I used to be with a gospel quartet many years ago. After being around and listening to the top groups of that day, I was able to distinguish individual voices of my favorite singers. Even today, when I listen to gospel music I can still name the quartet that is singing. Why? Because I became familiar with their different voices. It's not hard for me to pick out J.D. Blackwood or Rex Nelon from the other bass singers. It's not hard for me to recognize a song sung by The Speers, Bill Gaither Vocal Band, The Hinsons, The Cathedrals, Gold City Quartet. And, I certainly can't miss when I hear the Happy Goodman Family, especially Vestal Goodman. What an anointing to sing that precious lady had.
God created every voice to be as different as a finger print. He created every individual person to be different from everybody else. The problem that Christians face is that we try to be carbon copies of our favorite preacher, teacher, or singer and we get ourselves messed up.
There's only one Billy Graham. He didn't become the great evangelist he was by copying someone else. His burning desire was to be what God wanted him to be. I've read books by Andrew Murray. Currently, I am re-reading My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. I have a CD in my Isuzu by Beth Moore. These and more great teachers and preachers have a common thread. They let God develop them the way HE wanted them to be developed.
If you looked into the lives of all your favorite preachers and teachers, you'll find that all of them went through different circumstances, ups and downs, struggles and victories. All of those things were molding processes that God used to bring out His anointing in them.
God is the only one that knows who and what we really are and He custom designs a road for all of us to travel. Stop grouching about it! He's trying to mold you in a way that He knows you really are. Like He told Saul of Tarsus, "Quit kicking against the ox goad." Saul was trying to be the best Pharisee in the world but that wasn't who he really was.
It is an entirely different world when we settle down and allow God to make us who He designed us to be. Like me, you might be struggling with an identity crisis. Don't be afraid to be a little different than the rest. Your fingerprint is. The things you have stirring down inside of you that you haven't quite seen in anyone else, could they be God trying to do a new thing in you? I can't tell you, only God can. That's why you need to know HIM and not try to be your Grandma's version of who you need to be.
Here's what the Apostle Paul wrote in Phil 3:13--I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ. We all know that Paul was different than any other minister of the gospel. Here he gives us a clue. When Jesus called him on the road to Damascus, He "apprehended" Paul. Today we would say "A God-thing grabbed a hold of me." Then let's repeat that verse this way--I'm running hard to grab a hold of the thing I felt God grab a hold of me for.
God created you. He saved you. He grabbed a hold of you. He didn't save and grab a hold of a carbon copy of anybody. He grabbed you. Individual you. Like nobody you've ever seen before, you. Be the best you that God wants you to be even if you say or act differently than anyone else you're around.
No comments:
Post a Comment