God Wants our Availability to Serve

God Wants our Availability

I saw a sign out front of a church near my work which reads, "God wants your availability more than just your abilities." The more I thought about this, I thought I'd put some of these thoughts in writing and share them here.

Did you know that God has a plan for each and every one of us? Most times it is a plan for each day ... sometimes it may be a long-term plan. God cares about each of our events in our day, along with the struggles we face to balance out family, church, work, school, leisure time, and so forth! One of the best things we can do is to spend time in prayer on a daily basis with Jesus Christ, and ask Him to allow the Holy Spirit to lead you during every activity of your day.

In the Bible, 1 Timothy 1:12 - it reads, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service."

Jesus Christ, God, provides you with what you need for every situation and will strengthen you for what He has designed for you to do. As one pastor has said, "God does not always call the equipped, but He always equips the called."

Sometimes our churches can be filled with persons who are willing to serve in certain areas, and we may look at them and ask if they are the "right person" for the job. We may try to put rules and regulations on their service, being that they attend the church for a certain amount of time, commit to serving for a specific time frame, have their family life in order, or even go to Bible College first! What ever happened to allowing the Holy Spirit to move in a persons life to serve with the equipping to do the work, with or without Bible College? Sometimes these types of rules, regulations, and limitations may scare off, or put off some people from even volunteering altogether. This can cause churches to fail and their numbers dwindle, instead of growing and maturing believers in the faith.

Did you know that many of Jesus’s own followers never went to Bible College? They were all ordinary people, living ordinary lives until Jesus came to them and invited them to follow Him, and to learn from his teachings, and to teach what they had learned. This is what is called a "Disciple". Someone who follows Jesus, learns from his teachings, and to teach others what they have learned. In those days, the disciples could do nothing of their own power. They were sent out to preach with the authority and power of Christ in Mark 3 and Mark 6. After Christ was crucified, died, resurrected and ascended into Heaven, God sent the Holy Spirit to give them the same power, but on a continual filling basis, so that they would have God’s authority and power to do the same things as Jesus did while he was doing is earthly ministry.

The disciples became mighty witnesses for Jesus after Acts chapter 2. Peter, who was a fisherman by trade, and after the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit of God, taught with authority at Pentecost, healed those who were lame and sick and gave the gospel to anyone who would listen, so that they could experience this same power and eternal life through salvation. The disciples could not have done this if Christ had not given them the power to do so first. It was not his own act of power that Peter did these things – No, it was the power of God living in Peter.

Christ said in John 15: 4-5 that without Him we can do nothing. It is also quite clear from the scriptures that man cannot save another human. Only God can. Yes, we are His messengers, but God is the one that saves those who are lost.

Did you know that winning souls has nothing to do with your ability to preach, because if it were, then you have reason to be prideful or glorify yourself and not give the glory to God. We can not take credit for what God does, because without Him, we never could have done anything within our own strength or ability.
I read a story about a man when he went on his first mission field, he had only one year of language school behind him and he was asked to take over a small work that had no shepherd. This man stumbled through his first sermon cutting it short and not really sure he got the points across correctly. That morning a man accepted Christ as his Savior. The man had only been there to visit (he was actually drawn there by God) and after his conversion, he returned to his home up in the mountains. He only had a third grade education, but he took a Bible with him bound to read it and spread the good news. The missionary didn't hear much from him, but years later this man invited the missionary up to the mountains to preach at his church. To his amazement, this man with just enough education to be able to read had started two churches in two villages. Each church had between fifty and sixty believers. They were hungry for the word and couldn't get enough from dad's week long preaching. Show me a highly, qualified, preacher or speaker that can do that. This was truly all of the Lord.

Are you refusing to be used of God because of your " inabilities?" If God wants you to have abilities He will give you some. But more importantly, God wants your availability to serve Him in any capacity that He so chooses. So, have you brushed someone off, thinking they may not be suitable for some type of service or leadership in your church, because you don't think that they have enough abilities to serve the Lord. We may have to rethink our logic and look at God can use us all as Ephesians 3:20-21 says, "Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."