The Call to Serve by Pieter Kirstein

Luke 22:24-30 NKJV Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.  (25)  And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called 'benefactors.'  (26)  "But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.  (27)  "For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.  (28)  "But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials.  (29)  "And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, (30) “that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

In this scripture the Holy Spirit revealed an awesome truth about greatness in the kingdom of God. In verse 27 the Lord asked, For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or the one who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table?

So those who shall be esteemed as the greatest in the kingdom are the ones who shall be found sitting at the table of the Lord.

Of His true disciples Jesus declares further; And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, "that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom.

What the Lord is saying here is that if you desire to become great in the eyes of Almighty God and one day be considered worthy to sit at His table in His kingdom then you must completely deny yourself on the earth, in this life and become the servant of all.

In verse 26 we read; and he who governs as he who serves. The soon to be revealed sons of God that operate in the governmental structure of the kingdom shall serve the nations in the love of God just like their eldest brother Jesus Christ for these are seated at the table of the Lord. Christ has become their portion and they shall feed those who hunger and thirst after righteousness from the bounty of the Lord's table.

Jesus is always the only example that we as Christians are called to follow, what we look at we will become and the Lord came into this world to be the pure model and blueprint for the Christian life. If you study the gospels, then you will see that the disciples always disputed amongst themselves in their self righteousness and pride about which of them was considered to be the greatest. This is typical of man. We all do this until the Lord deals with our pride and shows us the real way to greatness and how very dependant we are upon Him, because the truth is, we are nothing without Him and unprofitable servants.

It breaks my heart to see the spirit of competition amongst leaders in the church today because we are all called to serve and you can and should only do that which God has called you for. On the Day of Judgment God will not stand in awe of any man’s greatness but will judge us according to the standard of Jesus Christ. He alone is the righteousness of God and His righteous judgment is to bring everybody into agreement with Himself. He is our standard. No man is your standard, because if you look to man, you will fall. To the faithful the Lord will simply say,   “Well done thou good and faithful servant”, because we are called to serve our generation in the purpose into which God has called us. God did not call you to save the world because His Son did that 2000 years ago. There is only one Messiah. We are called to fulfill our God given purpose in the earth, like Jesus prayed in John 17:4 “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.”

The Lord said to me, “Greatness in My kingdom is never determined by your title, but by your willingness to serve others”. The way up, is the way down. If you want to reign with Him then you must also suffer with Him and suffering is the only way to birth the humility in us that God requires of His followers because it creates total dependency upon Him. One of the best and most liberating things that can happen to a child of the Lord is to allow God to take full control. One of the most precious petitions that the Lord has taught me is the following; LORD PLEASE COME  AND TAKE HOLD OF ME IN THE VERY DEPTHS OF ME?

TOTAL SURRENDER ENTHRONES GOD IN A PERSON'S LIFE.

You are as strong a believer as your level of surrender. We were given a life to glorify GOD with it. Each one of the Father's children were given an assignment. This assignment is revealed as you pursue the Lord in love and faithfulness. We are a huge worldwide many membered body end each one of us have a different function.

The overcomer in the kingdom of God is the person who by way of revelation and experience have reach the place of being poor in spirit. The poor in spirit are those who walk in utmost dependency upon their Lord and Savior. These people have been brought by the Spirit of God to the very end of their own resources and themselves, they have renounced all trust within themselves and they stand as spiritual beggars before God. You cannot hunger and thirst after righteousness if you have any leanings toward the worldly life.

You only have true strength as a man of God to the level of grace that you walk in and He gives His grace to those who recognise their utmost need of His all-sufficiency. We are calIed to become earthen vessels that the Lord can fill but so few make themselves available to serve in the kingdom. I mean of how many Christians is the following scripture true?

Philippians 2:20  For I have no man like minded, who will naturally care for your state.
21  For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's.

How many people are in this thing called Christianity to see how much they can get from God and how many are actually putting the hand to the plow, like Jesus said? It is only those who deny themselves in the way of the cross through self-deny that become useful in the kingdom of God because, like Jesus, love is demonstrated not spoken. We enter the Agapè kind of love through sacrifice. If you desire to become a true bond-servant of God then your own agendas and plans must be placed on the altar before the throne of Almighty God. The love of God is for the broken, the sick, the poor, the afflicted and the needy. He loves the widow and the orphan.

Eternal reward in the kingdom of God is based upon the principle of a sacrificial lifestyle. It is not to see how much we can store up for ourselves. Remember the story of the rich fool in Luke 12: 16  And he spoke a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17  And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room to store my crops? 18  And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I store all my crops and my goods.19  And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20  But God said unto him, You fool, this night your soul shall be required of you: then whose shall those things be, which you have prepared? (21  So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

How much will we have impacted eternity with what the LORD has entrusted to us?

