This one thing I do….
Often it’s not the many things we do but the one thing that makes all the difference. The one thing, makes the many things worth while. The one thing is what the many things were all about. Everything else pales compared to what got us to the one thing. Many folks live their entire lives to be finally remembered by the one great thing they did….
Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.13 Brothers, I do not yet consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.…
Paul is encouraging the church of Philipi, to not give up even though it may not seem that they have accomplished much, to keep pressing on, because God is faithful who has promised. The one thing that He encourages them to do is to be faithful in what God has called them to do. But even more, to trust God, more than what they may see, hear or feel.
In the book Second Calling, Dale Bourke writes that years ago, she attended a conference and when it was over, her friend Bruce offered her a ride to the airport. As they were about to leave, another man who was also at the conference, asked if he could get a ride with them. As they drove away from the hotel, she and Bruce asked the man where he worked, and he mentioned the Christian organization he represented at the conference. Bruce commented that, he had fond memories of that group, because once he attended a retreat of theirs, and that’s where he became a Christian. It was in 1972 in New Hampshire. Bruce went on to explain that eventually his whole family became Christians through his conversion, and went into full time Christian service. His sister was a Wycliffe missionary and Bruce himself became publisher of a major Christian publishing house, which brought many significant Christian books to the public forum. Bruce finished the story with a flourish saying that the conference had achieved worldwide impact. The man was silent. Then he said with shaky voice, “I led that retreat. It was my first time as a conference leader, and until this moment, I felt like a total failure. I have always believed that first conference was one of the biggest failures of my life.” Dale wrote of that meeting, “What had seemed like the simple act of offering a ride to a stranger had turned into a powerful reminder that God uses our efforts in ways that we seldom realize.
We may spend the rest of our lives doing things that don’t seem at all successful. Yet God knows the purpose and in the end result, we are simply called to be faithful.” Could you perhaps be the one to lead the next world changer to a relationship with Christ. The next Joseph Prince, or Joel Osteen or perhaps the next TD Jakes or Kenneth Copeland. But there will be some discouragement to overcome, some intimidation to rise above, and some mountains of fear to put under your feet…
Paul in another place refers to the good fight…1 Timothy 6:12 “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses”.
The Good fight is not only about how you fought, but it’s about the cause you were fighting for.
With all the pressures of our world, sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of what we are supposed to be fighting for. What was the purpose of it all. Why did certain things happen to us, that knocked us down, and caught us on our blind side. We were doing so well, and the next thing we were down on the mat, taking the 8 count. The rug had been pulled out from under us….
John asked his wife, Mary, what she wanted as they celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. "Would you like a new mink coat?" he asked. "No, Not really," said Mary. "Well how about a new Mercedes sports car?" said John. "No, Not really" she responded. "What about a new vacation home in the country?" he suggested.
She again rejected his offer. "Well what would you like for our anniversary?" John asked. Mary said "John, I'd like a divorce," "Well”, John said, “I’m Sorry, but I wasn't planning on spending that much,"
What happened to you, is not the measure of “A good fight”…. It’s how you fought, and it’s about staying on purpose. Were you faithful, regardless of how hard you got hit. Did you get back on the horse that just threw you off? Get back on the tricycle that you just crashed. CM Ward, used to say, “if they tarred and feathered me and ran me out of town. God help me to have a big enough vision to get up in front and lead the parade”….
So many on this journey of faith have lost it in the battle ground of the mind.
The enemy took them out by reminding them of what happened in their past. He threw every mistake they ever made, every wrong choice, and the moment they accepted that this is who they are, they got knocked down for the count. Get back up, look up, dress up in the garments of righteousness, and show up like you mean it!
When He reminds you of who you used to be, remind him of his destiny, and that you’re going to be there to witness it!!!
Philippians 3:13- “but this one thing I do: forgetting what liesbehind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the [heavenly] prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”.
If a runner looks behind him too much, they can stumblein a New York minute or lose sight of the goal they’rerunning for. Every race is a new race. No matter what happened before, there’s never been a time like this time.
We must even let go of the way God did it the last time, or how the Spirit moved the last time, because He will do it different this time. We can be so locked in to how it was done the time before, that we don’t listen to the new revelation or the new direction. I believe to some God is saying “Behold I will do a new thing, how can you know it if you are locked into the last time….?
