Taken by Surprise

My priorities are often very different to God’s. I say that as though it comes as a surprise. I guess it should not, but frequently it does. Somehow, we assume that our priorities are well aligned with God’s.  But they are not, and we need to crucify our pride and work with the Holy Spirit on a daily basis in order to make sure that we are passionate about the things that are close to God’s heart.

Last year, I was profoundly “surprised” by God on a number of occasions. I would like to tell you about two such occasions over the next two weeks.

On both occasions, I was surprised to discover that God’s priorities did not rank with mine - in fact, His priorities did not even appear on my list. Oh how pride can blind us!

The first surprise encounter came at a Pastor’s fraternal. The speaker was talking about discipleship. He explained that God has planted a “seed” in every human being. This seed lies dormant but it is the potential for a person to be placed in right relationship with God so that he may make a unique contribution to the extension of God’s Kingdom and look forward to an eternal reward and everlasting fellowship with God. For this “seed” to be germinated, a person must be 1) born again through faith in Jesus and then 2) discipled in the context of a local church. A person will NEVER truly become what he was created to be, and hence live as he was created to live without being born again and discipled. If these conditions are met, the seed will grow into a verdant tree and begin producing fruit for the glory of God and the joy of His people. Imagine what Zimbabwe would be like if there were more people living as God originally intended and created them to live.

Immediately, I sensed that I was coming to a turning point in my life. The Holy Spirit was crying out “listen up” and my spirit and soul were saying YES! I could think of many people whose lives were like khaki weeds or thorn bushes - perhaps you can too - people that need life and joy and hope and peace. Then I thought of those that come to church but are not being properly discipled, people that are like tiny saplings, without fruit and in danger of shrivelling up if they are not properly nourished and tended.

After the initial excitement, I realised I had some repenting to do. Some time before the Pastors’ meeting, one of the Harvest elders had spoken of his conviction that we should be running discipleship courses through the homegroups. Sadly, I had paid no attention.

At this stage, Dave and Chrissie had headed off for their sabbatical. In our next Leadership meeting, I raised the issue of discipleship and there was unanimous agreement that we should begin setting structures in place to disciple our members. So Theunis began developing discipleship material, which we ended up using in the Discipleship 2 course.

 Interestingly, God had put discipleship on Dave’s heart through a very vivid dream. Dave started doing something about his dream before he left on sabbatical by developing “diagnostic questions” to help people identify gaps and confusion in their understanding of Christianity. Then with his sabbatical approaching, Dave put his work on hold. God reminded Dave of the dream whilst he was on sabbatical, and he determined in his heart to do something about it when he returned to Zimbabwe! When he got back, Dave was excited to discover that things were already in progress to roll out Discipleship 1, and we incorporated his questions as part of the course.

Is it not exciting the way God leads and guides us? I find it amazing that God guides individuals. I find it a miracle that He can guide a group of leaders, given our frailty and tendency to indulge the flesh, but God IS leading our church. We now have Discipleship 1 and 2 going strong and have run three Network courses with the fourth due to start on the 2^nd of November.

If you belong to Harvest, I hope that this testimony will inspire you to get more involved in discipleship – either by attending a course, encouraging someone to attend a course or using the material to disciple someone one-on-one. And if you belong to another church, I hope you will be inspired to respond to God when He speaks to you about priorities.

Cheers for now - Ian

Driving back from the airport last Saturday ...

Saturday morning 6am, I was driving back from the airport trying to decide whether to attend a men’s breakfast. When I have a decision to make, I often set up a conversation between myself and “God”. The “God” side of the discussion argues for what I think to be God’s position on the matter.

So brace yourself. You are about to get a glimpse into the murky workings of my mind. I hope you are not of a nervous disposition! Here goes:

“Why so grumpy?”

“I’m not.”

“Yes you are. Don’t think you can hide it from me.”

“Ok, so I’m looking grumpy. It’s because I have to go to the men’s breakfast, and I don’t want to.”

“Why do you HAVE TO GO?”

“Erm... because I am the pastor...?”

“Is someone forcing you to go because you are the pastor?”

“No, nobody is forcing me to go. I just think I ought to go.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to go because you WANT to go?”

“Look, I don’t WANT to go OK!”

Silence...

“Ian.”

“Yes.”

“What if I told you that I want to refresh you at the Men’s Breakfast?”

The thought that God might have plans to refresh me brought tears to my eyes. My emotions, my spirit, my entire being said, “YES, Lord, I want to be refreshed. I need to be refreshed”. And so I went to the meeting because I wanted to. And I WAS refreshed!

But why is it that we so often go to or stay away from meetings for the wrong reasons? Why do we go under a sense of obligation to God or people? Why do we go just because we feel compelled to go? Do we feel compelled because we want to earn the approval of God and others?

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, asking them to take up a collection for the poor in Jerusalem, he said:

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7).

I think we should apply this principle to other areas of our lives. Imagine a church were everyone served with cheerful willingness and a sense of God’s purpose in all they were doing.  Yes, even in the matter of attending meetings, we should go to God and ask Him to impress on our hearts what He wants us to do, and then do it willingly and cheerfully. In this way, we will attend or miss meetings or courses for the right reasons.

Sometimes, however, we miss for the wrong reasons. We throw up barriers which prevent us from finding the good reasons FOR doing something. For example, “I don’t do men’s meetings”.  Such an axiom is usually established to cover a deeper reason for not attending. It could be, “I am anxious that nobody will talk to me.” Or perhaps, “I might be asked to share or pray out loud.” Are these things really that terrible? Would it harm you if nobody talked to you? It might be unpleasant, but if God shows you a compelling reason for attending surely that would outweigh a little discomfort? And if you do not want to share or pray, nobody can force you to. A polite, “I would rather not pray/share” would suffice.

Another bad reason for missing is failure to consider attending. Simple selfishness and lack of concern for the purposes of God often cause me to overlook opportunities to bless or be blessed, to receive or to contribute. Just because I feel a lack of conscience about missing something doesn’t necessarily mean I am in the will of God. The important thing is to consciously seek God and His purposes.

I hope this makes as much sense to you as it makes to me. Let us make decisions with God’s help, and then we will DO and NOT DO things for the right reasons. And when we do things we will do them willingly, joyfully and with an awareness of God and His purposes.

Cheers for now - Ian