“But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? 8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drank; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow (think) not. 10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” Luke 17:7-10.
The unprofitable servant attends to their duties first before themselves. Because the Child of God is justified through faith in the works of Jesus, our good works, which only come through properly placed faith as He molds us into His Divine call on our lives, are our duties – our good works do not, will not and cannot ever profit us any further justification. There is nothing any greater than what Jesus accomplished at Calvary’s Cross for whosoever will accept Him as their Lord and Saviour, therefore the work we do, no matter the capacity, will not profit us anything. Will the Lord bless us? Yes! We are talking about justification. We cannot be anymore justified than when our faith is placed solely and exclusively on Jesus Christ and His finished work, no matter our good works.
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” Romans 5:1.
A Child of God is either in the Will of God or not in the Will of God. The devil’s goal is to get us to step out of God’s Will. There will be trials and tribulations in God’s Will. The difference is, when we are in the Will of God, there are times the Lord will use satan as an instrument to build our faith by testing our faith. When we are outside the Will of God, we have indeed listened to the lies of satan. Jesus will lead us into the wilderness only to lead us out stronger in the faith, while satan will push us deeper than we want to go. To whom we listen, is up to us.
“But he that enters in by the door is the Shepherd of the Sheep. 3 To Him the porter opens; and the sheep hear His voice: and He calls His own sheep by name, and leads them out. 4 And when He puts forth His own sheep, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice. 5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.” John 10:2-5.
The Divine calling in which the Lord has placed on all of His Children, should never be taken lightly. Too often, we decide we would rather be a profitable servant of satan instead of an unprofitable servant of the Lord and we step out of the Will of God. In our flesh, we are not content in the lot the Lord has supplied, so we step in to the work of another calling in which we have not been called. Let us not forget, the devil is more dangerous disguised as an angel of light than he is a roaring lion and will attempt to push us pass the divine line the Lord has for us.
“And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ:” Ephesians 4:11-12.
The Lord has called ALL of His Children to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the four corners of the world. “Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.” 2 Timothy 4:2. Just because one is not called to the ministry does not mean they are not called to reprove, rebuke and exhort the brethren. On the other hand, just because we are called to reprove, rebuke and exhort the brethren does not mean we are called to the ministry…it means we are attending our duties as a child of God while remaining unprofitable in our justification. We are no more or no less justified but we are unprofitable. We often confuse our good works which are profitable in the Kingdom of God as profitable as well in our justification with God.
We must ever be diligent not to cross the divine line into another calling. God has a divine calling for each and every Saint of God and we must always be satisfied with that which the Lord gives. We must not seek to enlarge our own borders which the Lord cannot bless but allow the Holy Spirit, through our faith in the works of Jesus on Calvary’s Cross, to guide us into all Truths. When Jesus does lead us into the wilderness to stretch our faith, we will know His voice and will not be operating on presumption.
“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things,” Matthew 25:21. It is the faithful servant to whom the Master will say “well done”….not the profitable.
I could care less if I’m the one that when my feet hit the ground in the morning the devil says “oh no, she’s up”. I would prefer to hear my Lord Jesus say the one I love is awake, let me go sup with her.
-Donna Clark Warren
Living in The Spirit 