HOW TO SUPPORT THE VISION
We all have a set of values by which we live our lives. I’ve written about how important goal setting is to succeeding in life, but our values are even more important than goals because goals in themselves are a means to an end. Our goals are a means to having our values met. We all have ‘moving towards’ and ‘moving away’ values, our ‘moving away’ values are things our brain read as leading to pain, while ‘our moving towards’ values are things our brain interprets as resulting in pleasure. Psychologists say the brain will do more to avoid pain than to get pleasure. So if public speaking is a moving towards value for you but rejection is a moving away value, you will experience intrapersonal conflict whenever you have an opportunity to speak but afraid your audience or somebody in the audience may not like you. In fact your brain will support your turning down that speaking engagement rather than going for it, because it will rather avoid pain than gain pleasure.
I shared the above information to say this – if an addiction to the presence of God is not yet topmost on your value hierarchy, you will need to shift it there because love for His presence and a corresponding fear of the loss of His presence are two values that will keep you focused and faithful to His work. Remember King David? The one whom God described as a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22)? What was His topmost ‘moving towards value’? It was the presence of God while His topmost ‘moving away’ value was the loss of the presence of God. One of the occasions this was made manifest was after he sinned with Bathsheba. In his repentance as recorded in Psalm 51, of all the things he could have requested for, he cried out to God to not take His Holy Spirit from him.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit (Psalms 51:10-13 KJV)
When his predecessor King Saul was in a similar situation of sinning against God, his cry was for the prophet Samuel to still come with him so he will not loose face before the people, indicating that the approval of man was his highest ‘moving toward value’
Then Saul pleaded again, “I know I have sinned. But please, at least honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel by coming back with me so that I may worship the Lord your God.” (1 Sam 15:30 NLT)
If pleasing God is your topmost value, you will not struggle with being about His business. Your whole life will be built around His business, part of which is the vision of your local church.
Another way to support the God’s vision for your local congregation is to be available first to God, then to your church. Quality time with God is His primary love language. By spending time with God, you give Him a chance to reveal His heart to you (Isaiah 1:18) cleanse you; fill you so He can use you. Nobody can please God by his own human strength, if it not by God’s grace, it will not be acceptable to God. Part of the benefit of spending quality time with God is that He gets to reveal Himself to you and only then can you rightly reveal Him to the world (Galatians 1:15-16). You cannot give what you don’t have. The depth of Himself that God reveals to you will determine how much of Him you can show to others.
Be prepared to work as a team. One look at the human body tells you we are designed to work best as part of a team. Even the Godhead is made up of a team of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You can’t do it all by yourself. Know your calling and gifting; find your place and do the very best you can to get the job done. Be mature enough to allow other members of your team to succeed without feeling threatened by their success. God will not judge you based on another’s potential, He will not require of you that which He designed someone else to accomplish. Be confident in who you are in Christ, celebrate his gifting on your life and on the lives of all your team members and be glad the job is getting done.
I will continue on this topic next week by God’s grace.
Until then…Shalom!!
With Warmth
Angela
I shared the above information to say this – if an addiction to the presence of God is not yet topmost on your value hierarchy, you will need to shift it there because love for His presence and a corresponding fear of the loss of His presence are two values that will keep you focused and faithful to His work. Remember King David? The one whom God described as a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22)? What was His topmost ‘moving towards value’? It was the presence of God while His topmost ‘moving away’ value was the loss of the presence of God. One of the occasions this was made manifest was after he sinned with Bathsheba. In his repentance as recorded in Psalm 51, of all the things he could have requested for, he cried out to God to not take His Holy Spirit from him.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit (Psalms 51:10-13 KJV)
When his predecessor King Saul was in a similar situation of sinning against God, his cry was for the prophet Samuel to still come with him so he will not loose face before the people, indicating that the approval of man was his highest ‘moving toward value’
Then Saul pleaded again, “I know I have sinned. But please, at least honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel by coming back with me so that I may worship the Lord your God.” (1 Sam 15:30 NLT)
If pleasing God is your topmost value, you will not struggle with being about His business. Your whole life will be built around His business, part of which is the vision of your local church.
Another way to support the God’s vision for your local congregation is to be available first to God, then to your church. Quality time with God is His primary love language. By spending time with God, you give Him a chance to reveal His heart to you (Isaiah 1:18) cleanse you; fill you so He can use you. Nobody can please God by his own human strength, if it not by God’s grace, it will not be acceptable to God. Part of the benefit of spending quality time with God is that He gets to reveal Himself to you and only then can you rightly reveal Him to the world (Galatians 1:15-16). You cannot give what you don’t have. The depth of Himself that God reveals to you will determine how much of Him you can show to others.
Be prepared to work as a team. One look at the human body tells you we are designed to work best as part of a team. Even the Godhead is made up of a team of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You can’t do it all by yourself. Know your calling and gifting; find your place and do the very best you can to get the job done. Be mature enough to allow other members of your team to succeed without feeling threatened by their success. God will not judge you based on another’s potential, He will not require of you that which He designed someone else to accomplish. Be confident in who you are in Christ, celebrate his gifting on your life and on the lives of all your team members and be glad the job is getting done.
I will continue on this topic next week by God’s grace.
Until then…Shalom!!
With Warmth
Angela
posted by Angela Lougee | 6:30 PM
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