Know your Source, and share Him

Read: Judges 6:11–26. Focus verse 12: “And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.”

God fills you with His gifts, His knowledge, His wisdom, with everything you need, to enable you to pour out to those around you.

The Dream

I had a dream long ago, where I was surrounded by people. We were celebrating an engagement. In the dream everyone had a plate of chips and dipping sauce. Each person’s amount of dipping sauce varied — some had little, and some had none. My plate had a lot of dipping sauce and people started coming to me to take some of my sauce. I allowed them to, but as they were dipping, I showed them to the person who was distributing the dip. As each of them came close to take dipping sauce, I willingly gave them some and then told them where to get their own.

The following day in church, I had a vision of two paint brushes, one small and one big. The small paint brush was used to give paint to the big paint brush, whereafter the big paint brush would go and paint. The small paint brush slowly went to take more paint from the paint can, so that the big paint brush could see where it got its paint from. Eventually the big paint brush learned how to get its own paint.

The Message

The title and image of this article might seem a little bit confusing to some, so let me just emphasize the following: I am not under any ridiculous illusion that we should use God for what He does, or that God is only a source that needs to give us whatever we need. ABSOLUTELY NOT!

We worship Him for WHO HE IS and not for what He does. He is so much more than our Provider, but the fact remains that He is the source of everything we need. He is our source of comfort. Jesus is our source of Salvation. Holy Spirit is our source of teaching. God is our source of provision. He is our source of healing and of deliverance. When we minister to others, He is the One who enables us to do it. In other words, EVERYTHING we need, is found in Him.

What is our responsibility as Christians? To share Jesus with the world! God has revealed to us that we are to serve others. You cannot pour from an empty cup — in other words, you need to get full and then you can pour out.

Judges 6:12

This is the account of Gideon. When reading that verse, you would think Gideon was chosen because he was a mighty man of valour, but like David (1 Samuel 16) Gideon was only a mighty man of valour because he was chosen — in other words, because of the anointing God had placed upon him. Without this, he was a weak man, hesitant and fearful. God chose someone who could not accomplish the task on his own. The “might” Gideon and David had was the presence of God with them. God called Gideon and proclaimed, “the Lord is with you”. GOD was the source of Gideon, David, and everyone that was sent by God.

We have that same promise today, in Matthew 28:20. Jesus said that He would ALWAYS be with us. We are ALL called to be WITNESSES of JESUS to the ends of the earth. The only might that we have, and that is required, is the fact that the Lord is with us. Our might or strength is not that we are perfectly equipped within ourselves, or have the proper skill sets — it is the reality that God is working through us. It is by His Spirit (Zechariah 4:1).

“And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” — 2 Corinthians 3:4–6

What you think your Pastor (etc.) has, is available to you and to each member in the body of Christ, because it is the Spirit that enables us.

We need to know WHO our Source is, and we need to share Him!

There was a time when I couldn’t wait to be served in church. I wouldn’t miss a service because I wanted to be ministered to. I thank the Lord that He always continues the good work He starts in us. There came a time when I would keep showing up, but I would end up in groups where the people couldn’t minister to me, because they themselves needed ministering. Suddenly I had to start praying for people, I had to start encouraging and trusting Holy Spirit to work through me. It went on for a few months, when I came to God crying, because He was not sending people to “serve” me anymore. That’s when God revealed to me: “But you know your Source. It is time for you to start serving others.” I didn’t realise that only a few months before that, I had asked God for a servant heart. He is always faithful to give us what we ask for.

You see, the Word tells us that we are called to serve, but we all start out as babies in Christ. During this time, we get served — God sends people to help us grow, to teach us the basics of His Word, and from there we grow. There comes a time, however, where we need to switch over from milk to solid food (Hebrews 5:12). There comes a time when you need to switch from being served, to serving. You cannot do that if you do not know that Jesus is your Source. Your Pastor, your church, your friends — whoever you learn from — is NOT your source. They are just a vessel for Him to flow through. I have seen so many times where people would reject prayer from other Christians just because they are not Pastors. They would seek out the “top” leadership. This is a mentality that needs to be broken down. God works through those who are available.

Warning

2 Peter 2:1 — “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.”

We are warned in Scripture that false teachers exist to pull people away from faith. Peter calls them springs without water. They are a mirage. They attract spiritually hungry people but will never be able to give them the life-giving refreshment they are looking for, because it can only be found IN CHRIST!

This is a reminder, especially for those in leadership: we had better share Jesus with the world. There is absolutely no room for pride when you walk with the Lord. People were not called to follow us, but to follow Jesus! It is as if some “paint brushes hide the paint” so that they feel needed. If you want to feel needed, you are treading on dangerous ground. The word of God clearly warns against such. This is the reason pride is so dangerous — it not only causes the downfall of the person with pride, but of those around him/her who have never learnt to come to Jesus as their Source. They have never been taught that Jesus IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. I know of many people who believe their leaders are their way to heaven, and unfortunately, it is because their leaders love taking up that role.

You are called to teach others to find Jesus, and for them to realise that HE is the Source and not you. People weren’t called to follow you, but to follow Him. In John 3:30 we read that John the Baptist said: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Jesus is not your claim to fame. John was not jealously trying to promote himself and his ministry. He wanted people to look beyond him to Jesus alone. John humbled himself and exalted Jesus Christ. We must imitate his example in our witness to others.

The problem with the false teachers mentioned in Scripture is that they do not confess Jesus as Lord. In other words, they did not share Him with the world. Pride has taken over and they have enjoyed the attention. They act as though they are able to do these things in and of themselves. If you take it back to the interpretation of the dream, it means they keep filling their plate with dipping sauce, and passing it around, but they never reveal where they got their dipping sauce from. People start looking at them, instead of Jesus. This is not something new — this has been happening for many, many years. That’s why we hear so many stories of leaders who have fallen and taken all those who follow them down with them, because those people were looking at the leader instead of Jesus.

Conclusion

Whether you are standing in leadership or not, you need to understand that it is not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit. We need to decrease, so that He can increase. If you feel like you do not know Jesus, dig deep into prayer and into the Word. Ask and you will receive. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you through His Word. You will be surprised to find Him in every verse you read.

And when you have found Him, share Him with the world. Stay humble in remembrance that those great heroes of faith were heroes because of God. Without Him they would never have been mentioned. We have an instruction from Jesus to share Him with the world. Stay humble before Him.

John 1:8: “He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light.” John the Baptist pointed people to Christ. People speculated if John the Baptist might be the Christ, but by the end, John has completely faded from view and we are left with Jesus alone and a voice from heaven confirming Him! We must, in the same way, fade from view and leave people with Jesus alone and the divine testimony of God the Father, being well-pleased with God the Son: Matthew 3:17: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

— Chanelle