Experiencing God
Day 5: God Speaks With A Purpose
Day 5: God Speaks with a Purpose
God develops character to match the assignment.
We usually want God to speak to us so He can give us a devotional thought to make us feel good for the rest of the day. If you want the God of the universe to speak to you, you need to be ready for Him to reveal what He is doing where you are. In Scripture God is not often seen coming and speaking to people just for conversation’s sake. He was always working to accomplish His purposes. When God speaks to you through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, the church, or another way, He has a purpose in mind for your life.
When God spoke to Abram (see Gen. 12), what was God about to do? He was about to begin building a nation. Notice God’s timing. Why did God speak to Abram when He did? Because it was then God wanted to start building the nation. The moment Abram knew what God was about to do, he had to adjust his life to God. He had to immediately follow what God said.
The moment God speaks to you is the time He wants you to respond to Him. Don’t think you have the next three or four months to decide whether this is really God’s timing. The moment God speaks to you is God’s timing. That is why He chooses to speak when He does. He speaks to His servant when He is ready to move. Otherwise, He wouldn’t speak to you. As God enters the mainstream of your life, the timing of your response is crucial. When God speaks to you, you need to believe and obey Him.
Do not assume, however, that the moment God calls you, you are prepared for the assignment. How long was it from the time God spoke to Abram (later named Abraham) until Isaac, the child of promise, was born? Twenty-five years (see Gen. 12:4; 21:5)! Why did God wait 25 years? Because it took God 25 years to make Abraham a father suitable for Isaac. God was concerned not so much about Abram but about founding a nation. The quality of the father will affect the quality of following generations. As goes the father, so go the next several generations. God took time to build Abram into a man of character. Abram immediately began adjusting his life to God’s ways. He could not wait until Isaac was born and then try to become the kind of father required to raise a patriarch of God’s people.
How long was it after God (through Samuel) anointed David king before David mounted the throne? Maybe 10 or 12 years. What was God doing in the meantime? He was building David’s relationship with Himself. As goes the king, so goes the nation. You cannot bypass character.
How long was it after the living Lord called the Apostle Paul until Paul went on his first missionary journey? Maybe 10 or 11 years. The focus was not on Paul; the focus was on God. God wanted to redeem a lost world, and He wanted to redeem the Gentiles through Paul. God took that much time to prepare Paul for the assignment.
Mark the following statements T (true) or F (false).
___ a. God speaks to me primarily so I can have a devotional thought to encourage me throughout the day.
___ b. God speaks to me when He has a purpose in mind for my life.
___ c. When God speaks to me, I should take plenty of time to decide when and how I should respond.
___ d. When God speaks to me, I must immediately respond by adjusting my life to Him, His purposes, and His ways.
___ e. The moment God speaks is God’s timing.
We are so oriented to a quick response we abandon the word from God long before He has developed our character. When God speaks, He has a purpose in mind for our lives. The moment He speaks is the time we need to begin responding to Him. False: a and c. True: b, d, and e.
Character That Matches the Assignment
When God called Abram, He said, “I will make your name great” (Gen. 12:2). That means “I will develop your character to match your assignment.” Nothing is more pathetic than having a small character when you have a big assignment. Many of us don’t want to give attention to the development of our characters; we just want God to give us a big assignment.
Suppose a pastor is waiting for a big church to call him to be their pastor. Then a small church calls and asks, “Will you come and serve bivocationally to help us here on the west side of Wyoming?”
“Well, no,” the prospective pastor responds because he thinks, I am waiting for God to give me a significant assignment. I have done so much training, I can’t waste my life by working a secular job when I want to serve in a church full-time. I think I deserve something much more substantial than that.
How would you classify that response? Choose one.
