God has given each and every believer a calling or a life assignment; a specific purpose for being here and for being saved. God does not save His people to just wander the earth aimlessly, to do as they please throughout the course of their lives, or even to perform good works and serve Him the way in which they choose to do so. Contrary to what many Christians believe and, unfortunately, many Christian teachers, elders, and pastors teach, believers are not moral free-agents. God grants us many freedoms within our salvation but where and how we serve and worship Him are not part of those freedoms. This applies to all believers, as each believer has a specific assignment; some believers might have multiple assignments but every believer has at least one.
With each assignment God has associated and given a particular spiritual gift (i.e., grace).
Romans 12:3–8For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
The purpose of the spiritual gifts God bestows upon us is to enable and equip us to perform and accomplish our assignments, not for our own benefit, pleasure, or pursuit of happiness.
Scripture states that God prepared good works (assignments) for us to perform and that He created them beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Earlier in the same letter Paul says that we were chosen before the foundation of the world.
Ephesians 1:4Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.
God created us, not physically but certainly in His heart and mind, before the foundation of the world, and He chose us and predestined us for salvation at that time. At the same time He determined our specific assignments in which we were also predestined to walk. We were predestined to salvation for particular and specific good works.
God created us in His mind and heart before the foundation of the world; we were not physically created, however, until the moment of our conception. In the same way, God determined our assignments and our spiritual gifting before the foundation of the world but does not actually give them to us until we become physical beings; at the moment of our conception. Many believers operate on an ongoing basis not knowing what their assignments are, or believing that they have not received their assignments. The reality is that God gives us our assignments and the associated grace to perform and accomplish our assignments at the moment of our conception. Believers who don’t know or fully understand the concept of God assigning specific tasks to each of us, walk through life never realizing the purpose, or the blessing, that God has for them. Believers who do not know what their assignments are need to be seeking God and asking that question. There is also the very important element of God’s timing involved. Although God gives us our assignments and associated grace at the moment of our conception, God and God alone determines when they become visible to us. Let me borrow a word from the world of photography to illustrate my point—Latent Image.
A latent image is an image that is produced on a piece of paper or film that has been specially treated with a silver compound and then exposed to light under particular conditions (i.e., through a camera or enlarger). The latent image is produced and is actually there; it’s not symbolically there; it’s not conceptually there; it is actually there; however, it is not visible. Try as you may, there is nothing (well virtually nothing) you can do to see that image. When and only when the photographer decides, the paper or film containing the latent image is submerged into a liquid chemical and suddenly the image emerges and is visible to all. Our assignments and associated spiritual gifts are like latent images.
This is an important concept to realize and to understand, especially if you do not know what your assignment and spiritual gift is. When believers are first introduced to this concept, many experience discouragement and can easily fall prey to misunderstanding that God has somehow passed them by or has no assignment for them. This can lead to deeper feelings of discouragement and even depression. The enemy wants to keep believers deceived in as many areas he can and he has a strong desire to keep believers away from knowing, embracing, performing, and fulfilling their assignments. If you find yourself in this category, do not buy into the lie of the enemy. Know that God has given you an assignment and the grace to perform and accomplish it; that it might still be a latent image. Focus your prayers on God developing that latent image into a fully visible image that is apparent to you and all around you.
The remainder of this article is focused on three very specific and particular elements of performing and accomplishing your assignment. There is so much more that can and should be said, but these three elements can be key to a lifetime of performing and accomplishing your assignment to the glory of God.
I draw from the life of John the Baptist to illustrate each of these three elements.
John The Baptist
John the Baptist was a great man in history. Our Lord Himself speaks very highly of him. In Matthew the 11th chapter, verse 11, the Lord refers to John as the greatest man alive.
Matthew 11:11Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
The Lord was making a point in this passage that is different from the point I am making, but that does not change what He said and meant about John—that he was the greatest man alive!
