John 3:28-29
“You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’”
The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.”
John knows who he is, and more importantly, John knows who he is not. He is not the Messiah. If there is an opposite to a “messiah complex” this is it. John understands and accepts his role in life as God has ordained it. Even more, his awareness of his role allows him to have complete joy in seeing someone else succeed.
If we apply this principle to our own lives, it means that we know what our role in life is, we accept that role, and we find joy in the fulfillment of that role.
Q: How does a person come to know what their God-given role in this life is?
Two events helped me.
1) several pastors who prayed for my wife and myself in 1986. They said I would be a scribe in the house of the Lord.
2) fifteen years later a man came from New Zealand and talked at our church about having a personal mission statement. I found a book to help me do that.
My mission statement was and is ‘to write and to speak on the excellence of fathering’.
Since that day we have written thirty books- all on fathering.
Duane,
Thanks for sharing! You have been very faithful to your mission. Knowing you, I also know you have been faithful in other roles as well: child of God, servant, husband, father, brother and friend. Blessings!
Prayerfully study, and apply God’s word, listen to the Lord. He will direct our paths.
1.) God very powerfully called me at 33 years old. He made it clear I was to go to a specific church by placing a picture in my mind. There He had a man with Bible Study Fellowship waiting to meet me.
2.) God told me to isolate myself from all ungodly influence. I bought a house, hired movers and moved without telling anyone where I was going.
3.) Spent the next 6 years studying with BSF. I kept asking, ” what are we supposed to do when we finish? Everyone would say, God will take care of that, focus on prayer and study.
4.) I joined a church, led new members classes, adult Sunday School, home bible studies, and served on various church committee’s.
5.) My heart was drawn to the unsaved, and I could not stop telling the unchurched about the reality of Jesus who was “the way out of their life in sin.” These people were against God, and did not have the slightest idea who He was. God would send them to me and I would tell them.
In time I found this was my calling.
In His time, God let me know.
That’s a good question,..obviously it takes time to figure things out,..might even take some schooling,..prayer for sure,..
Right now I am still working on finding out my God given-role in this life He has called me to live,..my mom once told me,.. I believe that she believed that she was prophesying over me,.. that she seen me becoming a pastor,..I told her I am not to sure that would happen because I don’t see myself spending all that money on what I have already read and studied all these years now and besides I already hold a few PHD’s already,..I like to call them Post Hole Diggers,..
Would it be a God-given-role if I were to become a pastor since she did prophesy over me like she believed she did? If that’s what God has in store for me than so be it but,.. I still don’t see me spending all His hard earned money on what I have already come to know that,.. He sent Jesus Christ in to this world,..He was crucified and raised on the third day now sitting on the throne in heaven next to His Father and that He has given me His Holy Spirit to teach me all things,..that in of itself is priceless and has already been paid for so why should I have to pay for someone to teach me something I have been redeemed of? Just a rant I guess,…
Thanks Jeff
Keep Smiling in Christ!
John,
I loved your definition of “PHDs”! That is sooo good!
The word “pastor” is derived from a word that means “shepherd.” In that sense, anyone God uses to help shepherd someone else is a pastor. It is important to realize that being a pastor in the Body of Christ is not a calling that requires a certain number of people in a group or a building to meet in. You are a pastor / shepherd who literally meets God’s flock in the fields where God has pastured them. When he uses you to guide someone back to him, your mother’s prophecy is being fulfilled.
Good Job John!