It is those who totally resign themselves to their Maker who will stand the test of time, because only His grace can carry us through. It is about coming before the Lord with your whole life and asking Him to reveal to you how you can glorify Him with your life.

1 Corinthians 1:8 He will keep you strong right up to the end, and he will keep you free from all blame on the great day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns.

If we want to serve the Lord and His purposes, we need to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and yield our lives to Him in full surrender

Servanthood in the kingdom is the principle for greatness. We choose to meet the requirement. God cannot choose for you and the call went out to all. Jesus Christ said that He is amongst us as One who serves because His divine love is a selfless love and those who desire to walk with Him must become like Him. The Lord said to me that Agapè can only truly manifest in the total absence of self. The true disciple of Jesus Christ is called to live a selfless life, free from all self seeking, self gratification and selfish ambition. He is a bond-servant of His Lord and King and his life must radiate the resemblance of the One whom he is called to serve.

When Jesus said in Matthew 7:17-23   "You will know them by their fruits, He spoke of those who's lives are rooted and grounded in His love. If your only pursuit and focus is Jesus Christ then you will naturally walk as He walked and be as He is. His Holy Spirit would have invaded every part of you, yes if you allow the Lord God to penetrate your depths,  then you shall discover that He's become your sure foundation. His divine nature in you shall demonstrate that you are sold-out to God alone and that your whole desire is that He shall be glorified through your surrendered heart. You would want the nations of the world to witness the beauty of the humble selfless risen Saviour as His glory radiates through your crucified life.

Humility never parades itself and wants all of the attention and glory to go to God.

By their fruits will you know them and many will come in the day of judgment claiming by their actions that they did many things in His name, and the Lord will say, ”I never knew you”

God said to me it is because He does not recognize His Son in them and these people never walked in close intimacy with the Lord because they lived for themselves. These people, including many leaders lived according to their own interpretation of the true gospel, and used His anointing to make themselves look great in front of the people. They had many relationships with many people and many other freshly desires that caused them to abandon the faith and the most important relationship and their intimacy with the Lord  got shipwrecked and they became strangers to God.

All lasting fruitfulness flows out of intimacy and we can never neglect our FIRST LOVE relationship with God. We can get so caught up in the things of the kingdom that we neglect the King Himself. It is the most important part of the Christian walk, our relationship with God. He is more interested in you than your so called accomplishments. Whatever is not done by the unction, the guidance and the leading of His Spirit will not be rewarded because even our good works becomes abominable practices if it draws attention to ourselves.

The Lord said that many of His people are doing good works, but few are doing what He called them to do. We are called to live lives that are pointed and directed toward God and His purposes. To be yoked with Christ means that we walk in agreement with His ways.

Jesus said that it is to My Father’s glory that you bear fruit that will last and the only way to produce the real fruits of righteousness is to continually abide in Him. No branch can bear fruit of itself, it has to abide in the Vine, otherwise our efforts are meaningless. I did a 4 week retreat with the Lord a few years ago and Jesus told me that the majority of His people are so worried and confused about where they fit in and what they must do when the only true calling upon our lives is TO COME TO HIM FIRST. Then as we come and pursue an intimate relationship with Him, He will simply manifest himself through us whenever He sees the need to do so. So many want to do great things for God but they don't even truly know the Lord intimately.

The knowing God refers to in Matthew 7, is the intimate-oneness-covenant relationship between the bride and the Bridegroom. It is a holy union through which we become one with God in vision desire and purpose. Oneness as in the sacredness of the marriage covenant between a devoted husband and his wife. Will you stand before Him one day as a true friend or a total stranger? You make the choice, it is a personal matter. He already knows everything about you; the question is: Do you know Him well enough to be recognized by Him among His faithful? The bride of Jesus Christ knows how to nurture her relationship with the love of her life and she always treasures His desire for her. She has become estranged from the world and is well known by her Lover. She loves justice and mercy and she always walks humbly with her God.

Do you truly know your most important purpose in life beloved of God?

THE NUMBER ONE PURPOSE OF ANY CHILD OF GOD IS TO PURSUE A RADICAL INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FATHER JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT BECAUSE ONLY THEY CAN ENABLE US TO BECOME FRUITFUL IN THE KINGDOM. ONLY GOD CAN EQUIP AND EMPOWER US TO IMPACT LIVES FOR ETERNITY.

We all need that daily, continual infilling of the Holy Spirit that will enable us to persevere in our quest. The most important part of the servant’s walk is his intimate relationship with God and to come to the point of complete surrender. Your end is God’s beginning and only that which is done by the leading of His Spirit will stand the test of time. It is God who has the plan, not man, and we cannot do what we want in His kingdom. It is as if many people want to tell God how to run His kingdom in their prideful arrogance, but little do they realize that all of man’s futile ideas and plans will be consumed in the day of His righteous judgment.

