Good morning,
If our Father God is always successful in everything he plans to do, could this same God get upset when we are successful? Our current Christian culture teaches and trains it’s leaders to plan for, aim for and work for success in what we do in Jesus name. How could there be something wrong with that? What could possibly be wrong with outcome based faith in our successful God? Our church growth strategies base their models on churches and businesses that are built on biblical principals that have made them successful in reaching out to large numbers of people in their given areas of service. They write books and lead seminars for others so that their success can be duplicated by other folks who don’t seem to be meeting the requirements that Jesus gave us when he left our earth for his home in heaven. Could there possibly be something wrong with the idea that we should be doing what we do based on the outcome of what we have done before? Is it true that godly people are successful people?
I think that it is very helpful for us to remember that when our Enemy gets involved in the affairs of what we call church, he will be careful to begin his destructive process by getting us to use biblical principles with his special little twist on what God tells us to do when following God’s Word and our Shepherd. Jesus was very clear when he told us that if we loved him we were to keep his commandments.(John 14:15) When he is able to convince us that success and not obedience is the bottom line for our ministries, we soon find ourselves praying to our God about his help in carrying out our plans instead of discovering and carrying out his plans for us. When we face a crisis in what we are doing and the most important question we struggle with is “What will they think? and not “What does God say? we have fallen into our Enemies trap of outcome based faith. If what people think is more important than what God says, sooner or later we will discover to our shame and sorrow that the God of the Universe is quite upset by the success we think we will offer him. I think that we would all do well to get on our knees before our Savior and Judge and ask him to show us the basis of our faith. Lord, will you please show us if our life and ministry are about you and your will or about us and our success?
James 1:5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
Roy Wisner
