Pray: "God, USE Me As Your Instrument" (God WANTS to Use You)

by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.

Summary:  Out of fear or insecurity we might back away from God’s call upon our lives. But the bible clearly shows not only that God wants to use you in His service, but that He will also equip and enable you to be an instrument of God in accomplishing His callings. Read on and be encouraged to allow God to use you!

Exodus 3:1, 10-14  Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness… [10 - then God spoke to Moses from the burning bush] “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you… [14] God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

• Moses was tending the flock in the wilderness and God spoke to him, “I am sending you to Pharaoh” to deliver Israel. A mere mortal (Moses) was to be God's instrument in this great deliverance of an entire nation.

 

• It makes no difference how humble your life or your circumstances are. God can use you! God wants to use you. The first four disciples Jesus chose were fishermen, not Doctors of Theology.

 

• Moses’ reaction (paraphrased) was “Who? Me?” And God spoke into Moses’ doubt with the encouraging words, “I will be with you.” And that fact changes everything!

 

• Remind yourself as you consider God’s plans and directions for your life: “God Himself is with me. God Almighty has sent me!”

 

• The reason that you can be used by God is that God will not just send you to a ministry, He will accompany you in the accomplishment of that ministry call. He will prepare the way. He will give you all that you need to accomplish the assignment. God intends for you to succeed, and He is sovereignly in control of everything. With His help and divine presence, you can fulfill any task the Lord assigns to you.

Exodus 4:1-5  Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob — has appeared to you.”

• Moses argued, as we often do, “Lord, maybe they won’t believe me or listen to me.” God responded with the supernatural sign of the rod turning into a snake and back into a rod.

 

• The point is: God will grant you the supernatural “signs following” (Mark 16:20, KJV) and appropriate spiritual gifts needed to accomplish His assigned task.

 

• You may be thinking, “I’m nobody. No one will pay attention to me. Why should anyone believe that God has called me to do this?” The cure for that wrong thinking is that God will give you the abilities and gifts of the Spirit needed to fulfill His calling.

 

• I recall a prophetic word spoken to me forty years ago at my 1975 ordination as an Ephesians 4:11 bible teacher: “…While you are speaking, right while you are speaking, the Spirit of God will give illumination. And the Scriptures that have an obscurity about them will become very, very clear.” And that has occurred countless times in my four decades of bible teaching since then. The Holy Spirit of God takes my limited, finite set of natural skills and elevates them to higher, more effective levels by His divine enablement.

Exodus 4:10-14  Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses…

• Unwisely, Moses continued to list his fears and insecurities — “Lord, I’m not a good speaker. I’m slow of speech.” God replied, “I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” Know this for a fact: God can use you if you'll open yourself up to His enabling and empowering you for the assigned task.

 

• Don’t worry about your speaking abilities. Many Christians are surprised to hear that the great apostle Paul was not a particularly skilled speaker. Paul said that he was “unskilled in speaking” (2 Corinthians 11:6, Amplified). Yet God used him to write more than a dozen books of the bible, in addition to planting many churches.

 

• Moses erred greatly in trying to decline God’s call: “Lord, please send someone else.” This incurred the Lord’s anger (vs. 14). Enough excuses, Moses! God had promised to send him and to be with him, to grant him Holy-Spirit power, and to help him speak. As you ponder God’s desire and willingness to use you, don’t dwell on your fears, but on the reliability of God’s wonderful promises.

Jeremiah 1:4-10  The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

• Like Moses, Jeremiah had fears and insecurities — “I don’t know how to speak; I’m too young.”

 

• Jeremiah (and we) should have learned from Moses’ failure. He should not have looked at his fears, but at God’s calling and His promises and provision. God had said to him (paraphrased), “Jeremiah, before you were born I called you and appointed you to this task. This is my choice for you, not your choice. Don’t be afraid; I’m with you. Don’t worry about what to say. Just say what I tell you to say. I’ll put my words in your mouth.”

 

• The calling of God upon you includes the divine enablements needed to get the tasks accomplished.

1 Timothy 1:12-14  I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

• You may be thinking, “I’m not worthy enough for the Lord to use me as His vessel, for His purposes. I’ve done terrible things in my life.” So had Paul, yet God made him an apostle.

 

• What the Lord wants to do is draw you to Himself in faith and repentance … to forgive you … to save you by His grace. Then He simply asks you to be faithful, to show yourself trustworthy (vs. 12), so that He may appoint you to His service.

2 Corinthians 3:5-6  Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant — not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

• Can you or I do the Lord’s work? By ourselves, no! But our competence comes from God. “He has made us competent as ministers.”

 

• We will succeed in doing the Lord’s work, not by our natural abilities, but “of the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit, the third person of the divine Trinity, will empower and enable you to do whatever God calls you to do.

 

• God wants to use you. You can be an instrument of God in His work. And He will give you everything needed to accomplish that work. Just respond as the great prophet Isaiah did when he heard God’s call, “I will go! Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8, GNT). Like the prophet of old, as you sense the Lord's plans for your life, respond obediently with something like: "God, use me as your instrument, your vessel, your servant." Be willing to allow God to use you; God will make you able!

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Check out our related sermon: 'God Uses Ordinary People to Do the Extraordinary'

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