You may feel that you’re the least qualified for God to use and the most unlikely candidate for His Spirit to fall upon. Guess what? You’re just the kind of person He chooses! God is glorified in your weakness.
The apostle Paul wrote, “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Cor. 12:9, NIV). If you fall into the category of the least likely, you are a prime target for the Lord to come and wrap Himself around you.
The Chosen Ones
When you count yourself among God’s chosen, you must understand that your position carries great responsibilities as well as privileges. I am really thankful that the Lord is bringing a release for women in ministry today.
He is setting our hearts and our voices free, but in the midst of it all, we must be careful to keep our focus. We will have opportunities for far more battles than we can possibly endure. Therefore, we must choose wisely and carefully discern the battles that the Lord has given us to fight.
The issue isn’t the Lord’s releasing women to minister. The issue is the lordship of Jesus Christ. We’re not here to promote our agenda.
Constantly harping on women’s rights comes from the wrong spirit. We want to build the body of Christ by focusing on unity. This means repairing the breach between men and women.
When we stand before others we must be careful not to be guilty of self-exaltation. Jesus told us in Luke 14:10 to take the lowest seat and to let the host invite us to a higher place.
In many cases women have assumed leadership or responsibility because men have failed to do so. Women have seen the need and jumped in. Unfortunately, many times they have done so out of a wrong spirit and have taken an inheritance that was not meant for them.
We are to be “labourers together with God,” as Paul says (1 Cor. 3:9, KJV). Whether we are men or women, we are to take our stations on the wall and do our jobs, thankfully receiving the inheritance that God has given us and running with it, all the while helping those next to us to do the same.
It’s called servant leadership, and it requires a humble heart. You must be willing to let God raise you up.
If you want to be able to walk in the authority God wants to release to you, then you must learn how to walk under the authority that is over you—the Lord’s authority. If you want to see release in your own life, then you must be in right relationship with the Lord and with those whom He has placed in authority over you.
When you are in your proper place, doing God’s will and exercising the gifts that He has given you in the body of Christ, then you experience victory and impart to others their sense of destiny and calling.
Each of us has a great responsibility to the generation that will follow us—our children. If they are to fully realize their place in God’s plan, then we must give them a pure stream from which to drink—a stream unpolluted by bitterness, division and fear; a stream whose way has been cleared by heroes who have gone before.
A Time for Heroes
The book of Nehemiah describes how the exiled Jews who returned to Jerusalem rebuilt the walls and repaired many of the buildings, including the “House of the Heroes” (Neh. 3:16, NIV). What was this House of the Heroes?
According to historians, it was probably a barracks that had a section set aside to honor the memories and exploits of the great heroes of the Israelite nation. It contained artifacts such as scrolls, carvings and shields. The importance of keeping alive the memories of the heroes of God was honored.
Today God wants to place a heroic anointing on His people. We have been set free for a purpose. God is restoring the heroic anointing of His leaders to shape a generation that will walk in power.
A hero breaks through a barrier in one generation so that the next can go even further. For centuries no runner had broken the four-minute mile.
In 1954 a British medical student by the name of Roger Bannister did so by developing new ways of training. You might think that a record that took so long to achieve would stand for a long time.
However, less than two months later, another runner broke the four-minute mile. By the end of the year, 13 people had done so.
Once someone proves that something can be done, it creates an environment of hope and possibility that enables others to do it. That’s what being a hero means. God has chosen thousands of people to be the heroes for future generations. It’s great to be free in Christ, but if we celebrate that freedom for its own sake and hoard it for our own benefit, then we miss our ultimate calling. God has anointed us to live heroically beyond the immediate and beyond the personal.
Shaping the Next Generation
How can you be sure to maintain an unpolluted stream to pass on to those who follow? It requires hard work, prayer and vigilance. There are seven general principles that will help us keep our stream pure.
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