LIVES GOD INTEND TO USE (MALACHI 3:3)

There are so many potentials in the lives of men that can be used by God yet God does not expect any good thing to come out of a man’s life that He has not refined. Those that God used and still uses to transform their generations to bring glory to Himself had to be refined by Him. If you see any man God decides to use to bring glory to Himself, the man has to go through purging and this process is not a process anyone would love to go through but it is God’s own way so as to forge such a man to the kind of instrument specified for a particular purpose. So many of us are eager to be used by God but how many are prepared to be refined? Power if not managed they say, is corrupt; and absolute power corrupts absolutely when not managed. This is why you see some of our young stars who are age 16 – 29 exposed to the front of cameras and are earning large sums of money in their career misbehave a lot, are stubborn, arrogant, and have no respect for their elders or to God.

This is why as Christians we need to allow God to prune us (John 15) to enable us grow more, grow better and bear fruits continuously. Beloved, this pruning process is a period of pain and this pain can come in form of disappointments, persecution from your department head or even the pastor (1 Samuel 19:1), lack of money, friends betraying and denying you (Luke 22: 47 – 62), sickness of which some will say it is because of your sin which is not (John 9:3), and many more. Are you able to stay in the same church and the pastor is using you as an everyday sermon without you getting offended rather you learn and ask God to help perfect your life? Are you still able to relate with false brethren in the church with the intention to see them repent rather than to see them destroyed by the enemy? Can you be able to go through all these without praying against those who have hurt, betrayed or lied against you instead you pray for them like Stephen did, “Lord don’t charge them with this sin” (Acts 7: 59 – 60). Those that God is preparing for effective service, He takes them out of the crowd (Matthew 5:12) and sits upon them for refining. The more God wants to do something in your life He concentrates on you just as goldsmith and blacksmith does to their products. Now a goldsmith sits down for hours to make one little ear-ring and his instruments are sharp little tools to be able to pick out sands and chemicals for washing off layers of dirt on it to bring out the real gold to its full shinning state.

What is God’s concentration all about?

Separation from the Crowd: A call out of the crowd is for a divine concentration and appointment. (Luke 5: 15 – 16; Galatians 1: 15 – 18; Luke 4: 1). Divine concentration is needed for you to become a vessel or an instrument in the hand of God. No man takes this honour to himself but receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was (Hebrews 5:4). This is why God have decided to take out from the crowd to mould you in the shape He (God) desires. Anyone who moves with the crowd cannot achieve much because such person can never stand out. Dr Seuss gave a quote which I love so much and it goes like this: Why fit in when you were born to stand out. Separation from the crowd is what releases the glory that is embedded in you that will prepare you for the use of what you are called to be and do on earth.

Intimate Fellowship: As the deer pants for water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirst for God, for the living God when shall I come and appear before God (Psalm 42: 1 – 2). The Apostle Paul’s word in Philippians 3:10 shows a man whose desire is to know the Lord the more, this made him stand out. As God takes out a man from the crowd, He wants to bring the man to fellowship intimately with him for it is through the intimacy God spends time with such a person and makes him to have knowledge more than others. Paul’s order of the day is do the will of the Master and this requires consistent fellowship with the Lord. How many hours a day do you give God? Are you too busy that you give one excuse or the other, we are told to study and meditate on the Word of God “day and night” (twice a day) not just once a day or two, or once a week. As we study and meditate on God’s Word we can then be sure to obey it and also have “good” success (Joshua 1:8 NLT Version).

Divine Revelation: Intimate relationship with the Lord brings about divine revelation (Psalm 119: 18) that makes you strong in faith, grounded in God’s Word, and fully equipped for the work ahead. The time God concentrates on you, His teachings which is His Word becomes real instrument He uses on you to sharpen and make you useful. The Word of God transforms a man before he can transform others (Romans 12: 2).

Exposure: God will first expose you to Himself before He exposes you to the world (Exodus 3; Acts 13: 22). This is to make you possess spiritual authority and to be fully prepared for the leadership role in the body of Christ. When God takes you into confidence, He exposes you to suffering so as to experience the mystery of Christ’s Passion, and to cooperate in the redemption of mankind (2 Corinthians 11: 22 – 33; 12: 8 – 10). God also exposes the person to lack so that you can look up to Him and Him alone so that when you have breakthrough you can no longer have lack again. All these are the process you may go through for God to bring you out to the particular instrument He wants you to be.

I charge you today that as you go through the furnace of God, that you will come out better than you were before and will become more useful in the hands of the Almighty God, Amen!

Please find time to go through these Chapters in the Bible, 1 Samuel from chapter 18 to chapter 27.