In Your Heart for Others

I have been listening to one specific sermon a lot these last few months.


http://www.baysideonline.com/2745/20090628/   


One statement Ray Johnston made in this sermon has been rolling around in my heart for months.  I have chewed on it, pondered it, and asked the Lord tons about it.

In the book of Nehemiah, God had given Nehemiah a burden to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem.  The wall had been destroyed and the people were left unprotected.  When Nehemiah had heard about the devastation, it broke his heart.  He wept and prayed.  Then, God put it in his heart to re-build the wall.  He had a heart to see the people and the city safe and restored.  God had given him a vision and an assignment that was clear.  

In this sermon, Ray challenges us (me) with the question, “what has God put in your heart TO DO FOR OTHERS?”  God did not create us to do things for ourselves.  He created us to do things for others.  What God put in Nehemiah’s heart was for Jerusalem not for Nehemiah.  

This statement sent me on a mission for clarity.  For clear vision of what God had planted in my heart for others.

Do you know what God has put in your heart to do for others?  Do you know God has called you to the work of the ministry, whether we are in the church or in the marketplace?  Can you define the vision God has given you?  Can you articulate the burden He has given you?  Do you understand the constraints within yourself that keep you from doing what God has called you to do?  Do you have a clear plan or roadmap to follow?

"I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem."  - Nehemiah 2:12

I have been pondering this statement along with all those questions above.  And thinking on Acts 1:8 for the last few months.  Asking the Lord about what is on His heart in this next season and what He wants done FOR OTHERS. 

God has put things in our hearts to do for others.  He has given each one of us a purpose and a calling as Christians.  I am being challenged to really press into Nehemiah and to ask the Lord for clear vision in this season.  Clear vision for what is on His heart for others.

What wakes you up at night?  Who do you wake up praying for?  Who specifically rolls around your heart and your mind?  Is it one person?  A people group? A church?  Leaders or pastors?   If you pay attention to the promptings in your heart, you will come to see those are the very ones God is calling you to.  Keep pressing in and praying, and He will give you the assignment.

I become more and more convinced there is a war that wages against vision in God’s leaders.  And I am more and more convinced in the need for leadership development and coaching which centers around helping leaders hear God’s voice and get clarity on their purpose and call.  Both in the church and outside of the church.  There is a battle going on for vision and clear roadmaps to follow.  

"The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty."  Proverbs 21:5

God does NOT want us to be Christians that hide our light or be without vision or plans.  Nor does He want us to stay within the walls of our own Christianity or stuck in the eddies of doing our own thing. The Pharisees were experts at this.   

I believe it is time to identify our eddies of self and blow them up.  It is time to go.  It is time to do.

"Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations (peoples), baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."  Matthew 28:18-20

We as Christians can become consumed with what has God put IN US do for others that we never end up helping others because we have become consumed by self.  What I love about Nehemiah, is he did not build something in order to make himself known or to promote his own name.  His heart was focused on Jerusalem and not on self.  To do FOR OTHERS. 

We must as Christians be about the work of doing for others and not for self.  Self is an all consuming eddy.  I know, because I have been stuck in many. 

God wants us to reach out beyond ourselves and to love those who need to be loved.  He wants us to be vehicles of truth and healing in the lives of others.  We as Christian’s have been given the key to help others and His name is Jesus.  We must move into the world, empowered by love. 

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."  John 13:35

The more I contemplate my faith and the world around me, the more I realize, I don’t want religion.  I want Jesus. I want others to know Him and the simplicity of His love.  Religion complicated; the cross simplifies.

The picture above is of my friend Greg Krieger and I baptizing another friend Pam Mabry out in Folsom Lake while I was on staff at a church plant called Rock Harbor Church in Rocklin, CA.  

As I have been pondered this statement by Ray and Nehemiah 2:12, I am reminded of God’s heart for people.  For us to slow down our minds, our busyness, and our hearts and be attentive to God and people.

God so wants to love and be loved by His creation.

God’s heart for people is that they might know Him and believe Him.

"You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me."  Isaiah 43:10

God is aching for relationship with mankind.  People to know how to do life with Him even in the midst of tremendous trials and heart ache.  There is a God we can do life with.  A God we can walk hand in hand with.  Cry with.  Giggle with.  He is a God who is ever personal and always there.  

He is a God who is aching to connect with humanity.   He is relational, and He is personal.  And yet, He is God.

Oh precious Jesus,

Forgive me for not loving well, and for all the times I get consumed with self and I am not doing for others.  Lord, help me to be an accurate representation of you to others.  Lord, show me, show us all Lord what you have put in our hearts to do for others.  

Lord, let 2010 be a year for clear vision.  Clear road maps and plans to follow in the building of your kingdom.  Lord, the world is shaking and people need you. Let us no longer be trapped in the eddies, let this year be a year of flowing breakthrough.  

Lord, raise up a company of leaders who are willing to stand and make a difference in our culture.  Jesus, we adore you and love you with all of our heart.  In Jesus name, Amen.