Instead of striving, put God to work!
You might sometimes see ambitious young and middle-aged ministers even well-intentioned, striving, jostling, competing, controlling or compelling others.
But the Bible said God shall "choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom He loved". It was God who drove out their enemies before them.
"Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it."
"A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above."
What God gives will always be more satisfying and more lasting than anything we can grab for ourselves.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path."
"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart"!
One reason many strive, may be because they haven't yet discovered the thing which could truly enable them to achieve their desire. Instead, they think it's going to be achieved through the thing that's in their hands, or through the thing that they wish was in their hands. When all along, it might only be fully achieved through something else, through means they mightn't have understood yet.
It's easier to understand something you can already see. A position. A role. The success of others. "That would make me happy!" someone might think.
But it takes faith to see an even bigger picture; and to choose a function which mightn't look like it could help you achieve it because perhaps no-one else has had exactly that role before. It might also take patience, if such a role involves staying in relationship with others, even staying submitted to them, despite them seemingly obstructing you at times, instead of separating and independently pursuing your own goals in your own strength.
It has happened so many times that a congregation-member or associate pastor feels a sense of a higher calling, sees a need, has an idea. When it isn't being handed to him on a silver platter, he tries to climb the ladder. Competes. Strives. Manipulates. Even steps on others on the way to it. Or sidelines others. Or disadvantages others in some way.
Then if he still feels unhappy and people aren't co-operating with him and it looks like he's not going to get what he wants there, he suddenly feels 'called' to leave and start out on his own (and maybe God did call him, in a way, even lead him, for now at least, but more on that below).
Maybe his idea was a feeding program. His church didn't prioritise his vision as much as he thought it should have. After striving but still feeling unfulfilled, he leaves to start out on his own thinking he'll make it as big as he always 'knew' he could.
Then he has to start a 'church' as well (since he left his). So now he has to do something else which he might not have really been called to do (pastoring), as well as do what he wanted to do all along (the feeding program). So his emotional energy is divided.
Friends who know his giftedness at community work and who want to help him, then feel obligated by friendship to also attend his 'church'. Perhaps he even makes them feel that obligation. So they go to his church. But after a while some of them want to leave his church. And he gets upset. Longstanding friendships are strained.
Then his feeding program ends-up having an even smaller support-base than it might have had by now had he instead stayed in his much larger church and patiently watched his vision gain favour.
"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."
When there was a dispute between Abraham's herdsmen and Lots' herdsmen, Abraham invited Lot to have first preference. Lot chose the best-looking part. Abraham could do that, knowing that he had the promises anyway. And Lot did end-up loosing everything.
When Abraham received his promised-son, he was willing to yield him up, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. Once God saw his willingness, God multiplied the blessings on Abraham.
When someone challenged David's kingship, David didn't fight. He said "be gentle with the lad". He knew that since it was God who put Him there, God Himself could keep him there if He wanted. David had let God make him king, he didn't kill the king in order to take the kingdom.
When Joshua and Caleb knew it was possible to take the land, but the congregation wasn't taking the opportunity, he didn't decide to just go and take it anyway. When some people tried that, it failed. Rather, he submitted and endured. As a result, when the time was ripe, he had an even more prominent role in it than he would have had before (while Moses was still alive) - and he saw his heart's desire after all.
Some people become pastors of a local church, when their highest calling is something else. But they mightn't have 'seen' it yet. Things might go well for a while. But eventually things might take their toll. Or even if everything's going along successfully, he might still feel strangely unfulfilled. This might make him try to manipulate all sorts of solutions. And if he succeeds at those, the same cycle begins.
When the thing to do with one's desires, is take it to God. Ask Him what He really wants.
I heard of someone who'd been pastoring successfully for about 14 years, and who still felt like he still had unfulfilled destiny, so he sought the Lord. God showed him that He'd never called him to be a pastor. He'd permitted it - even led him to the right churches to pastor - and blessed it as much as He could - because at the time that was the capacity with which he'd sought the Lord. God had permitted it, but it wasn't His perfect plan for him.
So he resigned from pastoring and went into evangelistic work. But after a year or so he still felt unfulfilled. So he sought the Lord again. The Lord told him the problem was He didn't call him to be an evangelist.
So he asked the Lord what He wants. And He said He'd called him to be a prophet and a teacher. The Lord told him to start holding teaching meetings. He thought no-one would come. But in just a couple of short years he became known around the globe.
Step by step he and his wife were often unsure of what the Lord was doing with them. They always seemed to be foregoing good opportunities, and followed an inner witness of the Spirit instead. But in time they saw how what they were doing fitted in to a far bigger picture. And today there's a saying that from East to West globally 'the sun never sets' on the reach of their work.
But at the time almost no-one was holding successful teaching meetings. Evangelists had big tents. Pastors had successful churches. He had to 'see' something unseen. If he'd stayed pastoring, it might have been just one more successful church. But because he saw and grasped something unseen - a unique role - his ministry became a catalyst for so much more ministry around the world.