If you don’t let go of where you were, you can’t get to where you are going….
Repeat after me… “I’m not perfect and that’s OK!” If you’re looking for perfection, you’ll be defeated, because that won’t come until you leave this body. But God is not looking for perfection, He’s looking for progress, He’s looking for obedience, humility, patience, longsuffering, which are qualities that people who think they have to be perfect, don’t have time for….They’retoo busy being perfect….
He says that His strength is revealed in our weakness. He says that those who humble themselves, the Lord will exalt in due season. Every weakness you have is an opportunity for God to show His power….
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “The Lord said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me”.
Paul boasted in his weakness, because then all the glory and all the praise went to Christ and not to Him….
Instead of the enemy using Paul’s weakness against him, He channeled it to the praise and honor of Christ! Hallelujah!
God knows that in our weakness we lean in greater measure on Him. The Devil will keep beating you up and defeating you unto you come to an understanding of the Christ in you….
It was Paul who also said in Colossians 1:27 “It is Christ in me, who is the hope of glory.”
You want to see God’s glory, look at the triumphant Christ, crucified on a cruel cross. You can see God’s glory in the situations where we are being crucified with Christ and we maintain our good confession and keep our eyes on the prize, and His presence and his glory is very present there….
Job 23:10 “But He knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold (with his glory).
Job went through what he went through, knowing that when it was finished, God would be glorified and get all the praise! He was helpless to do many things, but this one thing he could do, he could be faithful!
Faithfulness was Paul’s solution to moving on from the past… He said from his prison cell, “I press toward the mark of the prize”… He is telling us that he got busy being faithful to the tasks which God had given him to do. Pressing beyond his feelings and his emotions, and all the distractions to fulfill his purpose, moment by moment, one task at a time…
I like the little story of one woman who refused to give up on her goal….
This woman was complaining to her friend, “All my husband and I do any more is fight. He’s abusive, insensitive, and just generally stinks! I’ve been so upset,I’ve lost 20 pounds.” “Well I’m sorry to hear that, dear, but If it’s that bad, why don’t you just leave him?” asks the other friend. Oh no, my goal is to lose another 15 pounds first.”
We have to come to a point when we transform ourthoughts into tangible actions. Whatever is needed to get us to the next stage of our job, our family, our personal growth, our professional achievement, or spiritual involvement needs to be given action at some level, starting now, today, because tomorrow never comes. If you feel that there are things you can’t do…..(this is where the pressing comes in)…. DO WHATEVER YOU CAN DO!!
Make that phone call, get that address, fill out another resume, knock on a door….
God will honor you in what you CAN DO…. After all He told us to…
Ask and it shall be given, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened! (Say it with me)…. “I will ask and it shall be given, I will seek and I will find, I will knock and the door will be opened”!!! That’s transformative action! Welcome to the Transformative Action Institute!
Now if you
Listen to what the Lord promises you, if you will do The One Thing!
1 Corinthians 15:57 “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain”.
When the real estate market bubble burst, we had put our house on Ramrod up for sale. The sale sign, and the advertisement produced one person in 3 years who even offered a bid on it. I walked around the property and spoke over and to it, then the Lord said, “You say you want to sell, but you don’t act like you’re moving…” I said, but Lord, we have no offers. He said, “go out and get all the boxes you need and put them in the downstairs.” So the next day, I went dumpster diving and filled my downstairs with boxes. Within a week, we had a contract on the house, and the agent was willing to do all the paper work and closing for 1,200.00!
The one thing I could do, I did, and God did the rest….
There’s something you can do now, to begin to move things forward. You might come up with many things, but it’s the one thing that is going to make a difference. It’s the one thing that will turn it all around. Do the one thing! It’s not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord!!! OH, somebody needs to hear this!!
Jesus said, many call me Lord, Lord, but don’t do what I say! Paul said “This one thing I do!” Not just what I say, but what I do about what I say!
A couple had stayed for a few nights at a hotel, and as they were ready to go, the man saw a survey on the desk and told his wife to hold on because he felt he should fill out the survey. He gave the hotel high marks, and complimented them on the quality of their towels, but when it got to the box for any complaints, he wrote… “The towels are so large, I could hardly close my suitcase”
You can’t take the hotel towels if you want the anointingthat brings abundance!!! (at least they didn’t take the pillows)!!
