Being Used

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:13-15

Thoughts regarding being used by God:

- God has given us gifts: exhortation, administration, prophecy, discernment, faith, helps, etc.

- Some of these gifts have been exalted or elevated to a special status among believers. Somehow we’ve arrived at a point where the more “flashy” gifts are sought after and (in some extreme circumstances) imitated, in hopes that an individual will be more respected and admired. This should not be the case. Each gift has its usefulness in God’s design.

- The gifts that the Lord gives to us are to be used for His glory.

- The individual given the gift has a responsibility to steward that gift (*those gifts) soberly and to nurture them faithfully.

- When the gift is used properly, that takes place under the power of the Holy Spirit. It is God-inspired and God-directed, and the results are to be credited to God.

            For example: some people have the gift of healing. A person with this gift may be used to bring physical healing to another person. If this happens, the one with the gift need not think that they have done a great thing—no, they very well must know that the Lord has done a miraculous thing. Further, others must understand the same and the one with the gift must stand on this truth. You see, it is God who inspires the one with the gift to speak a word of healing or lay hands or whatever is done, and it is God who performs the healing. The gifted one is merely a vessel, a conduit, a servant, a slave...

“I would gladly give all to be a servant or a slave but I’m overwhelmed that You would call me ‘friend’” – Fred Hammond

Yet we see in the 15^th chapter of John that our Lord calls us His friends; not servants. It would be awesome just to be named as servants of the Most High God! But He who has died for us actually calls us His friends. And therein resides both the beauty and the call to service. He gave His life! And what does He ask from us? Simply to be fair, to love mercy, and to live humbly before Him; (Micah 6:8) He asks us to be living sacrifices! (Romans 12:1) So it is no longer us that live; it is Him living through us so that His kingdom may come and His will may be done on this earth. And it is our privilege to enjoy a front row seat when we set our personal agendas aside and allow Him to use us.