God’s Purpose in Isolation
Sometimes, we don’t know how to change, so God has to get our
attention by sending us into times of isolation. I believe the Holy Spirit is
leading me soon into a time of sovereign isolation. It’s taken me 10 years to
recognize what I really want. You see, God will give you what you want to show
you what you really need. I thought for most of my life that what I wanted was
to be successful, to make my life count, to do something great in this world
for Him. God gave that to me, because I asked for it. In the last 10 years I’ve
traveled the world and fulfilled what I believe God told me to do. I was
obedient to the heavenly vision, “The Blueprint” if you may have it, and I
preached the Gospel from campus to campus, city to city, nation to nation.
Souls were won, disciples were made, hundreds of churches were planted and yes,
lives were changed. Yet, in the midst of all the supernatural encounters, all
the signs, wonders and miracles, my heart at times, felt empty. Why? It’s not
because God didn’t want me to do all the things that I did for Him. The calling
was always real. But what He wanted from me was not what I could do for Him, in
order to please Him, but what He wanted was my heart. God will never have you
sacrifice relationship with Him to do ministry for Him. Most Christian leaders
I know have more of a relationship with their revelation, than they do with
God. They are driven by the vision, by the ministry machine and not by
relationship. This was me, and God had to wake me up to show me that successful
ministry, will only leave you empty and dissatisfied if you don’t have intimacy
with Jesus and community with others.
The prophet Elijah had to learn that success for God is
different from success in God. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah has a showdown with
the prophets of Baal. He encounters God in a powerful way, fire falls down from
heaven and consumes the sacrifice on the altar, all the opposing false prophets
are destroyed and Elijah wins, or does he? In the very next chapter we find
Elijah running for his life. Why? The evil queen Jezebel had put a price on his
head. He then tells God he wished he was never born, that he feels abandoned
and wants to quit. God responds by sending Elijah into the dessert, then to Mt.
Horeb into a period of complete isolation. This story of Elijah always boggled
my mind. How could this mighty prophet on one hand have such great power and success
in ministry one day and the very next day be completely depressed, suicidal and
wanting to give up on everything? It finally made sense recently when I was
studying this book called “Isolation” for my Fuller Seminary class. The author
explained the 4-fold process of isolation in transforming the life of a leader
in this way…
- Stripping
- Wrestling with God
- Increased Intimacy
- Release to Look Toward the Future
Ga sengaja hari
ini gw baca sitenya Ps. Jaesonma. Without any purpose just wanna read something
gw tertarik sama tulisan ini dan mulailah gw baca. Pas saat teduh tadi pagi gw
sempat bilang sama Tuhan kalo kenapa rasanya gw suram banget semua hal menjadi kabur
dan gw ga ngerti sebenarnya yang harus gw kerjakan buat TUhan itu apa? Gw jadinya
bingung sebenarnya Tuhan itu maunya apa? Evangelismkah supaya banyak jiwa
dimenangkan atau hati kita?
Spritual
mentornya Ps. Jaesonma bilang gini
“Remember
this important fact about God. He never asks anything of us to make Himself
look better. The demands He makes on our lives are NEVER for his personal gain.
We cannot make Him anymore God than He already is. He would be no less Lord of
Lords if no one believed. Every urging and exhortation of God to us is for one
major reason. He desires that we
have the pleasure of knowing, serving, and sharing Him.“
And So I stop
to be confused, gw tau bahwa Tuhan mau hati gw dulu. Tuhan mau gw mengenal Dia
dengan benar, diperlengkapi dengan benar, encounter Tuhan dan menikmati Tuhan, mengerti siapa Tuhan sebenarnya. He want us to spread the love from the heart. Dia mau kita melayani karena kita menerima abundance love from Him so we share it with frens yang belum merasakannya. Kalau kita sendiri tidak menikmati kasihNya how can we serve people from the heart? I think we need to look inside ourheart now. good day everyone...
tes
BalasHapusYes, Jesus can change our life into His way. The most important is prayer, but I heard last time interesting opinion: "Some people can do many things, which are of course good things, but they can also do nothing real for God." So I learned from this one thing - prayer before do something.
BalasHapusGod bless You and Your work.
True :)
BalasHapusPrayer before do something...
Gbu2