From Dream to Destiny: The Ten Tests You Must Go Through to Fulfill God's Purpose for Your Life (18 page)

If you want to truly live, you must first die (see Matt. 16:25).

If you want to receive, give (see Luke 6:38).

With God, it is all opposite of the world’s ways. So in order to get power, you must
give up the right to power.
You must become a servant.

James 4:10 says: “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” We already know that power comes from God. So it is God who lifts us up, or gives us power. And this verse is telling us that if we want God to lift us up, or give us power, we must
humble ourselves
in His sight.

First Peter 5:5-6 tells us how to do that.

Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

Again, the Bible is telling us that the way to promotion is to humble ourselves. God’s Word tells us to “be submissive … and be clothed with humility” (v. 5). To our natural minds that may sound like the least likely
way to get power—but remember, in the kingdom of God everything is opposite. God says that if we do these things, then He will “exalt [us] in due time” (v. 6). In other words, God will give us authority, responsibility and influence when we pass the test.

Notice that 1 Peter 5:5 also says that “God resists the proud.” I want to tell you something very important: To have the Creator of the universe resisting you is
not
a good thing! To help illustrate this truth, I’m going to compare the Christian life to a game of football.

I think football is a fun game; and in much the same way, I think the Christian life is a fun way of life. In fact, I think the Christian life is the most fun way of life there is—and one reason it is so much fun is that God lets us “run with the ball.” God doesn’t make all the touchdowns. In fact, He wants
us
to make the touchdowns! God hands us the ball, and then He says, “Here, you can teach. Here, you can pray for the sick. Here, you can lead someone to Jesus. Here, you can be a group leader at church. Here, you lead. You can do this!” Then He adds, “The only thing I ask you to do is to just
stay behind Me.
If you just stay behind Me, I’ll take care of all the obstacles.”

In the beginning, it’s easy for us to stay behind God. The first time we’re asked to lead in some kind of ministry situation, we know we can’t do it on our own. We say, “I don’t think I can do this. I’m not a leader, God.” That is when God says, “You don’t have to be a leader. You just have to follow. Follow Me.”

At first we follow very closely behind Him. We want to stay extremely close to God, because we know that without Him we can’t do anything. Then, after we finish that first assignment, everyone cheers—especially if we have made a touchdown. Everyone comes up to us afterward and says, “Man, you’re really good at this!”

That feels pretty good—so the next time that God says, “Here, take the ball again,” we’re a little more confident. When God hands us the ball, we say, “OK! OK! I’ve got it, Lord!” And this time we might even step out and dodge a little bit, showing off a few moves. Pretty soon, everything is going great. Before we know it, we’ve become used to the fact that God is out in front of us doing the work.

Then a time comes when God hands us the ball, but we say, “You
know, God, I don’t think I need to stay behind You anymore. I think I’ve got this figured out now. I can do this myself now, Lord. You can go and sit down, because I’ve got this covered.”

Let me tell you something:
God does not sit down!
The Bible says God “resists the proud” (1 Pet. 5:5). And when we walk in pride, this is what happens:

God hands us the ball and says, “Just stay behind Me.”

We say, “Not necessary anymore. I don’t need You, God.”

God says, “What?”

We say, “I think I can do this by myself.” And then we step out from behind God, and we try to move forward on our own.

“OK,” God says, but then He steps in front of us, turns and faces us, and assumes a tackling position—and God is one
big
linebacker, if you know what I mean!

Then God says, “C’mon—let’s see how far you can get now.”

That is what happens when we walk in pride. The Bible makes it very clear that God opposes us, resists us and blocks our moves when we walk in pride.

Joseph was a prime candidate for pride. We know from what we’ve read so far that he was handsome, intelligent and had great ability. He was the favorite son, although he had 10 older brothers. He even had the affirmation and endorsement of God on his life—and yet Joseph walked in humility.

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it.” So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace” (Gen. 41:15-16).

Pharaoh had heard that Joseph could interpret dreams. But Joseph refused to take the credit for that gift. Joseph said, “No, it is not in me to interpret dreams. It is God who will do that.” Joseph understood that he needed to stay behind God. That is the humility that Joseph walked in. And because of Joseph’s humility, God was able to trust him with His power.

Humility is attractive and pride is always ugly! Have you ever noticed that? Think about it for a moment. Have you ever met someone who was very successful but also very prideful? Are you attracted to that person? No, because pride is repulsive! No matter how successful a person might be, pride has a way of making him or her very unattractive. But what if you meet someone who is very successful and also very humble? That is very attractive!

I must admit there is one thing that I really don’t understand: someone who has never been successful at all, and yet still manages to be prideful. Now that is just downright silly! Pride always looks foolish—and to illustrate my point, I’m going to tell on me!

