Greetings tonight, we will be talking about “The Difference Made By Relationships”
In order for you to be able to teach, you have to be willing to be taught.
I have learned in my walk with God to never assume the position of “All KNOWING”.
As soon as you do, you stop learning. – This is what we commonly call being unteachable.
You never want to place yourself in the position of being unteachable, this is a quick door opener to the spirit of pride.
The last person that walked in pride, walked himself right out of a job, and into a permanent place away from the presence of God.
Pride will destroy anything good that God has given you.
Tonight, I want you to take a step back, and look at your life through a different viewpoint.
You need the benefit that comes from seeing things from a different perspective.
As we are going through this, think about the relationships that God has placed you in.
Consider this…
“There is a fine line between taming wildness out of someone and breaking their spirit. The Father is wanting you to understand how important relationships are in this season. The relationships that he has placed you in, you are being placed with a stable person, a grounded person, a person who has been through the taming process and you are in the yoke with them and you are bucking, and you’re going wild. You’re not used to working, you’re not used to things going the opposite of the way that you want them but you are in this stock this and you need to realize that God is trying to train you.
It is time as sons and daughters that you understand that you are being trained. It is time as sons and daughters that this wildness that God is trying to get out of you, God is not trying to break your spirit. He is not trying to stop you from going forth and doing the things that He has ordained for you to do, for example releasing new things into the Spirit realm; What He is trying to do is mature you quickly and bring you into a place where you can be used.”
[This is me, I don’t know much about horses or taming animals, but this is just in my spirit and I believe that this is what God is wanting to teach you tonight.]
You as the one who has the wildness in you, you have to yield that wildness over to God. You have to yield that wildness over to Him so that He can use you to do the things that He wants you to do. It’s crazy because God put this wild streak, this excitement, this zeal, inside of you and He is wanting to use this for His Kingdom but there are principles and boundaries that you don’t know and you don’t understand and God has placed you in a relationship so that you can understand and grow and mature so that God can take you with your wildness, with your personality and help other people. These will be the same people with a similar personality as yours.
The key to a successful father is recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of the children. You have to be able to recognize where they are strong at and where they are weak at and then build them up in those weak areas. Many in the Body of Christ don’t understand that these weak areas are put there by God so that you can learn humility, so that you can learn submission and that you can be broken out of your pride.
No one can do anything in pride. No one can do anything with just pure unrestrained wildness because it will not be received. People will hear you but they will ignore you and your wildness but if you come under the anointing, if you come through the gate and the relationship that God has ordained for you to come through everything in your life will work itself out but you cannot buck your relationships that God has placed you in. You just can’t. And those who are bucking those relationships, you are really pushing the limits of God.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (AMP); A Time for Everything
3 There is a season (a time appointed) for everything and a time for every delight and event or purpose under heaven—
There is a time to learn… and a time not to learn…
When you are training you should be in the mindset of learning…
The value of relationships comes from understanding that iron sharpens iron.
You need to see yourself as in the position to receive instruction, the position of learning.
When you are working in relationships, this is an important key to remember.
As the teacher your job is not make them copies of yourself. Your job is to help them see the importance of patience, balance, determination, and hard work.
As a student you should strive to understand everything that you are being.
You should seek to learn it in a way that will give you enough insight to be able to teach you have been taught.
As a student, your perspective should be one of trying to gain insight. You can learn from other people’s victories and failures.
You won’t get this insight if you are hard to teach. You have to place yourself in a position to be vulnerable and open.
Sometimes people have a misunderstanding of what vulnerable is, they feel that to be vulnerable is too risky and uncomfortable.
For your relationships to work the way that God intends them to work you cannot bypass this stage.
As a student you need to understand that you lack the ability to see things from the perspective of your teacher.
You are limited to a degree and this puts a great responsibility upon your teacher to help you find your blind spots or weaknesses.
There is a great level of humility that is needed to lay down what you think you so that you can really be taught.
This is where the wildness comes in, as a teacher your wildness level has to be evaluated from many different directions.
1. How well do you listen?
2. How well do you accept correction?
3. How well you follow instructions?
4. How are you perceiving the world around about you?
5. What made you be the person that you are?
A teacher has to look at the student and see them for who they are, evaluating everything that is going on in their life.
Some students bring a lot to the table that has to be wiped off the table before they can begin to be used.
1 Kings 19:19-21 (NKJV); Elisha Follows Elijah
19 So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. 20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.”
And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?”
21 So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.
When you look at the relationship between Elisha and Elijah, Elisha had to choose to lay down what he knew, what he was in order to receive what Elijah had.
It doesn’t say how long Elisha was a servant but he humbled himself and learned what God needed for him to learn.
What relationships has God placed you in? What is your role in this relationship? Are you the teacher or are you the student? What are you doing to be all that you can be in your role in the relationship?
Be aware of what your role is and make sure you fulfill your role to the best of your ability.
God will see this and honor what you do.
Elisha was in relationship with his servant Gehazi
2 Kings 5: 20 - 27 (NKJV); Gehazi’s Greed
20 But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Look, my master has spared Naaman this Syrian, while not receiving from his hands what he brought; but as the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him.” 21 So Gehazi pursued Naaman. When Naaman saw him running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him, and said, “Is all well?”
22 And he said, “All is well. My master has sent me, saying, ‘Indeed, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the mountains of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of garments.’”
23 So Naaman said, “Please, take two talents.” And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and handed them to two of his servants; and they carried them on ahead of him. 24 When he came to [a]the citadel, he took them from their hand, and stored them away in the house; then he let the men go, and they departed. 25 Now he went in and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, “Where did you go, Gehazi?”
And he said, “Your servant did not go anywhere.”
26 Then he said to him, “Did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants? 27 Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever.” And he went out from his presence leprous, as white as snow.
Where do you think Elisha learned how to deal with Gehazi?
It came from his relationship with Elijah.
The Holy Spirit will teach you all things in your relationships. He will show you what you need to know.
Elisha could have chased Gehazi down and sent men to stop him from doing what he did.
There are going to be lessons that you will learn from your own dumbness. Sometimes God will let you get off easy, sometimes He will let you go through a hard thing.
The relationship that Elisha had with Gehazi changed because of Gehazi’s disobedience.
Exodus 24:9-18 (NKJV); On the Mountain with God
9 Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. 11 But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank.
12 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.”
13 So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed, Aaron and Hur are with you. If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them.” 15 Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain.
16 Now the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. 17 The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. 18 So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Moses trained all of these people, yet Joshua went up the mountain with him.
Sometimes everyone that you train is not able to go into the deep places that you go. Moses us also had the wisdom from God enough to know not to take them.
He knew to take Joshua and Joshua knew what his boundaries were.
This is significant because it speaks to knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your people.
Everyone has different tasks ad responsibilities and as long people are fulfilling their tasks, God will ensure that everything will be run right.
You can’t make someone be a Joshua. If it’s not in them, it’s just not in them.
But if God has called you to see that they are and God is using you to bring the Joshua out of them, then that person will become the Joshua.
Joshua later went on to lead the Children of Israel after Moses died.
It’s wisdom to know what people’s capabilities are.
Matthew 26:36-46 (NKJV); The Prayer in the Garden
36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”
39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, [a]if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” 43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.
44 So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. 45 Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”
Luke 22:24-30 (NKJV); The Disciples Argue About Greatness
24 Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. 25 And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ 26 But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. 27 For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.
28 “But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. 29 And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, 30 that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
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