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This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
(Phil. 3:13-14)
How many of you feel God has called you to do something that is absolutely impossible? That was the question I asked a group of ministers one time. The number of hands raised in response was great. Almost every one of them felt God had called them to do something they didn't have the ability to do.

Chances are, if you've been seeking God and asking Him to show you His plan for your life, you've run into the very same thing. Whether you are called to the fivefold ministry or to serve in some other capacity in the Body of Christ, the vision God has given you is most likely something completely out of reach—something bigger than you ever dreamed you could do.

If that's the case, I want to encourage you today. I want to share something God told me years ago that took a great deal of pressure off me in the area of ministry. It was this:

Everything God calls us to do is impossible to men.

Now, doesn't that make you feel better? It did me. When God said that to me, I suddenly realized He didn't expect me to know how to do His work. He didn't expect me to have the natural ability or strength to accomplish it.

It lifted the pressure off me to realize that what I have to do in God is impossible anyway. If He doesn't do it through me, it's not going to get done.

Just think about it. You can't lay hands on the sick and have them recover without the Anointing of God on you. You can't cast out devils without the Spirit of God moving through you. You can't even speak in tongues unless the Spirit gives you utterance.

Everything we're called to do in God is impossible with men. Once I realized that, it took the pressure off me - and put it on God! I no longer looked to my ability, or lack of it, but to God's ability.

When God gives us an assignment, He's not depending on us to use our own intelligence and power to complete that assignment. In fact, the Bible says He actually chooses us considering our lack of intelligence and power. First Corinthians 1:26-29 says:
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in His presence.
God knew you weren't smart enough or strong enough to do His work when He called you. That's why He called you. He knew you would have to depend on Him. And, believe me, He knows exactly how to get the job done.

Minister To Nations?
I remember, years ago, when we were living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Ken was a student at Oral Roberts University. One day he went down to the riverbed behind our house to pray, and God spoke to him about ministering to nations.

Now, at that time in our lives we could hardly afford to get across town. But God said, You are going to minister to nations.

That was so impossible. Nobody even knew who we were. We didn't have any money. Just getting to Texas to visit Ken's parents was a big deal-and God was talking about nations!

We've been in the ministry more than 30 years now. In January of 1990, God spoke to Kenneth again and told him, You're just now in position to do the main work I've called you to do.

Open Doors
Now things are happening in the nations. Nations are opening up to us. We're going on television in the Baltic Sea States. We're also on the air in the Scandinavian countries. Doors are opening everywhere.

We're not trying to do it. God is taking care of it all. It thrills me to think of that!

He didn't expect Ken and me to know how to reach nations. He knew we didn't have an extra $15 to get from one state to the other when He told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. But God is not broke. He had the money. He knew where it was.

He has paid every bill all these years. We didn't need it in the bank. He had it!

God doesn't expect us to have the resources or the know-how to do His work. Do you know what He expects from us? He just expects us to take the next step.

All He wants is for us to spend time with Him, to pray and find out what He wants us to do next. He'll always reveal to you the next step to take. He may not show you any more than that, but you can be sure He will tell you the next step.

I like to compare it to walking on water as Peter did in Matthew 14. You know, walking on water is an impossible thing to do! Peter had absolutely no ability to do it. Yet, Jesus said to him simply, "Come," and Peter jumped over the side of that boat and started walking. When he did, sure enough, the power of the word of Jesus took hold of him and held him up.

But then something happened. Verse 30 says, "But when he [Peter] saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me."

Keep Your Eyes On Jesus
Take note of that. Peter was walking on the water just fine until he took his eyes away from Jesus and started looking somewhere else. He started looking at the size of the waves. He started looking at the circumstance. And then he started to sink.

Every failure you've ever had in your Christian life has come exactly that way. It has come because you've quit looking at Who called you and quit trusting in His Word and started focusing on the problems around you instead.

That is what stops the people of God. It's not the lack of God's power. It's not that He is unwilling to move and do supernatural things on our behalf. What stops us is our taking our attention off Jesus and putting it on our circumstances.

"Oh, but Gloria," you may say, "you don't understand how really bad my circumstances are."

It doesn't matter how bad they are! For years the Apostle Paul was faced with the worst circumstances you could imagine. He was imprisoned, beaten, shipwrecked and abused in almost every way imaginable for preaching the gospel. But those things didn't stop him. At the end of his life he was able to say, "I have finished my course."

Paul fulfilled an impossible call in the midst of impossible circumstances. How did he do it? He tells us in Philippians 3:13-14: "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

Paul had his eye on the prize. He was looking ahead. He wasn't looking at today. He wasn't looking at his problems. Paul focused his eyes on Jesus and on the goal Jesus had set before him. That focus carried him through in triumph.

The same thing is true for us today which was true for Paul. If we're going to do the impossible, there's only one way to do it-by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the One Who is Lord over this universe.

But You Must Stay Focused
One thing you need to be aware of, however, is this: It's not always the problems of this life that distract us. Sometimes it's the pleasures. Sometimes we just allow the natural things of living to draw us off course. If you're going to run your race effectively, you'll have to lay aside some things.

Hebrews 12:1 says, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."

Weights and sin are not the same thing. Most of us are willing to lay aside sin. But we're reluctant to let go of those "harmless" things that just weigh us down. Things which occupy the time we need to be spending in prayer and the Word, for example. Things that hold us down and keep us in the natural realm instead of allowing us to soar in the spirit.

Weights like that won't just go away by themselves. They have to be purposely laid aside. God won't lay them aside for you. You have to do it.

It's not easy to finish your course. It is easier to fall by the wayside because in yourself, you are inadequate. But you're not alone! That makes all the difference.

If God has given you an impossible assignment, don't worry about it. He knows exactly how to complete it. And He intends to complete it through you.

It's the Anointed One in you Who is going to do the work. It's the Spirit of God Who will bring those impossible things to pass. All you have to do is take the next step.

Of course, you will have to do some things to find out what that next step is. You'll have to spend time in the Word, time praying in the spirit, time listening for and expecting to hear His direction.

But don't expect Him to give you 10 steps at one time. He rarely does. He just tells you what you can do today.

The secret is to be trusting and simple, to come as a little child before the Lord and hear from Him every day. Don't try to figure out all the things you need to do and how to do them. Just listen day by day, take one step at a time, and you will come to the place where God wants you to be. You will finish your race.

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka:  Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Author Biography

Gloria Copeland
Web site: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
 
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God's WORD to their lives.
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