God has called us to be partakers of His blessings in His Kingdom. This Kingdom started from the beginning and has no end! We are part of this kingdom and are valuable. We are the chosen ones for God to use so to change our circumstances, and atmosphere by influencing.
Matthew 13:31-33, “He spoke a parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a person took and sowed in his field, which indeed is smaller than all the other seeds, but when it is fully grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”
He spoke another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid three measures of flour until it was all leavened.”
Jesus was sharing about the kingdom of God in these two parables. The first parable is talking about the seed. This is the smallest of seeds. If it falls in the ground, you cannot see it but nevertheless, Jesus is demonstrating will grow and become a big tree and the birds will come and live there.
He is making the comparison of a Believer who doesn’t have a lot of faith. The size of a mustard seed. But then again you are a Believer. You may not comprehend how you can influence or change your world. You may perhaps compare your little faith with someone who seems to have great faith! Those who are doing big things. Have large churches. Doing great missionary work. Those who are laying hands-on people and they receive healing. You may see yourselves as nothing and you can’t do anything. Still, you can be a big blessing if you exercise your faith to do something for God! Who God sends, needs to have faith and to trust Him. To walk in His way’s.
This is why we need to affect the world! Because if we don’t affect the world, the world will affect us!
We need to tell the world of the goodness of God! The little things we do in faith will grow to be great! For example, you can sing by yourself and you may not see that singing would bless anyone. If you continue by faith, you can become a great singer and touch many lives! Many people would like to hear your song. They will buy your cd’s from generation to generation. By giving what you have. Starting where you are in small beginnings trusting God for bigger things. God will do it! I want to encourage you that what you have is very important! Touch somebody with your gifting. Bloom where you are planted! Be an evangelist. Talk to someone about Jesus! This is a good beginning. Start in the street, home, your children. Practice your faith! God does not want us to keep to ourselves and not touch lives. He has given us His Spirit to affect people, those we come in contact with. People will be blessed! God has given you gifts!
Some people have a burden to just pray for others. They may not know the ones they are praying about, but their hearts is to just pray. That prayer will definitely affect those people! That person may not know who is praying for them, but they will see good changes in their lives. They will know someone somewhere is praying for them! It seems to be a little thing but will yield big impact in lives of others!
Jesus describes the kingdom of God with emphases on the word like, with yeast in bread. Yeast is used to put in flour and according to what the recipe is, this is what you measure. This is mixed thoroughly to make bread! Flour without yeast, will cause the bread to not rise, flat bread. The flour without yeast will make it hard for you to make the bread. The flour by itself cannot expand. It will be flat. The loaf bread has yeast in it to make it expand or there is pressure in it to make it rise.
So, Jesus is comparing this to the power of God! That same power is on the inside of every Believer! When you are sharing with people, whether they know God or not, this power of God in you will affect these people! They will feel His power and be touched! They will see something different! You are there bringing the power of God to influence them! What you speak or do is blessing the life of people! People will ask you how do you do it? How are you prospering with this little income you are getting? This will open the opportunity for you to give God the glory! To witness to them, you are doing this because of God! Ministry begins here!
For example, a person has the mind and heart to be a politician. A leader of the world. You are an unknown and people don’t yet understand you. There are some qualifications you need to possess. You then gain friends and connections to make people see you are a good leader. They see your leadership from your community and your home and family. You are influencing people even with the youth. You begin where you are. In high school, your university. People will follow you and be a bridge for you to go to a higher level. You are practicing and trying to let it out! But if you have the gift and keep it to yourself, who will know what’s in you! You may get some rejection at first, but continue to share and love them, they will come to support you. To follow you!
I saw a movie of a young girl who went in this rough neighborhood often to give people papers. The streets were riddled with crime, but she thought to change her community by giving them papers of the love of Jesus! Just a simple message of Jesus loves you! As you can guess, some threw away, some read! It came to pass, people started believing in this child! She was affecting the area! The enemy is always present to try and stop what God is doing. Some people hate her, and she is shot by a man but did not die! In the hospital, this child tells the man she forgives him! That man is in tears! This man and his gang all received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior! This young child believed in God and wanted to share about Him! She believed if she shared, some people would believe, and her community would change! What a brave young girl!
God wants people like this! Who can influence their families, home, community, nation, and the world! To give yourself, starting from where you are! God sees you and is looking at your heart! This Kingdom of God is not for weak people! This kingdom is for those who are strong enough and know they want to sincerely do something. There are lots of obstacles and challenges. Mountains before you but you need to go and pass through those things and do it! If you step in politics, you will get much criticism and evil but if you focus, you will pass through those words of those cursing you.
God wants us to work! To give ourselves! We don’t need big things to work in this kingdom. God will work in you and lead you where He wants you to be! God is the one who appoints, sends, and finishes the work He started in you! You just need to believe Him!
Also, in this kingdom, we are not here to please people. The problem with us Christians, is that we want to be very nice, sweet, and good. Which is moral but we need to just please God! We are here to do God’s will! God has called us with this purpose! Fear may come, but God will lead you!
Paul said, “I can do all things in Christ which strengthens me.”
Jesus will help, lead, and guide us! Jesus is still telling us what we are to do! He is still telling us how important we are! As we grow in knowledge and understanding, we will know what He is calling us to do! Jesus is trying to help us understand by using natural things we’re familiar with. The natural things conveys spiritual messages!
Matthew 5:1-16, Jesus tells us “we are the salt of the earth.” The salt is to give food more flavor. When you mix it with food, it changes the flavor. It can make the food tastier. Jesus compares believer’s to salt. You can store salt for many years and is not easy for it to lose it’s flavor. But if it loses it’s flavor, it is useless! This is the life of the believer. We are long suffering! But if we lose our flavor, God cannot use us! We can affect and change our surroundings! We are the salt and light of this world! A small light in a big room will cause the dark to run away! This is how the believer is in this world!
If the world is in a mess, it is because of the believer. We are not shining but hiding our light!
Most persons like to walk in the sun, the light! It makes them very happy, very busy! Walking and doing their business! But when the night comes, most stop working and rush to get home or inside. Because the dark is coming. The dark is not good because evil things happen mostly in the dark. Murder, stealing. Darkness can represent the enemy of God, satan. When you walk in the light of God, you start seeing clearly what you are doing. Some things are not right.
Jesus is the light from the beginning! He puts His light, Himself in every Believer! We are the light of the world! We are the salt of the world! It is up to us to demonstrate that light. God will get the glory!
It is hard from some people, especially the youth in countries like America, to appreciate this parable which shares about the lamp. Electricity is all over! In many countries, people are still using the lamp. So, when you have that lamp, you need to put it high up on lampstand so everyone can see light in the room. The house on the hill is different than the house in the valley. It is more visible! Jesus wants everyone to see the light! We cannot hide! We’re the hope of the world! People are looking for us, for answers!
If we show the light in us as Christians, people will want to know more about our God! They will praise God but if we walk like the world, it will make no difference. The unbeliever may go another direction from us, but they are monitoring us to see what we will do in situations. If we go the same as them, it is hard for them to understand our God! If we cry like we have no hope, and act like we don’t know what to do, we are not helping the world. We have no meaning! But if we tell the world, we have the answers and are trusting God, they will see hope! If we tell them who are sick, Jesus is the healer. If we pray for them and let them know God loves them, it will change them! People are going in the wrong direction. Let us share the love of God! They will see God!
God is here for us! He is doing this business with us! He will never leave, abandon nor go away from us! The Church has the power and authority to influence our world!
Christ in us the hope of glory!
Moses Wafula