Who Measures Success? Part 2

In Isaiah 6, the prophet sees the glory of God, worships, repents, and finds restoration.  He is so moved by the experience that he eagerly volunteers himself for service when God is looking for someone to send on an urgent mission.  But the story takes an interesting turn as God tells Isaiah how his new ministry will unfold.  He basically tells Isaiah to warn the people, but they will not listen.  But keep preaching “until the cities lie in waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.” 

No megachurch for Isaiah.  Nobody is going to follow his blog.  No repentance, no revival, no acclaim, no nothing.  Yet, Isaiah does the only thing He knows to do, He obeys the voice of God.

In Acts 7, we can read about this guy named Stephen, whose first sermon in scripture was also his last.  He brought a hellfire and brimstone sermon, and did the people repent?  Oh, no.  Instead…they stoned him.  Yep! Sure did.  But according to verse 55, he was filled with the Holy Ghost.  So what causes a man filled with the Holy Ghost to be stoned?

So two men, both committed followers of God, had ministries that, humanly speaking, lacked substantial visible fruit.  (At least at the time.)

 Why did Stephen not experience the success of a Paul?  Why didn’t Isaiah’s message bring repentance in Israel like Jonah’s message did in Nineveh? 

Why does God send one man to a small village in a remote part of the world to preach the gospel for 30 years, and that man only gain three converts?  And why does that same God call another to pastor a megachurch in a large American city?  Both preachers loved God and obeyed His voice.

Why do some great books become best sellers and others sell only 18 copies?  Both authors loved God and obeyed His voice.

Here is something we must understand as ministers of God’s grace.  We do not always know what God is up to.  In fact, we seldom do.  But we must rest in the truth that God is working out His eternal purposes.  And frankly, we don’t always get clarity on what that is.  It can be frustrating at times, to be sure. “Why aren’t things working out the way I planned?”  “Why is God blessing her and not me?”  “Why could Dr. Seuss sell so many books and I can’t?”  But these questions are asked by those looking through temporary eyes.  God wants us to see further than that.  God wants us to understand that He is working in ways we cannot see.

I submit to you that in the eyes of God, both Isaiah and Stephen were very successful.  Why?  Because they obeyed His voice.  That’s it.  They sought God, they heard God, they obeyed God.  And that is how God measures success: “How well did you follow me?”

That is why I don’t buy into the statement “If God is in it, He will bless it.”  There are too many stories in the Bible to the contrary.  Better to say “If God has called you to it, He is in it.”  It doesn’t matter if the outcome is visible to us. All that matters is that we obey Him.  On that great day, when we all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we will understand why God has done what He has done, we will see the eternal fruit of our labor,  and we will see who God considers successful.

And so as you move forward on whatever it is God has called you to do, remember these things:

*Seek God, hear His Voice, and obey.

*Work hard and leave the results to Him.

*Trust that God is working out His eternal purposes.

*Live for the applause of heaven, not the applause of man.