You would think, to hear men and women testify, that they were their own workmanship, they talk about what they have surrendered and given up or consecrated, or what the Lord did for through them, but their focus is on themselves, and not on the Lord.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
When we testify, our focus in on the Lord, so that he gets the glory, so then when people see our good works, they glorify him, because without him we can do nothing.
The lord told us not to let our left hand know what our right hand is doing.
Matthew 6:1 “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
This is something we need to meditate on, and testify only as the Lord leads, because he might want to use this, but we are teaching the ways of the Lord.
Moses knew the ways of the Lord; Israel only saw the acts.
Prophets’ prophecy, and people are drawn to them as some great man or woman of God, but they don’t teach the people how to prophecy.
If you have the gift of healing and hundreds of people get healed, then tell the people how you do it.
Because the Bible says we can all prophecy, and we can all heal the sick.
That is why I teach the bible for free, to make sure everyone has access to it, and not use people to make money. God supports me through people when he moves on their hearts and they get a reward for it. Those who peddle the word have their reward; the money they get for the time and effort they put into their teaching.
I would rather get my reward in heaven, than life in luxury on the earth, I could make a lot of money with gift I have, but then I would not have to depend upon God to get my needs met.
It is not the will of God that we live in poverty but prosperity. And a person who is in full time ministry is worthy of double honor, that means making twice the amount of money that a blue-collar worker makes.
A blue-collar worker is an employee who performs manual labor, skilled trades, or technical, hands-on tasks, typically in industries like construction, manufacturing, maintenance, or logistics. Often paid hourly, they work in active, non-office environments and generally require specialized skills, certifications, or apprenticeships rather than academic degrees.
1 Timothy 5: 17 Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. 18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”
Honor (timē) in the Greek- money paid, or (concretely and collective) valuables.
I don’t want to draw people to myself, I want to draw them to the Lord.
We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ. We are just fulfilling our destiny, walking in the works ordained for us to walk in on our destiny scroll, those works preordained for us to walk in.
He took us—the raw material, sinners without hope and without life—and poured into us His own very nature, made us His own very sons and daughters by nature.
We had before been by nature the children of wrath.
Now we are by nature God’s own sons and daughters. He not only created us in Christ Jesus, but He prepared good works that we should walk in them.
In other words, He made provision whereby every one of us may walk in love, walk by faith.
Loving people costs something, we must get out of ourselves and into the Lord, so that his love will flow through us, which is not a human love that fails. We love the unlovable.
Jesus made provision so that the life of Jesus is reproduced in us through the Holy Spirit, in our daily contact with people.
It is the Holy Spirit that who takes the provision of Jesus’ finished work on the cross and makes it real in our lives.
We are no longer to walk as the heathens walk, in the futility or vanity of their minds, with their hearts blinded or hardened.
Ephesians 4:17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
But we have not so learned Christ. We have put away, as concerning our former manner of life, the old man.
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. (Romans 6:6)
“The old man which grows corrupt” (Ephesians 4:22) was nailed to the cross in Christ and was buried with Him, was put away.
When Christ arose from the dead, we are free from this old man.
As soon as we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and come to know what grace really means, we are free too.
You are to walk in the strength and grace of the risen Christ, not by willpower, but by faith in the Word.
“For it is God who works in you” (Philippians 2:13).