Excerpt from Fruitful Living in Summer
I just had a long talk with my sons last week. They're facing college and they have no money and they have big dreams. Now they're wondering how they are supposed to believe God for thousands of dollars each year when they have less than a hundred dollars in their bank accounts. So I took them through the journey of their parent’s life.
I tried not to overwhelm them, but I had to give them the truth, as well. I gave them the harsh realities of life and the “risk” that you take when you follow God. I used that word risk only from the stand point that you just don't know what awaits you when you follow God. There will be great victories and pleasant surprises. But there will also be disappointments and times of discouragement. The one thing you always have is the Word of God. If He said it, then you obey it. The outcome is not your responsibility. We live with the assurance that God will do what He said He would do. We just don't know how it will be done. So we learn to trust Him when things don't happen the way we thought they would or should happen.
When Jesus sent out His disciples with the message of the Kingdom of God, He gave them very careful instructions on what to do if the message is received AND what to do if the message is rejected. He knew that He had to prepare them for both responses because when we obey God, we enter a realm where people's choices can directly affect our lives.
That's the part about following Jesus that bothers us the most. We don't want to be that vulnerable. We don’t mind it, so much, to have our own decisions affect us, but to have the decision of somebody else affecting us, is another matter. That’s something I don’t like at all. Yet when we follow the Lord’s commands, sometimes it places us into the position where we are hanging in the balance, waiting for someone to decide, yes or no.
The Lord showed me an example. When He placed Adam in the garden, He gave him instructions and He gave him a choice. Then, He presented objects of that choice, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil versus all the other trees from which he could obtain fruit. God placed a choice in the garden. (In Adams face).
God uses us the same way. He will place us in someone’s life as the object of a choice. Unlike that tree that Adam was told not to touch, GOD places us as one of the trees from which a person IS allowed to partake of the fruit and experience new life.
So there we stand in someone's garden as the alternative choice. They can choose their own way, or they partake of the fruit that God is producing through our lives.
If they choose their own way, and reject us and our fruit, it does not mean we did something wrong. It doesn't mean you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The person or people have made a choice. We just don't like being in that position.
Many of us, in this church family, are in a time of transition. God is moving us from one neighborhood to another, from one job to another, from one set of relationships to another, from one level of responsibility to another. Part of the reason for your transition is because God wants to plant you in another garden. God is about to give someone else a choice.
Where you have been planted the past few years, some people did partake of the fruit of your life. Some tasted it and decided they didn't want to change. Some rejected it altogether. Now there's another garden in which you must be planted. Somebody else needs to have a Godly choice placed in their life. (In Their face).
You don't know how they will respond, but that is not your responsibility. God just wants a willing vessel that will GO where He says GO. He wants a vessel that will BE who God needs them to BE.
Why would God send us across the country or across the world to present someone a choice? ...Because He loves them!
What if they reject the choice? Did we waste our time, energy and money by making ourselves available to be used by God this way? No, because we are not our own! We have been bought with a price. We do it because we love Him. And don't you dare think that God won't honor your faith and your obedience.
Like the woman with the alabaster box, break open your life and pour out everything onto Jesus. You will never regret it! That’s what we have been called to do. This community and this generation has had a fruitful tree set before it for four years. Only a few have partaken of it, so far. We were really discouraged about that for a long time, but God used our special anniversary guests to bring much healing and understanding about that.
Now we can see things a little clearer. We are just a tree, set in a garden to provide a choice for those who need to turn away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Jesus told His disciples to MOVE ON, if the message is rejected. In other words, don’t stop, don't sulk, and don't get depressed about it. You just keep moving. Keep doing what God has told you to do. There's somebody else who will receive.
So embrace the change. Just like the people who will be presented with a choice through your life, you must make the choice to obey God, too. Don’t back away in self-preservation and fear. Move forward in the will of God.
I tend to be an adventurous person anyway. I’ll try new things and move into new territory. Yes, there’s a pioneering spirit within me. But that still doesn’t make the choice to be used by God in this manner, any easier.
None of us knows how things will turn out in the long run. All we know is that God has led us and we trust Him to come through for us, so that even if what we have to offer is rejected, we can still rest in knowing that we obeyed the voice of the Lord. We made the right choice, the right decision, and the right response. We have made the fruitful choice.
Overcomers, Under orders,
Chris Green
