What’s Your Personal Vision on How To Serve God?

What’s Your Personal Vision on How To Serve God?       by  Kelly Durant  March 9, 2014

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: (but he that keepeth the law, happy is he).

2. Some people are poor, not because they don’t have money, but because they don’t have a vision and a dream! Life can be a slow death with no dream! I recently saw a TV program with an interview of a young girl, Lindsay Brown, who wanted to help poor kids so she made some plans and set some goals. Her story is so amazing that she even made cover of the Seventeen magazine of March 2013. She started her own mission (SEGway) from within her college dorm because she felt moved to raise money to help poor kids abroad. She baked some cupcakes and surprising raised $400, expecting only $100. She kept repeating sales and soon got so much money little by little that she travelled to Nepal, India where she connected with some folks to work in a small village serving a group of 30 girls that lived in absolute poverty.

She had the idea to start up a girl’s soccer team to help bring physical activity for overall development. Seeing their need for education to get out of poverty (education for girls is usually not provided for in India), she had the idea to get sponsors so that each girl could study in a local school for only $300 dollars a year. She got enough sponsors so that they all go to school now! She also applied for different scholarships and won a certain contest and this helped keep the program running even better because she was sending them more money!

She is studying to become a lawyer and her dream is to help re-write international laws making them tougher concerning sexual trafficking. She saw girls in India be treated as second class citizens and trafficked usually between age 9 and 12. What is impressive about her accomplishments is they are all done while still being in college! She had a dream to help others and she found a way to do it! She did this because she is Christian! Now you can see how when you or I have a will to do something for God, and a willingness to work for the good of others and get out of the comfort zone, the doors will open and the blessings will flow and you and I will make a great difference in the lives of others. (Her blog is  www.thesegwayproject.org)

 3. Your dreams, talents, and capacity to raise money and travel may or may not be the same as this young lady, but here is a truth:  you have a personal mission from God to do! So here is the pressing question, are you perceiving the mission God has for you? Have you taken any first steps and acted upon it to get it moving? Or have you been doing it, only you and God knows!

God’s mission for all is this: Mark 16:15! Everyone has the mission to share God’s word somehow! But each one of us must apply a unique talent to get the job done. There is always plenty to do, but the idea is to be doing the things that only you know how to do for what God has called you to for. Each person has a special mission or calling for God, do you not agree?

Do you know what you know how to do? Most of you have taken a gifts assessment test for you to discover if you would be a good teacher, a good repairman, or a good host, right? How many of you have taken a gift’s discovery type test sometime in your life?  The first step is to discover things about yourself you did not know. Do you know what your gifts are? If not, talk to me later and we will do the “Discovery” test ASAP. Most of us naturally do what we enjoy doing.

4. But here is another reality, even if you have a certain gift for something, this does not mean you will be doing just that one thing all the time and for all your life! We need to always take into account the big picture. There is a season for everything, as described in Ecc. 3.:4  A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

Today the focus is on your purpose in life and how I want you to discover how to know what God wants you to do in your life for Him. In the verse of Prov 29:18 The key word is “vision”, but it also means “Revelation” translated from the Hebrew, so it is not only just a dream or vision for the future, but it is a prophet's revelation from God. Who is a prophet? The dictionary defines it as “someone who teaches or spreads the word of God, (or it can be someone who claims to make predictions about what will happen in the future)? You and I become prophets when we obey and share God’s word, and His word always manifests itself in each of us in a unique way if we are sincerely yielded to it. Reading the Bible and praying brings revelation!

Consider this, when Jesus called Peter, James, and John to leave their fishing business do you think they foresaw that mission coming? Probably not! They thought that was their small business that they would run for all their life.  But why did they abandon it all and go with Jesus? Don’t you think it is because God had already been working in their lives ahead of time? When Jesus came, they were ready for the ultimate mission, like when fruit gets ripe, it is only ready when it’s time has come. People are the same way, some produce for God early in life while others later in life and all the while the Lord is just waiting on us!

5. I observe many people get uncomfortable and feel threatened when they find out about how many great things some Christians end up doing for God. Some people think, oh no, I could never leave it all behind! I could never be that brave! I hope I never have to go live in poverty in a foreign country and learn another language and adapt to a culture that I may not like!

The thought of leaving their secure home, of being away from their family and friends, and of being the only white, black, or brown one in the neighborhood seems like too high a bar to jump. But God always gives us His grace for the mission, amen? He equips His saints!