About 20 years ago, someone gave me a really nice pair of shoes. I didn’t have any nice clothes at that time. We didn’t have much back then in the way of material things, and an acquaintance had bought some really expensive shoes for me. They were lizard-skin shoes; and whenever I walked in them, I just felt like the king of the jungle. I would think,
Everyone probably thinks that I’m rich when they see me in these shoes. When I walk into a room with these shoes on, people just can’t help but notice me.
Believe me, I thought those shoes said wonderful things about who I was!

Then one Saturday I went to a car wash, and the place was packed with people. I went inside to wait, and I discovered there was a place where you could get your shoes shined. I thought to myself,
I’m going to get my shoes shined, so everyone here can see how important I am. Hopefully they
didn’t see me get out of that Ford Fairlane. Hopefully, when they see these shoes, they will think that Mercedes out there is mine.

So I got my shoes shined, stepped down and began to walk down the long glass walkway where people stand to watch their cars being washed. Everyone was standing at the glass, so I walked very slowly, taking my time in my nice, shiny lizard-skin shoes. As I passed, everyone would turn slightly; and when they turned, I noticed that their eyes would get big. Everyone was glancing down at my feet.
Wow
, I thought,
This is great! These shoes are real attention-getters!

I was just loving it. So I got down to the end of that walkway and thought to myself,
I’m just going to glance down and see how nice those shoes look.
When I looked down, I could see that the guy who shined my shoes had turned my pant-legs up—and had forgotten to turn them back down after he finished. People were staring all right—but not at my fancy shoes!

Pride always looks foolish, doesn’t it? But humility is attractive. And when we walk in humility, God will lift us up. When we walk in humility, God will give us power.

All power comes from God—and we get it by being humble. We get it by giving up the right to power and becoming servants instead.

What Is the Purpose of Power?

The Bible tells us that God gave power to Jesus when Jesus walked this earth. Acts 10:38 says: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, [He] went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

God gave Jesus power. And what did Jesus do with that power? He went about doing good deeds. God gave Jesus power so that He could do good—so that He could heal people and set people free from the oppression of the devil. God gives power to each of us so that we can help other people.

God did not give power to Joseph for Joseph’s sake. God gave power to Joseph so that Joseph could feed the world during a severe
famine! God looked down and said, “There are seven years of famine coming. I need someone I can trust to take care of these people for Me during the famine. Otherwise a lot of people are going to die.” In Joseph, God found a man who would be humble, who would be faithful and who would be a good steward—a man He could trust to feed the nations.

God’s heart is always for people—so God’s power is always given to help people. That is what power is for, and God wants us to remember that.

In Deuteronomy 8, the Lord lets the Israelites know He is going to help them enter the Promised Land, and that they will possess many good things there through His power. He tells them not to forget about that after they have entered the land; and He reminds them that power comes from Him.

Finally, He warns them against saying in their hearts, “‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ And you shall remember the L
ORD
your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (Deut. 8:17-18). God wants His people to remember that power comes from Him, not from their own efforts. And God says that the purpose of power is so He may “establish His covenant.” The purpose of wealth is that He may “establish His covenant.” The purpose of influence is that God may “establish His covenant.”

God wants to establish His covenant in this earth—and His covenant is a covenant of blessing. His covenant is a covenant of healing. His covenant is a covenant of deliverance from sin and darkness!

Recently God gave our church body a piece of property in a highly visible location on a major highway. God did that because He wants to
establish His covenant
with the people in that area. God looked down and saw 40,000 cars driving by that property every day—and most of those cars were being driven by people who are destined for hell unless someone tells them about Jesus Christ. That is why God gave our church that property—and that is the reason God gives us influence on this earth.

At our church, we have determined that we are going to keep on serving people, whatever our level of influence might be. We are going to
keep on doing the same things that we started out doing when our church was smaller: loving people, helping people, seeing marriages restored and sending missionaries around the world. The more God increases our influence, the more we are going to be about the business of His kingdom!

I see this principle modeled all the time at the church I pastor. Now I realize that I am somewhat biased, but I honestly believe that some of the world’s greatest servants are in our church. They are willing to stay late, come in at odd times and basically just lay down their lives in order to serve others. And they truly care for one another, as Paul exhorted us to do: “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4).

I see this illustrated beautifully at those times when God uses one of our pastors to speak a prophetic word of encouragement for someone in the congregation. I look out over the congregation, and I see the Spirit of God ministering to that person—and that blesses me. Then I notice that the people nearby are just as happy and excited as the person who is being ministered to—and that blesses me even more. People are happy because God is blessing their brother or sister in the Lord, and that is the right attitude!