How to be useful before the Lord
Everyone who has been saved has the position and the potential to be used by God. The reason God created and redeemed man is that He intends to use man. However, as far as man’s feeling is concerned, creation and redemption are not enough to convince man that God intends to use him. Therefore God must also call man to confirm to man His intention to use him.
Has God called us, and how do we know that He has called us?
We only need to ask ourselves if from the day we were saved until now we have ever had the feeling of wanting to be used by the Lord or have ever heard within us a soft, gentle voice saying that the Lord wants to use us. If we have had such a feeling, then we can know that the Lord has called us.
Previously we did not even care for Him, yet to our surprise we now have the desire to be for His use. This proves that this is the Lord’s visitation and that the Lord’s grace has come to us.
God’s visitation of man is the confirmation of God’s desire to use man and the beginning of His use of man.
However, the Bible shows us that while the Lord has the responsibility of visiting, we also have a responsibility of paying a price.(Matt. 8:19-22;16:24-27, Like 9:59-62) We who have been saved by grace have already received the Lord’s visitation.
Our usefulness in the Lord’s hands altogether depends on the price we pay. If we pay a big price, our usefulness will be great; if we pay a small price, our usefulness will be limited.
We need to be like Noah, the first person to go up to a mountain. He arrived at the mountains of Ararat by being in the ark and passing through the flood. Noah’s going up to a mountain symbolizes his being delivered from the judgment and escaping all the situations of rebellion against God.
In the Bible going up to a mountain to be before God firstly indicates deliverance from rebellion. Secondly it indicates ascension to the heavens through death and resurrection. Third one goes up to the mountain for revelation. In John’s experience we see the ultimate significance of this matter: being delivered from rebellion, passing through death and resurrection, representing God’s authority on earth, and receiving an exceedingly mysterious revelation.
The fact that one must go up to a mountain to receive revelation indicates that the receiving of revelation requires the paying of a price. To go up to a mountain is to pay a price.
If we want to receive revelation we must determine to willingly pay a price, and we must also draw near to the Lord within.
In the Gospels the Lord’s unique requirement for those called by Him was that they forsake all their possessions. The all required in the Gospels is all that we have, including our parents, wives, children, brothers, sisters, houses, businesses, academic degrees, preferences, ambitions and lives. This does not mean that we should cut off all human relationships.Rather it means we should cut off all emotional ties. In short the Lord wants us to leave all that we have.
Whenever we touch the Lord, he will demand something from us. If we answer the Lord’s requirements, we will be full of joy, and second the Lord will be able to manifest our usefulness. We must realize that the basic requirement to being used by the Lord is to consent to His demands. If a worker wants his work to remain and to last a long time, he must learn the lesson of paying a price. A person’s usefulness before the lord is based upon how much of a price he has paid before the Lord.
The price in Philippians 3 is different from the price in the Gospels. The price in the gospels refers to all that we have, whereas the price in Philippians 3 refers mainly to all the things that enable us to serve.
We need to pay the price by giving all that we have, our theology, eloquence, doctrines, knowledge, and experience in exchange for Christ, the experience of Christ and the gaining of Christ. We need to cast aside our ability, our eloquence, our doctrines, and our messages and let Christ be our ability, our eloquence, and our message. Only by paying a price in this way will we be able to gain Christ.
Regardless of how good our past experiences were, they are the things which are behind and have to be forgotten. Unless we are willing to forsake our past experience we will not be able to have a fresh experience of Christ, and without a fresh experience, we will not have new usefulness in service.
The purpose of paying a price is to afford God the opportunity to do in us what He intends to do. The significance of paying a price is that we allow God to have a place in us so that He may come into us to be our life and even to be fully mingled with us without any hindrance, limitation, or difficulty. Our living, preference, inclination, future, and interest must be given up in exchange for Christ because Christ wants to replace everything that we have. If we hand over more, we will receive more. If we hand over less we will receive less.
We must pay the price and deny ourselves, forsaking our family, career, and future and discarding everything that replaces God. In this way God will come into us to be our life, power, nature and content.
