Okay, so let’s jump straight into episode one. So in episode one we’re gonna be talking about how God works on the earth and how He involves us in his work. You see, if we don’t understand how God works on the earth, how are we gonna know how we can play a part in what He’s doing? So I wanna tell you in this session a pattern that I’ve noticed that God always seems to use when He wants to accomplish something on the earth. Before I tell you what the pattern is I want to give you an example of that in Scripture. And the example is in the Old Testament, it’s in the book of Exodus and God gives his people instructions on how to build a tabernacle – it’s a building, a meeting place – because He wants them to build this meeting place and he gives them ellaborate intsructions and he tells them exactly how he wants it to be built. Now I don’t know if there wasn’t anybody among them who had the skills to build it how God wanted it to be built but this is what it says in the book of Exodus, it says „See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills-to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts.” Exodus 31:2-5. Now the first thing I think when I read that is that those are not your usual gifts of the Spirit, right? But it just goes to show that when God wants to achieve something He can enable you to do by His Spirit whatever needs to be done and He can enable you beyond your natural ability. So here’s the pattern, what I’ve noticed is that when God wants something to happen on the earth, when he wants to achieve something, first of all he has it in his will. You could say God wills it. So God knows what he wants to happen and He has it in his will. But the second thing he does is, he speaks it out. He makes His will known. And then the third thing he does is he accomplishes the thing that he wills and speaks out, by His Spirit. And of course in this example He filled a man called Bezalel with his Spirit, enabled this man to do what God wanted him to do in the first place and Bezalel then carried out the will of God and he did it in a way that was beyond his natural ability because actually the Spirit of God did it through him. And if you think about that, when you think about God’s will, you know we think of God the Father. And when you think about God’s speaking out his will, we think about Jesus who is the Word made flesh. And then when we think about the Spirit accompishing it we’ve actually got Father, Son and Holy Spirit all part of this amazing pattern that God uses when he wants to accomplish anything on the earth. And actually if we go right back to creation we see this pattern in place. You see God wanted to create the world and everything on it and he spoke those things into being, so he knew what he wanted to create and then he spoke those things out, he said let there be light, let there be, let there be, let there be. But after he said let there be how did it actually happen? How did those things actually come into being? In Psalm 8 we read „When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” So it says that the moon and the stars and the heavens are the work of his fingers. Well what does that mean? Well, it’s not until we get to the New Testament that we actually get an idea of what it is that the psalmist is talking about because in Luke 11 verse 20 it says, Jesus is speaking, and he says „but if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” But then in Matthew 12 he says almost the same thing but he says „but if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Matthew 12:28. So can you see that, God’s fingers are his Spirit, the power of His Spirit. So when Scripture speaks about his fingers and in that psalm that we just looked at what it’s actually saying is: God wanted there to be the moon and the stars, God spoke out let there be the moon and the stars but then it was actually his Spirit, the fingers of God that put those things into place, so that’s the pattern. God wills it, then He speaks it out and then the Spirit accomplishes it. And this pattern is all throughout the Bible. If we think about the stroy of David and Goliath, David and Goliath is one of those stories where you just know that this young man has done something beyond his natural ability. And we read often we go straight to 1 Samuel 17 which is the story where David defeats Goliath and what many people fail to notice is that David would not have been able to do that if it hadn’t been for what happened in the chapter before. So if we quickly go to 1 Samuel 16 and look at verse 13, it says „so Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David.” 1 Samuel 16:13. Can you see that? David was only able to do the impossible and to achieve God’s will because the Spirit of God came upon him powerfully, and there is the pattern again. So if we move on to the New Testament now and we think about God’s plan of redemption for the human race. That he wanted us to be set free from sin and death. And of course that was his will, he wanted to redeem us and he sent his Son who is the Word made flesh. And we know that as Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan the Spirit descended upon him like a dove and it says in Luke 4 „Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit”. So it’s the same pattern that we have just been looking at. That God willed it, God spoke it out and then the Holy Spirit accomplished it. And then as Jesus speaks to His disciples and he gives them the great commission, you see God wanted the news of that salvation that has been made available to us, he wanted that news to spread out across the whole world. And then Jesus spoke it out to his disciples in Matthew 28:19-20. He said „therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”And then in Mark 16:15 it says „he said to them „go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” So he says „go, go”. But they didn’t immidiately go, why? Because in Luke 24:49, he said „wait!” So it says „I’m going to send you what my Father has promised: but stay in the city unitl