Do the One Thing you Can do and leave the results to God. The one thing you do, may look as though it has nothing to do with getting you where you need to be, and nothing to do with what you’ve been praying for. But the one thing that was required of David was to take lunch to his brothers who were in the Israeli army, facing the Philistines. That one thing positioned him in the face of King Saul, who put him in the face of Goliath and the rest is history! That one thing was a king maker!
The one thing Elijah did was to ask the widow woman for a little pancake to eat, and it resulted in a miracle which fed her and her son and all the neighbors, for the duration of the famine that gripped the land. That one thing was a famine breaker!
The one thing that Moses could do well was handle a walking stick and God used that rod to work miracles, defeating Egypt, opening the Red Sea, bringing water from the rock, and defeating their enemies….That one thing was a History maker!
What is the One Thing you have that He’s waiting to use.
I was looking again at the time when Jesus was visiting Mary and Martha, He told Martha in Luke 10:42 that “one thing was needed,” While Mary had found peace in her“one thing” as she sat at Jesus’ feet in worship, Martha was “worried and troubled about many things,” including serving everyone. But Martha didn’t realize that while she was faithful in serving, it was not about the one thing that was needed, and that was to make it all about Jesus, not just all about the serving. She was getting a bad attitude, and getting critical, because her serving had become more important than the one she was serving….(does that make sense?) It’s not just what we do but how and why we do it that matters to God…
It’s one thing to act, it’s another to make even the most menial tasks all about Him…
Romans 11:36 For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. Amen!”
Paul said that everything is from God. He is the first cause, the source, the Alpha. Then Paul said that through Him everything is. God is the effective cause of everything in creation. Man has been credited for creating many things, but all he has really done is discover what has come through the Father. And finally, Paul said that everything is to Him. He is the ultimatecause, He is the Omega. It all returns to Him and He will receive the final credit, the honor and the glory forever.
Everything and everyone fulfills their greater purpose in bringing Him glory. It is our chief aim, and our highest purpose. We are to honor Him and His ways through our thoughts, our choices and our actions. It’s always tragic when people lose sight of that…. Gregory’s obituary appeared in the Times Newspaper. He died as a transvestite in Miami. Married four times with six children he had once been a celebrity and successful pediatrician. But Gregory succumbed to alcoholism and his license to practice medicine was suspended. Haunted by self-doubt and unable to live in the shadow of his father, When he died, he was known as Gloria in a women’s prison. When he was just 19, Gregory’s father blamed him for his mother’s death from cancer and did not speak to him for ten years before killing himself in precisely the same way Gregory’s grandfather had done before him. You see, Gregory, or Gloria, was the youngest son of Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Hemmingway’s parents were regular churchgoers but detested their son’s ungodly lifestyle. Eventually his mother refused to see him. One year, for his birthday, she mailed him a cake along with the gun his father had used to kill himself. Hemingway never got over his hatred for his mother or her Savior. And it seems his own children paid dearly for the lack of love and grace he experienced from his parents.
How ironic that Ernest Hemingway, spurned by his religious parents, as messed up and confused as he was, an emotionally abused child, who in turn abused his own children, took his own life as his father whom he did not want to be like, had done. The greatest shame is that the one thing that they all could have done, could have changed history as we know it…
Revelation 4:11 “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for You have created all things, and for Your pleasure they are and were created”.
Many things may be important, and many things may compete for our priority, but they need to stand in line, because the Lord is letting us know, “one thing is needed.” David wrote in Psalm 27:4 “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek, that I may dwell in the house (presence) of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon
the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple (His dwelling place)”.
When David’s enemies were pursuing him, more than better armor, swords, or chariots, David asked for God’s presence….
