HOW TO SUPPORT THE VISION OF THE HOUSE (PART 2)

BECOME A RESOURCE
The bible calls us salt and light of the earth (Matt 5:13-14), implying that we are saved to be a resource wherever God places us. The first step to becoming a resource to our local church or place of assignment is to embrace personal development.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15 KJV)

The principle here is that you cannot give what you don’t have. In whatever area you feel called to serve, be diligent in developing yourself in those areas. Gain more skills. Don’t wait till you are appointed to start training, start now. Preparation precedes performance. Your rewards in life come from the solutions you provide to the needs around you. Your recognition in life is also tied to the solutions you proffer. Employers pay you based on the value of solution they perceive you bring to the organization. The more of a resource you become, the more your worth increases.

Every organization exists to solve a perceived problem, the more of a solution you are, the less of a burden on the house. The risk of being a ‘burden’ rather than an ‘answer’ to a problem is that you stand to be made redundant, trodden upon or eliminated because that’s what people do to problems so they can get ahead with their lives.

The quickest way to be obsolete and become a problem rather than an answer, is to stop growing in your knowledge and understanding of who you are and what you do. I’ve heard it said that when people stop growing they start dying. To avoid this, seek out growth areas in your life and skills and do something about them, also review your strengths from time to time to see how you can develop them further.

BE EQUIPPED TO TAKE OUT ‘SPECKS’ IN PEOPLE’S EYES
Last week I wrote about being prepared to be part of a team, it is very easy however to spot the ‘speck’ in your teammates eyes. To be well equipped to help them get rid of the ‘speck’, Jesus says we should first remove the log in our eyes (Matt 7:5). It is important to note that both the speck and the log will hinder the team’s performance; therefore to do nothing should not be an option. But when we first deal with the ‘log’ in our eyes, we receive the grace to be able to help others with their ‘speck’ (‘logs’ and ‘specks’ here refer to our personal limitations or struggles).We are tender in our approach and more patient with others once we’ve dealt with our ‘logs’.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God (2 Cor 1:3-4 (NIV)

We will truly be a support to the vision of the church God has planted us if we embrace personal development and deal with our personal issues.

To be continued!

Have a real blessed week!!

With Warmth

Angela

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

SUPPORT THE VISION OF THE HOUSE

If you are a Christian, you are part of God’s vision for the church; all employees are part of the vision of their organization. If you are neither a Christian nor an employee, you are still part of a vision, that of your family, community or Nation. We are all part of a vision whether or not we have a vision for our personal life.

What is a vision? In the context of this write up, it is simply the picture of where you are going and what you want to do.
Everyone with a vision for their life or business pursues the fulfillment of their vision, and it is a commendable thing to do. How else will your dream come through if you do not follow through with the plans to accomplish the vision? However, today I’m writing about why support the vision of the church God has planted you in.

The church as a body is the light of the world and the salt of the earth. It is through us the members that God has chosen to cast His vision for mankind and accomplishes His purpose. It is the responsibility of the shepherd to get God’s vision for their sheepfold and present same to the people. E.g. God chose Moses as a leader over His people, gave Him the vision for the nation, Moses in turn shared that with the people. When God appointed Joshua leader over the Israelites, He gave him the vision for the people (Joshua 1:1-9)

God designed man to work best as a team. We see this reflected in the different human parts working together for us to function effectively. The acronym TEAM means together everyone accomplishes more. Though God gives the leader the vision, He expects both the leadership and followers to work together to bring the vision to past.

God himself is a team of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One of the signs that He promotes team work is establishing the principle that one can put a thousand to flight but two ten thousand (Josh 23:10, Deut 32:30). To encourage us to work together He also promised that whenever two or three of us are gathered in His name, He will be in the midst of us (Matt.18:20). He also said whatever two or three of us shall agree as touching anything shall be established for them by God. It is said that no man is an Island, and it takes more than a single tree to make a forest. None of us can fulfill God’s purpose without the help of other people. In the same way other people need us to fulfill their God given assignment especially our leaders.

WHY SUPPORT THE VISION OF THE HOUSE

The vision is not theirs but the Lord. And God ordered your step to be a part f that congregation at such a time as this because you do have a role to play in bringing the vision to past. Remember the steps of the just man are ordered by God (Ps 37:23)
It is an honor to be called and chosen to be a part of establishing God’s vision on the earth, for many are called but only few are chosen (Matt 22:14)

If we turn our backs or choose to be nonchalant towards God’s vision for the house we are planted in, God will replace us. Do not let the stones cry out in your place (Lk 19:40, Matt 3:9)
What you make happen for others, God will make happen for you – this ties in with the principle of sowing and reaping (Gal. 6:7). If you choose not to sow at all, the enemy will sow in your garden, therefore you will still get a harvest, but that of weed instead of wheat.

God gift of time to us is to prepare for our eternity. We ought to be about our Father’s business, for it’s what we do concerning God’s business that will count for eternity.
It is an opportunity to gain and store up treasure for us in heaven.
By our support and faithfulness to His vision, we build a godly heritage for our descendants. God is a generational God, He promised to reward our faithfulness to him to a thousand generation.

Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; (Deut 7:9 KJV)

Hopefully next week, I will write about HOW TO SUPPORT THE VISION OF THE HOUSE.

Until then…stay blessed and focused!

With Love

Angela