EMPTY YOURSELF, BE FILLED WITH GOD's POWER

in #steemchurch6 years ago

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It is said the average human speaks nine million words a year. Five million of those words are the words, I, me, my, or mine. It is a staggering statistic. It tells you something about the spirit of the age in which we live. It is a selfish age. All truth is parallel. God's solution for selfishness is death to self. Why should we be surprised when God calls for selfless leaders in a selfish age?

And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:27-28 NKJV).

Disciples are expected to live with a deeper level of relinquishment than new believers. In the same way, those who would lead and feed must relinquish more than they did as disciples.

Moses was fed at Pharaoh's table and he was subjected to the disciplines of the Egyptian royal house. He was educated and trained in all the ways of Egypt. This discipline took Moses to a high level of accomplishment in Egyptian society, but it counted for almost nothing in God's Kingdom. According to the Book of Acts, Moses was "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds" until his 40th birthday when he decided to visit his Hebrew brethren (see Acts 7:22-23 NKJV). He spent another 40 years in the desert of relinquishment before he was ready to do things God's way.

Moses was "mighty in speech" until he turned 40 and tried to fulfill his destiny on his own. Then he had an intimate encount9 with God that apparently left him a stutterer! Sometimes what consider to be "religious eloquence" is really a "spiritual stutter: an impediment to true communication with and for the Almighty.
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Exaltation at one level is abasement at a higher. That is the power of relinquishment. We cannot pray, 'Thy kingdom come..." unless first, we are willing to pray, "My kingdom go...." (See Matthew 6:10.) We have a tendency to hold onto "our kingdom" with a death grip, but we need to learn there is a power that comes through relinquishment

God told His reluctant deliverer, Moses, "When I get through using you. the children of Israel are going to give Me glory. It will not be because of your education, your intelligence, or your ability to speak. Your leadership ability will not get all the praisefor what happens." Give man honor, but glory belongs to God alone.

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God performed astounding miracles through Moses, yet as far as we know, God never healed him of his stutter. Sometimes God will leave a mark somewhere on your life as a permanent reminder of the time and place He touched you and changed you forever. It will be a place where He can always get a hold on you.

Moses could tell you about it, if you would be patient with his stuttering delivery. Jacob could tell you about his limp, but you would be able to see that for yourself So it was with Paul's "thorn in the flesh." Regardless of the strength of his belief in the healing and delivering power of God, we have no record that Paul was healed or delivered of his thorn. It may have been God's means of getting Paul's attention. Paul put it this way:

And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee:for My [God's] strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glow in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12:7-9 KJV)

Moses was at the height of his career. He had power, and influence with the royal house of Pharaoh. However. He prior commitment and a divine commission from royal house of the Mos the children of Israel from their Egyptian bondage, but first he to be freed of every shadow of his former house the heart outward. It took 40 years of shepherding in the
wilderness to prepare him for the next 40 years in the place as a deliverer.

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thanks for sharing this posts

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