HOW GOD KEEPS US USABLE
- 2 CORINTHIANS 12:1-10
Introduction
Everything in life needs constant maintenance. Only God and certain elements of His creation seem exempt (Ecclesiastes 12:6-7).
Even the Christian life has to be maintained, and this usually requires of us co-operation with God. God, because of His commitment to us, works at maintaining our Spiritual life with or without our agreement.
“It is one thing to be used by God,
it is another thing to stay usable”
There is no more tragic circumstance to observe, than a Christian who at one time was used by God but through circumstances, through neglect, through lack of maintenance is now not usable and has been “placed on the shelf”. Our prayer should always be, “Lord Keep us usable”.
1. What Is It That Jeopardizes Our Usefulness? (2 Corinthians 12:1-4)
God specially honoured Paul.
By giving him special visions and revelations (v1).
By taking him into heaven (v2).
By giving him special divine truth (v3).
By permitting him to hear unspeakable words (v4).
God motivated Paul with these revelations to be used mightily by Him to establish the church across the region. The thing that most jeopardizes our usefulness is the fact that we have been used by God. When God has specially blessed us or used us in a special way, we can become unusable because we can become exalted above measure. When our natural talent, our people skills, our methodology, or our self-effort is credited with success, rather than God, we become unusable.
Examples:
Moses - denied access to the Promised Land
Samson - Spirit of the Lord removed
As we begin to take God for granted, we begin to operate in the energy of the flesh. God has to continually effect spiritual maintenance in our lives so that we might be usable.
2. How Does God keep us Usable? 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh…” (v7) Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me (v8). But he said to me, ”My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power my rest on me (v9). …for when I am weak then I am strong (v10).
“God keeps us usable by keeping us weak”
It was the thorn in the flesh that made Paul usable - not the third heaven experience.
· Many of us line up for a “third heaven” experience, but very few line up for a “Thorn in the Flesh” experience.
· Most of us would like to have the “thorn experience” removed.
· God allows certain afflictions to remain, regardless of our prayers - for they have a special purpose.
· God never presented in the Bible that an afflicted Christian is a disgrace to God, is in sin, and that perfect health is promised to anyone.
· Affliction can be a mark of God’s ownership, and His desire to keep us usable and God dependant.
How are you handling God’s maintenance programs in your life?
· Bitterness, anger or rejection?
· Giving up and dropping the bundle?
· Gritting the teeth with grim determination?
or
· Praying for deliverance from sickness and pain, realizing that God has not obligated Himself to heal everyone, but He encourages us to bring Him our burdens (Hebrews 4:12) and finally realize that God’s grace is totally sufficient.
The Principles, Process and Possibilities
The Principles
· God’s strength is made perfect in weakness (1 Corinthians 1:25-29; 2 Chronicles 26:14-16; 20:20-21a; Acts 7:22) See examples of Moses, Gideon etc.
When we think we are qualified, we aren’t!
When we think we are not qualified, we are!
God bypasses many so-called ‘great people’ because all they would be is a hindrance to His work. God’s criterion for selection is not strength, but weakness, so that man cannot boast, and all glory can be given to Him.
· When God uses us, allow Him to keep us humble whilst so doing. For when we are weak, then we are strong (Philippians 3:7-9). See examples of Paul and Moses. You become strong in the Lord by becoming weak in yourself.
Paul was a great man: learning, position, status and personality, but he had to “die” to these before he could be used.
The Process
The process is a thorn. God gave Paul the thorn, yet it was a messenger from Satan (v7).
· Not even Satan can touch us without God’s permission
· Satan thinks he is destroying Paul with the thorn
· But God knows He is maintaining Paul’s usability with the thorn
· Paul would have aggravated Satan into action, as his ministry was successful.
· God could see that Paul was becoming inflated with his own importance
· As with Job, God said, “Satan, you have him.”
A thorn in the flesh is anything in your life that reveals your weakness that drives you in despair to the Lord.
It may be physical, spiritual, circumstantial; emotional - anything that brings you back to that point in your life where you realize that you are totally helpless and hopeless without God.
· There will be times when God puts us through the mill and we feel incredibly weak - but they will be times of great blessing.
Greatest Trials Come After Greatest Triumphs
Greatest Blessings Come After Greatest Trials
· There will be times when we have been incredibly effective and we will never know about it.
· There will be times when we feel a failure, but we are not.
These trials too are indicators that God is maintaining our usability.
We may want our thorn to be removed, but what we really need is to experience a new dimension of grace (2 Corinthians 12:9).
The Possibilities
From the principles and process connected with staying usable, what then are the possibilities?
· The door to usefulness is open to everybody - He can even use a donkey’s jaw! (Samson)
God’s Strength + Our Weakness = Success
· Victory in problems and suffering is possible - God’s power is being poured out (2 Corinthians 12:9b).
· The power of Christ is available to every one of us (2 Corinthians 12:9b).
· We gain a new appreciation of Jesus.
We will never know that Jesus is all that we need
Till we realize He is all that we have got
When we know that He is all we have got
Then we will realize that He is all we need.
Conclusion
God is in the business of guarding His investment, of maintaining our usability. He will not allow us to remain unusable for long. He allows thorns in the flesh to help keep us usable. Sadly many Christians have never understood this truth, and have fought God, become bitter, have rebelled, only finally to be placed on the shelf unused.
God wants us to hang in there, learn from our lessons quickly, allow His Spirit to transform us to Christ’s image, so that He may be glorified by the witness of the life of Christ - and we may experience that deep inner peace and joy that passes all understanding (2 Corinthians 12:10; 7:7-11; Philippians 4:10-13,19).
Our prayer to God should always be, “Lord do anything in my life to keep me usable!”
Discussion Questions
1. What are the key areas of your life (physical, psychological, and spiritual), that need special maintenance at this time? Share in the group.
2. What in your life most jeopardizes your usefulness to God?
3. What examples have you in your life of God breaking you down in order to build you up? What did you learn from the experience?
4. Have you any “thorns” in your life that God continually uses to break your self-reliance and create God–reliance?
5. On the basis of this message, is there legitimately any call of God to you that is beyond you if you rest in God’s strength? If so, is there a current challenge of God that you must now cease avoiding?