❒ God-centered ❒ Self-centered
Do you see how self-centered that viewpoint is? Human reasoning will not give you God’s perspective. If you can’t be faithful in a little, God will not give you a larger assignment. He may want to adjust your life and character in smaller assignments first to prepare you for the larger ones. That is where God starts to work. When you make the adjustments and start to obey Him, you come to know Him by experience. This is the goal of God’s activity in your life—that you come to know Him. Do you want to experience God mightily working in and through your life? Then adjust your life to God and pursue the kind of relationship in which you follow Him wherever He leads you—even if the assignment seems to be small or insignificant. One day you will hear it said of you, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” ( Matt. 25:21).
Should you automatically assume every small assignment is from God? No. Whether the assignment is large or small in your eyes, you must still find out whether it is from God. However, always let God tell you. Do not rule out an assignment, large or small, on the basis of your preconceived ideas. Remember, you will know what you should do through your relationship with God. Never bypass the relationship.
Matthew 25:21
“Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”
Suppose you had planned to go fishing or watch football or go to the mall. Then God confronts you with an opportunity to join Him in something He wants to do. What would you do? Check your response.
❒ I would finish my plans and then fit God’s plans into the next available time
in my schedule.
❒ I would assume that, because God already knew my plans, this new
assignment must not be from Him.
❒ I would try to find a way to do both what I want and God’s will.
❒ I would adjust my plans to join God in what He was about to do.
I have known some people who wouldn’t interrupt a fishing trip or a football game for anything. In their minds they say they want to serve God, but they eliminate from their lives anything that would interfere with their plans. They are so self-centered they do not recognize the times when God comes to them with a divine invitation. On the other hand, if you are God-centered, you will adjust your life to what God wants to do.
God has a right to interrupt your life anytime He wants to! He is Lord. When you accepted Him as Lord, you gave Him the right to help Himself to your life. In Jesus’ parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, suppose that 5 times out of 10 when the master had something for the servant to do, the servant said, “I’m sorry. That’s not on my schedule.” What do you suppose the master would do? He would discipline the servant. If the servant did not respond to discipline, sooner or later the master would no longer assign any tasks.
You may wish you could experience God working through you the way He works through someone else. But every time God goes to that person, he adjusts his life to God and obeys. When he has been faithful in little assignments, God has given him more important assignments.
If you are not willing to be faithful in a little, God will not give you larger assignments. God uses the smaller assignments to develop character. God always builds character to match His assignment. If God has a great task for you, He will expand your character to match that assignment.
Answer the following.
a. What kind of assignments have you wanted the Lord to give you?________________________________________________________________________
b. Have you been frustrated or disappointed in this area of your life? Why?________________________________________________________________________
c. Can you think of a time when God probably wanted to use you in an assignment and you chose not to follow His leading? If so, briefly describe the situation. ________________________________________________________________________
d. Is the Holy Spirit saying anything to you now about your character?
If so, what is He saying?________________________________________________________________________
e. Do your actions acknowledge Christ as Lord of your life? If not, what response should you make to His claims on your life right now?________________________________________________________________________
When God tells you a direction, you accept it, and you understand it clearly, then give God all the time He wants to make you the kind of person He can trust with that assignment. Is it for your sake God takes time to prepare you for His assignments? No, not for you alone but also for the sake of those He wants to influence through you. For their sake, give yourself to an obedient love relationship with God. Then when He gives you an assignment, He will achieve everything He wants in the lives of those around you.
Write your Scripture-memory verse, Psalm 20:7.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Review your other Scripture-memory verses and be prepared to recite them to a partner in your small-group session this week.
SUMMARY STATEMENTS
The moment God speaks to me is the moment God wants me to respond to Him.
The moment God speaks to me is God’s timing.
God develops my character to match the assignment He has for me.
God has a right to interrupt my life. He is Lord. When I accepted Him as Lord, I gave Him the right to help Himself to my life anytime He wants.
Review today’s lesson. Pray and ask God to identify one or more statements or Scriptures He wants you to understand, learn, or practice. Highlight them. Then respond to the following.
What was the most meaningful statement or Scripture you read today?
Reword the statement or Scripture into a prayer of response to God.
