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 God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s
own training school and the course lasts as long as you make it!
You can leave a university but God’s 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 it’s 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 man’s 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 God’s 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, "It’s 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.
To Close Pray For The
World's Most Unreached Peoples By Name
Taken from the
Joshua
Project Unreached Peoples List these people have no
churchand 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
|
|