He is God alone and He is the Glory, the Power and the miracle worker. We exist for His glory and to serve Him, He does not live to serve us and our purposes. Only as you come to the end of all your plans can His plan be activated.    Unless the lord builds the house, we all labor in vain.

Acts 13:22 And when He had removed him, He raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all My will.

May we like David become children after God's own heart and may we hear the FATHER declare as with Jesus; THESE ARE MY CHILDREN WITH WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.

COME TO HIM TODAY AND ASK HIM TO MAKE YOU USEFUL IN HIS KINGDOM.

A quote from Thomas E Kempis
Avoiding False Hope and Pride

VAIN is the man who puts his trust in men, in created things.

Do not be ashamed to serve others for the love of Jesus Christ and to seem poor in this world. Do not be self-sufficient but place your trust in God. Do what lies in your power and God will aid your good will. Put no trust in your own learning nor in the cunning of any man, but rather in the grace of God Who helps the humble and humbles the proud.

If you have wealth, do not glory in it, nor in friends because they are powerful, but in God Who gives all things and Who desires above all to give Himself. Do not boast of personal stature or of physical beauty, qualities which are marred and destroyed by a little sickness. Do not take pride in your talent or ability, lest you displease God to Whom belongs all the natural gifts that you have.

Do not think yourself better than others lest, perhaps, you be accounted worse before God Who knows what is in man. Do not take pride in your good deeds, for God's judgments differ from those of men and what pleases them often displeases Him. If there is good in you, see more good in others, so that you may remain humble. It does no harm to esteem yourself less than anyone else, but it is very harmful to think yourself better than even one. The humble live in continuous peace, while in the hearts of the proud are envy and frequent anger.

BE WATCHFUL and diligent in God's service and often think of why you left the world and came here. Was it not that you might live for God and become a spiritual man? Strive earnestly for perfection, then, because in a short time you will receive the reward of your labor, and neither fear nor sorrow shall come upon you at the hour of death.

Labor a little now and soon you shall find great rest, in truth, eternal joy; for if you continue faithful and diligent in doing, God will undoubtedly be faithful and generous in rewarding.

One day when a certain man who wavered often and anxiously between hope and fear was struck with sadness, he knelt in humble prayer before the altar of a church. While meditating on these things, he said: "Oh if I but knew whether I should persevere to the end!" Instantly he heard within the divine answer: "If you knew this, what would you do? Do now what you would do then and you will be quite secure." Immediately consoled and comforted, he resigned himself to the divine will and the anxious uncertainty ceased. His curiosity no longer sought to know what the future held for him, and he tried instead to find the perfect, the acceptable will of God in the beginning and end of every good work.

“Trust thou in the Lord and do good,” says the Prophet; “dwell in the land and thou shalt feed on its riches.”

There is one thing that keeps many from zealously improving their lives, that is, dread of the difficulty, the toil of battle. Certainly they who try bravely to overcome the most difficult and unpleasant obstacles far outstrip others in the pursuit of virtue. A man makes the most progress and merits the most grace precisely in those matters wherein he gains the greatest victories over self and most mortifies his will. True, each one has his own difficulties to meet and conquer, but a diligent and sincere man will make greater progress even though he have more passions than one who is more even-tempered but less concerned about virtue.

Two things particularly further improvement -- to withdraw oneself forcibly from those vices to which nature is viciously inclined, and to work fervently for those graces which are most needed.

Study also to guard against and to overcome the faults which in others very frequently displease you. Make the best of every opportunity, so that if you see or hear good example you may be moved to imitate it. On the other hand, take care lest you be guilty of those things which you consider reprehensible, or if you have ever been guilty of them, try to correct yourself as soon as possible. As you see others, so they see you.

How pleasant and sweet to behold brethren fervent and devout, well mannered and disciplined! How sad and painful to see them wandering in dissolution, not practicing the things to which they are called! How hurtful it is to neglect the purpose of their vocation and to attend to what is not their business!

Remember the purpose you have undertaken, and keep in mind the image of the Crucified. Even though you may have walked for many years on the pathway to God, you may well be ashamed if, with the image of Christ before you, you do not try to make yourself still more like Him.

The religious who concerns himself intently and devoutly with our Lord's most holy life and passion will find there an abundance of all things useful and necessary for him. He need not seek for anything better than Jesus.

If the Crucified should come to our hearts, how quickly and abundantly we would learn!

