Chapter 3
Using what you have
So you know that the Lord has called you to serve Him. You know He has anointed you. But you want to know where to start in your ministry and how to see that anointing grow. You may wonder why not everyone who is indwelt by the same Holy Spirit see amazing things happening in their lives.
The points I am going to make in this chapter are so simple that you will wonder why you have been wasting your time up until now. The Bible says in Acts 10:38: ... God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power and he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him.
God anointed Jesus Christ of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power. Now let me ask you: have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit? If so, is the Holy Spirit that you received the same Holy Spirit that the Lord Jesus received?
What happened after God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power? Did He just put His feet up and sip a cool drink in an air-conditioned room from that day onwards? No! Pay close attention to what we are told Jesus did after being anointed. The answer lies in verse 38:
"He went around doing good."
It is wonderful to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost but the important thing is what you do next! So many of us were filled with the Holy Spirit years ago, spoke in tongues, had goosebumps, clapped and danced for joy ... then did nothing!
There is a Biblical principle here which is a very bitter pill to swallow. Use what you have, otherwise you will lose what you have.
Are you one of those people who have what I call "white horse syndrome"? You are waiting for Jesus to come to you in person on a white horse and tell you to go and preach the gospel. "When I see and hear that, then I Will go and preach. I've been waiting for 15 years, but nothing has happened yet," you complain.
My friend, I can guarantee that if you haven't started doing what is already written for you in the Word of God, you won't do it even if God comes and "zaps" you personally.
If you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ and received the Holy Spirit a long time ago, but have done nothing about it, that's the reason why you don't see miracles happening in your life.
In the Bible story of the prophet Elijah, we are told that his assistant Elisha, knew the day had come for Elijah to go to heaven and so he followed him. (2 Kings 2:2-6)
Elijah said to Elisha: "Stay here; the LORD had sent me to Bethel." But Elisha said: "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you". So they both went down to Bethel... Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here; Elisha, the LORD has sent me to Jericho." And he replied, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you". So they went to Jericho... Then Elijah said to him "Stay here, the LORD has sent me to Jordan." And he replied, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So the two of them walked on.
The chapter goes on to tell how Elijah rolled up his cloak and struck the water of the river Jordan with it. The water parted, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. Then the Jordan closed again. Finally Elijah asked Elisha:
" Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?" "Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit," Elisha replied. "You have asked a difficult thing," Elijah said, "yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours -otherwise not." As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel." And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart. He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. (2 Kings 2:9-13.)
Notice that Elisha didn't then go and sit on the bank of the Jordan wailing loudly: "Oh! You have gone and left me like an orphan! Now who's going to part the Jordan for me? Oh God, send Gabriel! Send Michael! Send some angel and let them part the Jordan for me. I don't have a boat. My master left me and went away without a thought as to how I was supposed to cross back over the river. Oh God, please come down and tell me what to do now!" Elisha did not have white horse syndrome. No, verse 14 tells us that Elisha took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it.
"Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
Note what Elisha did after receiving the cloak. He mediately went and used what he had received. If he had st sat down, he would never have got across. In the same way, after we have received the mantle of the Holy Spirit, we simply have to go and use what we have.
Don't be fooled into waiting for a personal visit from God telling you what to do. Elisha parted the Jordan not because he had a direct Word from God, but because he did what he had seen his master doing.
Jesus said that if we believe in Him, we can do what e did and more than that because He was going to His ther. Jesus went away - and the Holy Ghost came. Now re received His mantle.
So you don't need special guidance to do what you I have seen your master doing.
Read the Bible! You read about Jesus laying hands on the blind. Just do it! You see Jesus casting a demon out. Just do it! You see Jesus proclaiming the good news. Just do it!
I was brought up in an orthodox Hindu Brahmin family. I was extremely zealous for my religion and hated Christianity with all my heart. I had a long red teeka (a red mark that showed I was a religious Hindu) on my forehead. On 21 January 1983, I gave my life to Jesus. The next day I went to college. My teeka had gone. I had replaced it with a Christian badge saying "Jesus saves". I went to college with that badge, my friends saw it and their jaws dropped. "What's all this about, Rambabu?" they asked. "The teeka on your forehead has gone and you're wearing a badge. What new drama have you got mixed up in now?" I told them this was no drama, but a reality. And I began to tell them about Jesus.