God knows all personalities, all capacities, and all situations, and not many respond to the call to be disciples, missionaries, and evangelists! But if you ever feel like God is calling you for one of His missions, please act on it right away! Now, focus on missions and callings but in a personal way, what is your personal mission?  What are you going to do for God in the end?

6. I thought I would share a bit of my life so you may see how many strange and unusual things you might end up doing for God. I know I have been shocked, and I have often wanted to run away! But here is my lesson in life for you: keep a good attitude no matter the conditions (be content in good times and hard times as Paul says it Phil 4:11), and expect God to do great things through you! I want to share how diverse and exciting my life became after I gave it to God, and it still keeps on being full of adventure.

At age 21 I chose to move to Brazil to evangelize for a small mission church and the first big challenge was to learn Portuguese and after just 3 months, I was able to do Bible classes by getting the students to read most of the lesson to me, ha! I did not know that at age 22 I would need to start over and learn Spanish as well relocating to Bolivia. This was due to the visas.

Then my life changed at age 23 because I met and married my beautiful wife (what a positive change!) and we had our first son soon thereafter.  We did not know God would bless us with a deaf child, and for his lifetime growing up we were called to work with sign language and his deaf friends, giving them Bible classes. Teaching others abstracts and concepts who only think with visual images is a challenge!   

In the next few years we had 3 more kids one after the other. Anyone can see how kids make faces light up when they sing little songs about God, so for about 10 years we had a singing group with them sharing the gospel in hospitals, orphanages, and rest homes. I was so proud of them and those were special times but we needed a lot of faith to get all our needs supplied in Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile and Brazil.

Then we moved to the USA in 1990. Life was hard in the first years arriving as new immigrants with nothing but a suitcase. Then hurricane Andrew happened in 1992, and we found a calling delivering food to the neighborhoods and ministering to the people who lost everything for about 6 months. That was fulfilling! Later we went on to work on a farm in central Georgia and then on to Atlanta where we got started with the Salvation Army helping immigrant Mexicans who arrived with nothing like ourselves. And in the Salvation Army we have had to learn to do dozens of varieties of many things that are rewarding, but that we can talk about another day! 

7. Let’s revert back to Peter, James, and John. It says in Matt. 4:19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. 20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. Do you see how they were willing to just “follow”?

What if they had had no sensitivity to God’s leadings and no ambition in life? What if they had been content to just live a repetitive mediocre life? After all I have lived and seen in life, I can testify that it is only God that can give your life real excitement and meaning! Fish for them gave an income, but purpose? Without purpose and meaning you and I are destined to just degenerate into helpless, mindless, ineffective, frustrated, discouraged, useless human beings.

Being lazy without a vision obeying what God reveals to you, being a boring Joe nobody and unwilling to act on God’s promptings is a sin. Not wanting the boat rocked and being lukewarm towards God will also wake up God’s anger. Revelation 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.’

Everyone knows God is displeased with people who do nothing with their lives involving serving Him somehow, so how will you respond? He wants you and me out there active and living on the edge accomplishing Jesus’ commands to share his love and message! So which direction will you go with doing something with your life? Maybe there is a new chapter ahead!

8. Here is something important to note about doing something for God, you and I must allow for making mistakes in order to find out where it is not at so you discover where it is at!  Sometimes there are hard lessons from mistakes, but it is the accuser of the saints that wants to discourage us when we start onto something good and it doesn’t go right but never give up.

Do you recall the mistakes of Moses, of David, or of the disciples? When they all thought their calling to serve God was over, when they thought they could do no more good for God because they had blown it, God called them back after a time out. Moses waited 40 years, David several months, and Peter only a few days. Just be ready to get back on track! It is never the end!

Think about how many people do not even reach success until after a big mistake or until later in life. Only God knows what He needs to do in your life to prepare you and He has a perfect timing for each of us for a special calling he has for us.

9. God is always with you and when you serve Him you never have to do it alone, you always have your church family support. The church, defined as a group of believers united for a common faith and purpose, has always been the best organized way to get things done for God. Here we call it our Corps, which means we are a group of fighters in training together to work united to battle against evil and save souls for Jesus! People are happiest in life when fulfilling their vision, revelation, or mission serving God and they need the support of you and me!

Only you can get your specific directions from God for your mission at this time in your life! But here is the challenge, ask Him what you are supposed to be doing right now! It is your responsibility to wake up and stir up the passion in your heart for God! It is up to you to step out and, as we say in The Salvation Army, “Do Something!”

I challenge you to pray, I want you to stir up the gifts you’re trusted with. Tell me and share with everyone more about what God is doing in your life and what mission you find God has for you!