How great is your appreciation of the Lord for all that He has done for you? Are you able to pass on the details of His works toward you to your family, friends, relatives or neighbors? Can you wholeheartedly say He brought you out of darkness, suffering and grief? The things you do for Him fulfill the above questions. When you habitually practice the things He appointed to you through obeying His commands, you produce a distinct light that allows you to inevitably fulfill them. This light calls for others to show keen interest in the way you live. It is able to bring curiosity in them. Moses spoke the following command of the Lord to Israel. “And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ then you shall say to him, ‘With a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery’” (Exod. 13:14).
As believers our immediate responsibility is toward those whom God has given us. To most of us they are our family and then it extends to others. Every believer will have to give an account to the Lord for the way he or she lived before them. It is the things we do as His believers that will influence the people closest to us. If we are not faithful to the way the Lord appointed us, we fail in our duty toward the people for whom the Lord has placed us. Often church-goers do not take this seriously. But, it all begins with us. It takes bodily discipline as well as spiritual discipline to be the people we ought to be and fulfill the duty God has given us. Having such discipline means we experience His powerful hand. By His hand everything in our life acquires a meaning. There will be nothing useless or frivolous in us. We have the complete understanding present in the calling of God and in the purpose He ordained us.
Having the powerful hand of God working with us means we stand as a city set on a hill. God will entrust people to us to tend them for Him. This differs from one to another. In your case He may begin it with your family and in the case of others it might be friends, relatives or even strangers according to the situation He placed us in. The experiences you enjoyed by His powerful hand become the spiritual food to them. In it your obedience to Him, the power of His Word, the fulfilling of His promises and the nature of faith will all be understood. You will have an opportunity to bless the Lord.
In the former days every Israelite was given the duty to teach the following generation of the things they did for the Lord. In these last days every believer is required to practice the things of God so that they tend the people He entrusts to them; for the grace in Christ is extended to all without partiality. And since it requires the powerful hand of God, these are the things you must do.
1. Do not lose His counsel. “When Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets” (1 Sam. 28:6). Everything you do in your life must be by the His counsel. This includes bearing witness to people about Him. The only time you lose His counsel is when you ignore His instructions. At such time you become empty regarding wisdom. As long as the Lord answers your queries, you have solidity in bearing witness to His powerful hand.
2. Seek His incredible works. “You divided the sea before them, so they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground; and their pursuers You hurled into the depths, Like a stone into raging waters” (Neh. 9:11). Whether in the days past or now, our God has not changed in working wonders for His appointed ones. As mere Christian you can experience His wonderful works, and as a minimum be His witness to your family. Satan is the enemy to all who believe the Lord. And while you seek the Lord to protect you from him and his workers, you witness His wonderful works. They will remind you that He is with you just as He was wonderfully with them when He divided the sea to destroy their adversary.
3. Be His dwelling place. The best thing that happens when you are His dwelling place is the following. “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isa. 57:15). The two criteria that keep you as His dwelling place are humility and a broken heart. They cause His powerful hand to accompany you. As you continue being lowly in spirit, He keeps reviving you for greater understanding. And with a heart that is continually contrite, He removes your sin and brings you to where you no longer reap by it.
4. Avoid unclean things and places. “Arise and go, for this is no place of rest Because of the uncleanness that brings on destruction, a painful destruction” (Mic. 2:10). A sign that God’s powerful hand is with you is the rest He gives in your life; He brought you out of suffering and grief. You should make sure you do not go back to restlessness. The rest He gives is without pain, because it includes His many blessings. They allow you to bear witness concerning Him to the people He entrusts to you.
5. Depend on the Holy Spirit. “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). As a truly born again person you have the Spirit of God, therefore, trust His voice. He is in you to help you enjoy the powerful hand of God. When He reminds you of the things God spoke from the Word, do not refuse Him. The more you listen to Him the more you get to hear God’s intentions for you. He will only lead you into all the truth. His voice always concurs with the Word. He is gentle. Because of Him, you obtain a life by which you become a city set on a hill.
6. Confine to your calling. “Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches” (1 Cor. 7:17). No matter how many pressures you face from the outside do not surrender your calling of God. For God called you knowing beforehand that you will face them; He has prepared a pasture for you once you survive them. The things you face when you hold on to your calling causes the powerful hand of God to be upon you. And since you seek His incredible works, He does things for you at that time that becomes the spiritual food to those whom He made you available.