Loading supplies for missionaries in South Sudan
The Simple Path
Silence > Prayer > Faith > Love > Service > Peace
Silence > Prayer > Faith > Love > Service > Peace
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
1 Cor 12:4-6
And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists,
others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge
of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ…
Eph 4:11-13
This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people,
but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
2 Cor 9:12
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
1 Cor 12:4-6
And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists,
others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge
of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ…
Eph 4:11-13
This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people,
but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
2 Cor 9:12
Doing Our Will in God’s Name?
There are two kinds of service. The first is doing our will in God’s name. Many sincere people work very hard to help other people, as we are told to do in the Bible. However, those who have not traveled along the Simple Path from Silence to Prayer to Faith to Love are sometimes motivated more by human emotions like pride and the desire for praise from others. Because they have not placed themselves fully in God’s hands, allowing Him to empty them of their selfish motives and fill them with the joyful fire of His merciful love, they may seek the easier tasks that are visible to others, and resent being given a menial job that nobody sees them doing. This resentment, and the fact that they are doing their own will in their own strength often leads to tension and competition within the group with which they are serving, so that not only are they not effective, the entire group is distracted from their work.
Doing God’s Will Through His Guidance and Strength
In contrast, people who have allowed God to empty and cleanse them of their selfish motives and fill them with the joyful fire of His merciful love are happy to do the most menial jobs. They are not striving to advance within the group. Instead, they readily seek the jobs that nobody else wants to do. They are driven by their love for God, for those they serve and for those they are serving with, to sacrifice themselves for the good of God, the people they serve, and those they serve with. Because they are not serving in their own feeble human strength but are allowing the Holy Spirit to work through them, they can accomplish things that seem (and often are) impossible from a human standpoint.
Where and How to Serve?
There are so many people who need help, it can get depressing just thinking about it. There are a great many needs in the North Phoenix area where I live. The number grows exponentially if I consider the entire city of Phoenix, let alone the entire United States and the rest of the world. While we should be prepared to “do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers”, God has a plan for each of us—one or more specific missions we are being prepared to fulfill through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Often these missions do not make sense to us, and don’t fit into our plans for our lives.
Waiting on the Lord
Another question is when to serve, and just as God’s mission for us may not make sense to us, His timing also often doesn’t match ours. In many modern societies the emphasis is on being motivated to get started right away and get things done now, but in God’s Word He repeatedly tells us to “be still” and to “wait patiently for Him”.
Then God makes it even more difficult by not letting us know how long we need to wait, and it is almost sure to be much longer than makes sense to us. For example, the Israelites were already suffering greatly when Moses killed the Egyptian and had to flee Egypt. Why did God let them suffer for another forty years before sending Moses and Aaron to free them? It may seem cruel to us, but in God’s perfect plan, He knew the exact time when this should be done, and during that time He was preparing Moses by teaching him the skills he would need to lead the Israelites through the desert for forty years.
God’s Preparation
The kind of service God wants flows out of total surrender to Him, seeking only His will for His kingdom and His glory. This is important, because God “knows the plans He has for us,” and He knows what we need to prepare us for His tasks for us. While God is preparing us for His most important task for us, we still need to follow all His commands in the Bible to love Him, our neighbors and ourselves, and “as we have the opportunity, to seek to help others.”
When I am Weak, Then I am Strong!
I get a bit frustrated when I read various books or articles about how to determine where God wants a person to serve. Most of these approaches help someone to assess their strengths, and recommend they serve in those areas, but God makes it clear in His Word that He has a very different approach. He often chooses someone who is weak in a particular area, because that person will have to rely on the Lord every step of the way, allowing God to demonstrate His power and His love.
A Very Nervous Presenter!
God certainly followed this approach with me. Like Moses, I have always been very nervous speaking in front of a group—even a small group. I remember stuttering and stammering as I made a small announcement to five friends in our Sunday School class. However, God in His infinite wisdom planned for me to be a trainer and public speaker, and my first step along that path was the day I was selected to be the initial ground school instructor on the then new Learjet 55. This entailed five full days of training in front of a room full of experienced corporate jet pilots, and I had never flown a jet, any jet, in my life. I also had to develop the new course.
