By Kathryn Mann
How often do you really hear the Lord calling you to action? Personally, I feel His comfort a lot. I feel His peace. I am often urged to spend more time in His presence, praying and worshipping Him.
This morning was different. I am reading through the Bible with The Bible Recap, and today we made it to the crossing of the Red Sea. I noticed something I had never noticed before…and honestly, deep down in my slumbering soul, wish I had read right past it.
“The LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.”
— Exodus 14:15-16
There is so much work done in our prayers, in our kneeling before the Lord, in our beholding, and in our worship. But stated simply, sometimes God wants us to get up and act.
In this instance within Exodus, God is telling Moses, “Don’t spend too much time in a lengthy prayer. I have already put my power within your staff. Use it! Lift the staff and divide this sea so that my people can cross dry ground.”
At the same time as I read this, I hear Him crying out to us: “Yes, please pray to me. I love to give guidance. But go act! I have given you the power of the Spirit. The same power that divided the Red Sea and raised Jesus from the dead is within YOU. Use it! Go!”
Many of you have been with us as we’ve begun studying the spiritual gifts. (If you’re new here, I encourage you to go check them out here.) These gifts are glorious gifts from the Father. Each of us is wonderfully and uniquely made-crafted with purpose by the grand Creator Himself. He knows exactly what He does and why. Everyone is given special spiritual gifts. No one is excluded, and no one has every single gift. We all need one another’s gifts for Kingdom flourishing. We all need one another to act.
There is so much beauty in praying to the Lord and dreaming-dreaming of all that He could divinely do with these precious gifts. However, at some point, God wants us to get up and GO. He did not necessarily give us these gifts simply to meditate on. He gave us these gifts because we are His hands and feet; we are His ambassadors here on earth (2 Corinthians 5:20). He calls us to use them for the sake of His glory and His people. And He won’t leave us in this process. He gives us these gifts similarly to how He gave Moses the staff. He places His power within the staff and within our gifts and will work mightily through them as we lift them up for Him.
The best practice we can do is by doing. This won’t always be perfect, and we may not always see fruit. Sometimes when I teach an English as a Second Language (using my knowledge for English and the Bible), it is simply not extraordinary. It’s ordinary. I often stumble on my words and get stuck with how to explain something simple. But you know what, I improve as I go, and I can trust that the Spirit is moving and working way more than I could ever imagine. He’s working in all of us and through all of us more than we could comprehend, and He wants us to go out and do for His glory. Don’t fret. He’ll bring the power.
Let’s raise our gifts to the Lord and watch Him use them! It’s time. Today is such a time as this. How will you use your gifts today? I think I’ll take a baby step and practice at home with my husband-letting the Lord use my gifts of faith, shepherding, and knowledge and trusting He will work mightily. He’s a warrior who will do what only He can do.
Let’s act today, ladies, and watch God move.
“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’”
— Matthew 28:18-20
“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
— Esther 4:14
