Pastor Sam Pack

Overcoming Our Past

“Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.”–Judges 11:29a.

We’ve all heard stories of individuals who have overcome extreme hardship during their childhood years. Children of alcoholics, orphans who never have parents, loss of parents to a fatal crash, childhood disease – these are all difficult circumstances to overcome.

Jephthah was a man who overcame his obstacles and refused to allow his circumstances to prevent him from becoming great in God’s sight. He was born to Gilead, a result of his father’s adulterous encounter with a prostitute. Jephthah’s half-brothers decided to reject Jephthah, and drove him away from their home saying, “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family because you are the son of another woman.” Imagine the rejection this young man felt as he was cast away from his own family.

This experience taught Jephthah to become a hardened warrior. Today he probably would have been part of a street gang. As he got older, his reputation as a warrior became known to those in his country, so much so that when the Ammonites made war on Israel, the elders of Gilead went to Jephthah and asked him to be their commander. Jephthah had to fight off those feelings of rejection from previous years. “Didn’t you hate me and drive me from my father’s house?” he responded. He overcame his hurt and pain, and responded to the call God had on his life.

It is said that if we were to help the butterfly remove itself from the cocoon, the butterfly would not be strong enough to survive. It is the struggle that prepares the butterfly to become strong enough to fly.
Without the struggle in the cocoon, it could not survive as a butterfly.

The Lord prepares each of us in similar ways. Some of us, our childhood seems to have been harsh and born from a seemingly unloving God. However, the Lord knows our struggle and will make our life an instrument in His hand if we will follow Him with an upright heart. He does make all things beautiful in His time if we are willing to be patient.

Is Perception Reality?

“And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”—1 Kings 19:14.

The CEO walked into his manufacturing plant only to observe an employee standing by idly not working. Angrily, he walked over to him, peeled off a $100 bill and gave it to him: “Here, go spend your time elsewhere!” The man looked at the CEO somewhat puzzled, but left with the $100. “How long has that man worked for us?” said the CEO to the employee standing nearby. “Well sir, that man does not work for us; he is only the delivery man.”

Perception is not always reality. Elijah was in a crisis. Jezebel wanted to kill him. The nation was falling into Baal worship. From his vantage point – it was all over. He was the only prophet remaining in all the land who had not bent his knee to the idol of Baal. He wanted to die.

Then, the Lord sent His angel to correct Elijah’s perception: “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel – all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him”—1 Kings 19:18. There were seven thousand Elijah knew nothing about! Elijah’s perception was not reality.

Whenever things are going poorly, there is a temptation to believe God is not working in the situation. We may even believe our life is over. Everything from our vantage point is dark. We see no future. However, even in these times, God’s plan is being orchestrated behind the scenes. He is accomplishing His purposes. But we need a fresh perspective on our situation.

Do you need a reality check on your situation? Ask God to show you the truth. It may be very different than your perception.

Ability Versus Availability

“He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. 11 The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.”—Psalm 147:10-11.

Do you ever feel so skilled in what you do that you require little help from others? Perhaps you may feel that you are more skilled than any other in your field. Does God need your skills and abilities in order to accomplish His purposes on this earth? The answer is, NO.

One thing God does not need is our skills and abilities. However, He does give us the privilege to exercise our gifts and abilities for His service. That service may be as a computer technician, a secretary, an iron worker, or even a lawyer. God calls each of us to our vocations to work unto Him. To believe that He needs our skills to accomplish His mission on earth would be to lower our understanding of an all-encompassing and all-powerful God. The psalmist tells us that His pleasure is not in our strength and ability, but His pleasure is in the attitude of the heart. It is what we find in the heart that helps determine whether ability is translated into availability. You see God is looking to and fro throughout the earth for a man or woman who is fully committed to Him. A man or woman who is committed to fearing the Lord and placing his hope in His unfailing love is the person God
seeks to support. “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. . .”—2 Chronicles 16:9a. When His agenda becomes our agenda, we can expect God to fully support all that we do.

If we want to see our skills and abilities multiplied a hundred fold, then we must make them completely available to His service. Where are the opportunities in which God is calling you to be available to Him? Next
time someone asks you to be involved in some activity, before you say yea or nay, make sure you check in with the Master of our decisions to ensure that your gifts and talents are being used, as He desires.

Faith Experiences

“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:”—1 Peter 1:7.

One of the great tragedies of the Christian life is that if we fail to enter into a relationship with God that is born of the Holy Spirit, we are left with a religion, not a relationship. Many live with an intellectual belief in God, but without a relationship that is based on two-way communication. This is one of the great tragedies of modern Christianity. It’s like having a brand-new car but never having the gas to run it. It can’t move you anywhere. It only looks pretty, but one cannot enjoy the ride.

