prisoner. So none of us knows better than God. And because we do not know better than Him, we need to allow Him to guide us into whatever good works He wants us to do.

God makes us competent by pruning and cleansing us
I have been talking about God making us competent. Another way He makes us competent is by pruning us. I mentioned that in the last lesson. God also prunes us by cleansing us, which means getting rid of the things that are wrong in our lives, the things that may limit Him or prevent Him from using us. And that is important.

Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself share some things along this line. In John 15, from verse 1, He says:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” (John 15:1-2NIV)

Look at what the Lord Jesus is telling us here. He is describing the relationship that those of us who believe have with Him. He refers to Himself as the true vine and to us as His branches. He says that every branch in Him that bears no fruit, the Father cuts off. He refers to the Father as the gardener, the one who takes care of the vine. Then He says that every branch that does bear fruit, the Father prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful.

Our pruning is in the hands of God. The One who prunes us, cleanses us and sanctifies us so that we can be more useful to Him is God Himself. God can open our eyes to see things that are wrong in our lives that we need to deal with. And there may be things that are obvious to us, and God will expect us to deal with those. But we cannot deal with anything that is wrong in our lives in our own strength or by our own wisdom.

Yes, we have instructions in the Scriptures telling us to put to death pride, greed, bitterness, jealousy, envy and the misdeeds of the body. But we cannot do these things by ourselves. We have to be helped by God Himself. And that is one of the reasons He is at work in us. Paul talks about this in Romans 8, where he tells us that we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to its desires. If we live according to the flesh, we will die; but if by the Spirit we put to death the misdeeds of the body, we will live. How do we put to death the misdeeds of the body? Through the Spirit of God! How do we get rid of the wrong things in our lives? Through the Spirit of God!

So when we know the things that are wrong in our lives, we can begin to make conscious efforts to get rid of them: by meditating on the Word of God concerning those things, by praying that we will be strengthened to get rid of them and by taking steps to separate ourselves from certain individuals or places. But there may also be things in our lives that are wrong and that we do not know about. Yet they may be hindering God from working in us. How do we rid ourselves of the things we do not know? God has to do that. For the ones we know, it is God who takes care of them for us; we cannot do it by ourselves. And for the ones we do not know, it is also God who takes care of them for us.

But then, for God to cleanse us and get rid of the things that hinder Him from using us the way He wants, we have to yield ourselves to Him. How do we do that? First, by yielding ourselves to His Word. In fact, the primary way of allowing God to cleanse us is by yielding ourselves to His Word. In John 15:3 the Lord says, “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” How did those disciples become clean? Through the word that the Lord Jesus Christ had spoken to them! So the Word of God is one of God’s tools for cleansing us and getting rid of the wrong things in our lives.

Let me show you another Scripture, this time from 2 Timothy 2, verse 20:

“In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.” (2 Timothy 2:20-21)

Look at what Paul is saying here. He is talking about how God uses us. He speaks of a large house with many articles, some of gold and some of silver. That is how the world is, and that is also how the Church of God is. All kinds of vessels are there that God can use. Some are for special purposes and some for common use. In other words, the making of certain vessels positions them to be used for something special, and the making of others positions them to be used for something common, something anybody can be used for.

But what is more important is not how the vessel was made or what it is made of. What is important is the cleanliness of the vessel at the time it needs to be used. Is the vessel clean enough at the time it is needed? If it is not, that vessel may be set aside, and another vessel, even an inferior one, may be used instead, because at that moment the first is not clean enough.

So Paul says that those of us who cleanse ourselves will become instruments for special purposes. In other words, in spiritual matters, anyone who cleanses himself will be considered by God an instrument that can be used for something special, made fit for any kind of good work. Think about that.

But I already said that we couldn’t clean ourselves; God has to cleanse us. And for Him to cleanse us, we have to yield ourselves to Him by yielding ourselves to His word. So, in the third chapter of this same epistle to Timothy, from verse 16, Paul would say this:

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

The word of God is one main tool God uses in thoroughly equipping His servants for every good work. That is because through His word He is able to teach us the things we need to know, He is able to rebuke us if we are missing it, He is able to correct us and show us the right way to do things and He is able to train us in righteousness. So, we have to yield ourselves to His word, if we really want Him to use us for any kind of good work.

It follows, then, that you should not bother yourself about the sort of good works God will be using you for. He knows what sort of good works He can use you for. And there are many good works He can use you for. What should be important to you more, therefore, is your readiness to be used by Him. Are you ready to be used by Him? Have you been cleansed, so that He can use you? Have you been purified so that you can be used by Him anytime and any day? That should be what you are more concerned about.

Well, we see that, in positioning ourselves to be used by God, there is a part that involves being available for Him to use us and there is also a part that involves being made fit for God to use us.

I will share further with you in the next lesson. Until then, remain blessed.

Summary
Being available to God is not enough; we must also be made competent, and only God can make us fit for the good works He prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 3:5–6). God alone determines which good works He does through us. When He wants us to do a work, He supplies the ability, the opportunity and His backing, including His presence, wisdom, boldness, strength and protection. David’s desire to build the temple was a good thought from God, yet God refused it because David had shed much blood, and David let go gracefully and supported Solomon instead. Paul’s wish to minister to the Jews was likewise redirected to the Gentiles. God makes us competent by pruning and cleansing us through His Spirit and His Word (John 15; Romans 8; 2 Timothy 2:20–21), because what matters most is whether the vessel is clean when the Master needs it.