The seven responsibilities of a believer!
As believers, we have been called out of darkness and into the marvelous LIGHT of JESUS CHRIST!! Along with our salvation from death, hell, and destruction, we have been given our assignments to accomplish while we remain here, all for the GLORY OF GOD!! JESUS was our perfect example, and even as a child had a burning desire to be about HIS FATHER’S business!
GOD has called us to be workers in HIS vineyard, and burden bearers in HIS fields that are white and ready for harvest! Each of these responsibilities that HE gives us to perform, can be accomplished if we will first be the branch:
• Be a Branch!
John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing *.
As a branch we have the burden and responsibility to be fruitful brances for JESUS! But if we will be fruitful, we MUST abide in HIM, for without HIM we can do nothing! Our lives as a fruitful testimony will give us the strength we need for our other duties!
• Be a Witness!
Isaiah 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
43:11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
Let us seek to bear our burden as workers of the LORD, to testify of HIS saving power through HIS BLOOD!
• Be Salt!
Matthew 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted ? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
Keep the saltiness of the WORD in our hearts, so that we through the salt of the WORD, may cause others to become thirsty for the living WATER of the WORD!
• Be Light!
Matthew 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot * be hid.
5:15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
We must keep the oil of the SPIRIT within our vessels if we purpose to be the light that will illuminate the world of darkness around us! Phillipians 2:14-15 tells us to “do all things without murmuring and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world”!!!
• Be Epistles!
II Corinthians 3:2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
If we are a living epistle, written with the pen of GOD’S love, dipped in the oil of the SPIRIT, and engraved on the tables of our hearts and lives, then the world can read the instructions of JESUS and HIS gospel in us. For some people, our lives will be the only epistle that they will ever read. The responsibility is to live in such a way that others can be well instructed!
• Be Ambassadors!
II Corinthians 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
An ambassador is a person who stands in the place or in the stead of another person or country, and represents them. Since we are ambassadors for CHRIST, we are to stand in HIS stead and beseech men to turn to GOD and be reconciled to HIM. In order to do so, we must become more each day like JESUS, so as to act on HIS behalf as HE would act!!
• Be Stewards!
I Peter 4:10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another *, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Many times we think of our stewardship in terms of earthly things that we have been blessed with. Yes, we are to be sensible in our daily operations of earthly things, but the focus of stewardship as a believer is concerning the “gift” that each believer has been given to operate in the SPIRIT. Not to bring attention to ourselves, but to minister to each other with! Being a good steward, is providing what you have in abundance to a brother or sister in the LORD who has need of that very thing! Being a good steward is not to store up or bury the gift that you have recieved so that you may return it all to the LORD untouched at HIS appearing! You are to spread the gift that you have received, so that others may benefit from your gift, and that others gifts may benefit you! And in so doing, your gifts are multiplied, and you will not be empty handed at the return of JESUS, but with joy will be able to bring many sheaves of wheat with you from the harvest!
There are many more facets of the responsibilities of the believer, but if we operate in these seven, we will be fruitful and multiply unto all good works!
In the darkness around us, be the light! In the degradation and decay, be the salt! But most of all, HOLD ON to the TRUE VINE, and be a fruit producing branch for the GLORY of GOD!!
Pastor Stephen