PHANEROO~DEVOTION 4th April 2016 Apostle Grace Lubega

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth [2 Timothy 2:15].

APPROVED BY GOD, NOT MEN

There are two things that look like they are the same in the life of ministry but they are not the same. These are the calling and gifting of God versus the assignment and mandate. For example, God can call a man to be a teacher of the word. That is a calling. It is not an assignment. When a man or woman of God is gifted by the Holy Spirit and called as a teacher, many people think that such a one is ready to go out into ministry. This is not necessarily so.

God does not call you unto people, he calls you to himself. You cannot be a teacher to men until to God you are a teacher. It doesn’t mean you teach God, but rather that he approves you as a teacher.  That is why the primary places of approval, are when you study the word of God that you might be approved a worker unto God. It is to God first and not unto men.

A gift can work so mightily in the life of a man of God; he can heal the sick, open deaf ears, and give sight to the blind and one day we hear that something small swept him off his course. Here is the seriousness. There is a shame that follows a man not fully approved of God; a man who was called but  not commissioned by God, he literally sent himself. This is what the scriptures point to when they speak of the work mocking you. By a gifting, a man might fly so high that we qualify that as a ministry truly built of God until the work mocks him.

We don’t build by callings, we build by assignments, this is why to Paul, in the testimony of building, his portion was not that he was a deeply anointed apostle, his was to lay the foundation. May this understanding work in you and pattern your life of ministry.

FURTHER STUDY: Jeremiah 1:4-5, Romans 11:29

GOLDEN NUGGET: God does not call you unto people first, he calls you to himself.

PRAYER: Lord we thank you because we are known of you; thank you for the testimony of the word that dwells so richly in us; that very word which cuts asunder and divides bone and marrow, soul and spirit; thank you that because we are approved of you, the thoughts and intents of the heart that the word exposes are your thoughts; your intents and your purposes. Yes Lord, we know the giftings and callings are good but you have taught us there is more. That we have a part to play in this great blue print of divine purpose. Thank you because we walk in assignment and in divine purpose. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Excerpt: PASSWORD UNCTION