Peter tells us that until our faith is proved genuine, we will never be able to give praise, glory, and honor to Jesus, because until such testing He will not be revealed in our lives. Peter describes this in the verse before: “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials”—1 Peter 1:6. Trials, when responded to correctly, will bring us to a level of trust and experience with God that we would never know otherwise. These
“faith experiences” with God allow us to know firsthand the faithfulness of God, the love of God, and the personal nature of God. If you cannot recount several instances when God has met you personally, then chances are your faith has not been born of the Holy Spirit into a living relationship with God. It is easy to fall prey to a relationship to God that never experiences His real presence; rather, it is based on knowledge only. This is a tragic place to be.

If this is where you have been in your Christian experience, ask God today to make Himself real to you. Ask Him to show you His personal nature and love. He desires to do this. Those whom He has called know His voice. He will show Himself to those who are His. “. . .He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself
to him”–John 14:21b.

The Necessity Of The Desert

“. . .I have been a stranger in a strange land.”—Exodus 2:22

God’s preparation of a leader involves training, extended times of waiting, pain, rejection, and isolation. Are you ready to sign up?

Moses was brought up in Pharaoh’s court. He had the very best of everything–education, clothing, food, and personal care. But there came a time when the man God would use to free an entire people from slavery was going to have to learn to be the leader God wanted. At age 40, when most of us want to be thinking about winding down instead of beginning a new career, Moses was forced to flee to the desert.

Like Joseph and Abraham, Moses had to endure some difficult years of preparation that first involved removal from his current situation. He went from notoriety to obscurity, from limitless resources to no resources, from activity and action to inactivity and solitude. And, most importantly, waiting. And waiting. And waiting. He probably thought he would die in the land of Midian.

Then one day, a full 40 years from the day he arrived, God appeared to Moses in a burning bush. Everything changed. God said, “It is time.” The years had seasoned the vessel to prepare him to accomplish the
work.

God is preparing many believers today. The circumstances may be different. The time frames may not be quite as long. But the characteristics of the training are still the same. Do not try to shortcut the desert time of God. It only leads to cul-de-sacs, which force you to revisit the lessons you are meant to learn. Embrace them, so that He can use your life for something extraordinary.

Obeying The Spirit Of God

“And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.”—Acts 8:26.

Philip was conducting what we might today call a revival meeting. God was blessing the meeting, and many were being healed and delivered from demonic influence. Here is the scene: “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. 6 And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. 8 And there was great joy in that city.”—Acts 8:5-8.

And yet, in the midst of this great event, the Holy Spirit spoke to Philip and told him to remove himself and go to a completely different area to speak to one individual. Philip was so sensitive to the directive of the Holy Spirit that he left what would be deemed a successful event to go speak to another—an Ethiopian eunuch. The result of his obedience was that Philip led the eunuch to faith in Christ and baptized him. The Lord then took Philip away supernaturally to another region many miles away.

God’s ways of determining where we invest our time and energy often have little to do with results. The danger for each of us is to determine that we are in the center of God’s will simply by the success or failure of the events we are involved in. Our plumb line for determining success can be only one thing: obedience. Philip responded in obedience to the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Are you listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit? Has God prompted you to speak, go, or come alongside another? Ask God today to help you hear the Holy Spirit’s voice so that you might be used mightily in your life.

Are You Horizontal Or Vertical?

“Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”—Isaiah 5:21.

Many of us have been trained to make decisions and respond to problems in a horizontal way instead of vertical. Operating from a horizontal basis means we try to fix the problem through our own self-efforts by bringing greater pressure upon it through our reasoning or our natural skills. Operating from a vertical position means we are seeking God for the answer and waiting for him to impact the problem. Perhaps it is a spouse who fails to put their clothes away, or a boss who is overly critical, or an employee that you clash with. When we
operate horizontally we attempt to shame or coerce the other to change their ways.

God knows the solution to the problem before it ever exists. Our responsibility is to ask God for help to solve the problem and to rely on Him for the outcome. The minute we take on the responsibility, God quietly stands by to let us experience failure until we decide to seek Him for the answer.

One of the best examples of the contrast between a vertical and horizontal dimension in scripture is that of King Saul and David (see 1 Samuel 25). King Saul thought the way to preserve his kingdom was to kill David. While in pursuit of him there were several occasions when David had the opportunity to kill Saul, but David chose to wait upon God’s timing and await his own deliverance because he understood authority. David had such respect for those who had been put in authority by God over him that he would not take matters into his own
hands.

