Overseer Joshua Goodin
Pastor Daniel M. Jackson's 6th Pastoral Anniversary
Exodus 17: 8-16 (NRSV)
*You don’t understand why God shifts and moves you to certain places, yet you feel like God has abandoned you. Instead, he is trying to preserve you for the promise he has in store for you.
Too many people are constantly replaying what happened in the past that they miss out on the blessing in the promise God has in the present and the future. Why is it that you constantly complain about needs when you serve a Savior whose ultimate desire is to meet every need? For God to supply your needs there has first to be a need. If God is going to prove himself to be a supplier of needs he must put you in a place where you go without some things. You want to constantly live in abundance, blessing, and good things. You don’t want to suffer. When things don’t go your way, you leave.
*Why would the Pastor be weary? Because they are constantly listening to the quarrels and complaints of the people. God knows when your hands get weary because he will move you from needing to fight to another position so you don’t have to fight. There are some battles God will not allow you to fight. Just because the Pastor isn’t fighting the battle, doesn’t mean the people apart of the camp won’t fight. The problem with some camps they only want to fight when the pastor is in the fight. The problem in the church is too many people are following the leader. You’re supposed to follow the one that God has given charge, but that doesn’t mean if he or she is not there that you don’t show up. God is not looking for a church of puppets, he’s looking for a church of disciples. It’s easy for the leader to become weary when he or she is doing assignments that they have not been assigned to do.
*The leader grows weary because they spend more time coaching instead of cultivating. A coach writes up the plays, then coaches them on what to do, because they forget the plays. A cultivator lays out the plans and then allows the people to do it. The problem is there are too many people who don’t know how to follow directions the 1st time. Don’t make your leader have to fight to do what God assigned them to do. You have to deal with weariness because people don’t have their lives and homes in order, and the nonsense in the home rolls over into the church. It’s amazing how people don’t have their houses in order but want to lead in the church. Everyone in the church is not a fighter, or they don’t fight for the right causes. Some people will fight harder to put you out than to pray for you. Make sure you’re fighting for the right causes.
*Understand your assignment. Everybody cannot be on the mountain. Some people can’t go to the mountain with you. They may have the skills, be gifted, and may give, but they don’t have the anointing that is required for the mountain. That’s why when they get to the mountain they keep messing up. Sometimes you do yourself a disservice by taking the wrong people with you. Be careful when you get in the way of your leader seeking God’s face. How can you hear what God has to say if you’re always distracting the man or woman of God from hearing from God? You don’t have to be afraid to serve your position because God has already placed inside of you what you need to be in the position. If God did not give it to you, he would not have called you to the position, because he always equips before he places. If you’ve been placed there you’re already equipped, but you keep waiting for permission. You must have order in the church, but you must have common sense. People are so spiritual that they don’t have common sense.
*Listen when they tell you to sit down. In this season you have to have a level of obedience that when you’re told not to go there, that you don’t go there. When you don’t listen you have to deal with the consequences of going there. Going there comes with feeling depressed, lonely, and having to carry things by yourself because you’re too embarrassed to say anything and you’re wondering how it’s going to play out. The same grace you got in year 1, 2, 3, or 4 you may not receive in 5, not because God has run out of grace, but because he’s run out of trying to bail you out of situations. At some point, God gets tired of hearing you pray the same prayer, and his ear will become shut to your petition.
*Write down how you got to victory, so when you get weary again, you don’t have to linger there or somewhere to deal with weariness. That will only give you a temporary feeling that will take you back to weariness, but you can get from weariness to victory. Weariness doesn’t have to be permanent when it’s a temporary thing. You make temporary things permanent because you learn how to start living with it. Some things you must put things out of your house because you’re not supposed to live with it God has not assigned you to live with it. It was only permanent for your development so you could get through what you need to get through and God could develop on the inside of you. After you develop it get it out of there. Stop becoming what is only used as a tool to develop you.