HIS SIGNIFCANCE

His Signifcance
by Barbara Jacobs Email: tacomatabernacle@gmail.com

We as believers generally acknowledge that God is the giver of dreams and visions. In this context I am referring to visions for ministries. We can also call them ideas. God is the One who inspires us with vision. He inspires us with ideas for outreach, for bringing hope and deliverance, for bringing the kingdom of Heaven into our earthly realm. At times we may claim to have a “mandate” from God, or an idea that will revolutionize our cities. God does indeed give dreams and visions and inspires us with ideas regarding how to win the lost and make disciples. He has been trying to bring man into right relationship with Him since the fall, and He will continue to do so until the end is at hand.
The problem arises when we who are carriers of a vision allow our flesh to step in. We can know that our flesh has stepped into God’s vision when we take ownership of the vision. In other words, when the mandate from God becomes our mandate. When we get defensive when “our” vision is attacked or questioned. Jesus told His disciples to go into all of the world preaching the gospel and making disciples of all nations. That is and always will be the mandate from God. When we take credit for or try to market a way to bring about a vision, we get our dirty fingerprints all over it and the “mandate” from God often becomes a personal grasp for glory.
When we find ourselves getting defensive when others don’t see the vision as we see it, we have allowed our flesh to creep in as though everyone must be in complete agreement with the way that we go about accomplishing the furthering of the Kingdom. Denominations have been born and died based upon these premises. Division and factions creep in and lack of unity is the result. Ministries rise and fall due to our tendency to take ownership of something that never belonged to us in the first place. Our fleshly need for significance is always taking over.
This is how “Christian celebrities” (an oxymoron if ever there was one) have come into existence. The need for significance, the need for a “king” to rule over us, neither of which is a new thing.
The Israelites had the perfect set-up. They took their orders right from God himself, first through Moses then the prophets. All of whom, by the way, were more feared by the people than held in a place of high regard. What did the Israelites do? They cried out for a king so that they could be like the other nations. Well, you may argue, we have cried out for no king; and in a literal sense this is true, but we in the west have tried to emulate the society we live in by setting up “Christian Celebrities.” Most of these “celebrities” start out somewhat like would-be actors and actresses. They wait tables: they feed the hungry, they take care of widows and orphans. They are with the “little people,” otherwise known as the “least of these.” The problem comes in when someone sees what a great thing these people are doing. They start to get accolades and praise.
Initially these bondservants admit that it is only the grace of God that has allowed them to serve in this manner. At some undetermined point however, instead of deferring the praise to the One to Whom it should go, they start to believe that it is due to some ability or goodness within themselves that the honor is being bestowed. Again, the fleshly need for significance arises.
Paul said in the book of Galatians 2:20: “ I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” The apostle Paul declared that he died daily. Jesus himself told us in Luke 9 that if we desire to come after Him we must deny ourselves and take up His cross daily and follow him. That should be our mantra. Too often, however, what we see is a body that refuses to die. We refuse to let Christ alone receive the glory and honor.
Our old nature is never so evident as when “our” vision or ministry becomes something we must fight our brothers and sisters in Christ over. When we jockey for position and notoriety we look just like the world. Flesh, flesh, flesh. Essentially we fall into the same trap as James and John when their mother stepped in and tried to arrange the pecking order in heaven. She requested that one son sit on God’s right, and the other on His left. The newborn church had another problem with the same root: Some claiming to be of Apollos, some of Paul. Notoriety and factions; aligning oneself with the most powerful person; the need to be seen and have significance in the eyes of the world. These are extremely fleshly symptoms to be avoided by followers of Christ.
If we are truly “of Christ” our significance is of no value. We are in Him. All glory is deferred to Him. We are as the moon; an object designed to reflect the glory of the sun (son,) to light the way for others. We are in a dangerous place when we begin to see our mandate as the mandate. When we require our name to be put to a vision, idea, or ministry-which is from God- we usurp, as it were, the very giver of the vision.
On a trip to Africa I noticed something quite refreshing. Many Christian businesses had names that gave glory to God rather than the business owner: King of Kings Hair Salon or Glory to God Café, among others of the same nature. We may find those to be rather quaint and unsophisticated, but I have no doubt that it pleases the One to whom the business has been dedicated.
In our search for significance, we so often overlook the fact that the One who has all significance, the One who is supposedly our all in all; His is the name which should be on everything we do. His fingerprint should be the identifying mark, His signature on every dotted line. Our identity should disappear into His identity. Our “defense” of our ministry or idea should not exist. God can defend His ministries and ideas. God uses many people to bring about His plans and purposes, but He uses the seemingly insignificant ones. He uses the foolish ones. The ones who realize that “without Him we can do nothing.”
The problem arises when those He chooses begin to take His significance as their own. Soon we no longer take correction; we begin to think that “our” ministry will fail if we step down. We have set ourselves up as the ones who keep the ministry going. We forget that it is God who birthed the vision and God who put the words and ideas in our mouths.
We need to be wary, and take a lesson from King Herod in the book of Acts. The people were so in awe of His speaking ability they cried out, “the voice of a god and not a man.’” God took care of him immediately. He was eaten with worms and died. May we all, those who are in ministry and those we minister to, learn from this and defer all glory and honor to God alone.