Do you have any pet "hates" or something people say you dislike? I have a few. When meeting with a group and before we start, people often say, "Let's JUST pray!????" We will acknowledge the presence of our Heavenly Father, Jesus, the world's creator and us and His Spirit and ask God to guide us, and we say "just". Talking to God is the most important thing we can do at any time. We should say something like, "The most important thing we will do at this meeting is invite God to speak and lead us to know and do His will today".
The second irritating thing is the term "God Use Me". It is said all the time, but how does this reflect what we think about who God is and what our relationship is between Him and us? It is possible that when we say this, we either copy what other people say or believe God uses us. In the Farlex Dictionary of Idioms (https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/use+me+as), they say "to use me" means:
To make use of someone or something in the function, capacity, or role of something else.
Please don't use my CDs as coasters—you'll scratch them up! I thought we had a real connection, but she was just using me as a means of meeting my uncle who works for Microsoft.
To use someone or something as something - to make someone or something function as something. (See also use someone or something as an excuse.)
You have used me as your tool! I don't like your using my car as your private taxi.
Some see others using you or wanting to be used as a twisted form of love. To be wanted to be needed is a way of thinking or being that sets you up for a shallow and one-sided relationship. The other person dictates what happens, and there is no real connection between them. They just tell you what to do, and you go and do it. It is a very impersonal way of doing something. We use tools, a pencil, the computer etc.. There is no talking to the object, no sense of working together, and the object is discarded when it is done. If we want to be used by God, we might be setting ourselves up not only for disappointment when God "uses" us, but believing that we are made only to do things for God, and when we have finished, our usefulness to God is over. Oswald Chambers wrote:-
The most important aspect of Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain (with God) and the surrounding influence and qualities produced by that relationship. That is all God asks us to give our attention to, and it is the one thing that is continually under attack.
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, August 4
In looking at this issue, there are four key points. God is calling us to be His friend and His children; he wants a two-way conversation and to "negotiate" or discuss what He is doing. We are called to be children of God and to grow up and mature so He can release His authority in us so we can represent Him, and we are filled with His Holy Spirit so we cannot work independently of God.
One: We Are called into an intimate relationship with God
To begin, God is calling us into an intimate relationship with Him. We are not just objects He has created to do His bidding. In the Bible, we are called several things that indicate God is calling us into deep intimacy with Him. He calls us friends. We are no longer servants, but we are called friends of God, and He tells us His business when we are His friend. "I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15. In James 2:23, we read, "And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.". This friendship is an exclusive relationship, and if we try to be a friend of the world, we become an enemy of God. "You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. James 4:4
Two: God wants to talk with us about what is happening
There are several excellent accounts of people having two-way conversations with God. Often we focus on listening, but God wants to both speak to us and have us respond so we can talk about what He is doing and what we are doing with Him. In Judges 6, we read about Gideon hiding in a winepress threshing wheat, and God finds him and says, " The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valour!". Gideon is told by God that he would deliver Israel from the Midianites and Gideon says, "O my Lord, how can I save Isreal? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." Gideon asks for a sign two times which God gives him and then leads him into one of the most amazing battles of all time. God also spoke to Abraham in Genesis 18, and in the conversation, Abraham spoke to God and asked Him not to destroy Sodom if there were 50, then 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, then 10 and finally 5 righteous people in the city. Abraham had a conversation with God and changed what God would do. One of the most powerful interactions or conversations with God is in Job 38-42. Job has a conversation face to face with God, and his final words from the conversation were:-
Then Job answered the Lord and said:
2 “I know that You can do everything,
And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 Listen, please, and let me speak;
You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’
5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You.
6 Therefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:1-6
There are many accounts of people having two-way conversations with God. He desires to talk to us and wants us to talk to Him. Having a two-way conversation with God is something we should be seeking. We can change what God will do through the way we talk with Him.
Three: We are called to be children and sons of God
When we understand God being our Heavenly Father, we can get a picture of what we are in our relationship with Him. In John 1:12, we read, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,". This is quite an amazing thing to be called a child of the creator of the universe. His plan is for us to do what all children do. That is to grow from babies and infants into sons and daughters of God. By listening and being led by His Spirit, we walk as one of God's sons and daughters.
In Galatians 4:7, we read, "Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God." With this understanding, we know that we are no longer working for God, but what we are working on is ours. It is our inheritance. As His children, we will have the inheritance of all God has, so we are working with God on the things that are ours as God's children!
When we walk as children of God, we are called to grow up in maturity from babies to infants, to children and then to adults. A feature of being an adult is listening to and responding to God speaking. In Romans 8:14, we read, " For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God."
As you grow in your relationship with God, do not be caught in the thinking that God wants to use you. He wants to work in an intimate relationship with you to do the good works He has made you for. (Ephesians 2:10). God calls you to listen to Him, speak to Him and work with Him to release His kingdom here on earth. Know that as earthly children, we need to grow up into the maturity needed to walk on the earth in the relationship He is calling us into so we can work with the body of Christ to fulfil His plans for His creation.
God does not want to use you…. He wants to work with you today through your intimate relationship with Him! Do not "just pray", but have a conversation about this with God today! He may surprise you on how He loves to have a two-way conversation with you!