Keys of the Kingdom: Day Twenty-nine
HELPER #3
But whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave to all. For even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve. Mark 10:43-45 (NASB)
After Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to his disciples a few times. During these times He had long talks with them about the Kingdom, and how they needed to wait in Jerusalem. They needed to wait until they had the Helper’s wisdom, guidance and power, WHY, to be His witnesses. We have talked about that already.
Now, Jesus didn’t tell them or us that we needed to wait for the Helper to fill us so that we would become better people. Neither was it to help us get rid of bad habits, and selfishness. It also was not so that we could have an ‘awesome’ worship service with clapping and dance and passionate speakers and so on.
All these things may happen but that was not the MAIN reason that God sent the Helper. Jesus’ top priority was to witness, or tell the world what you know and saw about Jesus’ love to a world bound by the kingdom of darkness. The Holy Spirit will not come to us in His fullness until we agree with His priority and make it ours.
He doesn’t listen to our excuses; like, “I’m not good at talking to people,” or “I’m only a kid.” After all isn’t that what the Helper is there to help us with? When God’s Spirit lives inside of us, HE will help us speak. He doesn’t care what age you are either.
Or what about, “I’m busy playing Nintendo right now and have to get to the next level.” or “I have too much homework and I’m Tiiired!” But God never said he wouldn’t interrupt you, or that when he asked you to do something it would only be something you were good at.
So are you STILL on board? Are you willing to be a “living sacrifice” and go wherever, whenever God tells you to go or do or say something, EVEN if it is inconvenient, scary, or strange? WHEW, is this more than you bargained for?
Remember the object lesson Jesus gave before He died? What was it? RIGHT! He clothed himself with a towel and washed his disciple’s feet, and dried them with love. Do we think that we are more dignified than that, or have better things to do?
No, Jesus still wants us to reach out to the needs of the people in the world. That is why He healed so many, and cast out demons, and fed them and raised the dead. He had compassion on them, remember that word?(The gut feeling that you feel the pain of the people that you see?) That is why he sent the Helper to give us kingdom goggles, and hearts of compassion. Now he only asks that we use these with His help and set some people free. What an adventure! MUCH better than Nintendo, actually doesn’t even compare.
ACTIVITY;
You can print off and enlarge this picture and color it if you like.
PRAYER:
If you up for this kind of Kingdom Advendure then pray something like this.
O Lord Jesus, I can see that my adventures with You haven’t even begun until I am willing to go to work for You. All my excuses are a hill of beans. It shows that I don’t trust you to work through me as You please. So Lord, here I am once again. Please use me to bring Your kingdom to earth. I trust You to give me the gifts of the spirit that I will need to do Your will, and to be a witness of your love to the people around me.
*Some ideas gleaned form Cathrine Marshall’s book”The Helper” Word Books Publisher