John had a unique life assignment that John the Apostle describes to us in the first chapter of his book.
John 1:6–7There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.
John’s assignment was to bear witness of the coming Messiah, and the purpose of John’s assignment was that all might believe through him. The purpose of John’s assignment is defined by the connecting words “so that”. These connecting words establish God’s purpose by linking John bearing witness of the coming Messiah with all those who truly believed Jesus was the promised Messiah. The word “all” is not a universal “all”, but a focused group of individuals who would come in contact with John during his ministry and that the Father had predestined to salvation.
John’s assignment was, as all of ours are, ordained before the foundation of the earth. In Matthew the 17th chapter, verses 9–13, Jesus refers to the prophecy of John the Baptist from Isaiah 40. These passages do not necessarily establish John’s assignment being ordained from before the foundation of the earth, but they do establish that his assignment had been prophesied of long ago. Linking these passages with Ephesians 1:4 and 2:10, I believe does establish a consistency of assignments being establish before the foundation of the earth.
Luke the first chapter, verses 39–41 describe a scenario in which Mary (pregnant with Jesus) enters the house of Zacharias and greets Elizabeth (pregnant with John). At the moment Mary greets Elizabeth, the unborn John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth’s womb. This is the first record of John performing his life assignment of bearing witness of the coming Messiah. It also demonstrates that our assignments (at least John’s!) are given prior to our birth and that we perform and accomplish our assignments by the power and gifting of the Holy Spirit, not by our own talents, as John was not even able to know Jesus on his own yet.
The following three aspects of how John the Baptist carried out his life assignment are well worth our study. My prayer is that every reader would understand each of these aspects, embrace them, and incorporate them into his or her own walk and service to the Lord.
Do Not Be Afraid
John’s father, Zacharias, was a Levitical priest and based upon bloodline, John his son was called to be a priest. The community was perplexed and put pressure on Zacharias when John was first born, even concerning his name. Everyone present at John’s birth naturally expected Zacharias to name the child after himself. When he announced (via a written note) that the child’s name was to be John, what was the response? Why John? There is not even anyone in your family named John. Zacharias did what God directed him to do, not what the community expected him to do. John continued his father’s steadfastness as he grew up. I would imagine that there was some peer pressure when all the other Levitical young men John’s age were preparing for temple service and John was wandering around in the desert wearing strange clothing and eating strange food. John did not allow peer pressure or community pressure to move him from God’s path for his life. John was not afraid of what others thought or said; his concern was on performing and fulfilling the assignment God had given him.
In Matthew the third chapter, verses 7–10, John takes a very bold step. He was preaching repentance in the Judean wilderness when he saw a group of Pharisees and Sadducees coming towards him to be baptized. John could have very easily welcomed them, quickly baptized them, and sent them on their way. He could have rationalized this by claiming that it would have served the greater good by keeping good relations with the temple officials and given the multitudes a greater level of confidence in what he was preaching. The Pharisees and Sadducees were a powerful group and even had influence with the Roman government, so this would have better ensured John safety and continued ability to perform his assignment. John did not rationalize inappropriate behavior but stood firm and called the Pharisees and Sadducees to repentance even though it required him to publicly rebuke them. John was not afraid of what trouble or harm the angered Pharisees and Sadducees could cause him. He did not let fear control his actions.
Matthew records another very bold step that John takes in Matthew the 14th chapter, verses 3–5. Herod, a Roman Tetrarch, had taken his brother Philip’s wife. John approached him, rebuked him, publicly accusing him of immorality, and called him to repentance. Herod was a powerful Roman official, much more powerful that the Pharisees and Sadducees, and actually had the authority to have John killed for what he said. In fact, it was only Herod’s fear of the multitudes of John’s disciples that withheld Herod’s hand from having John executed and put in jail instead. I am reasonably sure that John felt at least some minor temptation to just ignore what he knew about Herod. After all, he was only one man. John could have ignored Herod’s immorality and peacefully continue his ministry, his calling, his assignment from the Lord. He could have easily rationalized this, but again we see John not letting fear control his actions. His assignment was to bear witness of the coming Messiah by calling people to repentance and that is what he did even when infringed it on his own personal safety.
