We’ve seen so far over
the past few months the path which David’s life took as it progressed through
the “4 A’s” of Anointing, Apprenticeship, Activation and Announcement. Despite
our desire for God to take us straight from the place of Anointing to the place
of Announcement where we are recognized as being in the fullness of our
calling, we must first survive the wilderness.
It’s in the wilderness as we have seen in Part 1 where you are faced with the realities of your heart and you’re given the opportunity to test your character, preparedness and devotion to God before you are given the full measure of your life’s calling. In part one we addressed the “Why” of having to go through the wilderness and now we must look at the “How” of not just surviving the wilderness season but thriving in it as well.
Faithfulness Brings Activation
For David the wilderness was not a time of quiet reflection, it was a
time of adventure, risk, action, and leadership. David was on the run from king
Saul who was proverbially frothing at the mouth to kill David and secure his
kingdom. This meant that David was constantly on the move and living in the
less desirable areas of the Judahite wilderness. David had to be constantly on
the move but he wasn’t alone. Over time he attracted others from the kingdom
who were outsiders and misfits but at the same time they recognized something special
about David.
Those people followed him and abandoned their comforts, security and the quietness of their mundane lives to follow this shepherd/general/musician into the desert with the hope that he would succeed Saul, the king God no longer endorsed. But for those people to follow him David first had to go out and live out a small measure of his calling. He led the people, delivered the oppressed from the Philistines (1 Samuel 23) and he forged what would later become the inner circle of the kingdom of Israel. David’s advisors, generals and mighty men came out of this season of the wilderness, and they didn’t suddenly appear after David became king,
Those people only found David because he was already acting with the
wisdom, leadership, and devotion of a king, even through the crown wasn’t on
his head yet. I feel that this is similar to the process we go through when we
try to fulfill our calling or find our own place in ministry. You don’t
automatically wake up one day and get handed the keys to a church of 5,000 people
when you’ve never done any kind of ministry or received any training. That is a
recipe for disaster, and it highlights the reason for the wilderness training
and waiting we have to go through.
Yet at the same time just because you don’t have a 5,000 person church or
a fancy title, or a paid position doesn’t mean that you don’t go about and do
many of the things you would be doing with those opportunities, titles, and
positions. It is the process of progressive faithfulness where you are faithful
with small and seemingly insignificant matter and you are rewarded with the
chance to do something greater next time (Luke 16:10). It is like the parable
where those who were faithful with financial responsibilities were rewarded
with the ability to oversee entire cities (Luke 19:17).
It is the process of progressive faithfulness where you are faithful with small and seemingly insignificant matter and you are rewarded with the chance to do something greater next time
How can you dream of being a great evangelist like Reinhard Bonnke or
Daniel Kolenda if you refuse to go about your own community and preach the
gospel? How can you dream of being a great pastor if you don’t have a heart for
the people in your present church? How can you desire to be a mighty teacher if
you don’t take any opportunities to teach even one or two people? All of the
great things we want find their roots of their fulfillment in the little things
we do today.
I’ve had to go through this as well, I’ve had times and seasons where I taught small groups but I didn’t see it as a burden or a waste of my time. It was an opportunity to learn how to teach, write and communicate with people so I could develop the skills I felt God was trying to refine in me so I could do greater things. There are times when you will feel like it’s not worth the extra effort, but it always is.
At one church I was a member of I taught mid-week “adult Sunday school”
for a couple of years. It was a curriculum that I had put together and the
first year I taught it I had nine people attend. I was happy with that and the
20 lessons that came out of that course I still use today and they have shown
up in my articles and books. I still benefit from the work I did back then
because I was faithful with the process, I treated those notes as something
which could become greater later in life and I didn’t see that small class as
being beneath my calling.
I was really challenged with this in the second year I ran the course, I
had seven people sign up and only one showed up to the first night. That is a
real challenge to not only your desire to be faithful but also your pride as
well. The one person that showed up wanted to learn and that was all that I
needed to know, so for the next four months we met ever Tuesday and I taught
that material with the same zeal and quality I would if there was fifty people
in that room.