Someone else I know of saw a vision, and as a result he was led to found a youth missionary organisation. It meant a different role than his denomination expected the gifted young leader might take. And it was a small beginning. But today the unique style he developed, and the missionary organisation he started has hundreds of bases in almost every nation with thousands of full-time workers and tens of thousands who have volunteered short-term. But he had to 'see' a role for himself which hadn't previously existed. And over and over again it involved foregoing some seemingly promising different opportunities, not only in business but also in ministry.
When you find what God really has for you, it won't involve knocking someone else off his perch. In fact, honouring others above yourself will be a trampoline from which you spring higher and further into your own desire and true destiny.
Maybe you can have your local-church too, and still perceive and pursue the something-else which is really your God-given thing. But maybe you'll have to let go of the piece of cake in your hand, so you can purchase the cake factory down the road and around the corner.
Some people who are pastoring might really be teachers. Or they might be gifted events-organisers. They might have a gift in music. Or for TV ministry. Something nationwide, or even international, rather than just suburban or even city. Some such pastors have even admitted they're not really pastors. And yet they keep trying to make it work.
Or they might be prophets. Or evangelists. Missionaries.
They might be called to bring a special contribution to the wider body; rather than to be responsible for a local congregation.
Some people quite frankly might be meant to move overseas.
Good can be the enemy of best.
But some people you meet really have found their place by being pastors. Often it's someone who wasn't ambitious. Maybe not as gifted as what you think you are. Maybe the role was given to him, seemingly freely, while you think you've worked so much harder and deserve such a role.
But that's when you know something is of God: when it's given, not strived-for.
Just as God gave that person his pastorate - as an act of such grace that it might seem offensive to some - so God also has something else which is especially and uniquely yours, just as surprising in its graciousness, just as thrilling in how far it will fulfil your actual desires - and bring you to a greater destiny.
One person gets invited to another country. Another person gets discovered by a record label. Another person gets given a church.
When you grasp what God is graciously giving you, you'll make fewer enemies. Because what you will end-up doing will be so tailor-made to you that most people will know they couldn't have done what you will end-up doing. It will be mutual blessings and appreciation all around.
In fact rather than covet somebody else's role, you'll want them to succeed in their role - because your work will be enhanced by their success, and their success will be enhanced by your work.
But you have to be able to see something unseen; a role and function unseen.
Sometimes God lets us choose. Other times, some things are right for us in an earlier phase of our Christian life - and then we grow out of it into something else which we mightn't have been ready for earlier. A child's desires a different to his desires once he's an adult. God permits a child's desires, but He desires that the child's desires perfect as he matures. So the difference between God's permissive and perfect will isn't always a matter of wrong and right but of growing. God always is willing to give us the desires of our heart. But have we grown.
You might sometimes see ambitious young and middle-aged ministers even well-intentioned, striving, jostling, competing, controlling or compelling others.
But the Bible said God shall "choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom He loved". It was God who drove out their enemies before them.
"Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it."
"A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above."
What God gives will always be more satisfying and more lasting than anything we can grab for ourselves.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path."
"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart"!
One reason many strive, may be because they haven't yet discovered the thing which could truly enable them to achieve their desire. Instead, they think it's going to be achieved through the thing that's in their hands, or through the thing that they wish was in their hands. When all along, it might only be fully achieved through something else, through means they mightn't have understood yet.
It's easier to understand something you can already see. A position. A role. The success of others. "That would make me happy!" someone might think.
But it takes faith to see an even bigger picture; and to choose a function which mightn't look like it could help you achieve it because perhaps no-one else has had exactly that role before. It might also take patience, if such a role involves staying in relationship with others, even staying submitted to them, despite them seemingly obstructing you at times, instead of separating and independently pursuing your own goals in your own strength.
It has happened so many times that a congregation-member or associate pastor feels a sense of a higher calling, sees a need, has an idea. When it isn't being handed to him on a silver platter, he tries to climb the ladder. Competes. Strives. Manipulates. Even steps on others on the way to it. Or sidelines others. Or disadvantages others in some way.
Then if he still feels unhappy and people aren't co-operating with him and it looks like he's not going to get what he wants there, he suddenly feels 'called' to leave and start out on his own (and maybe God did call him, in a way, even lead him, for now at least, but more on that below).
Maybe his idea was a feeding program. His church didn't prioritise his vision as much as he thought it should have. After striving but still feeling unfulfilled, he leaves to start out on his own thinking he'll make it as big as he always 'knew' he could.
Then he has to start a 'church' as well (since he left his). So now he has to do something else which he might not have really been called to do (pastoring), as well as do what he wanted to do all along (the feeding program). So his emotional energy is divided.
Friends who know his giftedness at community work and who want to help him, then feel obligated by friendship to also attend his 'church'. Perhaps he even makes them feel that obligation. So they go to his church. But after a while some of them want to leave his church. And he gets upset. Longstanding friendships are strained.
Then his feeding program ends-up having an even smaller support-base than it might have had by now had he instead stayed in his much larger church and patiently watched his vision gain favour.
"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."
When there was a dispute between Abraham's herdsmen and Lots' herdsmen, Abraham invited Lot to have first preference. Lot chose the best-looking part. Abraham could do that, knowing that he had the promises anyway. And Lot did end-up loosing everything.
