Sunday, October 31, 2021

"MY SERVANT"

 

A servant is a person who is working in a subordinate position under the authority of a superior. They are at the service of another either voluntarily or involuntarily. Servants carry out the plans of their employer. God chose many men and women to be His servants down through time. They are considered great people of God. Let’s look at some of the servants He was able to use for His purposes and His glory. Some are well-known, but some may surprise you.


MOSES

And He [the LORD] said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD will make Myself known to him in a vision and I will speak to him in a dream. But it is not so with My servant Moses; He is entrusted and faithful in all My house. With him I speak mouth to mouth [directly], clearly and openly and not in riddles; And he beholds the form of the LORD. (Numbers 12:6-8 AMP)

            Moses was a trusted servant of God. God was able to speak “face to face” with Moses unlike anyone else. Although reluctant at first, Moses was an obedient servant of God. He listened to what God spoke to him and followed His words. In all the years Moses followed the Lord, there is only one reference of disobedience.

God used Moses to bring His people out of Egypt. He had planned this deliverance long before Moses was born, and it was carried out to fulfill the promise He had made to Abraham many years before.

            Long before Moses was ever born, God had told Abraham: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.(Genesis 15:13-14)

Moses followed God’s will and accomplished all he was called to do. He not only delivered God’s people, but took part in the fulfillment of the promise God had made to Abraham. He was part of something much bigger than what he could see. He was working with God to fulfill His Word to Abraham and to fulfill what He had spoken to Moses. The past sets the stage for the present and God is in control of it all. We can join Him in fulfilling His plan.


DAVID

God also spoke to His servant Samuel to anoint David as king while Saul was still sitting on the throne. A lot of years went by before it actually came to pass. But after Saul and his family were killed in battle, Abner said to the elders of Israel, “In time past you were seeking for David to be king over you. Now then, do it! For the Lord has spoken of David, saying, ‘By the hand of My servant David, I will save My people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and the hand of all their enemies.’ ” (2 Samuel 3:17-18 AMP)

When David became king and God told him that he would have an everlasting kingdom in his family line, David remembered the past that had brought Him to this day. He said “What one nation on earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people and to make a name for Himself, and to do great and awesome things for Yourself and for Your land, before Your people whom You have redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, from nations and their gods? You established for Yourself Your people Israel as Your people forever, and You, O LORD, have become their God.” But there was more to come. David recognized He was just one part of the fulfillment of God’s total plan. Yet he looked back at what God had done, what He was doing, and what He would do in the future. He saw it was all related.

God strategically places His servants, those who will be obedient to Him, in places where they can be used to bring about the purposes of God. How exciting it is to be part of what God is doing in the earth. Every one that truly serves God according to His will is a link in the chain that began back in the Garden of Eden. Now David is part of that chain linking this great nation to the coming King Who would be forever on the throne. This King is the Lord of Glory Who was born in the flesh through David’s lineage, and Whose Father was God.

 

JESUS

Luke 1:32 speaks of Jesus saying, “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.”

God’s promise to David of an everlasting kingdom is fulfilled through Jesus. Yet, even Jesus Himself came into this world as a servant. He was under the authority of His Father. He spoke what the Father told him to speak and did what the Father told Him to do.

Matthew 12:18 says: “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.”  Jesus brings all of us who surrender to His Lordship into God’s nation (kingdom).

            Yet, even Jesus spoke of Himself as a servant of His Father as He came to this earth in human flesh. He said, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)  He also said, “Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave -  just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” ( Matthew 20:27-28)

And He invites us to be servants of the Father. We can be a link in the chain of God’s kingdom in this earth. It is a great honor to work alongside God.

 

THE PROPHETS

God said, “Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have [persistently] sent you all My servants the prophets, sending them daily, early [and late].”

            All of these knowingly and willingly followed God. They put aside their plans and desires for their lives and joined together with others who were a link in the chain of God’s servants who were used mightily of Him and rewarded greatly. They were part of moving the plan of God through toward its fulfillment. Now it’s our turn to keep the flow going.

But there were some that God called His servants that were unknowingly fulfilling God’s prophecies and were the catalysts of turning God’s people back to Him.

God’s people had forsaken Him. And although He warned them over and over through the prophets, they would not return to Him. “Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the LORD, “so that you have provoked Me to anger with the work (idols) of your hands to your own harm.”

 

NEBUCHADNEZZAR

So God used Nebuchadnezzar to conquer His people and take them away from Jerusalem. God said, “I will send for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant [to enact My plan], and I will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations; and I will utterly destroy them. This whole land will be a waste and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” (Jeremiah 25:7-11 AMP)

God used as His servant a pagan king to punish His people for their sins. But after 70 years He used another pagan king to return them to their homeland that God had given them. As a result, they never served idols again. Cyrus did the Lord’s bidding without even knowing Him.

 
CYRUS

God said, “It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd (ruler), And he will carry out all that I desire, Saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall [again] be built,’ And of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall [again] be laid.’ (Isaiah 44:28 AMP)

“This is what the LORD says to His anointed, to Cyrus [king of Persia]… For the sake of Jacob My servant, And of Israel My chosen, I have also called you by your name…There is no God except Me. I will embrace and arm you, though you have not known Me, That people may know from the rising to the setting of the sun [the world over] That there is no one except Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:1-6 AMP)

What does God say when He sees us? Can He say, “That is My servant!”? Are we listed among the servants of God, carrying out His Word as He speaks to us? Are we following the path of Jesus?

Jesus gave up His privileges to do the will of the Father. “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8)

If we want to be great in God’s kingdom, we need to be servants!

 

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