In that moment I could of bailed on the class using the excuse that it
wasn’t worth my time, or I could of thought about the times I spoke in front of
hundreds of people and feeling like God had demoted me some how. Instead I saw
it as a moment of testing where God wanted to see if I wanted to be a success
rather than a servant. It’s not easy going through those times, I’ve taught in
rooms full of people and I’ve had days where no one showed up, but I feel that
it’s in the times when no one shows up that God is examining our hearts the
most.
Instead I saw it as a moment of testing where God wanted to see if I wanted to be a success rather than a servant.
Impurities in gold only rise up when it’s in the furnace, and that’s what the seasons of training and wilderness does. It takes the proverbial gold of our life and calling and heats it to the point where all of the dirt, flaws, and imperfections rise to the top so they can be scrapped off. But we resist going through this process because we fear what we could lose in the process, or we fear what might be lurking inside of us so we avoid the process and remain content with being less than what we could be.
People Will Eventually Recognize Your Calling
and Support You
Often what you will find is that when you
have a legitimate calling on your life and you demonstrate consistent character
and faithfulness people will begin to recognize those things in your life and
help you take the next step. We see this idea play out between David and
Jonathan where the calling of God and the faithfulness of David forced Jonathan
to embrace what God was bringing into reality.
1 Samuel 23:17–18 “17 And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Even my father Saul knows that.” 18 So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. And David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his own house.” (NKJV)
We can’t be demanding about this, it has to come naturally and through the leading of the Holy Spirit. I strongly believe that God wants to use other people to help establish you so you can maintain a covering and protecting offered by the church community. Even with myself the majority of “opportunities” I’ve received in the church have come by a pastor or leader taking me aside and saying that God spoke to them or impressed upon them to bring me in to help in a project or a ministry. This has happened repeatedly in my life, I haven’t had to advertise my gifts or callings because I was always faithful with whatever was placed before me and I had a lifestyle which matched up with my calling.
It is that faithfulness and devotion to loving God that opens up doors in your life and not begging and petitioning anyone and everyone to give you an opportunity.
It is that
faithfulness and devotion to loving God that opens up doors in your life and
not begging and petitioning anyone and everyone to give you an opportunity.
Really if you want to be in ministry and get opportunities all you have to do
is A) show up B) be faithful and C) don’t sin. At one church I was made the
“volunteer” youth pastor because I showed up to the launch of the new youth
ministry and wasn’t discouraged when barely anyone showed up and all of the
other volunteers ran off. I was asked to create curriculum for one church
because my pastor at the time got an impression from God to reach out to me
about that program. Although with that example I had already served for over
two years teaching and helping out with the youth program (ages 10-12), again
faithfulness brings promotion and opportunity.
This is all the personification of what it says in Proverbs 18:16, “A man’s gift makes room for him, And brings him before great men.” We can see this idea also play out in the relationship Barnabas vouching and supporting Paul (Acts 9:26-27) or even to a lesser extent Baruch’s support of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 36:4, 10).
It is through the people God leads into your life which helps you fulfill His purpose in the world, as long as your life and character lives up to that calling. Because having people supporting isn’t always about them promoting you it can also be about correcting you and protecting you. We see this play out in 1 Samuel 25 with the story of Abigail and Nabal as David was (justly) prepared to retaliate against Nabal for denying him the commission soldiers would receive for protecting a shepherd’s flock. But in that moment Abigail who saw something greater in David than just being a mercenary for local shepherds intervened and saved David from making an impulsive decision and preventing God from intervening in the situation (1 Samuel 25:32-33).
Not All Opportunities Bring God’s Favor
Something else I believe must be addressed whenever we talk about thriving in the wilderness season is that not all opportunities are from God, or even bring more of his favor into our lives. This is a critical revelation that we must face head on if we’re to survive the wilderness. Because there is no guarantee that you make it out of the wilderness morally, spiritually or naturally alive. You could go in the bar of gold and come out being nothing more than dross (or the sludge which floats to the top).