Only Through God
I clearly remember sitting in my car outside the training facility the morning of my first class praying to God—acknowledging that I could not do this, and asking for His strength and wisdom to get me through the week. Years later I learned that several of the pilots in that class had told my manager to get me out of there, but God led the manager to continue to support me, and while I continued to be very nervous, my class soon was rated as one of the best in the world for our company.
Training Military Instructors
Several years later I was selected as the Manager of Military Instructor Training for a different company, even though I had never been in the military and had no experience in the types of aircraft they flew. Again I was very nervous as I started my first class for a group of Navy instructors, and again the training soon acquired such a good reputation that it was being requested by other branches of the military. I ended up travelling throughout the country and to Japan and the Philippines training instructors on all types of aircraft—helicopters, fighters, bombers, transports—how to teach Aircrew Coordination Training (ACT). The training resulted in very significant reductions in mishap rates, and an F-14 Tomcat Radar Intercept Officer (RIO – the guy in the back) told me that my training had saved his life and the life of his pilot.
Expanding to Civilian Organizations
After that I started my own company training civilian pilots in Error Prevention, and eventually expanded to all types of occupations. I even travelled around the world as a volunteer training missionary aviation personnel. I was still very nervous at the beginning of each class and continued to pray for God to get me through that class, and God was always faithful in leading me and strengthening me. I also prayed for each client and each class that the training I presented would have a significant positive impact on those individuals and their organization, and again it did. Organizations typically experienced around an 80% reduction in incidents and accidents, and a significant improvement in individual and team effectiveness. If you are interested in who I have trained, click on this link:
www.errorpreventioninstitute.com/clients
The Future?
Like Moses, after forty years of training God let me know that everything I had done was in preparation for training His people in His Church, and I continue to depend on Him for whatever that entails.
Consider/Discuss:
- Do you think that you are typically doing God’s will, or are you more likely to do your will in God’s name?
- Do you rely on God’s strength, or on your own strength?
- Is there a situation in which you clearly sensed God directing you as to what, when and how you should do something?
Scripture Memory Verse
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Col 3:17
Let's Pray! - The Prayer of Abandonment
There are two kinds of service. The first is doing our will in God’s name. Many sincere people work very hard to help other people, as we are told to do in the Bible. However, those who have not traveled along the Simple Path from Silence to Prayer to Faith to Love are sometimes motivated more by human emotions like pride and the desire for praise from others. Because they have not placed themselves fully in God’s hands, allowing Him to empty them of their selfish motives and fill them with the joyful fire of His merciful love, they may seek the easier tasks that are visible to others, and resent being given a menial job that nobody sees them doing. This resentment, and the fact that they are doing their own will in their own strength often leads to tension and competition within the group with which they are serving, so that not only are they not effective, the entire group is distracted from their work.
Doing God’s Will Through His Guidance and Strength
In contrast, people who have allowed God to empty and cleanse them of their selfish motives and fill them with the joyful fire of His merciful love are happy to do the most menial jobs. They are not striving to advance within the group. Instead, they readily seek the jobs that nobody else wants to do. They are driven by their love for God, for those they serve and for those they are serving with, to sacrifice themselves for the good of God, the people they serve, and those they serve with. Because they are not serving in their own feeble human strength but are allowing the Holy Spirit to work through them, they can accomplish things that seem (and often are) impossible from a human standpoint.
Where and How to Serve?
There are so many people who need help, it can get depressing just thinking about it. There are a great many needs in the North Phoenix area where I live. The number grows exponentially if I consider the entire city of Phoenix, let alone the entire United States and the rest of the world. While we should be prepared to “do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers”, God has a plan for each of us—one or more specific missions we are being prepared to fulfill through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Often these missions do not make sense to us, and don’t fit into our plans for our lives.
