Are You Ready to “Be The One?”

“And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Sam-son, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promis-es, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the vio-lence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourg-ings, yea, moreover of bonds and im-prisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wan-dered about in sheepskins and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tor-mented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:)…” (Heb. 11:32-38).

 

The Bible and our own history are full of men and women such as those mentioned in these verses of scripture. Some of these had entire books written about or by them and some were on the Bible scene for only a chapter or two. All of these served God faithful with no desire to have their names men-tioned or their stories shared; they simply loved the Lord and His cause and were willing to lay aside themselves that they could serve Him. If we could speak to them today they would no doubt proclaim their unworthiness to be mentioned with other he-roes of the faith and would attempt to deflect all glory and attention back to the Lord. Really, that humble spirit is a large part of what made them suc-cessful for God. That is what being the “One” is really all about, living your life in such a way as to deflect glory from yourself onto God as you humbly serve God and champion His cause not your own.

 

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth regarding those whom God chooses to work for Him. He chooses the foolish to confound the wise and the weak to confound the mighty. He chooses those who are base (lowly) and despised. He does it this way, “That no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Cor. 1:29). These he-roes of the faith would all recognize that they cannot glory in themselves but all glory must belong to the Lord.

 

What about us? First of all, are we willing to lay aside everything, to sacrifice ourselves, our hopes and dreams that we may have the blessed opportunity to live for the Lord and serve Him? Are we willing, if necessary to face the violence of fire that we may see it quenched or to experience weak-ness that God could be strong in us? What if we have to see our loved ones lose their lives so God can be gloried in raising them again? Do we trust God enough to allow our loved ones, or even our-selves, to go that far that He might be glorified? Are we willing to be tortured for Christ or experience cruel mockings and scourgings for His name’s sake? What about prison, would we go to prison for the cause of Christ? Perhaps these questions seem ridic-ulous to you, read the account in Hebrews, it’s all there and more. These are the things that God’s peo-ple have suffered throughout history that they may win Christ and win battles for Him. They were will-ing to step up and “Be the One” for God in their generation. It is not always glamorous, as a matter of fact it hardly ever is, but God is always faithful to reward those who are willing to lay aside everything and serve Him. Partial sacrifice is not enough, par-tial sacrifice is not sacrifice at all, it is selfishness.

 

Secondly, are we willing to allow all glory, all honor, and all attention be diverted to the Lord? Most of us have a natural tendency to bring attention to ourselves in some way. From birth we are condi-tioned to believe that the world revolves around our every need, desire and whim. As we grow this con-ditioning is only magnified by a society that en-courages us to follow our own dreams and make our own paths. Most often the spirit behind these messages, and others, is that whatever you want is worth going for no matter the consequences. This is just the opposite of what God desires for us. He has a designed path for each one of us and most often it is far different from the path that we would envision for ourselves. Sometimes when we do relinquish our will to His we still cannot let go of the idea that everything revolves around us and we seek atten-tion and glory for ourselves. Those whom God chooses to do His work are not only willing to de-flect all glory from themselves to Him but they rec-ognize that they are not deserving of any glory. They have long ago died to their flesh and its desire to pull attention to itself; they have taken Paul’s words to the church in Corinth to heart, none of us are worthy to glory in ourselves.

 

These characteristics that we must take on are characteristics of Christ that we are to emulate. “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross dai-ly, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:23-24). Our cross should be similar to the cross that Jesus car-ried in its traits. We will never suffer for others sins or to the degree that Jesus suffered. However, our cross should be a cross of selflessness and willing sacrifice. We often read this scripture and encour-age ourselves that we have taken up our cross by giving our hearts in service to God but crosses are not painless and easy things to bear. The cross was an instrument of cruel death. Certainly turning to God in repentance is the first step of taking up our cross but we must be made conformable to the death of Jesus (cf. Phil. 3:10) in our level of willing sacrifice and selflessness. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:5-8). Even Jesus did not glory in Himself while on this earth. Many times He instructed those He healed to not tell anyone of Him. It was His goal to deflect all glory to the Father while here on this earth. If Jesus lived a life of diverting glory from Himself to the Father then certainly we must. Our lights must shine to all men but what they illumi-nate of our actions and character must point those men to the Father to bring glory to Him (cf. Matt. 5:16).

 

What do you say? Are you willing? Will you do it? Will you “Be the One” when God needs one to do His work? Are you ready to sacrifice for the One who sacrificed all for you? Are you willing then to allow the glory to be showered upon Him where it belongs? He is always looking and always ready to add you to the growing list of those “Of whom the world [is] not worthy.”

By Bishop Dustin Hays, General VLB Coordinator