In Your Bible Read This
Isaiah 49
Here Is Your Memory Verse
Since you are precious and honoured in my sight, and because
I love you,
I will give men in exchange for you, and people
in exchange for your life. Isaiah 43.4
Afterwards Talk About
This
Discuss how you have felt the skill of the potter
and the arrow maker in your own lives.
Something To Do Before
Next Time
See if you can visit a potter and ask to see the process from
ground
to finished article. Tell him why. Examine some branches,
then go and see and feel some arrows.
Written Diploma Work
Examine the character qualifications in Exodus, Timothy and
Titus
and write one page to explain them in modern life.
Meditate Word By Word On
This Verse
Jeremiah 18, 1-6
- Spend
a Minute to Change the World
- Pray For Philippines -
70,000,000 Asian islanders, dramatic church
- growth, Catholic
majority, 5% Evangelicals , widespread poverty
-
Be sure to
teach this lesson to others.
-
Always pray
and prepare well adding
-
your own verses and stories to
bring it to life.
Are Leaders Born Or Made?
Have you ever realised that raw material
has to be prepared before it is ready for sale and use? For
example skilled people have to prepare ~
- Stone - to be a statue.
- Iron ore - to make a car.
- Trees - to make furniture.
- Wool - to make a coat.
- Hide - to make shoes.
You can also see Gods law of
preparation in nature. Animals prepare for winter, soil is
prepared for planting and rough stones are smoothed by flowing
water.
When we are first saved and called by God
we are also raw material, nothing like what we will be after God
has prepared us. A pile of stones is never a house until they are
prepared and put together in a plan. Even a pile of living
stones cannot make a spiritual house or church until
prepared. 1 Peter 2.5
Seeds And Plants Before
Fruit
A leader is born, then born again, called
and anointed but before he takes responsibility and bears fruit
for the Lord there is always a time of preparation. A leader
avoids or short- cuts this important stage at his own risk and
with risk for Gods people later on.
The Law Of Preparation
Because God loves order and excellence and
detests mediocrity, in Bible times some things had to be prepared
-
- A habitation for the Lord. Exodus 15.2,
Psalm 107:36, KJV.
- Offerings for the tabernacle. Numbers
15.3-12; 23.1-2, AV
- A man's heart to seek God. 1 Samuel 7.3;
Psalm 10.17, KJV
- Materials for Solomon's Temple 1
Chronicles 22, 3-14. KJV
- A way for the Messiah, Isaiah 40.3; 62,10;
Mat. 3.1-3;11.10
- People to meet with God, Ex. 19.14-15.
KJV
- A horse for battle, Proverbs 21.31
- Honourable vessels, 2 Tim 2.20-21
- A body for Jesus, Hebrews 10.5
- A Bride of Christ, Rev. 19.7; 21.2
Every skilled craftsman needs years of
apprenticeship, and the skilled leaders of God's people are no
exception. Joshua spent years with Moses, Elisha spent years with
Elijah, Timothy spent years with Paul.
How Does God Prepare
Leaders?
Isaiah 49 1-6 is the doorway into Gods
own training school and the course lasts as long as you make it!
You can leave a university but Gods school follows you
around, Psalm 139, 7-10. The sooner you learn, the sooner you
graduate. Isaiah prophesies how God will prepare Jesus for life
and ministry. The same process was true for Isaiah and is a
pattern for us today. Let us see the lessons in the School of the
Spirit ~
- Lessons In Destiny
- Leaders must understood that they were
called before birth and flow with their eternal destiny,
49.1; Gal. 1.15; Jer 1.5; Is. 9.6; Eph. 1.4.
-
- Lessons In Speaking Life
- God works on our tongues to make our
words sharp like a sword not blunt and negative.
-
- Lessons In Pottery
- He hides us in the shadow of his hand,
49.2, which is a picture of the Master Potter shaping us,
the clay, Jer. 18,1-4. Jesus uses his own wounded hands
and the earthly hand of his five master
builders, Ephesians 4.11.
-
- Did you know that clay must first be
dug up, even blasted out and separated? Clay must be
washed and soaked in water, then hit, pressed thoroughly
and poked with a thin wire to remove air bubbles. It must
go round and round on a wheel, stretched and pulled apart
again and again till shape comes, only to be set aside to
harden. Then its the fire! Maybe that explains a
lot about what has been happening to you?
-
- Lessons In Arrow Making
- God intends to make his leaders into
polished arrows, Isaiah 49.2. In those days arrows were
made from Acacia wood which is rough, knotted and crooked,
just like mans character before receiving Jesus!
-
- An arrow shaft is made by repeated
stripping, sanding and straightening, with oil which
speaks of the Holy Spirit, rubbed in to heal the bruises,
before being attached to the arrow tip. The goal is
accurate flight to the target every time.
-
- The tip is the ministry gift, but the
shaft represents character by which leaders rise or fall,
and is a major qualification for ministry, Exodus 18, 21,
1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, 5-9. Ever felt Gods straight-ening
process? Now you know why!
-
- Lessons In Patience
- After all that hard work and painful
preparation you might think that now you are ready to
lead, but instead God conceals you in his quiver, with
all the other new arrows. Concealed means hidden from
public view. 49.2. It isn't long before all the wrong
reactions of frustration, rebellion and independence come
out. Some say, "Its all been in vain and for
nothing," 49,4, but patience and submission are
learned by practice.
Graduation Day Finally
Comes
With a reward for all that suffering.
"But now," the Lord says, "It is too small a thing
for you just to help my people. I will make you a light for the
nations. Bring my salvation to the ends of the earth," 49, 5-6.
The price of being used by God is patience in allowing him to
prepare you to be a fine man or woman of God.
Taken from the
Joshua Project Unreached Peoples List
these people have no church and as yet
no cell, church or mission has committed themselves
to prayer, adoption or church planting among this people.
Pakistan
|
People Name |
Language |
Population
|
Hindko, Southern |
Hindko, Southern |
625,000
|
Khetrani |
Khetrani |
10,000
|
Kolai (Kohistani-Shina) |
Shina, Kohistani |
200,000
|
Sansi Bhil |
Sansi |
20,000
|
See all of the
lessons
|