Waiting on the Lord
Another question is when to serve, and just as God’s mission for us may not make sense to us, His timing also often doesn’t match ours. In many modern societies the emphasis is on being motivated to get started right away and get things done now, but in God’s Word He repeatedly tells us to “be still” and to “wait patiently for Him”.
Then God makes it even more difficult by not letting us know how long we need to wait, and it is almost sure to be much longer than makes sense to us. For example, the Israelites were already suffering greatly when Moses killed the Egyptian and had to flee Egypt. Why did God let them suffer for another forty years before sending Moses and Aaron to free them? It may seem cruel to us, but in God’s perfect plan, He knew the exact time when this should be done, and during that time He was preparing Moses by teaching him the skills he would need to lead the Israelites through the desert for forty years.
God’s Preparation
The kind of service God wants flows out of total surrender to Him, seeking only His will for His kingdom and His glory. This is important, because God “knows the plans He has for us,” and He knows what we need to prepare us for His tasks for us. While God is preparing us for His most important task for us, we still need to follow all His commands in the Bible to love Him, our neighbors and ourselves, and “as we have the opportunity, to seek to help others.”
When I am Weak, Then I am Strong!
I get a bit frustrated when I read various books or articles about how to determine where God wants a person to serve. Most of these approaches help someone to assess their strengths, and recommend they serve in those areas, but God makes it clear in His Word that He has a very different approach. He often chooses someone who is weak in a particular area, because that person will have to rely on the Lord every step of the way, allowing God to demonstrate His power and His love.
A Very Nervous Presenter!
God certainly followed this approach with me. Like Moses, I have always been very nervous speaking in front of a group—even a small group. I remember stuttering and stammering as I made a small announcement to five friends in our Sunday School class. However, God in His infinite wisdom planned for me to be a trainer and public speaker, and my first step along that path was the day I was selected to be the initial ground school instructor on the then new Learjet 55. This entailed five full days of training in front of a room full of experienced corporate jet pilots, and I had never flown a jet, any jet, in my life. I also had to develop the new course.
Only Through God
I clearly remember sitting in my car outside the training facility the morning of my first class praying to God—acknowledging that I could not do this, and asking for His strength and wisdom to get me through the week. Years later I learned that several of the pilots in that class had told my manager to get me out of there, but God led the manager to continue to support me, and while I continued to be very nervous, my class soon was rated as one of the best in the world for our company.
Training Military Instructors
Several years later I was selected as the Manager of Military Instructor Training for a different company, even though I had never been in the military and had no experience in the types of aircraft they flew. Again I was very nervous as I started my first class for a group of Navy instructors, and again the training soon acquired such a good reputation that it was being requested by other branches of the military. I ended up travelling throughout the country and to Japan and the Philippines training instructors on all types of aircraft—helicopters, fighters, bombers, transports—how to teach Aircrew Coordination Training (ACT). The training resulted in very significant reductions in mishap rates, and an F-14 Tomcat Radar Intercept Officer (RIO – the guy in the back) told me that my training had saved his life and the life of his pilot.
Expanding to Civilian Organizations
After that I started my own company training civilian pilots in Error Prevention, and eventually expanded to all types of occupations. I even travelled around the world as a volunteer training missionary aviation personnel. I was still very nervous at the beginning of each class and continued to pray for God to get me through that class, and God was always faithful in leading me and strengthening me. I also prayed for each client and each class that the training I presented would have a significant positive impact on those individuals and their organization, and again it did. Organizations typically experienced around an 80% reduction in incidents and accidents, and a significant improvement in individual and team effectiveness. If you are interested in who I have trained, click on this link:
www.errorpreventioninstitute.com/clients
The Future?
Like Moses, after forty years of training God let me know that everything I had done was in preparation for training His people in His Church, and I continue to depend on Him for whatever that entails.
Consider/Discuss:
- Do you think that you are typically doing God’s will, or are you more likely to do your will in God’s name?
- Do you rely on God’s strength, or on your own strength?
- Is there a situation in which you clearly sensed God directing you as to what, when and how you should do something?
Scripture Memory Verse
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Col 3:17
Let's Pray! - The Prayer of Abandonment