Practical Wisdom from the Word of God

Colossians 1:25-27 (NLT) ²⁵ God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you. ²⁶ This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. ²⁷ For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory..

This year I have been focusing on one basic idea. This idea flows from the prayer Jesus prayed for his disciples in John 17. I believe this was not just a prayer for the 12 men with Jesus in the upper room. He said that he was praying for all who would believe on him through their word. Directly or indirectly that includes all of us Therefore, Jesus is praying for all of us. Let me quote that payer once more this year.

John 17:14-16 (NKJV) ¹⁴ I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world..

I believe we are to be people who are “of” the heavenly realm living in the natural world. Our calling is to live with an awareness of who Jesus is and our vital connection with him while we function in the everyday world. We must not be supernatural people in church but something else in the rest of our living. We must not make supernatural or spiritual decisions about religious matters but make our natural decisions using natural methods. Most important of all, we must not behave according to one set of standards in our church life and another in our secular life. In everything we do and in all that we say, we must be governed by the supernatural standards of the Word of God.

We are in the natural world, but we are not of the natural world. Our wealth is not here. Our true home is not here. Our power does not come from here. The real source of our wealth is not here. What we have to give to this world does not come from our physical ability or our physical gifts. We are of another world. We are of the world of the spirit. We are here to bring the power and truth of that world to our world. If we do not do that, we have not fulfilled our destiny.

When I got home from my most recent missions trip Kenya, I was able to give our church a good report about what their investment had accomplished. When we get to our eternal home, will Jesus have a good report concerning his investment in us on planet Earth? I sometimes wonder about my own life. Will I hear, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” Will I instead have to be eternally content with the approval of men? How about you?

There is another word for those who successfully walk as Supernatural people in the natural world. They are called “great in the Kingdom of God.” I believe we should desire to be great in the kingdom of God. The last few weeks we have been looking at what it takes for that to happen.

We have found that greatness comes from serving one another. We have found that greatness requires that we live the “red letters” of the bible. Jesus said some things that are revolutionary in their scope and impact. This is especially true in the area of walking in the Love of God.

We found from the Life of Noah that a key characteristic of greatness is obedience. What God asks of us we must do. It is not rocket science. Paul Yungi Cho founder and senior pastor of South Korea’s Yoido Full Gospel Church, the largest church in the world, was asked what the key was to his great success. He said, “I pray and I obey.”

I want to touch on something today that is also a pre-requisite for greatness in the Kingdom of God. We must understand that each and every one of us who has been born again has inherent greatness within.

In the world, some people just seem to have greatness in them from birth. There is something about them. It might be some talent or physical ability. Mozart could play the piano by four and was composing at five. Some may remember pictures of a toddler named Tiger Woods who was already playing golf at three.

Others simply have a sense of greatness about them. There may be something about the way they walk or talk that makes people take notice. There may just be a presence about them that causes people to follow. This is what we might call inherent greatness. It is just there.

Having inherent greatness does not mean that those people will fulfill that greatness. Many who have great potential never realize it. They let things get in the way. Sometimes it is the very potential that keeps them from doing the work necessary to fulfill it. Other times it is the choices they make that rob them of their destiny. Sometimes they never get the opportunities that could lead to the realization of what is inside them.

Those who are born with natural greatness have the potential to do great things whether they realize that potential or not. We are not talking about natural greatness. We are talking about greatness in the Kingdom of God. All who receive Jesus as Lord and Savior have the potential for greatness in the Kingdom of God. Just as natural greatness is within some from birth, greatness lives in us because of the New Birth.

Today’s scripture tells us why. You have greatness within you because you have Jesus, the hope of manifested glory, within you. You have inherent greatness because the creator God has come to take up residence in your life. The question is will you and I fulfill the potential we have in Christ.

Most of us believe that we are ordinary. The truth is, in many ways we are. There is nothing wrong with being ordinary in the natural as long as we realize we are extraordinary in the spirit. The media fills us with images of people who live extraordinary lives. Police shows are all the rage on TV now. The officers on those shows have new and exciting cases every week. That is not reality.

The truth is that most people live ordinary lives. That does not mean that you do not have the potential for greatness. You have greatness in you. You have the ability to change lives of people around you by introducing them to Jesus. You have access to the power of the creator God to extend eternal life to the world. You can do great things that have eternal impact. Do not let the devil take that away from you.

Look around you. There are many opportunities to release the greatness inherent in your relationship with Jesus. There are people who need to hear what you have to say. Do not let the devil tell you that you do not matter. Do not let him tell you that you are incapable. That is impossible. The only hope for a manifestation of the Glory of God lives in you.

Your history may not be one of greatness. You may have grown up in poverty or abuse. You may not have the education that some others have. You may have been told all your life that you are worthless and you may have been convinced of the truth of that statement. You may have lived up to it and been worthless. If you are a Christian, you are no longer worthless. The one who is worth everything lives in you.

There are many keys to letting him out where he can use you to do great things. Maybe the most important is to believe that he is really there. If he is really there, living in you, you can and will do great things in the kingdom of God. You may not have the life that TV shows seem to say we should have, but you can have a life that matters.

You are inherently great in the Kingdom of God.