These are just three examples of John not letting fear control his actions by not being afraid and doing what God called him to do. The lesson to be learned here is that when we are performing our assignment, operating within our gifts, and doing what God has called us to do, we are literally invincible. The Lord will always sustain our lives until we have accomplished what He has assigned us to do.
I think of a situation in my own life when I flew from Los Angeles to Maryland. I was onboard the plane and while we were taxiing down the runway I remembered the many times I had flown from Los Angeles to Seattle and back on business. I have never been much of a flying enthusiast and my fear was usually heightened during take-off. On this particular trip to Maryland I was traveling to a leadership conference hosted by a Christian affiliation of churches with whom my church was considering joining. I was traveling with two of my fellow elders to learn more about the affiliation. When the plane’s engines began to roar as we accelerated down the runway, instead of my usual heightened fear, I felt a complete and confident calmness; I knew at that moment I was doing what the Lord had called me to do and I had no fear of harm but perfect confidence in the Lord—I felt invincible!
View Your Assignment From God’s Perspective
As we discussed earlier, John the Baptist was a great man—considered the greatest by the Lord. During his ministry, John had many disciples and he had multitudes coming to him confessing their sins and seeking to be baptized. When an individual has this type of popularity and what we would refer to today as fame, the temptation to give into pride is great. John must have felt the tug of pride tempting him to take at least some of the glory that he was proclaiming as his own. We have a record of Satan tempting Jesus in this area, I know that I have been tempted in this area many times; I’m sure John was not impervious to it. He may have been tempted but he did not fall. Mark the first chapter, verses 4–8 record John’s view of his own assignment.
Mark 1:4–84 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. 6 John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. 7 And he was preaching, and saying, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. 8 “I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
John viewed his assignment from the Lord’s perspective, not from his own, and not from the worlds, but from the Lord’s.
How often do we see today in the wider Body of Christ that men, whom God has called to serve Him, end up serving themselves? Pastors push the Lord aside to build great buildings that by design don’t look like churches, they structure services to attract the masses and not offend anyone by teaching too long, teaching about the sinfulness of man, or the need for the blood of Jesus. Worship songs are constructed without the use of minor keys because they don’t make people “feel” good, and the words are watered down to eliminate anything about God that the masses might not find palatable. All of these things draw people closer to whom, God? No, these are specifically designed to draw the masses to the people who are leading them.
There is a flip side to this temptation also; just as we can over-inflate our calling, we can under-inflate it also. One example in our society today that comes to mind is women who choose to spend all or the majority of their time making a home, caring for their husbands, and teaching and training their children—homemakers. It is a sad but true commentary that these women are not honored, revered, and justly rewarded by our society; they are mocked, ridiculed, and treated as lower-class citizens. An even sadder testimony is that the Church generally treats them the same as society does. What an overwhelming temptation it must be for these courageous women to buy into the lie and feel lowly about themselves; to be embarrassed to say what they do out loud, or to make excuses.
John the Baptist gave us a model of the perfect balance between not thinking too highly or too lowly of our calling. He modeled for us viewing our assignments from the Lord’s perspective.
Have Resolve
The third and final aspect of how John the Baptist carried out his life assignment that we will look at is to not doubt that you are accomplishing or have accomplished your assignment—have resolve!
Doubting that we are accomplishing or have accomplished our assignment from the Lord is an easy trap to fall into, and it is a trap the enemy keeps set for us at all times. Discouragement is a powerful tool in the enemy’s hand and it is easily accomplished when we doubt the Lord’s effectiveness through our good works. Believing we are performing our life’s assignment when we are far from it is another trap many believers fall into, but remember that the Lord wants us to know our assignment and wants us to exercise our gifts and will not withhold them when we live Coram Deo (before the face of God)!
