Good morning you guys! Numbers Chapter 10.
In this chapter we see how God spoke through Moses, his anointed one, to the leadership of the Israelites and to the people as a whole. God asked Moses to make two trumpets which were used to communicate with the Israelites.
1. It was used to call the leadership to meet together.
2. It was used to tell the whole community to meet together.
3. It was used to tell the people it was time to move out to a new place.
4. It was used to remind people that God goes before them in battle.
5. It was used at a time of rejoicing so people would not forget what God was doing.
6. When people responded to Gods communication it was done in an orderly manner.
When I read this I get a picture in my mind.
1. God is number one and is to be over all of the body of Christ. He will speak to the body and the body is to be obedient to God's voice.
2. God, like Moses, has an anointed leader. God will speak to the anointed leader a vision and direction. This leader needs to share this with the other leadership team and work together to move it forward.
3. The leadership team exists and is to lead over the ministries within the church, the Body of Christ.
4. The body of Christ, the church, is to be obedient to God's leadership team. They are to be available to be used within the different ministries God has called them to.
Before the Body of Christ can function properly and in an orderly manner, the leadership of the church must be connected to Christ in daily Bible reading and prayer. If the anointed leader is not connected with Christ how can he show the vision of God to the leadership team. And if the leadership team is not connected to Christ how can you expect them to hear the voice of God and how can they expect the rest of the body to have a hunger and desire to be connected with God in the word. We need godly leaders, who are examples to the rest of the body of Christ to follow.
Where are you currently at within the body of Christ? Are you an anointed leader? Are you on the leadership team? Are you a part of the body of Christ who's willing to be used by God? Or are you not involved at all?
Where do you feel God is calling you? Perhaps he's calling you to be an anointed leader. Don't rule that out. Perhaps he's calling you to be a leader of a given ministry. If you are not active at all perhaps he's calling you to be a part of a given ministry within the church.
Are you willing to submit and obey your leadership? Are you argumentative with them? Remember Hebrews 13:17 where it says obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy and not a burden.
I'm excited to see what God is going to do in and through our lives!!
When I read about the two trumpets being used to sound an alarm, I was thinking about how my cell phone is somewhat a modern version of this in some ways as it notifies me about amber alerts and weather alerts. It seems like it has been going off more frequently with warnings of flooding in recent days. I’ve noticed how I seem to pay less and less attention now to it when it makes that sound as compared to the first few times that it made the same noise. I guess that you could say that I’ve become more familiar with it now.
I was thinking that’s how we can become with temptation and sin if we aren’t careful. We might see the warning signs or hear the alarm that the Holy Spirit gives us, but do we treat it like we should?
WATCH OUT! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY! DANGER AHEAD!
How do we react? “Oh, this is no big deal. This isn’t a problem for me. I’ve been in this situation before. I can handle this on my own.” Those are the kinds of responses that Satan wants us to have. If we ever think that we don’t need to pay attention to an alarm from God, we’re in big trouble!
May we not become too familiar or numb to the warning signals that we receive from the Holy Spirit, but instead listen closely to what He has to tell us to get away from the temptation and stay away from the sin. I think of how Jesus responded to temptation with God’s Word and how we need to be consistently in the Bible, feeding on it to know it and ready for any attack.
I’m reminded of 1 Corinthians 10:13. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
When I first moved to the city I currently live in, I had a stronger desire to be a leader in my church. I didn’t take on a huge role, but after going to a ministry fair, I felt God calling me to lead the rosary at a local nursing home where some of the parishioners of my church lived. At first I was just a helper, and a different couple was in charge, but then after many months, that couple moved away and it was like I became the leader. A few months after that and rosary was changed from Saturday mornings to Wednesday’s, when I was teaching my full time job. Part of my was a little relieved as selfishly I could have my Saturday mornings back (and i was also anticipating the birth of my son), but I also did not seek out other roles in the church. We live in a hugely populated area, our church alone has 6,000 families as registered parishioners. Families, most with 3, 4, or 5+ children- so if you do the math that’s a lot of people. I have used the excuse that I’m just another face in the crowd, or a little fish in a big sea, as well as my “busy” life to avoid joining a different ministry. As my family prepares to make a big journey and move to a much smaller area, I pray that I follow the call of leadership in my church that God leads me to. That I don’t let excuses stop me from going where He is calling me to