Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today I am gleaning from a subject that I blogged on in 2017, because the subject matter is very relevant for today. I felt impressed to revisit this regarding us being able to take in our hand what God has called us to take hold of in this present hour. God wants to bring a change in us, not merely a change of what we do. It is the change in us that will bring the change to our world. God is an I AM not an I DO. We must become a testimony of “i am” in Christ. As leaders, knowing who we are is more important than knowing what to do. We are not called to merely lead people in doing things for God. We are called to lead people in becoming who they are meant to be in Christ. The confession of our hearts cannot be one of the acts of our life, but that of the character of our lives. The character of who we are will not only define what we do, but also the reason for which we do all things. Knowing what to do is not enough. We must first know who we are. When we know who we are, we can easily discover the why of all the things we do in life. Knowing why we do what we do is more powerful than merely knowing what to do. Knowing why we do what we do will empower us to do anything and everything necessary in our path of destiny. Knowing why we do what we do will also inspire us to be creative in the changing seasons of our lives. To take hold of the new thing of God does not mean we forsake who we are or who we have been. It means we embrace a more mature reality of who we are for the sake of relevance today. Merely knowing what to do can leave us easily swayed from destiny when the style, method, and way of doing things changes in the seasons of God’s unfolding grace. Our focus and our passion can be easily extinguished when what we do is more powerful than why we do it.
I have been addressing the life of Moses in his path to carry the rod of deliverance for the Israelites. Moses was destined to be a deliver to his people, Israel. As a prince in Egypt, Moses knew what to do when he saw the oppression of the Israelites. He sought to deliver his people when he murdered the Egyptian. In his heart he knew what to do, but he had to become who he was meant to be before he could be entrusted with the task. He had to know that God’s purpose cannot be fulfilled without God’s presence in his life. His forty years in the wilderness was about becoming who he needed to be to deliver God’s people. It was not about knowing what to do. He needed an encounter with God, more than he needed instructions from God. He had to lose his old life and find it new! Every season of our lives is dependent upon us finding God’s presence in our lives. Every new thing requires a new discovery of God In the center of our being. It is God’s presence, testimony, and purpose in our lives that defines the reality of every season.
Who we are precedes the ‘what to do’s’ in our lives. Leaders are God’s gift to lead others into becoming who they are meant to be in Christ, not merely what to do in life. Who we are today is part of a continual process of change. The secret to being who we are today is finding the Lord in a fresh way in our lives today.
2 Corinthians 3:16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
The liberty of life is not found in what we do. It is found in what and who we become because of Christ in us. It is in our being that we are empowered in the doings. To lay hold of the new things of God we must first become a new expression of God in who we are. How many times do congregation members measure their leaders based on whether they think they know what they are doing or not? How many times do we all measure others based upon whether we think another knows what they are doing or not? Leadership is more about becoming than it is doing. Membership is more about embracing becoming what we are being led to become than what we are being led to do.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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