For years, like most Christians, I have sought a closer relationship with Jesus Christ. I read in the Bible how the dead were raised, the sick healed and wondered why I did not see that kind of power today.

 

My time was spent, for the most part, trying to keep my own life in order. My early Christian life was spent just trying to keep my head above water. Most of the time I felt about two-thirds beaten. And apart from having real power with God and purpose in my life I was in a full time battle with SELF. At that time I did not know that almost, if not all, Born Again Christians have the same problem that I was having. I tried hard to live a good Christian life and to keep the commandments of God. I tried hard. Most of the problems (sin) in my life I could keep under control. I could go, sometimes for two or three months holding the problems at bay. However, in time, I would loose and would be right back to block one. I just could not be good the way I felt Jesus would have me be good. Oh, I was a good father and husband. I did not steal, cheat or lie etc…. But I had no real rest that I was in the perfect center of God’s will. I was guilt tripping.

 

Now please understand there is a difference from being under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and feeling guilty and condemned all the time. In time I came to the conclusion that this is not my lot in life to be beaten down and no one could live with a real knowledge that he was where he should be, if he even knew how to get there. Please do not misunderstand me, I’m not taking about going to Heaven if I were to die. I just felt useless in the service of God.

 

My mistake was that I was under the misconception that God used only good people that had no trouble running their lives. Keep in mind that there were always those people around me telling me that I should or should not be doing something. I did not know that I was in direct defiance to the word of God, judging my own life. I would justify my wrong by finding wrongness in others.  I would not look for a way to help them; I was too busy looking for what they were doing wrong. In this way I could maintain the lie that we were all in the same guilty boat.

 

Still, I wanted real power with God, I wanted to move mountains with my faith but was being eaten up with my own day to day problems. The lie is this: God only uses good Christians to do His service. That is: First is good and then comes the service. Good then SERVICE.

 

This is totally wrong. Because all that comes from God is either a gift or a ministry (service). Ministry is the duties or the functions of a minister of God. In a word: SERVICE. We are all ministers of God. The Word of God tells us that the gifts and ministries of God are given to us without repentance. That is, once you have them, you have them. Not to understand this basic thought can lead to real danger. That is, if we believe that only good men are used of God we will always be looking for the GOOD man to minister to us. Or even worse we will be looking for the bad in man so we can assure ourselves that nothing he were to say could be of God. Therefore, the BIG LIE has done its work. 

 

That is, we have almost completely eliminated all who would serve us as ministers of God because we can always find something wrong with everyone, and what is just as much of a tragedy is that you already know that you are not good yourself so your out of service too. The BIG LIE’S CONCLUSION: Others can not be used of God because they are not good, I can not be used of God because I am not good either. At this point I have probably created a problem. Does God then, you ask, use bad people to serve Him? The answer is no. God just uses people to serve Him.

 

No Christian is 100%. All have a way to go. Even me even you. All have a way to go in reaching what God wants from them. None are perfect. We are all children of God growing into the image of Christ. We are not now nor ever will be little Christ. Most Christians live their entire lives locked in this dilemma.  Wasting their life in pursuit of goodness or righteousness and doing nothing themselves and allowing no one else to do anything either because they fall short too. Now if you can understand the following through it will change your life forever. It may be hard to grasp because of the big lie that Satan has been teaching to well meaning Christians for years. However, real Christian growth comes through service. Not the other way around.

 

Let me explain what I mean this way:

First, you are saved (a Gift from God). Now you are a changed person you are on the road to becoming like what God wants you to become. You are now GOOD in the eyes of God. Remember, YOU did not do anything good to change your life, God did. What you did do though, is submit to the will of God.

 

You are not good - God is good. You did not do anything good but you feel good. Now the first thing you want to do is tell others about what happened to you when God did what he did to you. SERVICE. As you tell others you feel even better, Now you are growing. You are in the service of God. Service then growth, service then growth.

 

Second, you are baptized in the Holy Spirit. You are filled with the power of God. Not your power, but God’s power (a Gift from God). Now you are a person filled with the very power of God, power for His SERVICE. You did not do anything powerful, but you feel powerful.

