Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
As a Christian everything you do is important to God. Giving of yourself to your vocation would also have to be included. Think of how much time and education, and how much energy you put into your place of employment. This time is important to God as well. Whatever we do, the Bible says we are to do for the glory of God. The work place absorbs over half of your waken day. It interacts with a huge portion of your conscious thinking. The work place is the perfect mission field. It can be a great training tool for the Lord to use to make you a great believer.
Vocational blessings - Col.3:17, 22-24
Have you ever considered your means and place of employment as being a part of the will of God? Even before the fall of man Adam was given work to do, Gen.2:15. Work is good for the soul as well as the body. When you mature in the word of God and the plan of God your work place takes on new meaning.
There is a reason you are drawn to a particular type of work or profession. You have skills given to you by God and he knows how to tap into and bring out these skills in you, I Chron.22:15-16; 28:21, Ps.144:1.
Sometimes you may wonder if you will ever find your niche in life, but for the maturing believer your niche finds you. God’s wisdom shows you through providential ways what he wants you to be professionally, or where he wants you to represent him in the home or work force. Wherever you work you have the opportunity to witness for the Lord.
Part of that witness for some also involves the ability to think technically in their field. They advance the fields of medicine, healthcare, science, engineering, battle tactics, and education, sales and so forth by advancing the techniques and the right approaches to their vocation. God gives to the spiritually mature believer vocational blessings wherein others are blessed by your innovative thinking. Pettiness often interferes with the advancement of a business or industry, but mature believers never get caught up with pettiness and mind numbing dead end reactions to problems. They come up with business solutions and technological breakthroughs. They do not give up on something because it is difficult. They work through the challenges because they have the discipline; the clear thinking and vision for making a situation or product better. Believers who love their vocational challenges are happy with their work because it shows to them what God can make possible through them. And for believers in Jesus Christ who fit this category of blessing their capacity to enjoy the ride and to use their notoriety for the Lord is fantastic.
They give God the glory when success finally comes.
Mental aptitude blessings - Prov.12:5 “The thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceit.”
Prov.16:3 “Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.”
The spiritually mature believer is a thinker by practice, subsequently he or she becomes a thinker by instinct. To serve you well your instincts have to be developed and nurtured. The definition of instinct is “the innate tendency or response of a given species to act in ways that are essential to its existence, development, and preservation.” Funk & Wagnall’s Standard Desk Dictionary. Thinking is one of the instincts that has to be developed and nurtured. The spiritually mature believer is not easily discouraged because he thinks God is present with him.
He looks at discouragement as detrimental to his development and preservation as a godly witness for the Lord thus his knowledge of Bible doctrine motivates him to push forward. To know you should do a certain thing because it is the right thing to do requires practice, and practice requires self-discipline. This also includes going to your right local church for Bible doctrine, and what ever it takes you see to it that you get the doctrine. You will to not be distracted. No thing of great value is ever attained without self-discipline.
Too many people depend on luck instead of hard work when waiting for things to get better for them. The spiritually mature believer is characterized by being industrious like the ant of Prov.6:6-9.
The mentally blessed believer is also characterized by having a superior vocabulary because you study things and in your studies you look up the unfamiliar terms and words you come upon. You learn what those things mean. And it is amazing at how the mind knows how to recall, adapt and apply a learned vocabulary and use it correctly and at just the right moment communicate effectively what you are trying to convey. The mature believer can do this because they keep a relaxed mental attitude. A relaxed mental attitude always serves you well when it comes to keeping your focus and communication to others on target during a conversation, or a witness for Jesus Christ.
This blessing also causes you to be able to compartmentalize your thinking. This means you do not allow non-essential thoughts to interfere with your present circumstances. You are much less prone to panic when faced with adversity due to your temporal mental blessings. Your thinking is organized and so is your life.
You do not let your emotions run away with your knowledge and common sense. You think clearly about life because your perception of the world around you as well as the world in general is matched with the word of God. Regarding national problems and international problems you see the word of God in all of it. You see God’s viewpoint as the solution to these problems. I do not know of one spiritually mature believer who has an undisciplined mind, an unorganized life, a sloppy home, or who does shoddy work.
Leadership blessings - I Pet.5:6
This spiritually mature believer knows how to handle authority and exercise authority. You know how to be under authority and you know how to assume authority. When you have this temporal blessing you will not have to go out of your way to seek a leadership position, it will seek you out. This believer does not want to lead for praise, but to get the mission accomplished. You will prepare for leadership by being the best you can be for the Lord in your work. And you had better prepare because once you are in that leadership position a lot will be demanded of you, and rightly so. The mature believer can handle leadership well because he never stops spiritually advancing in the word of God. The word of the Lord keeps you in your place before Him. You will not abuse others, nor will you allow them to disrespect your office of leadership because you know the Lord is holding you accountable. You must be willing to put forth the effort in the areas we have covered so far. God is not going to impute these blessings if you are not qualified to receive them, Gal.6:7. As I remind you, all temporal blessings are predicated upon the believer advancing in their spiritual blessings.
I put these principles and precepts at the user level and I know some folks would rather that I would not, but ambiguous teaching leaves too much room whereby we can negotiate an exit strategy for not applying the word of God.