STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY

Sometimes, we despair and give up in the midst of our journey with God. God has shown us by recording all the fantastic stories, events and dealings by Him and the heroes of our faith. They are men and women like us too, who struggle now and then in their journey...may we learn from their life stories and be 'enabled' as well.

It's not about how great we started in our journey; it's about persevering and finishing the race.


STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY
by David Wilkerson

No one on earth can place you in ministry. You may be given a diploma by a
seminary, ordained by a bishop, or commissioned by a denomination. But the
apostle Paul reveals the only source of any true call to ministry: “I thank
Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry” (1 Timothy 1:12).

What does Paul mean here when he says Jesus enabled him and counted him
faithful? Think back to the apostle’s conversion. Three days after that
event, Christ placed Paul in the ministry—specifically, the ministry of
suffering: “For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my
name’s sake” (Acts 9:16). This is the very ministry Paul refers to when he
says, “Therefore seeing we have this ministry…” (2 Corinthians 4:1). He
continues, adding, “…as we have received mercy, we faint not.” He’s
talking about the ministry of suffering. And he makes clear it is a ministry
that we all have.

Paul is telling us Jesus gave him a promise for this ministry. Christ pledged
to remain faithful to him and enable him through all his trials. The Greek word
for enabled means “a continual supply of strength.” Paul declares, “Jesus
promised to give me more than sufficient strength for the journey. He enables
me to remain faithful in this ministry. Because of him, I won’t faint or give
in. I’ll emerge with a testimony.”

A transfiguration is taking place in all our lives. The truth is, we’re being
changed by what obsesses us. We’re becoming like the things that occupy our
minds. Our character is being influenced and impacted by whatever has hold of
our hearts.

I thank God for everyone who feeds his mind and soul with spiritual things.
Such servants have fixed their eyes on what is pure and holy. They keep their
gaze fixed on Christ, spending quality time worshipping him and building
themselves up in faith. The Holy Spirit is at work in these saints, continually
changing their character in Christ’s. These believers will be ready for the
hard, explosive sufferings to come. Slothful, lazy, prayerless believers will
suffer heart failure or breakdowns. They’ll be crushed by their fears,
because they don’t have the Holy Spirit at work in them, transfiguring them.
When the hard times come, they simply won’t make it.

Here is Paul’s final word on the matter: “Giving no offence in any thing,
that the ministry be not blamed: but in all things approving ourselves as the
ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in
distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments…. As sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich” (2 Corinthians 6:3–5, 10). How do
we “make many rich”? By outshining the hope of Christ in the midst of our
sufferings. We offer true riches when we cause others to ask, “What’s his
secret? Where does he find such peace?”