I believe that God delights in small things; it was from nothing that he spoke life and the creation of all that we know was birthed. Why does he enjoy taking nothing and making something? The manna from heaven that fed the Israelites, the loaves and the fish that fed the five thousand as Jesus preached were both examples of our human reasoning failing and God providing. Our Lord takes something small and makes something great. I recently found myself very troubled by my inadequacy and I felt small. It was a moment of discouragement and I found myself very troubled when God spoke to me these words: "All it takes is a single match to set a field on fire." When my small self is struck up against the plans of God, I know that I can set the world on fire. Sometimes we dwell a little too long on what we "are not" and it overshadows what "we are".
Why does God enjoy using such little instruments for his big plans? I believe it is so that we will know beyond all our doubts, the truth of his glory, majesty and power. If we know that by creation we were made for a purpose (like a cup made for drinking) and see the impossibility of us fulfilling any purpose without God then we have solved the great mystery of life. The enemy would say, you are just a small tin can, what can you do? And we know as the word says that apart from God we can do no good thing. But when tethered with God's plans we begin to see the usefulness of a cup as it is filled with living water. There is a time coming of great thirst and of great famine in the Spirit and it will be the flourishing, faithful, few that will be given a purpose to be poured out over and over and over again upon the children of God. A harvest so great and yet so few to bring it in. To be of purpose and to be used by the great God of all, is what every man secretly longs for. To be loved, needed, important and to find the reason for why.
My name means my little one. I have always loved it and felt very much like it is a term of endearment. I see my Father God calling to me using those words when he is reassuring me of his great affection for me. Sometimes though being so small brings out the inadequacies that the world and the prince of darkness are all too quick to capitalize on. I find myself questioning God in the midst of my small moments and soon I am in the corner of self doubt because my faith in God has been challenged.
Christ gave us a parable that speaks to God's opinion on our size. Mark 4:30 is the Parable of the Mustard seed. "Again he said, What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."
When God knit you together in your mothers womb, he knew the value and importance of what he was doing. He gave us each a special and unique set of gifts and in that moment that he designed you, he was naming you, and speaking the truth of your worth into the world. You and I are the reason that he sent his son to die. He had so much love for his creation that he was willing to give up his live for the revelation we needed to see our value to him.
He could have stopped with telling us about his love but instead he went and showed it so that there would be no reason to question it. But then why are we still questioning it? The disciples did the same thing when Christ was crucified. Even though they had seen him raise the dead and heal the sick and cast out demons they questioned his ability to use them. You find in the scriptures of Luke after the crucifixion, when Christ returns his disciples were not out preaching about a man who just gave his live for them, but that even though they knew he was risen they went back to what they did before Christ had come to them, they went back to being fishermen. Christ said you will be fishers of men yet in their crises of faith, they became aware of how small they were. It is what happens next that gives me great cause for celebration!! He comes to them, he even appears to them in ways that are undeniable miracles and he says that he is sending them a helper. I think that was a bit of an understatement. He tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit comes upon them the will be his witnesses.
Finally they will have, not just the creation to be what they are, nor the calling to be what they are, but they will have the empowerment to be what they are!!!! What great news! We are not expected to be something we are not, we are merely expected to be filled with what it is that we lack, in order to be everything that we were created to be.
So here we are being asked to allow this amazing Spirit of God to fill us, to free us, to move through us, to change us more into his likeness. Will we go back to what we knew before Christ? I love that he doesn't tell his fishermen disciples not to fish, for he knows that they are fisherman, he just says that they are fishing in the wrong place and for the wrong thing! He doesn't dislike who we are, nor does he want to change who he created us to be. He merely wants to complete our purpose and fill us, so that every empty part of us can stop searching and start proclaiming; life to dead, healing to the sick, and sight to the blind.
We need a spirit of boldness to manifest in the hearts of God's people. What would that look like if we all knew who we were, and we all became aware of our strengths and abilities, how would we walk out our faith with this revelation that: WE CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS US.
It takes one little spark to set the whole world on fire for Jesus. It takes one spark!
Thank you Holy Spirit that you are the fire in me that can set hearts a flame with desire for you. You are the wind that blows this fire to every heart that is searching and you are the living water that cools us, and brings us the refreshing truth that we need in order to be alive in Christ. Thank you Holy Spirit that you waited patiently for me to finally allow you to burn inside of me with an eternal flame that can not be put out but only grows the more I spend time in you. Teach me how to be the fullness of who I was created to be in you. Amen
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