 

When have you felt the most good about yourself. When you were used in God’s service the most? How did you feel about your goodness then? Pretty good, didn’t you. Then you understand that first comes the GIFT and then SERVICE and after that GROWTH or personal goodness. That is a good feeling about yourself and a good feeling about others most of all a good feeling about the way you think God feels about you.

 

God wants to be partners with you, and that partnership starts when God finds you and saves you, and gives you part of His job to do by calling you into His service. Remember that all goodness is God’s not yours. Allow yourself to be used of God based you your partnership and not on what you think your goodness is. Serve Him because you love Him not because you are good.

 

In the end through service He will make you good. Through service you will grow into Christ’s likeness and goodness. You will never get good enough to serve Him. The Devil will see to that. Let grace take care of your shortcomings and serve Him because you are called into service. Whether you like it or not you are a soldier of the cross. No matter how you feel you have a job, a service to do.

 

The separate members of the Body of Christ the Church are not in themselves good but when they are joined together they are as perfect as Christ is Himself in the eyes of God. God does not look at you; He looks at the Body of Christ. God does not see your goodness; He sees the goodness of Jesus. There is none good, but Him.

 

Let me explain. The Bible says in James that if any are sick among you let him (the sick person) call for the elders of the Body of Christ or the Church and let them pray over him (him = sick person) anointing him with oil. Let me stop there and say this. The “oil” is a symbol for the Holy Spirit. The prayer IS made between you the sick person, and the body of Christians, BUT between that sick person and the body of Christians is the Holy Spirit of God represented bye the oil. That same Holy Spirit is ALWAYS between the Christian member of the Church of Jesus Christ and the “him” with the need. Always! 

 

That is first (the Body of Christ or the Church) (The Holy Spirit) (the Sick person). The Church must work with and through the Holy Spirit. It is not the member of the church that has the power but the Holy Spirit. The only power we have is the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus, himself, had no other power than the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus when He was here on earth used the same means of power that we are to use, that is, the Holy Spirit of God. Everything that was done by God, is being done by God or shall be done by God is accomplished through the Holy Spirit, God has chosen to deal with us through His son Jesus. Jesus has chosen to deal with us through His Holy Spirit. That is, no one can come to the Father lest the Spirit draws him. Therefore, if we are to do the work of God it will be through the Holy Spirit of God or the work will NOT get done.

 

Please notice the Word does not say “Let him call the Good People of the Church”; it says, “Let them call the elders of the Church”. How sad it would be if you had to depend on the personal goodness of each member of the Body of Christ before Jesus would heal, save, deliver or do anything else for you. However, that is just how most well meaning Christians act. We spend way to much time in wondering why others can do some of the things they can do and why we can not do some of the things that we know God wants us to do.

 

Are you trapped in the Big Lie? You may agree with what I have said above but, until you cast the lie back to its source in Hell, you will have no power, no service and for certain no goodness. If you say “yes” are right, but you still have to keep yourself unspotted from the world, you have missed it. You can not keep yourself unspotted from the world by trying to lift yourself up by your own bootstraps. “Unspotted” is a by-product of SERVICE. Take care of God’s business and God will take care of your business.

 

If you have a problem in your life, say to yourself  “ I am sure glad I do not have to worry with this, God will take care of it.” Then you seek a service with God. I believe that if you will seek to serve Him in a full time matter through the Spirit (the Gift Ministries), God will take care of you, your health, your money, and everything else. You will have no need to try to take care of yourself.

 

If you want real Christian growth, If you want to have a real REST in your life with Christ, If you want to feel real power of God, then SERVE Him. Through service you are free from condemnation. Through service you are free from a feeling of guilt. Romans 8:1 says “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”.

 

Christian brother, Christian sister, serve Him in the Spirit of God. Do not try to guess what needs to be done, let the Spirit direct you into all truth. Let Him show you what to do, and then do it. Not because you are good but because He is GOOD.

 

 

by Dr. Roger Parlin © 1990