God Wants to Use You: Become His Instrument for Ministry
In Short
God delights in enabling ordinary believers to accomplish extraordinary things. Through the examples of Moses, Jeremiah, Paul, and other servants of God, this Bible study shows that the Lord calls, equips, strengthens, and empowers all who trust Him. Whatever God asks you to do, He will provide the grace, wisdom, and spiritual enablement needed to fulfill His calling.
Key Takeaways
- God delights in using ordinary believers for His purposes.
- God equips those whom He calls.
- Fear, insecurity, or feelings of inadequacy should not keep believers from obeying God's call.
- The Holy Spirit provides the strength, wisdom, and gifts needed for faithful ministry.
- Our competence for ministry comes from God's grace, not our natural abilities.
Key Scriptures
Exodus 3:10-14 | Exodus 4:1-5 | Exodus 4:10-14 | Jeremiah 1:4-10 | 1 Timothy 1:12-14 | 2 Corinthians 3:5-6
Welcome to Original Pentecostal
Sermons and Bible Studies
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.
Brief Bio
Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D., is a Pentecostal Bible teacher with more than 50 years of Spirit-filled ministry experience. His sermons and Bible studies are personally written and drawn from decades of service as a church planter, senior pastor, Bible college teacher and Dean, and as a trainer of ministers internationally in the Pentecostal tradition.
Introduction: God Wants to Use You
Many Christians hesitate when they sense God calling them into greater service. Feelings of fear, insecurity, inexperience, or inadequacy can tempt us to believe that God could never use someone like us. Yet throughout the Bible, the Lord repeatedly chose ordinary men and women, equipped them by His grace, and enabled them to accomplish extraordinary things for His glory. This study examines several biblical examples that show why you can confidently trust God's calling on your life.
God was sending Moses to Pharaoh to demand the release of Israel from slavery. Moses was fearful, but God assured him (and us): "I will be with you."
God often calls ordinary people to extraordinary assignments, promising His presence rather than an easy path.
- • 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.
God promised to support Moses before Pharaoh with Supernatural Help
When God sends His servants, He also provides the supernatural help needed to accomplish His purposes.
- • 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 5+ 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.
God told Moses He would help him speak to Pharaoh (He'll help us speak too!). Don't let your shortcomings cause you to back off from God's work
Our weaknesses never surprise God, and they do not prevent Him from equipping those who trust and obey Him.
- • 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.
Neither youthfulness nor a lack of natural abilities should prevent you from fulfilling God's divinely-enabled calling on your life
God's calling is based on His sovereign choice and faithful provision, not on human age, experience, or natural talent.
- • 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.
Thank the Lord for calling you and equipping you for His service
Like the apostle Paul, every believer can rejoice that God's grace qualifies those whom He calls into His service.
- • 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.
Remember always, and be thankful, that all competence for ministry comes by the Lord's grace and goodness to you
Christian ministry succeeds through God's strength and the Holy Spirit's enablement rather than through dependence on human ability.
- • 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!
A believer may have moments of uncertainty about serving God. Yet the consistent testimony of Scripture is that God does not call people because they are already sufficient. Rather, He graciously makes them sufficient for the work He assigns. If God is calling you to serve Him, trust His promises, depend upon His Holy Spirit, and confidently step forward in faith, knowing that He will equip you for every good work.
Frequently Asked Questions About God's Calling and Purpose for Your Life
Can God really use ordinary people for His work?
Yes. Throughout the Bible, God repeatedly chose ordinary men and women to accomplish extraordinary purposes. Moses was timid and reluctant at first. Jeremiah felt he didn't have the ability to prophesy. Saul of Tarsus (later known as Paul) was at first an enemy of the Church. These and many others demonstrate that God delights in working through people who trust Him rather than relying on their own abilities.
What if I feel unqualified or inadequate to serve God?
Many of God's servants initially felt fearful, insecure, or unprepared. God does not call people because they are already fully qualified; He calls them and then equips, strengthens, and enables them to fulfill His purposes.
How does God equip those whom He calls?
God equips His people through His presence, His Word, the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, wisdom, strength, and His ongoing grace. As believers depend upon Him, He provides what is needed to accomplish the work He assigns.
What should my response be if I sense God calling me?
Like Isaiah, believers should respond with willing hearts and obedient faith. Rather than focusing on personal weaknesses, we should trust God's promises, rely on His power, and faithfully follow wherever He leads.
Study This Topic More Deeply
- God Uses Ordinary People to Do the Extraordinary
- Pursuing God's Plan for Your Life Daily (Psalm 27)
- Not by Might Nor by Power, But by My Spirit: a Sermon on Holy Spirit Power
- "Body Ministry" (Team Ministry) Means You Are ALL "in the Ministry"
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Pentecostal Sermons and Bible Studies
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.