1 Chr. 28:20 And David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and of good courage, and do it; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the LORD God—my God—will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD.
One of the greatest things in life is when you find out
what God’s work, His passion, His plan is for your life that He will use to
accomplish in and through us what only He can do. The next greatest thing is
when you have those moments when you see that plan being fulfilled. The
challenge is along the way we may initially find out that what we thought we
were to do was not God’s plan at all, or once you do find out what He has in
store for your life, you will face those challenging times when you will
question yourself even though you know it’s His will because it may not seem as
if you are accomplishing what He wants you to do. I want to encourage you to
never give up on finding out what that plan is, and when it is confirmed
biblically in your life stay the course, never give up.
As I sit here and write this weekly wisdom article I was
reflecting on getting to see another one of those moments for a pastor when the
very things you have prayed for, worked for, studied and preached happens. When
God called me to be a pastor 24 years ago this coming Easter, it certainly was
not what I had planned for my life. But from the beginning the passion that the
Lord put in me to fulfill His commission to go and make disciples is what
drives me. A disciple is more than just someone born again. They develop a true
and genuine relationship with God, and they are no longer baby or carnal
Christians, but a mature believer. To see those moments as a pastor when people
take what the Holy Spirit gave you to preach and teach to them and they apply
it to their life and see the results, there is nothing better for a spiritual
dad.
I got to see another one of those moments tonight as I
watched one of our spiritual daughters stand and preach to our church for the
first time and she did awesome. Sharing from the Word what she has learned and
applied in her life. Just like other moments I have had watching her husband chase
the passion in his heart to now seeing those dreams being fulfilled. Not to
mention the children’s teachers who I have watched with such a dedication and
love for our children in teaching them the Word and impacting their lives, to
leadership God has raised up, men and women of God who have faced adversity and
blessed me to see them overcome with God at their side, and there are many more
stories I could share.
Our foundation text is king David telling his son Solomon
that because it had been revealed to David that it was God’s plan for Solomon
to build the temple, and that God would be with him and would never leave him nor
forsake him so that he could fulfill God’s plan. David had wanted to build the
temple but God revealed to David that was not His plan. We need to make sure
first of all that we have God’s plan. There are many plans in a man’s heart,
but the Lord’s plan will stand. I have known some who thought they were called
to pastor, but as scripture reveals one of the ways God will confirm a call to
the five-fold ministry is through a minister who recognizes that calling on
your life. Realize I am not writing this to ministers, for God has a plan for
every one of us. The Bible tells us that His plans were prepared for us
beforehand. We just need to make sure we have God’s plan.
To find God’s plan just place your entire life like a
piece of clay in God’s hands and be willing to let Him mold you. As you do then
God will begin to give to you what is His desire is for your life. Just
remember this means you are willing to let go of anything God says to let go of
and willing to take up whatever He says to take up. As David reveals to Solomon
there are some key things to be reminded of along the way. A quick key here is
to point out that Solomon was receiving from his elder confirmation of God’s
plan for his life. David reveals to Solomon you must be strong and of good
courage, just do the work, do not fear nor be dismayed for God would be with
him.
Again let me apply a part of my walk with God here to share
some things about these key points that are necessary to fulfill God’s plan. The
first key is you must be strong. The word for strong here refers to strength
developed through you being consistent in your walk with God, never letting go
of Him. This is a result of coming to God because you want to know Him, not
just know Him for what He can do for you. When I gave my life to Christ I did
so because I found out I could come to know God. I was blown away by the fact
that this was actually something I could do. There are those who don’t ever
become very strong as a believer. They tend to be those who come to God for
what He can do for them, not because they just want to know Him. If you want to
know Him, you will never let go of God.
The second thing David said was to be of good courage.
This is defined as being determined, persisting, unwilling to quit. I can’t
tell you how many times I have had thoughts of quitting. In pursuing God’s plan
I have made mistakes, said things I should not have said, done things I should
not have done, but the intent behind everything I have ever done is to help
God’s kids become disciples, more than conquerors through Christ who know their
God. Realize as you work toward carrying out God’s plans you will make
mistakes. You will make some wrong decisions.
Like anything in life it takes time to develop yourself in
the plan God has for you. The key here is even when those times happen, make a
decision before hand that you will never quit. When I have had times I felt
like quitting it was because I would question my calling and myself when I made
mistakes, but we all make them. Be determined you won’t quit. If you know
without a doubt you are walking out what God has planned for you, which we know
will ultimately bring glory to Him, don’t think God gave up on you because you
made a mistake. Remember what David said to Solomon that until he finished what
God had for him to do, He would never leave nor forsake Solomon. Nor will he do
so with you!
The next thing David told Solomon was to act. When you
have no doubt that you know God’s plan for your life, you have to do something
about it if you want to see it come to pass. Faith without works is dead. For
some it may be that they need to get some training to learn how to use the gifts
God has given them. Going back to school isn’t easy, but as I was reminded by a
lady we met the other day if you know it’s God’s plan for you, you can do it.
She is a single mom raising two kids who put herself through night school and
now has a job that is a great blessing to her. While doing her job she shared
some of her testimony with us. I know she is an encouragement to others. For
others you may find out like David something you wanted to do was not what he
wants you to do. Until you find out God’s plan you can begin to fulfill part of
His plan now. Get involved in doing something in and through your church or
others where you can begin to have an impact on people’s lives. We must act in
obedience to what God has set before us, which will lead us into His ultimate
plan.
David then tells Solomon not to fear. As a believer in
Christ you do not have a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. Fear
for the believer results in focusing on the natural instead of what God said.
This leads to us magnifying the things that we see instead of what God said for
us to do. Phillip was told by God to go out into the desert and wait there.
Phillip could have looked at things in the natural and allowed his mind to
focus on his surrounding circumstances. If he would have then timidity would
have set in. This is what the word “fear” is defined as in 2 Timothy 1:7.
Timidity makes you question God. Timidity gives place to satan where he begins
to plant all kinds of doubting thoughts into your head.
Phillip could have thought to himself he surely wasn’t
doing much for God by just sitting out in the desert. If you were to compare
him to the other disciples it didn’t look like he was too successful. They were
reaching cities for God and here was Phillip just sitting in the desert. But along
comes a chariot with an Ethiopian eunuch who worked for Candace the queen of
Ethiopia. Phillip leads him to the lord and it is recorded in history that
eunuch had a powerful impact in bringing the gospel to Ethiopia. Success is not
based on what you see in the natural, it is based on your obedience to your
calling.
This leads to the final thing David said; don’t be
dismayed, which means to become discouraged. Believers must learn to do like
king David did. You must learn to encourage yourself “In The Lord”. This comes
back to relationship with God for as David said right after he told Solomon to
not be dismayed the Lord our God is with us wherever we go. We get discourage
when we begin to drift away from intimacy with God. In His presence there is
fullness of joy. Hard for discouragement to set in when you are full of joy.
When you feel discouraged you need to quite your mind and draw near to God.
So child of God stay the course, know for sure you have
God’s plan, make sure if it involves ministry you have leadership in agreement,
but whatever His plan for you don’t ever give up. He is with you wherever you
go and He will never leave you nor will He forsake you. He will always be there
to help you along life’s way to fulfill what is His plan for your life.
See You Again Next Week For More
“Weekly Wisdom”
May God’s Best Be Yours!
Pastor Darryl Baker