What does God want you to do in response to today’s study?
God develops character to match the assignment.
We usually want God to speak to us so He can give us a devotional thought to make us feel good for the rest of the day. If you want the God of the universe to speak to you, you need to be ready for Him to reveal what He is doing where you are. In Scripture God is not often seen coming and speaking to people just for conversation’s sake. He was always working to accomplish His purposes. When God speaks to you through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, the church, or another way, He has a purpose in mind for your life.
When God spoke to Abram (see Gen. 12), what was God about to do? He was about to begin building a nation. Notice God’s timing. Why did God speak to Abram when He did? Because it was then God wanted to start building the nation. The moment Abram knew what God was about to do, he had to adjust his life to God. He had to immediately follow what God said.
The moment God speaks to you is the time He wants you to respond to Him. Don’t think you have the next three or four months to decide whether this is really God’s timing. The moment God speaks to you is God’s timing. That is why He chooses to speak when He does. He speaks to His servant when He is ready to move. Otherwise, He wouldn’t speak to you. As God enters the mainstream of your life, the timing of your response is crucial. When God speaks to you, you need to believe and obey Him.
Do not assume, however, that the moment God calls you, you are prepared for the assignment. How long was it from the time God spoke to Abram (later named Abraham) until Isaac, the child of promise, was born? Twenty-five years (see Gen. 12:4; 21:5)! Why did God wait 25 years? Because it took God 25 years to make Abraham a father suitable for Isaac. God was concerned not so much about Abram but about founding a nation. The quality of the father will affect the quality of following generations. As goes the father, so go the next several generations. God took time to build Abram into a man of character. Abram immediately began adjusting his life to God’s ways. He could not wait until Isaac was born and then try to become the kind of father required to raise a patriarch of God’s people.
How long was it after God (through Samuel) anointed David king before David mounted the throne? Maybe 10 or 12 years. What was God doing in the meantime? He was building David’s relationship with Himself. As goes the king, so goes the nation. You cannot bypass character.
How long was it after the living Lord called the Apostle Paul until Paul went on his first missionary journey? Maybe 10 or 11 years. The focus was not on Paul; the focus was on God. God wanted to redeem a lost world, and He wanted to redeem the Gentiles through Paul. God took that much time to prepare Paul for the assignment.
Mark the following statements T (true) or F (false).
___ a. God speaks to me primarily so I can have a devotional thought to encourage me throughout the day.
___ b. God speaks to me when He has a purpose in mind for my life.
___ c. When God speaks to me, I should take plenty of time to decide when and how I should respond.
___ d. When God speaks to me, I must immediately respond by adjusting my life to Him, His purposes, and His ways.
___ e. The moment God speaks is God’s timing.
We are so oriented to a quick response we abandon the word from God long before He has developed our character. When God speaks, He has a purpose in mind for our lives. The moment He speaks is the time we need to begin responding to Him. False: a and c. True: b, d, and e.
Character That Matches the Assignment
When God called Abram, He said, “I will make your name great” (Gen. 12:2). That means “I will develop your character to match your assignment.” Nothing is more pathetic than having a small character when you have a big assignment. Many of us don’t want to give attention to the development of our characters; we just want God to give us a big assignment.
Suppose a pastor is waiting for a big church to call him to be their pastor. Then a small church calls and asks, “Will you come and serve bivocationally to help us here on the west side of Wyoming?”
“Well, no,” the prospective pastor responds because he thinks, I am waiting for God to give me a significant assignment. I have done so much training, I can’t waste my life by working a secular job when I want to serve in a church full-time. I think I deserve something much more substantial than that.
How would you classify that response? Choose one.