Where many people go wrong is that they see an opportunity to take a shortcut out of the season of apprenticeship or activation and go directly to being announced (or made king in David’s case). It could be through unethical means, or through something completely innocent but either way it is an attempt to bypass God’s plan and hurry the intended results. We all know how this mentality worked out with Abraham and Hagar, but we tend to think that we are immune from such mistakes.
It could be through unethical means, or through something completely innocent but either way it is an attempt to bypass God’s plan and hurry the intended results.
Not once but twice
David was offered one of these shortcuts to his destiny, in 1 Samuel chapters
24 and 26 David has an opening to kill Saul and take the crown. David’s
followers tried to convince him to strike (1 Samuel 24:4) but each time David
refused because of the legacy of God’s anointing on Saul (1 Samuel 24:10, 1
Samuel 26:9). Even when David only cut off and took a chunk of Saul’s robe
while he was going to the bathroom in the cave there was apprehension and
regret for doing that (1 Samuel 24:5).
Most other people,
including David’s top lieutenants wouldn’t have hesitated to kill Saul in that
moment, but David’s honorable actions forced even Saul
to publicly profess David’s future as the king of Israel. Although this didn’t
stop Saul from trying to kill David again later.
1 Samuel 24:17-22 “Then he said to David: “You are more righteous than I; for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil. 18 And you have shown this day how you have dealt well with me; for when the Lord delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me. 19 For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him get away safely? Therefore may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. 20 And now I know indeed that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. 21 Therefore swear now to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not destroy my name from my father’s house.” 22 So David swore to Saul. And Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.” (NKJV)
I know today we don’t have to worry about killing Saul (or our pastor) to advance our calling or ministry in the wrong way. There are still many things we can do to compromise our walk with God in exchange for a Fast-Pass to our calling. Some people use manipulation, others teach corrupted doctrines, others play politics, but the most common seems to be the desire to abandon their current church and move to greener pastures. Now I’m not saying that you have to remain at one church for the entirely of your Christian life, rather I am talking about stepping outside of God’s plan and taking matters into your own hands.
Yes, there are times when God may call you to move from one congregation to the other but that is according to his will and not your own. Often people get frustrated and imagine that everything would be better somewhere else at a place where their gifts and abilities will be recognizes, praised and put to work. But the reality is that those kinds of advancements come from faithfulness and following God’s guidance in your life. At times he will leave you were you are and at other times He will call you to another place, much like how a soldier gets transferred from one base to another.
Often you will know that it is God calling you to move if your initial reaction is pain or loss, if its relief or joy then it may be your own mind trying to lead you astray. I’m speaking from personal experience here and I’m basing this on the many people I have known who have transferred churches with and without God’s guidance. Those who did do it with God’s leading were blessed and took the next step in their calling, while those who rushed into “greener pastures” faltered and remained in the wilderness.
Thriving Today and Tomorrow
Like David we will all
face challenges to bypass God’s plan for our life, or we end up like Eve who
questioned God’s goodness and nature in exchange what she had for something
else. The wilderness is that place where we can face these challenges with the
least amount of collateral damage to ourselves and to the church at large. It’s
the place where God can correct us and strengthen us before we have the
pressures of the world, ministry, or the full weight of our calling placed upon
us. This is done out of love because God wants not just the church to thrive
but the people who make it up as well, because when one succeeds the other does
also. However, God’s measure of succeeding is often much different than our
definitions.
How to go from just surviving in the wilderness to thriving and developing in you calling? It’s done through faithfulness, integrity, character, hard work, devotion and the heart of a servant. You begin to thrive in the season of the wilderness when you accept that you are in that season and you use every opportunity to prepare your heart and spirit for the future. The seeds you sow in this season will become the fruit you eat when you are placed in the fullness of your calling, it isn’t the other way around.
How to go from just surviving in the wilderness to thriving and developing in you calling? It’s done through faithfulness, integrity, character, hard work, devotion and the heart of a servant.
You will thrive in this place when you begin to see mountains as opportunities, and you learn how to walk out your calling by living in part as if you have already “arrived” at the place God has called you to be. You can’t be lazy or dormant in this place because if you are you will never leave the wilderness, and you may even become stumbling blocks for those who come through the wilderness after you.
