Take Hold Of That for which Christ took hold of you By Tim Grant

I have been on a journey ever since I became a Christian to fulfil the purpose that God has for my life. I remember moments after discovering that there really is a God being impacted by the thought that if there is a God then there must be a purpose for every one of our lives and I had better find out what His purpose was for mine and seek to fulfil it. Wouldn't it be awful to come to the end of your life and discover that you never really fulfilled the purpose for which God put you here on earth?

 

I don’t think I can imagine anything more desperate than standing before my Lord and Saviour and having to say, “Sorry, I never really understood what it was that You wanted me to do”.

A couple of years back my search became super charged. I don’t know whether that was because I had reached 45 and with that I became more desperate or whether it was just the season we have moved into or perhaps it was the prophecy at the beginning of 2004 that declared that it would be a ‘year of more’; maybe it was a bit of all of them.

Whatever it was, I came to the place where I decided that I was no longer going to make excuses for why I was not fulfilling my destiny in Christ Jesus. I decided I was going to stop playing the blame game, where I blamed everyone and everything else for why I was progressing so slowly. I was just going to start to do whatever God said as quickly as I was able to and in doing that I knew I would move on into all that God had planned and purposed for my life.

The statement that Mary made at the wedding in Cana of Galilee to the servants who had run out of  wine consistently rings in my ears. I think it is one of the most life changing statements within the whole of the Bible. If we would but live by it.

What did she say to them?

“Whatever He says to you, do it”

I guarantee that if we would get hold of this one phrase and start to live by it, it will revolutionise our lives and we will start to live the exciting, thrilling and abundant life He intended us to have as Christians. I know because I am. It’s not always easy but it is exciting and thrilling!

This one simple phrase I believe really encompasses so much of what the Christian life is about.

If we are to do what He tells us that means we need to hear what Jesus is saying to us. That requires some level of closeness from us.  He wants us to have a more intimate relationship with Him.

The Bible tells us ‘if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us’. I used to think God spoke quietly to me to increase my faith but recently I felt He said it was because I talked with Him from a distance. I am learning to draw nearer and as I do I am amazed and challenged by the things He says.

To do whatever He says means that we are listening for His voice everyday wherever we are, whether that’s at home or at work, out with our friends or even down the town doing the shopping. Our relationship shouldn't  be confined to our quiet times. I’m learning to hear His voice in the busyness of everyday life.

I heard a story recently of a deaf woman who was healed in a queue waiting to go through the checkout at a supermarket in the States. A believer behind her in the queue felt God encouraged them to offer to pray for her as they queued. She was healed.  While I was listening to this story someone came forward who had been listening with two deaf aids. He had to remove them because he had been healed while listening and the sound had become too loud  for him to cope with.

Perhaps we need to take the disciples example and spend more of our prayer times asking for boldness, to say and do whatever the Lord says to us, whenever He says it. We will need to be bold if we are to fulfil the plan and purpose He has for every one of our lives. A plan which is way beyond getting saved and becoming a believer. If that was all there was to this life, every one of us would have been transported to heaven the moment we got saved. That purpose is about more than just changing us from one degree of glory to another so that we will be fit for heaven. If that were the reason we would need two or three life times and still not be ready!

In Jer 29:11 the Lord declares to His people;

“For I know the plans I have for you, ... plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.

When I read scriptures like this I know that if God had plans for the future of His people under the Old covenant, to prosper them and not to harm them and to give them hope, how much more is that true for those of us who are under the New covenant? God has a plan for your life, a plan to give you hope and a future, and not just in heaven but here on earth.

Stop reading for a moment and remind yourself  by speaking it out: “God has a plan for my life”

Next time you see another believer tell them that: “God has a plan for your  life to prosper you and not to harm you, a plan to give you hope and a future”. I want to encourage you to continue to make good confessions over your life.

At the beginning of 2004 the first thing I heard God say to me was that I should:

“expect great things from Him

and do great things for Him.”

I believe that was not just a word for me but that it was a word for everyone of us that make up His church. God wants us to place greater expectations on Him and to do greater works for Him. The trouble is that all too often our vision of God is too small while we live with an inflated impression of the devils abilities. Let’s get things back into perspective. We serve a God Who is all powerful, Who created both the heavens and the earth and all that is beyond them. The devil is merely one of those created things and the only power he has over us now is what we give him because Jesus won the victory over him on our behalf and put him under our feet.

So I want to encourage you to expect greater things of God and start to do greater works for God.

For me 2004 started with a bang. We saw some £27,000 come in to purchase a new thirteen hundred seater tent for our missions. In total during that year God released to Kim and I somewhere in the region of £52,000.

Because we started to expect greater things of Him and we are seeking to do greater things for Him

Paul writes to the Philippians  (3:12-14);

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus”. (NIV)

What does Paul say that he is doing? He is “pressing on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of him”. I am encouraged by what Paul declares here when he says:

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect”, (NIV)

Thank God, there is hope for everyone of us! Here we have Paul the great apostle, the writer of a large part of the New Testament saying, “I’m not there yet, I’m not perfect. But what I am doing is pressing on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me”. Then he gives us an insight into how he is actually doing that he says:

“But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus”. (NIV)

Paul encourages us to forget what is behind. the past has very little to offer you in your Christian walk. Yes, it’s good to remember the ways God has blessed us and to be thankful to Him for them, they can be a real springboard into our destiny. But the past also has the ability to hold us back and not just the disappointments and failures. Success can hold us back.

Some years ago  a friend who I lead to the Lord commented to me that all the stories I was telling were really old. She said, “They’re the same ones you were telling when I became a Christian!”.

After picking myself up off the floor because of her cheek I realised in a moment that past glories were stopping me moving on into all that God had for me in the here and now. Past glories are great but we can’t afford to set up camp around them. We need to press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of us.

And if it’s disappointment and failure that hold you back, look at the disciples . They all experienced them. Disappointment and failure are the battle scars of those who are seeking to move on with God, They don’t disqualify you, they qualify you. So don’t set up camp there either. The disciples had failures and disappointments in abundance yet God still used them to turn this world upside down. So let’s forget what is behind and strain on towards what is ahead and press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenwards in Christ Jesus.

Paul encourages us that God took hold of him with a purpose in mind, beyond just salvation, he had a destiny to fulfil. Just as everyone of us has. But we can’t do it on our own.

Paul reminds us in 1 Cor 2:9-10;

“but just as it is written, "THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND WHICH HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM." For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God”. (NAU)

God has a destiny for all of us. He has things that have been hidden from past generations that He has prepared to reveal to those who love Him. He has given us His spirit that He might reveal them to us.  We need to be a people who are lead by that same Spirit. Because He longs to reveal to us Gods plans and purposes. We are in our ministry just beginning to scratch the surface of all that God intends for us to do. But even that’s pretty amazing!

Over the last three years we have moved from leading ones and twos into the kingdom to leading hundreds if not thousands into the kingdom. We have

seen people healed of every kind of sickness and miracles have been almost a daily occurrence on some of our missions.

We’re not there yet as we are still looking for the miracles at the checkout but it won’t be long because we are stretching forward to what lies ahead. I want to appeal to you not to waste this precious gift of life we have been given by living in fear or in the past but press on towards the goal set before you, fulfil your destiny, whatever it is and  win the prize God has for you.