you’ve been clothed with power from on high.” Can you see that? You see, the pattern wasn’t complete yet. The disciples had been told to go, but they weren’t ready to go yet because only the Holy Spirit can achieve God’s purposes and until they were filled with the Holy Spirit Jesus said to them „wait, don’t do anything yet!” And you know what that tells me, that tells me that we were never supposed to do any form of christian ministry without the power of the Holy Spirit. That tells me that we cannot fulfill the call of God on our lives without the power of the Holy Spirit. And actually that’s why the new covenant ministry is called the ministry of the Spirit. That’s in 2 Corinthians 3 verses 7 to 8 and it says „now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, -this is the old covenant- came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?” And it’s saying that the old covenant ministry, you know when Moses came down from the mountain because he had been in the presence of God people could not look at his face because it shone so brightly. And it says „will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?” Will not the light of Christ shine through us even more gloriously than that becasue we have been filled with the Spirit of God? This is the ministry of the Spirit. That means he does it through us. So actually there’s only really one ministry on planet earth and it’s called the ministry of the Spirit and my question for you as you watch episode one of this series on How To Fulfilll Your Calling, my question for you is: do you want to be part of that ministry? If you do I want you to listen really carefully to what I’m about to say. Never limit the plan of God for your life to what you can achieve in your natural ability. I’m gonna say that again. Never limit the plan of God for your life to what you can achieve in your natural ability. You see, let me ask you a question, if you live your life within the confides of your natural ability who is gonna get the glory for your life? You will. But if you follow God’s pattern. You understand that he has a purpose for your life and the only way you’re gonna be able to fulfill it is if he supernaturally empowers you by his Spirit, so that you can live beyond your natural ability and fulfill his purposes not your good ideas, everybody including you will know that it can’t be you and it must be Him. And therefore He will get all the glory. You see God doesn’t put his power in our lives to make us look good or enable us to achieve our dreams, he does it to glorify himself. Now look at this, 1 Peter 4 verse 11 part b, it says „if anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever, Amen.” So it’s saying that if we’re gonna serve God, we’re not gonna do it in our own strength, we’re gonna do it in his strength, and as we do it in his stregth he will be glorified. You see this is so foundational to fulfilling the calling of God on your life, that’s why I’m putting this in session one. So whatever your calling is, one thing is clear, it’s to bring glory to God and he has made us in such a way that we will only find true life, true contentment, true satisfaction when we do that. When we give up our lives for his glory. And even if that road is difficult and even if it requires us to lose our lives to achieve his purpose it’s the only thing that’s gonna bring life in all its fullness. So if you want to understand how to fulfill your calling, you have to understand one thing and Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians 3 verse 5, he says „not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” So the first thing we have to understand after we’ve understood how God works on the earth and what the pattern is that he uses, we have to understand that we cannot do anything by ourselves. It says „not that we are competent in ourselves” and I don’t know about you but that reminds me of John 15 verse 5 where Jesus says „apart from Me, you can do nothing” And we cannot even begin to bear fruit for God until we understand that we have absolutely nothing to offer. Why is that? Well, that’s because God gives grace to the humble. We’re gonna talk more about his amazing grace in this series. But you know, there are people all over the world who are trying to do things for God’s Kingdom. They’ve got good ideas, the’ve got strategies, they’ve got abilities and talents that they’re using but actually if it’s not through the power of his Spirit, if it’s not God doing it through them, actually they’re achieving nothing of eternal purpose and they’re achieving nothing for God’s kingdom. And so in episode two I’m really gonna start to talk about how we can do things through the power of the Holy Spirit, and we’re gonna look at Jesus as the one who first demonstrated this for us. We’re gonna look at how we need to operate if we’re gonna fulfill God’s calling on our lives. And I’m telling you right now that there is a massive adventure in store for you if you will put into practice the things that I’m gonna share with you. Before we get to that, let’s pray. Father, we just want to thank you so much that you want to use us in your purposes. Lord, I thank you that in this session you’ve shown us the pattern of how you work on the earth Lord. And I just want to thank you that it’s so exciting that you have chosen to fill people like me and people like you, who’s watching this video now, God has chosen to fill people like us with his Spirit, and involve us in his work and his purposes. So Father, we just want to thank you for that right now. We just want to thank you for the privilege of being able to be part of what you are doing on the earth. Lord, would you continue to show us the unique part that you’ve got for us to play in that Lord. And may we never find ourselves doing things in our human ability and getting glory for ourselves. Lord would you show us, Father how we can live beyond our natural ability, Lord and to bring you great glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen. See you in episode two.