In this entire process
of the “4 A’s” of Anointing, Apprenticeship, Activation and Announcement
there’s no guarantee that you’ll make it through all four stages. At any point
you can get derailed or lost on the journey. Matters such as work,
faithfulness, and relationship with God are mandatory or you will find yourself
endlessly repeating the same stage over and over again just as the Israelites continued
in the same cycle of blessing, idolatry, judgment, and deliverance for hundreds
of years.
You can’t just rely on pleasantries between you and God to carry you through this season, this is the time where you develop your relationship with Him. Otherwise if you fail to learn these lessons, you neglect your relationship with God, or you take a shortcut out of this season you’ll just end up launching a ministry where the only god you serve is yourself.
To fully see Jesus we must go beyond the images of Him with the disciples, or Jesus on the cross and see Him for who He is today. No longer just a lamb, but a lion, no longer a servant but the King of kings.
Your life is made up of a series of questions which have been answered by you and those around you. “Should I turn left or should I turn right?” “Do I work here or there?” “Can I see myself spending the rest of my life with this person?” “What is all of this really about?” Our journey of faith began with two questions, and at some point in our lives each one of us must answer two key and monumental questions.
No one wants to be in
the wilderness season of their life or calling in ministry. It’s a place where
the crowds don’t see you, it’s a place where your weaknesses are exposed, and it’s in the wilderness that the
motivations of your heart are tested and brought to light. The
wilderness is the time in your life when your roots are tested to see if God
can build upon your life in the way He wants without destroying you or those
around you. God didn’t lead you into this place just so you could barley make
it out alive, no He brought you there to thrive. Because if your life and
relationship with God can thrive in the wilderness then it will be able to
survive the chaos and demands of your everyday life and ministry.
Many people don’t make
it out of the wilderness. This is a truth we must come to grips with, as it is
easy to assume that your life is just on autopilot and you will end up where
God wants you to be no matter how you live or
react to your situations. But this couldn’t be further from the truth, the
wilderness is the place of refinement and while some make it out to the other side there are
many who simply die spiritually (or morally) in that place.
Many people don’t make it out of the wilderness.
Or there are others
who become overly comfortable in the wilderness, where no one can see them, and
they can do as they please. Some misinterpret the wilderness as the fulfilment
of their callings where they go and “suffer for Jesus” for the betterment of
unnamed “others.” Then there are the few who perceive the wilderness as being a
deserved judgment on their life that they must embrace indefinitely.
We can look to stories
about the wilderness such as Jesus’s temptations, Elijah’s refuge, Moses’s
escape or the migration of the
children of Israel from Egypt. In all of these examples we see a pattern emerge:
God calls a person or group and manifests in their life, then they end up
outside of the comforts of home and into a place where they have to either
prove their dependence upon God or prove that their hearts are in line with
God’s.
Jesus resisted the
temptation of Satan, Elijah learned the secret of hearing God’s voice, Moses
became humble and encountered God in the burning bush while tending Jethro’s
sheep and the people of Israel were refined into a nation which could enter the
Promised Land. Jesus left the wilderness in power and authority, Elijah had his
strength and faith restored, and Moses understood his role in God’s plan. These
three men left the wilderness forever changed, they were changed in a deep and
profound way and it is because of that change that they were able to leave the
wilderness intact.
These three examples
not only survived but thrived, unlike many nameless faces who have gone into
the wilderness and never returned. We see this with the children of Israel as
the majority of them died in their season of wilderness, as only those under
the age of twenty along with Joshua and Caleb survived. They rejected their
wilderness journey, they rejected God’s goodness, they refused to trust God and
they resisted God’s attempts to take Egypt out of their hearts. Who knows how
many others have fallen victim to these same failings when they went into their
own wilderness experiences? This is what I mean by saying that entering the wilderness is a guarantee, but
leaving it is not.
But we have another
example of someone with a calling from God on their life who had to enter the
wilderness, David.