Before you ask me whether I read the Bible prior to sharing the gospel, let me make it clear to you that I had not touched the Bible even once till that time. I didn't quote from the gospels. I had never read the Bible, because I had only been born again the previous night.
So what did I tell them about Jesus?
I did not know the gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. I had absolutely no idea that they existed in the Bible. I had only one gospel - the gospel according to Rambabu.
If that sounds like blasphemy, I was not claiming that there was a gospel according to Rambabu in the Bible. The gospel according to Rambabu is what Jesus did in my life.
Each one of you has your own gospel.
There is a story in Mark 5:1 - 20 of a man possessed with a legion of demons. Jesus went to him and cast the demons out. The demons asked him to send them into a large herd of pigs nearby, whereupon these pigs jumped off the cliff and died. Later the people of that town came and pleaded with Jesus to go away. As Jesus was getting into the boat to leave, the man delivered from the demons came running to Jesus and begged to go with Him. Jesus did not let him, but said:
"Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you." So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed. (Mark 5:19 and 20.)
When was the man set free? Just then. When did he accept Christ? Just then.
Jesus never told him go to Bible college for four years and study Greek, Hebrew and Latin, and then to go and serve. Instead Jesus said, "Go and tell how much the Lord has done for you." I am not saying that going to Bible College is wrong. In fact I myself do teach in Bible schools and colleges. But what I want to say is that - " you don't use that as an excuse for not sharing your faith with Others."
This man had his own gospel, which he went about By the time I left my college, every staff had heard the gospel from me. The principal, the heads of departments, lecturers, and all the staff had heard who Jesus Christ was. You don't need a special leading. Just go and do it. You may be asking: "I know what I should be doing, so why am I not doing it?" I will tell you. There is only one explanation - you are lazy! I tell the brothers who work with me, I will put up with any weaknesses you may have, but one thing that irritates me is laziness. God hates laziness. When God made Adam and Eve and put them in a beautiful garden, did he say to them: "Now go and sit by the riverside, put your feet in the cool flowing waters and sing your days away"? Most definitely not! We see in Genesis 2:15 that the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Even before the fall of man God hated laziness. You may not think you are lazy, but let us see how the scriptures define a lazy person. A lazy person is full of excuses (Proverbs 26:13) The sluggard says, "There is a Lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!" Do you make excuses? Why are you not doing anything for the Lord? "The anti-brigade are out there waiting to get me!" "I'm not trained to do anything." Why aren't you preaching the gospel? "I can't - I'm a girl!" "My legs turn to jelly if I stand up to speak to people." "I haven't read the entire Bible yet. I'll go when I've read it." "I want to preach, but my husband won't let me." "My wife is such a bad person that I can't preach because of her." "I'm married." "I'm not married." There are hundreds of plausible-sounding excuses, but do you know what God does? He looks at those people with excuses and says: "You are lazy!" You know for yourself what your favorite excuse is. But now you know what God thinks of it. A lazy person is a lover of sleep. (Proverbs 19:15) Praise God for sleep. It is a gift of God. It is a blessing. But loving sleep is a curse. Some people can sleep anywhere. They can sleep sitting down or standing up, with their eyes open or shut. We all know someone who seems to be able to sleep on the proverbial clothes-line! The Bible says in Proverbs 26:14: "As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed." Some people say they are going to get up at 5am and pray. The alarm goes off then, and you hear them give a long whine under the covers and turn over. Every one else hears it and gets woken up, except the person who set the alarm. I can't remember the last time I had six hours Unbroken sleep. There is a hunger burning inside that won't allow me to sleep. Thank God for sleep, but don't love sleep. Proverbs 24:30-34 has more to say about the sluggard: 1 went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man. Why was this man's vineyard in that condition? Why was the stone wall (which symbolizes protection) in ruins? Why were there thorns and thistles in the place of fruit? Why did he become poor? Because he loved sleep (verse 33). A lazy man does not use what he has. Proverbs 26:15 says: "The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth." Imagine a hungry man having a plate of food placed before him, then picking up a piece of food and then looking around for somebody to put that food in his mouth. The very imagination of that scene seems absurd. If lie himself will not lift his hand to eat, he will stay hungry Why? Is it because he has no food to eat? No! In spite ol having everything he needed before
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