I remember hearing a story. I am a little fuzzy on the details. I believe it went something like this. I believe it was Charles Finney. He was challenged by his law professor. He asked him what he was going to do after he graduated. The
conversation went something like this. So what are you going to do after you graduate Charles? Well practice law. What are you going to do after that? Well, get married and have some kids? And what will you do after that? Well some day I suppose I will retire? Then what will you do after that? Well I suppose I will die and then go to heaven. So what will you have accomplished on earth for the Lord?
That was the million dollar question. If we could think it reverse. Will we get it right down here? I am not talking about being saved; I am talking about walking it out according to the Bible. When I was forty-seven years old, I had a crisis of faith and this question just scared me to death. I knew I had lived a sub-par life in so many ways as a believer and a minister of the gospel. If you have listened or read my testimony you know that I prayed a prayer, a very dangerous prayer, in 2005. I prayed “God whatever you have to do to change me, do it, just spare my life, give me a vision of heaven or hell.”
I went through what I call seven years in hell to change me. I came out a different man. I am still learning and
changing.
So who do you want to be: if you are a guy do you want to be Tom Brady or the Apostle Paul? If you are a woman do you want to be the winner of American
Idol or Kathryn Kuhlman. In case you don’t know who she was, she was a woman, just an ordinary woman who was mightily used by God in divine healing in the 60s and 70s. She said that God used who because nobody else would take the job and she was willing. My point is this: is there a desire for us in our generation to seek spiritual excellence? I wonder if we think it is unattainable, so we just give up.
I found that it is attainable. I am living it out. What I knew existed, I have found to be true. I have made a commitment to walk it out myself. As I stated in my testimony, I was the biggest wimp who ever lived. If God can change me, he can do the same or more for you.
I want to get this right. I only have one chance. Life is so short and it is slipping away from each one of us. I wish I have figured this out twenty or thirty years ago. I am thankful that with God’s help it did become real to me. I believe God will reward us in heaven according to our faithfulness and the motives of our hearts. He will look at our individual lives and the gifts and callings he has put within us. But everyone will be rewarded and held accountable to what do they do with the Great Commission found in Mark 16:15-20 and Matthew 28:19, 20. This is what we will be mainly judged on for rewards and obedience. These are really Jesus final
instructions to all believers. Did I disciple people? (Win and teach and train them) Did I get people healed? Did I help people get set free from bondages? Did I assist people in getting filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and teach
them to walk in it?
Will you get this right? I challenge you to think in reverse. Wouldn’t be a shame if you were a successful person in this life but failed to do what Jesus commanded you to do. Think of it this way, if you saved for retirement (which you should) and had plenty of money for that fifteen years after you retire but didn’t strive for spiritual excellent for Jesus, that would seem pretty sad and short-sighted in the light of eternity. Souls that you led to the Lord you can
take with you. You and they can rejoice in heaven forever and ever, and your reward never corrupts, and God gets all the glory!!!
conversation went something like this. So what are you going to do after you graduate Charles? Well practice law. What are you going to do after that? Well, get married and have some kids? And what will you do after that? Well some day I suppose I will retire? Then what will you do after that? Well I suppose I will die and then go to heaven. So what will you have accomplished on earth for the Lord?
That was the million dollar question. If we could think it reverse. Will we get it right down here? I am not talking about being saved; I am talking about walking it out according to the Bible. When I was forty-seven years old, I had a crisis of faith and this question just scared me to death. I knew I had lived a sub-par life in so many ways as a believer and a minister of the gospel. If you have listened or read my testimony you know that I prayed a prayer, a very dangerous prayer, in 2005. I prayed “God whatever you have to do to change me, do it, just spare my life, give me a vision of heaven or hell.”
I went through what I call seven years in hell to change me. I came out a different man. I am still learning and
changing.
So who do you want to be: if you are a guy do you want to be Tom Brady or the Apostle Paul? If you are a woman do you want to be the winner of American
Idol or Kathryn Kuhlman. In case you don’t know who she was, she was a woman, just an ordinary woman who was mightily used by God in divine healing in the 60s and 70s. She said that God used who because nobody else would take the job and she was willing. My point is this: is there a desire for us in our generation to seek spiritual excellence? I wonder if we think it is unattainable, so we just give up.
I found that it is attainable. I am living it out. What I knew existed, I have found to be true. I have made a commitment to walk it out myself. As I stated in my testimony, I was the biggest wimp who ever lived. If God can change me, he can do the same or more for you.
I want to get this right. I only have one chance. Life is so short and it is slipping away from each one of us. I wish I have figured this out twenty or thirty years ago. I am thankful that with God’s help it did become real to me. I believe God will reward us in heaven according to our faithfulness and the motives of our hearts. He will look at our individual lives and the gifts and callings he has put within us. But everyone will be rewarded and held accountable to what do they do with the Great Commission found in Mark 16:15-20 and Matthew 28:19, 20. This is what we will be mainly judged on for rewards and obedience. These are really Jesus final
instructions to all believers. Did I disciple people? (Win and teach and train them) Did I get people healed? Did I help people get set free from bondages? Did I assist people in getting filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and teach
them to walk in it?
Will you get this right? I challenge you to think in reverse. Wouldn’t be a shame if you were a successful person in this life but failed to do what Jesus commanded you to do. Think of it this way, if you saved for retirement (which you should) and had plenty of money for that fifteen years after you retire but didn’t strive for spiritual excellent for Jesus, that would seem pretty sad and short-sighted in the light of eternity. Souls that you led to the Lord you can
take with you. You and they can rejoice in heaven forever and ever, and your reward never corrupts, and God gets all the glory!!!
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