The Wilderness Is Not
To Be Feared
As we’ve seen over the past few months the story of David is one which is rich examples of how someone who is called by God is to live and fulfill that calling. We’ve seen so far the path of David’s life which followed the 4 A’s of Anointing, Apprenticeship, Activation and Announcement. Normally we want God to take us straight from the place of Anointing and initial calling and carry us directly into the place of Announcement where we are recognized as being in the fullness of our calling, just as when David was formally made king of Judah and later Israel.
Normally we want God to take us straight from the place of Anointing and initial calling and carry us directly into the place of Announcement
However, in reality to get to the places of activation and announcement we (and David) must go through the wilderness. In the previous article I spoke of how David entered the wilderness because of Saul’s obsession with killing him. I spoke of the need for the wilderness in our lives but now I want to take you to the next level where we actually thrive and see the true purpose that we were brought into this place.
In some ways the wilderness is like finally arriving at your dream
amusement park (be it Disney, Universal, Six Flags or even Walley World) only
to find out that it was closed, indefinitely, without warning. What would you
do in that situation? How would you react to reaching what you though was the
pinnacle of your perceived calling and life purpose only to find the gates
shut, the lights off and a bumbling security guard keeping you from your dream?
I know the wilderness
of life isn’t a fun place, I’ve been there, more than once, I know what it’s
like to go into that season kicking and screaming and finally when I was
exhausted from all of that, I saw
the wilderness for what it really was. I saw it as the place where my personal
failings were brought to the surface, not publicly but privately so they
wouldn’t be (or not as much) an issue later on in life. I’ve had three such
seasons in my life, with one of them lasting almost a decade, but I wouldn’t be
where I am today without that time of hiding and refinement.
Much of what I write
about, be it in the articles or my books found their beginnings in those seasons
of darkness and wilderness. I can honestly look back at several of those times
in my life and say that they were worth it. They were painful, I was gripped by
hopelessness, I stood face to face with my own expectation, and I lost my sense
of purpose. I grappled with the ideas of God’s goodness, faithfulness and love
in not just my own life but the world in general. In that place I was forced to
ask the real questions most people in church don’t dare to ask or think about (at least out loud). The questions
that go beyond a normal motivational message, the questions that determine ones
life.
Much of what I write about, be it in the articles or my books found their beginnings in those seasons of darkness and wilderness.
Despite all that I
experienced, lost, learned, forgot, relearned, suffered, tolerated or enjoyed I
always saw that distant shimmering light at the edge of the horizon and did all
I could to follow it.
At the tail end of my
last wilderness season God spoke to me through a picture. One day in prayer
after reading A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by W. Phillip Keller, I finally saw
what was going on in my life from God’s perspective. I saw myself walking
through a desert with rolling dunes which saw their sand being carried off by the wind. It was
not long before dawn when the sky was dark but there was enough light to see
where you were going.
Among the stars was
one which sat right along the horizon which was brighter that the rest and
pulsed its inviting light. I watched myself march endlessly over each dune. At
times briskly other times I struggled and dragged myself over them with my
arms. At one point I gave up from the exhaustion, it tried to reach that light
but my body gave out and slowly the winds and sand began to bury me. All I saw
around myself was lifeless desert and sand and emptiness.
At that point my
perspective shifted as if I was lifted up by as if by a crane and I could see
beyond the horizon behind me. I couldn’t recognize it because I didn’t see a
barren desert but lush trees and an oasis the size of a forest. The new life
was creeping along the sands behind me but just beyond my ability to see it, and
when I stopped it stopped as well. Then I saw myself again buried in the sand
and I lifted myself out of the dune and continued the march towards the light.
Even in your season of wilderness you can have an effect on people, you can grow, develop and achieve great things when you work with God.
Even in your season of
wilderness you can have an effect on people, you can grow, develop and achieve
great things when you work with God. That was the lesson I learned that day,
the lesson of not needing to see the fulfillment of each of my steps but to
trust the God would honor my faithfulness in following Him no matter how much
my mind or body begged me to stop and submit to the wilderness, with its
darkness and cool breeze. God is always watching and God is always working,
even when we think our lives or experiences
don’t’ matter or that we have been forgotten the refining process
continues. Then when you emerge from that process your heart is ready to be who
God called you to be. This is the truth you can’t have a testimony without a
test and you can’t be in ministry without a refined heart.
