© 2022 Don Pinson | [Download]
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In the beginning, when God made man, He intended that man should be a vessel of His own life; having the very life of God flow through His spirit, soul, and body. But we chose not to allow God to come to live inside us and release His life through us, by eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—instead of eating of the Tree of Life. Thus, we stepped outside the Order of God and starting operating in a different system than that for which we were designed (Genesis 3). We began to try to provide for ourselves by selfish acts. If we had surrendered to God and allowed His life to come inside us, everything we needed for life would have flowed up and out through us. The work we would have done would have been for the purpose of working with God: Not for the purpose of making sure we had enough to eat. Thus, we flipped God’s system on its head and began to operate from a completely different system than God designed for us.
Thus, now, once we turn to Christ and surrender to Him as Lord, He begins to teach us, once again, His original system. It was the system He lived by when He walked this earth as the “God-Man”. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when He told believers that we must:
“…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God…And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)
God’s system is totally different from the “world system” in which we grew up. In the world system, we work to gain for ourselves. In God’s system, we work with Him in whatever vocation He chooses for us, for the purpose of giving into the “advancing of His Kingdom”. This is what Moses taught in Deuteronomy 8:18 when he stated:
“…remember the LORD thy God: for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant…”
Again the Apostle Paul taught this to the churches he had established in Asia. He wrote:
“…let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” (Ephesians 4:28)
For a mature believer in Christ, work is not for the purpose of meeting our own needs; but rather so we get into God’s flow of life and thus let Him pour through us the things that others need, starting with them receiving the message of the Gospel of Christ. And the amazing thing about this is, that as we work to give into the Kingdom of Christ—so others’ needs can be met—we get our OWN needs met! This is what Jesus meant when He stated,
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)
So it isn’t so much what work we do, as the reason we do it, that makes the difference!
George Mueller was an English minister, who, in the 1830s began to share the Gospel with people and to trust God alone to pay for the sharing of that Gospel message; which included the food and shelter which he and his wife needed. He didn’t concern himself with their needs, and never asked a human being to meet those needs. He asked God only. Later, he started an orphanage which would eventually house more than 2,000 orphans. He fed, clothed and educated them and never asked a human for money. He asked God and God sent it, because Mueller was “seeking first the kingdom of God”. He lived to be over ninety years of age; proving that, if you work with God, God will meet your need!
Will we work to meet our own needs, or work with God so He can advance His Kingdom as He wants to?
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.