When Abraham received his promised-son, he was willing to yield him up, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. Once God saw his willingness, God multiplied the blessings on Abraham.
When someone challenged David's kingship, David didn't fight. He said "be gentle with the lad". He knew that since it was God who put Him there, God Himself could keep him there if He wanted. David had let God make him king, he didn't kill the king in order to take the kingdom.
When Joshua and Caleb knew it was possible to take the land, but the congregation wasn't taking the opportunity, he didn't decide to just go and take it anyway. When some people tried that, it failed. Rather, he submitted and endured. As a result, when the time was ripe, he had an even more prominent role in it than he would have had before (while Moses was still alive) - and he saw his heart's desire after all.
Some people become pastors of a local church, when their highest calling is something else. But they mightn't have 'seen' it yet. Things might go well for a while. But eventually things might take their toll. Or even if everything's going along successfully, he might still feel strangely unfulfilled. This might make him try to manipulate all sorts of solutions. And if he succeeds at those, the same cycle begins.
When the thing to do with one's desires, is take it to God. Ask Him what He really wants.
I heard of someone who'd been pastoring successfully for about 14 years, and who still felt like he still had unfulfilled destiny, so he sought the Lord. God showed him that He'd never called him to be a pastor. He'd permitted it - even led him to the right churches to pastor - and blessed it as much as He could - because at the time that was the capacity with which he'd sought the Lord. God had permitted it, but it wasn't His perfect plan for him.
So he resigned from pastoring and went into evangelistic work. But after a year or so he still felt unfulfilled. So he sought the Lord again. The Lord told him the problem was He didn't call him to be an evangelist.
So he asked the Lord what He wants. And He said He'd called him to be a prophet and a teacher. The Lord told him to start holding teaching meetings. He thought no-one would come. But in just a couple of short years he became known around the globe.
Step by step he and his wife were often unsure of what the Lord was doing with them. They always seemed to be foregoing good opportunities, and followed an inner witness of the Spirit instead. But in time they saw how what they were doing fitted in to a far bigger picture. And today there's a saying that from East to West globally 'the sun never sets' on the reach of their work.
But at the time almost no-one was holding successful teaching meetings. Evangelists had big tents. Pastors had successful churches. He had to 'see' something unseen. If he'd stayed pastoring, it might have been just one more successful church. But because he saw and grasped something unseen - a unique role - his ministry became a catalyst for so much more ministry around the world.
Someone else I know of saw a vision, and as a result he was led to found a youth missionary organisation. It meant a different role than his denomination expected the gifted young leader might take. And it was a small beginning. But today the unique style he developed, and the missionary organisation he started has hundreds of bases in almost every nation with thousands of full-time workers and tens of thousands who have volunteered short-term. But he had to 'see' a role for himself which hadn't previously existed. And over and over again it involved foregoing some seemingly promising different opportunities, not only in business but also in ministry.
When you find what God really has for you, it won't involve knocking someone else off his perch. In fact, honouring others above yourself will be a trampoline from which you spring higher and further into your own desire and true destiny.
Maybe you can have your local-church too, and still perceive and pursue the something-else which is really your God-given thing. But maybe you'll have to let go of the piece of cake in your hand, so you can purchase the cake factory down the road and around the corner.
Some people who are pastoring might really be teachers. Or they might be gifted events-organisers. They might have a gift in music. Or for TV ministry. Something nationwide, or even international, rather than just suburban or even city. Some such pastors have even admitted they're not really pastors. And yet they keep trying to make it work.
Or they might be prophets. Or evangelists. Missionaries.
They might be called to bring a special contribution to the wider body; rather than to be responsible for a local congregation.
Some people quite frankly might be meant to move overseas.
Good can be the enemy of best.
But some people you meet really have found their place by being pastors. Often it's someone who wasn't ambitious. Maybe not as gifted as what you think you are. Maybe the role was given to him, seemingly freely, while you think you've worked so much harder and deserve such a role.
But that's when you know something is of God: when it's given, not strived-for.
Just as God gave that person his pastorate - as an act of such grace that it might seem offensive to some - so God also has something else which is especially and uniquely yours, just as surprising in its graciousness, just as thrilling in how far it will fulfil your actual desires - and bring you to a greater destiny.
One person gets invited to another country. Another person gets discovered by a record label. Another person gets given a church.
When you grasp what God is graciously giving you, you'll make fewer enemies. Because what you will end-up doing will be so tailor-made to you that most people will know they couldn't have done what you will end-up doing. It will be mutual blessings and appreciation all around.
In fact rather than covet somebody else's role, you'll want them to succeed in their role - because your work will be enhanced by their success, and their success will be enhanced by your work.
But you have to be able to see something unseen; a role and function unseen.
Sometimes God lets us choose. Other times, some things are right for us in an earlier phase of our Christian life - and then we grow out of it into something else which we mightn't have been ready for earlier. A child's desires a different to his desires once he's an adult. God permits a child's desires, but He desires that the child's desires perfect as he matures. So the difference between God's permissive and perfect will isn't always a matter of wrong and right but of growing. God always is willing to give us the desires of our heart. But have we grown.
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