❒ God-centered ❒ Self-centered
Do you see how self-centered that viewpoint is? Human reasoning will not give you God’s perspective. If you can’t be faithful in a little, God will not give you a larger assignment. He may want to adjust your life and character in smaller assignments first to prepare you for the larger ones. That is where God starts to work. When you make the adjustments and start to obey Him, you come to know Him by experience. This is the goal of God’s activity in your life—that you come to know Him. Do you want to experience God mightily working in and through your life? Then adjust your life to God and pursue the kind of relationship in which you follow Him wherever He leads you—even if the assignment seems to be small or insignificant. One day you will hear it said of you, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” ( Matt. 25:21).
Should you automatically assume every small assignment is from God? No. Whether the assignment is large or small in your eyes, you must still find out whether it is from God. However, always let God tell you. Do not rule out an assignment, large or small, on the basis of your preconceived ideas. Remember, you will know what you should do through your relationship with God. Never bypass the relationship.
Matthew 25:21
“Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”
Suppose you had planned to go fishing or watch football or go to the mall. Then God confronts you with an opportunity to join Him in something He wants to do. What would you do? Check your response.
❒ I would finish my plans and then fit God’s plans into the next available time
in my schedule.
❒ I would assume that, because God already knew my plans, this new
assignment must not be from Him.
❒ I would try to find a way to do both what I want and God’s will.
❒ I would adjust my plans to join God in what He was about to do.
I have known some people who wouldn’t interrupt a fishing trip or a football game for anything. In their minds they say they want to serve God, but they eliminate from their lives anything that would interfere with their plans. They are so self-centered they do not recognize the times when God comes to them with a divine invitation. On the other hand, if you are God-centered, you will adjust your life to what God wants to do.
God has a right to interrupt your life anytime He wants to! He is Lord. When you accepted Him as Lord, you gave Him the right to help Himself to your life. In Jesus’ parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, suppose that 5 times out of 10 when the master had something for the servant to do, the servant said, “I’m sorry. That’s not on my schedule.” What do you suppose the master would do? He would discipline the servant. If the servant did not respond to discipline, sooner or later the master would no longer assign any tasks.
You may wish you could experience God working through you the way He works through someone else. But every time God goes to that person, he adjusts his life to God and obeys. When he has been faithful in little assignments, God has given him more important assignments.
If you are not willing to be faithful in a little, God will not give you larger assignments. God uses the smaller assignments to develop character. God always builds character to match His assignment. If God has a great task for you, He will expand your character to match that assignment.
Answer the following.
a. What kind of assignments have you wanted the Lord to give you?________________________________________________________________________
b. Have you been frustrated or disappointed in this area of your life? Why?________________________________________________________________________
c. Can you think of a time when God probably wanted to use you in an assignment and you chose not to follow His leading? If so, briefly describe the situation. ________________________________________________________________________
d. Is the Holy Spirit saying anything to you now about your character?
If so, what is He saying?________________________________________________________________________
e. Do your actions acknowledge Christ as Lord of your life? If not, what response should you make to His claims on your life right now?________________________________________________________________________
When God tells you a direction, you accept it, and you understand it clearly, then give God all the time He wants to make you the kind of person He can trust with that assignment. Is it for your sake God takes time to prepare you for His assignments? No, not for you alone but also for the sake of those He wants to influence through you. For their sake, give yourself to an obedient love relationship with God. Then when He gives you an assignment, He will achieve everything He wants in the lives of those around you.
Write your Scripture-memory verse, Psalm 20:7.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Review your other Scripture-memory verses and be prepared to recite them to a partner in your small-group session this week.
SUMMARY STATEMENTS
The moment God speaks to me is the moment God wants me to respond to Him.
The moment God speaks to me is God’s timing.
God develops my character to match the assignment He has for me.
God has a right to interrupt my life. He is Lord. When I accepted Him as Lord, I gave Him the right to help Himself to my life anytime He wants.
Review today’s lesson. Pray and ask God to identify one or more statements or Scriptures He wants you to understand, learn, or practice. Highlight them. Then respond to the following.
What was the most meaningful statement or Scripture you read today?
Reword the statement or Scripture into a prayer of response to God.
What does God want you to do in response to today’s study?