But enough about me
let’s look back at David and how he navigated this season in the wilderness.
Now Is The Time Of Activation
After fleeing from
Saul we see that David didn’t just go hide off in a cave and wait for Saul to
die. Nor did David just stay out of the way of the world during this time of
testing and preparation. What we see here is that the season of the wilderness
not only helped to refine David but also gave him the opportunity to see his
gifts and traits needed to be a good king begin to blossom.
1 Samuel 22:2 And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So
he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.
Even though David was not the king of
Israel he was still a leader and a person God had singled out for great things,
and many people took notice of that. In the wilderness David began to lead a
group of people of his own, unlike the soldiers who had previously been
obligated to follow his orders. From all over the wilderness of southern Judah
people began to flock to David to be led by him even despite Saul’s
persecution.
David began to see what it would be like to
be the king, but before David was king over a nation he had to prove to
himself, to others and to God that he could lead this small band of followers.
Because the same lessons apply to leadership no matter the size of the
congregation, if you fail in certain areas with a small group you will surly
fail in the same ways with a larger group.
David began to see what it would be like to be the king, but before David was king over a nation he had to prove to himself, to others and to God that he could lead this small band of followers.
This idea even applies to ministry, often
when people feel a calling to be in some form of ministry, they automatically
desire to have the biggest platform, the grandest reach and the most influence
possible. Many people don’t value the baby steps it actually takes to get to
those levels, and they think that they can automatically succeed if they are
given the grandest platform first. In reality this is like teaching a teenager
to drive by handing them the keys to a racecar instead of something they can
handle. It seems that less and less people appreciate the process of
incremental promotion and success. Before you can succeed with a congregation
you must succeed with at group, and before you can succeed with at group you
first have to succeed with an individual.
Even my own life I have been a youth
pastor, a Christian wrestling promoter, a home church pastor, a home group
leader, a blogger, a teacher, a coffee maker, a chair stacker and a curriculum
writer. I didn’t just start with the platform I have, I worked my way through
all of these assignments and opportunities and learned along the way so I could
handle the greater opportunities which came later. This is the same lesson we
see here with David, though he was not the official king he learned how to lead
people so that when his kingship manifested he knew what to do and how to do
it.
We see this idea play out in places such as
1 Samuel 23:1-13 where David and his 600 men delivered the town of Keliah from
the Philistines. David wasn’t a king, he wasn’t apart of Israel’s army, he had
no official status but he did what a king would do in that situation, he saved
his people from an attack. He didn’t let the city fall because it wasn’t “his
turn” to lead Israel or to officially protect the people. In that moment David
didn’t tell himself that someone else more qualified would eventually show up,
no he acted out the fullness of his calling right then and there and the city
was spared.
Did that victory make David king, no, and even that victory wasn’t the end of the
story. even after that accomplishment life and troubles continued, soon Saul
found out about the battle and send his army to Keliah. It was only through the
guidance of God which was revealed through Abiathar and the ephod (Uruim and
Thummim possibly) that David fled the city he just saved and went back into the
wilderness.
This
Is Just The Beginning Of This Story
For David the
wilderness was the time of the Activation of his calling, but not the full
manifestation of it. It was the time when his gifts and abilities began to
mature and strengthen so he was ready for the inevitable day when Saul passed,
and the crown would be placed on his head. Next time we will go even deeper
into David’s time of activation and see how it carried him out of the
wilderness and into the place of Announcement when it was proclaimed it the
nation that David was now king.
But before I close I have this question to ask: where are
you in this journey? Are you at the beginning where the call on your life has
begun to stir? Are you in the place where that fire is being kindled? Are you
where David is in this part of the story where God through the
wilderness is doing His work of activation and refinement? Understanding where
you are in this process will help you succeed in what God has called you to be.
You must be honest with yourself and
God about what’s happening in your heart and life so that you can survive the
place you are in and be effective in not just ministry but you entire life.
For David the wilderness was the time of the Activation of his calling, but not the full manifestation of it.
