We Cannot Just Wing It
Happy New Year for 2025.
I trust it finds you all in a place, where God’s blessing can reach you.
Like many of you, I took some time over the break to quiet myself down, get before the Lord and do some serious prayerful thinking.
One of the things God has been impressing upon me is that, as His people, we cannot just wing it, in our faith. Our calling is so significant and comes full of purpose. We constantly need to “work out” to stay strong and ready to act. Paul addresses this to Timothy by saying,
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
Most of you reading this have been through the cross, meaning that you have been born again, and committed your life to Christ. But we must remember that is merely the beginning. Now the journey starts. This is the reason God put us on this planet – whatever is going on, we are called and commissioned for such a time as this.
Jesus is the hope of the world – and as a result, He sent the Holy Spirit. Why did He do this? The Holy Spirit’s primary role is to empower His people – you and me. We are the hope of the resurrection – we are a royal priesthood and a holy nation – a people called out to God to proclaim (demonstrate) His ways by putting them into action, firstly into our own lives and then out into the world (1 Peter 2:9).
Whatever we have been in the past is now gone – removed through the cross. We now embrace resurrection life and become God’s people of power.
The place you find yourself in – your family; your neighbourhood; your place of work; your school or sports field; are all meant to be where you demonstrate the life in Christ, and this is no game. The demonstration you bring in Christ is absolutely vital to those God has placed you amongst.
The finale of this world and the return of Christ will not happen until Christ’s bride has made herself ready (Revelation 19:7). Listen to what Paul teaches about this.
Ephesians 3:10 – “so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.”
Wow! What a role we have been given!
But this will not happen unless we put on this yoke, with Christ, for the purpose of bringing new life to the world. God wants to use us to demonstrate His great power to all the principalities and powers. He has no plan B. If we fail to achieve it, He has to find someone else or a later generation.
As we move into 2025, we are calling on you to front up for service. If there is anything holding you back – deal with it. The world around you is depending on it. Never before has there been a people who are so empowered; so free; so equipped for service and so able to defeat the enemy as those who have responded to the Gospel and joined the mighty army that God has sent out into the world.
The achievements of the church over the last 2,000 years have been nothing short of astounding. Listen to what John Steinrucken – an avowed atheist, said about this.
Religious faith has made possible the advancement of Western civilisation. The glue that has held Western civilisation together over the centuries is the Judeo-Christian tradition. Western civilisation’s survival, including the survival of open secular thought, depends on the continuance within our society of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
We must continue to have such an impact on society as those who have gone before us did. There is much more to be discovered, implanted, and applied to this world we live in. And guess who is going to be given this wisdom? Those who fear God. That is – true Christian believers.
The next time you are thinking how bad the world is, meditate upon Isaiah 60:1-3. This is our time.
Isaiah 60:1- 4 – “1 Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. 2 For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you, And His glory will appear upon you. 3 Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.”
Let’s commit to being such people.
God bless you.
Bruce Billington