A fervent religious accepts all the things that are commanded him and does them well, but a negligent and lukewarm religious has trial upon trial, and suffers anguish from every side because he has no consolation within and is forbidden to seek it from without. The religious who does not live up to his rule exposes himself to dreadful ruin, and he who wishes to be more free and untrammeled will always be in trouble, for something or other will always displease him.
How do so many other religious who are confined in cloistered discipline get along? They seldom go out, they live in contemplation, their food is poor, their clothing coarse, they work hard, they speak but little, keep long vigils, rise early, pray much, read frequently, and subject themselves to all sorts of discipline. Think of the Carthusians and the Cistercians, the monks and nuns of different orders, how every night they rise to sing praise to the Lord. It would be a shame if you should grow lazy in such holy service when so many religious have already begun to rejoice in God.

If there were nothing else to do but praise the Lord God with all your heart and voice, if you had never to eat, or drink, or sleep, but could praise God always and occupy yourself solely with spiritual pursuits, how much happier you would be than you are now, a slave to every necessity of the body! Would that there were no such needs, but only the spiritual refreshments of the soul which, sad to say, we taste too seldom!

When a man reaches a point where he seeks no solace from any creature, then he begins to relish God perfectly. Then also he will be content no matter what may happen to him. He will neither rejoice over great things nor grieve over small ones, but will place himself entirely and confidently in the hands of God, Who for him is all in all, to Whom nothing ever perishes or dies, for Whom all things live, and Whom they serve as He desires.

Always remember your end and do not forget that lost time never returns. Without care and diligence you will never acquire virtue. When you begin to grow lukewarm, you are falling into the beginning of evil; but if you give yourself to fervor, you will find peace and will experience less hardship because of God's grace and the love of virtue.

A fervent and diligent man is ready for all things. It is greater work to resist vices and passions than to sweat in physical toil. He, who does not overcome small faults, shall fall little by little into greater ones.

If you have spent the day profitably, you will always be happy at eventide. Watch over yourself, arouse yourself, warn yourself, and regardless of what becomes of others, do not neglect yourself. The more violence you do to yourself, the more progress you will make. Adjust yourself to things as they happen and always reflect on the sufferings of Christ, by doing this you will dwell in safety and enjoy that inner peace that only He can give.

Whatever it might be that we are called to face in this very temporary life, it cannot compare to that eternal glory in the presence of the King. So guard your heart in the trivial matters of this life and always focus on your God given purpose so that you will be found among the faithful in that day and be honored by your Lord. It is to Him we live or die, so surrender to His Spirit to glorify Himself in You. Be that vessel of Divine honor and embrace the high calling of God in Christ, o servant of the Most High.

Listen Humbly to the Words of God; Many Do Not Heed Them

THE VOICE OF CHRIST
MY CHILD, hear My words, words of greatest sweetness surpassing all the knowledge of the philosophers and wise men of earth. My words are spirit and life, and they are not to be weighed by man's understanding. They are not to be invoked in vanity but are to be heard in silence, and accepted with all humility and with great affection.

THE DISCIPLE
"Happy is the man whom Thou admonishes, O Lord, and teaches out of Thy law, to give him peace from the days of evil," and that he be not desolate on earth.

THE VOICE OF CHRIST
I taught the prophets from the beginning, and even to this day I continue to speak to all men. But many are hardened. Many are deaf to My voice. Most men listen more willingly to the world than to God. They are more ready to follow the appetite of their flesh than the good pleasure of God. The world, which promises small and passing things, is served with great eagerness: I promise great and eternal things and the hearts of men grow dull. Who is there that serves and obeys Me in all things with as great care as that with which the world and its masters are served?

"Be thou ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea speaketh." And if you ask why, listen to the cause: for a small gain they travel far; for eternal life many will scarcely lift a foot from the ground. They seek a petty reward, and sometimes fight shamefully in law courts for a single piece of money. They are not afraid to work day and night for a trifle or an empty promise. But, for an unchanging good, for a reward beyond estimate, for the greatest honor and for glory everlasting, it must be said to their shame that men begrudge even the least fatigue. Be ashamed, then, lazy and complaining servant, that they should be found more eager for perdition than you are for life, that they rejoice more in vanity than you in truth.

Sometimes indeed their expectations fail them, but My promise never deceives, nor does it send away empty-handed him who trusts in Me. What I have promised I will give. What I have said I will fulfill, if only a man remain faithful in My love to the end. I am the rewarder of all the good, the strong approver of all who are devoted to Me.

Write My words in your heart and meditate on them earnestly, for in time of temptation they will be very necessary. What you do not understand when you read, you will learn in the day of visitation. I am wont to visit My elect in two ways -- by temptation and by consolation. To them I read two lessons daily -- one reproving their vices, the other exhorting them to progress in virtue. He who has My words and despises them has that which shall condemn him on the last day. (end of quote)