Episode 1202: Three Mindsets for Ministry

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,202 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:06] Willette White: I'm Willette white. I challenge you to invest in yourself. Invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to overcome the challenges that you come your way is key.

[00:00:26] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader,

[00:00:35] Scott Maderer: we were made for this. And God's promise to that never fails. God will be with us throughout it. We all feel inadequate to do what God ask us to do. And quite frankly, that's normal because if it's a big calling that God has called you to do, it's probably bigger than you. Welcome and thank you for [00:01:00] joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts.

[00:01:03] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can. The word

[00:01:24] in today's spiritual foundation episode about investing in others. I talk with you about Jeremiah chapter one versus four through 10. I share with you what a prophet is and why prophecy is a hard ministry, but I also talk about three mindsets that can help you recognize your call to your. Jeremiah chapter one versus four through 10 says, now the word of the Lord came to me saying before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

[00:01:54] And before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you to a prophet to the [00:02:00] nations. Then I said, Ah, Lord God, truly. I did not know how to speak for. I'm only a boy. What the Lord said to me, do not say I am only a boy for you shall go to all to whom I send you and you shall speak whatever I command.

[00:02:14] You do not be afraid of them for. I am with you to deliver. You says the Lord, then the Lord put out his hand and touched by mouth. And the Lord says to me, now I have put my words in your. See today, I point you over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to pull down to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

[00:02:36] I think a lot of times when we're being called to things that God wants us to do, we have this same experience that this passage outlines the, I am only a boy or I am only. Whatever, fill in the blank. I can't do this. It's bigger than what I'm capable of. This thing that you are calling me to [00:03:00] is bigger than I can do.

[00:03:02] And fear and intimidation are difficult things to overcome in this passage. We hear someone being appointed as a profit and profits. Throughout history are people that have often been chased down, ganged up on light about isolated, excluded denounced, and often even killed it. It's a job that I don't think I would sign up for willingly, but in this case, it's also a job that sometimes God calls us to do the definition of a prophet is someone who speaks truth.

[00:03:39] To power. Someone who looks at someone in a powerful position and says, let me speak the truth to you. Even though that truth may cause me to be killed, it may cause me to be called out. It may be caused me to be cast out at the end of the day. Most of us want to be [00:04:00] included. We wanna be normal. We wanna be everyday kind of people in some sense.

[00:04:06] And yet prophecy often interferes with that because prophetic work requires a bootcamp that only God can provide. And that, that we often don't want to do. It can lead to sadness, depression, despair, fear, spiritual fatigue. It's often messy and dangerous. And I would argue that all callings are this. It requires a resolve to keep going, no matter what to keep pushing, no matter what to say, this is what I've been called to do.

[00:04:43] And therefore it is what I will do. If you look at how prophets respond to the call. Jeremiah wept, Elijah ran and hid. Jose was discouraged and fed up. Neya Maya left the comfort of his job and left town. [00:05:00] It's tough. There are things that can get us through when we have that call being put on our heart.

[00:05:07] And it's too hard for us. It's difficult. It's challenging. It's something that we just can't do. There are three mindsets that we need to recall, and this goes not just for prophecy, but for all calls. The first is that God did not make a mistake in calling you to that ministry that you've been called.

[00:05:30] God looked, God did research. God did examination. And God started that even before we were called into being in our mother's womb, we were made for this work. And God's promise to that never fails. God will be with us throughout it. We all feel inadequate to do what God ask us to do. And quite frankly, That's normal because if it's a big [00:06:00] calling that God has called you to do, it's probably bigger than you.

[00:06:04] We all wanna give God the list of reasons, why we're not the right person for the job, but God will not give up on us. Second. God handles those who stand in the way of God's work being. The temptation is to lose sight of the mission, lose sight of the calling and lose sight of the goal and get distracted by those that are causing us grief by those that are attacking us by those that are telling us that will never work.

[00:06:35] It will never happen, but those things are not our responsibility to manage. God actually tells Jeremiah don't let those folks get in the way of what I'm telling you to do. It's to stand up and do it anyway, no matter what, that's the second mindset. And third, you have to trust what and what [00:07:00] you don't see.

[00:07:01] Fatigue gives us a sense of doubt and char cowardness fear gives us a sense of not being able to do it, but what do you see? What do you see is a question that we're. All of the time. It requires that you trust what God is showing you. Not the news, not media, not social media, pace posts, not even our own bias.

[00:07:30] We don't look to what we think. We look to what God is showing us with those three mindsets. We often can find a way to live at our calling, even when it's terrifying and bigger than. We ever believed we could do. Thanks for listening.

[00:07:50] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and [00:08:00] passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a. Go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there until next time invest your.

[00:08:36] Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.