Saul represents the exact opposite of this principle. He thought David was the problem and sought to get rid of him through force. As a result, he lost his kingdom because he chose to rule horizontally instead of vertically under God’s rule in his life.

No matter what problem you face today, stay vertical with God.

Isn’t This Joseph’s Son?

“And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?”—Luke 4:22.

Jesus was more qualified to be a carpenter than the Son of God in the view of religious leaders and the common people of his day. He was also becoming known as a rabbi who thought and did things
“outside the box.” He was an unusual mixture of the earthly common man who did daily work just like his other villagers in Nazareth. So, when the public ministry side of his life began to surface, the first
observations were, “Isn’t this Joseph, the carpenter’s son?”

This is not unlike what happens when God calls you or me into a more public ministry. “Isn’t that John, the CPA, or Bill the restaurant manager, or Susie the bank executive?” The first question among
our critics is “Where, or when did John, Bill, or Susie get religion?”

The religious spirit in the workplace reveals itself in many ways. The religious spirit can best be defined as an agent of Satan assigned to prevent change and maintain the status quo by using religious
devices. The religious spirit seeks to distort a genuine move of God through deception, control and manipulation. It was the primary force against Jesus designed to intimidate and turn His relationship with
God into a set of rules and regulations. Satan does not want Jesus in the workplace because that is where the authority lies to change a workplace, city or nation. God desires you to bring His presence with
you into the workplace every day. Do not let the enemy of your soul shame you into alienating your faith from your work.

Today, ask Jesus to go into the workplace with you. The two of you just might be the team to bring someone out of slavery and bondage.

Trained For War

“Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:”—Psalm 144:1.

You’ll never experience God in powerful ways by acquiring Bible knowledge alone. It is only when that knowledge is used in the heat of battle that you will know the reality of what you’ve learned intellectually. Otherwise, it remains only an exercise in spiritual gymnastics that yields little fruit.

David became a great warrior and leader of a nation at an early age. His training ground was his job as a shepherd in the open fields. When bears and lions sought to take his sheep, he personally fought them. This was his early preparation for future battles. Goliath was the real competition amongst a discerning audience to reveal how well his training prepared him.

Today, our local churches often look more like luxury cruise liners designed to tickle the ears, entertain its members and make them feel good instead of a battleship designed to train an army for war. The average member still watches from the sideline.

In sports you discover how well you handle pressure by competing. You can practice all you want but never know how you will do until you enter the game and test what you’ve learned and practiced when there is pressure added to the equation. In battle you discover how well you are trained by what you actually do on the battlefield.

Have you ever prayed with someone in public? Have you ever personally led someone to Christ? Have you ever served others for the sake of the Gospel? Have you ever taught a Sunday School Class? If you said no to these questions, you are not engaged in the game. Today, why not ask God to give you the grace to step onto the battlefield.

Cleaning Toilets

“. . .and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down.”—Daniel 5:19.

Tom desired a career in the building industry. Early in his career, he was working with a large ministry to help direct several of their construction projects.

As the projects were completed, Tom was asked to stay on for future projects. To keep him busy he was given a number of jobs – one of which was cleaning toilets. He recalls getting down on his knees each day and complaining to the Lord, “Lord, I’m a college graduate!”

Discouraged, Tom told the Lord, “I will not leave here until You promote me. Please give me contentment with my circumstance.”

Tom felt totally forgotten by God. A few months later, Tom received a phone call from a man in the Midwest who owned five successful businesses who wanted to interview Tom for a job. This came as a total surprise to Tom. As he drove to the interview, he told the Lord, “I only want your will in my life, nothing else. I am content to remain obscure for the rest of my life if I have You. You must override my lack of experience for me to get this job.”

The owner of the company asked Tom a surprising question: “If I asked you to clean a toilet, what would you do?” Tom sat there, stunned. He wanted to burst out laughing. Tom assured him that he would simply pick up a sponge and start cleaning.

Amazingly, Tom was hired even though other candidates were more qualified. After several months of success Tom asked his boss why he hired him. His boss replied, “Tom, I still have a large stack of applications from people who wanted this job. Do you remember the first question I asked you in the interview? I asked each one the same question. You were the only one who said he would clean the toilet. Tom, I am a wealthy man, but I grew up dirt poor. I clean my own toilets at home. I can’t have people running my businesses who are too proud to clean a toilet.”

Sometimes God places us in situations to see if we will be faithful in those before He is willing to promote us to greater things.