Have you ever asked God to use you? Most of us have prayed this prayer with something grandiose already in our minds. However, God’s Word has already told us that He has given us a purpose in life and that is to be an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). God, in His infinite grace and wisdom, has chosen not to allow us to see our individual futures. He does not want to rob us of the joy of discovery (Prov. 25:2).
The greatest task that we can perform as His ambassadors is to share the Gospel. God’s Word frequently gives the illustration of farming when it comes to witnessing (Matt. 9:37-38, 1 Cor. 3:7-9). When we witness, we are fulfilling our primary purpose.
I’ve shared witnessing techniques with many people and I have been asked “how do I know if I am supposed to be the one to witness to that person?”. Simply put: you don’t. But does that mean that we shouldn’t witness because we are unsure? Of course not! Again, God has given us the joy of discovery and part of that discovery is seeing first-hand how God is using us to fulfill His plan.
Is it far-fetched to believe that the Apostles were not continuously amazed at discovering how all of our paths cross for the glory of God?
In Acts chapter 8, the Apostle Philip was told to head south from Jerusalem (Acts 8:26). It was there that he ran into an Ethiopian eunuch reading from Isaiah. That man had a hunger for God’s Word and to know God, but instead of giving the eunuch a vision or sending an angel to speak to him, God gave the honor to Philip to show the eunuch, Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. The Ethiopian eunuch then got saved.
In Acts chapter 10, we meet a man named Cornelius that revered God, but did not know His salvation. Cornelius was a gentile that continually prayed to the God of Israel and gladly gave donations (Acts 10:1-4). Unlike the Ethiopian eunuch, this man did speak with an angel. However, again, He gave the honor of leading this man to Christ to the Apostle Peter.
When you look at these two examples, you can understand what Peter was saying in Acts 10:34-35. God will send somebody to witness of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ which is the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-4) to those that desire to know Him.
Frequently throughout the classic work My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers, the author spoke of reckless abandon. It is easy for us to get so caught up in the planning and the details that we don’t actually get anything done. If you are spending time obeying God’s command to study the Bible (2 Tim. 2:15) and have enough trust in what God’s Word says when it comes to salvation, then give into the reckless abandon and do what God says: be a witness for Christ.
If God has inspired you to write, then write. If He has inspired you to teach, then teach. Just do it and stop worrying. None of us knows what the outcome will be for these works. We don’t know how many people we will lead to the Lord and we don’t know how many people we will inspire to stop backsliding. What we do know, however, is this:
”For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." - 2 Corinthians 5:10
AND
”Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” - 1 Corinthians 3:13-15
One day, every believer’s works (not their salvation!) will be judged by Christ. Do you have any works to be judged? With all due respect and with all sense of encouragement I say this: get over yourself and just do it! Stop making excuses. It does not matter if we are afraid or uncertain because the Bible says that “… we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
Click here and here for more studies on the Judgment Seat of Christ.