In Hebrews, Paul likens himself to a runner, who is running after Christ, and who has laid aside everything that might slow him down from his pursuit. The people of that time understood his meaning, because the runners of that day, would compete in the nude, so that there would be no restrictions to keep them from running the best race that was possible. These guys lived for the prize at the end of the race but they trained for the race itself, so they could win the prize.. We run the race of life for a greater reward than any earthly prize…
Hebrews 12:1-2. “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily hinders us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
My children are all reminding me that I’m at the age where I should be thinking about retirement. (4 more have been added since this picture on the screen) Well, I have come to the place in my life where ministry is not just what I do, it is who I am. Whatever the future holds, I see myself sharing the unsearchable riches of Christ, as long as there is breath in my body, or I am caught up in the clouds of glory to be with Him forever. There was a time, when I was a farmer, then I was a grocery clerk, then I was a college student, and then I was a meat cutter, which was the last job I had outside of the ministry. But through all of those things, I sought to do the one thing…. Seek His presence, and what He would have me do to make Him known, accepted and honored by whoever I could.
I haven’t been perfect, or without cracks and flaws, but I have always desired to be His ambassador, and seek His presence…. I hope that many will join me…. Many folksmay never attend our church, but as long as they get hungry and thirsty for Him, it will be worth it all! It’s what I live for…Jesus said that we are to be salt and light in this world that we live in…
If we will do the one thing, it will have a domino effect, and we will find that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us… Many things which could not happen without Him will begin to happen in our lives. Connections, resources, abilities, and directions, we never thought possible will become possible….FromHim, through Him and for Him!
Ephesians 1:3-4 “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love… having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory.”
He has already chosen each of us, but we must choose Him, every day, all day.
We were reserved for God’s pleasure – to know him and love him and serve him; That’s what the word predestined means. We are reserved for Him….
We were created to be part of God’s family –We are at home in His family. We have been made heirs and joint heirs. He has left us a covenant inheritance.
We were redeemed to become like Christ – As we believe and receive, God looks at us and He sees Jesus in us. His righteousness, His power, His authority and His Spirit.
We were equipped for serving Him – with a unique blend of talents, skills and passion. He has given each of us everything we need for a life of victory and success.
We were made for a purpose – To have fellowship with Him, and to introduce other people to Christ, so that they too might live for the praise of His glory.
Grace is the source of our new position in Christ.
Faith is the means of access for our new position in Christ
Good works is the product of our new position in Christ
Romans 8:38-39 'For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'
The amazing news is that nothing can move you from your position in Christ unless you allow it…..
For He has given us power over all the power of the enemy that nothing by any means shall be able to hurt you (violate you against your will). What’s happening on the outside cannot determine your position on the inside….
Oh, that we might know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, and that we might be filled with the fullness of God. The fullness which He has intended for all of us to walk in and live in as we do His good pleasure! Can you say, “Thank You Lord for choosing me, and giving me your fullness”….
Prayer….. Father, in Jesus name, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I pray that out of Your glorious riches you would strengthen me with power in my inner being so that I might fully offer myself to You. I pray that I would be rooted and established in love, that I might grasp how wide and long and high and deep Your love is. I believe that you are able to do far more than I can even imagine by Your power that is now working in me.
I ask you to transform my mind and my spirit daily, that I might receive the blessings and opportunities you have planned for me. I choose to step out in faith for I know that You hold the future and You have plans for my life for good and not for evil. When the world sends out hate, help me to love. When the past won’t let go, help me to remember Your grace. When the enemy taunts with lies and surrounds me with darkness, help me to stay in your light.
When a relationship feels broken or I’m betrayed or rejected, help me to forgive by the power of Your Spirit.By faith, I move through the new doors which you are opening before me, that no one will be able to shut. The power of Your presence in me, prepares my path before me and strengthens me so that I can succeed and prosper, even when it seems impossible, even when it doesn’t make sense. I know that You are the same yesterday, today and forever, and you will do exceedingly above and beyond what I think or ask, In Jesus name, Amen!
Before we close, I wrote down a word that Holy Spirit dropped into my Spirit…. I think this is the time I am to share it…
"This time ahead will be a time of unexpected outcomes, a time of unforeseen conclusions. If you only lean on the natural wisdom or even common sense, it will fail you. God is about to pull some surprises in your lives, but it's much bigger than that, for it involves the country and in the world. Everything looked like it was going to be one way, but it will end up another. God is going to have the last word, no matter what it looks like now. It truly is not by might nor by power, but by the sovereign will and purpose of God".
Receive the blessing….