The actions of John the Baptist at the end of his life as recorded in Luke the 7th chapter, verses 18–23, sum up how he viewed the effectiveness of his life’s work toward accomplishing his assignment.
Luke 7:19-2319 Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?” 20 When the men came to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, to ask, ‘Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?’” 21 At that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many who were blind. 22 And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them. 23 “Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”
On the interpretation of this particular portion of scripture, I disagree with many theologians, commentators, and great men of God that I hold in high esteem. John was in prison for having publicly rebuked Herod for immorality concerning his brother’s wife. He undoubtedly knew that his life was very near its end. We do not know how long John had been in prison at this point, but it would not take long in the prisons of that day to become distraught in mind and body. Prisoners were not given three square meals a day, a sanitary environment, cable TV, a gym, and access to the internet; they were basically thrown into a cave or stone cell and left there for family or friends to take care of. Apparently John’s disciples visited him and ministered to his needs because scripture states that he “summoned” two of them. He instructed these two disciples to go to Jesus and ask the question, “Are you the expected One, or do we look for someone else?” On John’s purpose for sending his disciples to Jesus with this question is where I part company with many in the Christian community. It is a very popularly held interpretation that John was in a state of doubting whether Jesus was the promised Messiah and whether he (John) had accomplished his assignment. I strongly disagree with this interpretation! When I look over the life of John the Baptist I see a man who from the very beginning, literally before he was born, was gifted by the Holy Spirit to discern the very presence of the Messiah. In everything that is recorded about his life we see a solid and growing knowledge of who the Messiah was and what his own assignment was in relation to the Messiah. When John sent his disciples to Jesus, he was not doing so out of doubt; he knew without question that Jesus was the Messiah and that he (John) had accomplished what the Lord sent him to accomplish. This was his final action in performing his assignment. He was not holding on to his disciples for his own comfort and assurance until the bitter end, he was sending—as he had sent everyone during his ministry—his disciples away from himself to the Lord to become Jesus’ disciples now. He had his disciples ask the question not for his own reassurance, but for theirs! Maybe he chose these two specific disciples because they were weak in their belief, or maybe he chose them to symbolically represent all of his disciples; I don’t know and it doesn’t really matter. The point is that if John doubted that Jesus was the expected Messiah and that he (John) had failed in his assignment, he would be reacting in a way that was very inconsistent with what God has recorded about John’s life and it would be very uncharacteristic of the type of man John was.
The Lord has given us two very powerful events in the life of John the Baptist to serve as bookends of a life spent in complete dedication to the assignment he was given: Luke the first chapter, verses 39–41, where John leaps in his mother’s womb when he comes into the presence of the Messiah, and Luke the 7th chapter, verses 18–23, where at the very end of his ministry and life, he sends his disciples away from himself and to the Messiah.
From the very beginning to the very end of his life, John the Baptist was a man who was not afraid and did not let fear determine his actions, who viewed his assignment from the Lord’s perspective, not his own or the world’s, and who had resolve in performing and accomplishing his assignment.
—David S. Spaggiari
6 comments:
Great Blog!
Aidan
Thanks for stopping by and reading. I hope it was edifying.
Blessings,
David
You should write more often. It doesn't have to be a long document every time, just what you feel in your heart you have time for.
Aidan
I really do want to write more than I do for the blog. I am in the process right now of building a Web site to which I plan to migrate the blog. The Web site will have a section for my in-depth studies and a separate section for shorter articles in which I can share my thoughts on different topics. I checked out your blog and really like the format. I would like to something like that on the Web site. Thanks for your encouragement to write!
Blessings,
David
Drop me a line when your new website comes on line. In the meantime, I hope this holiday season finds you with the Christmas of Christ and not the hijacked version of Christmas that major retailers would have us accept as real.
Good post.
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