PioneersSample

THE SECRET OF A PIONEER: PREPARATION

If you have ever been on a trip to a completely new destination, then you would know that the key to your experience is preparation. Anyone who packs snow jackets and thermals on the way to a tropical destination quickly discovers that they have wasted valuable luggage space and spent more money than they needed to to get all their clothes packed. This is a great reflection of what happens when we are not prepared. We pay a price we never wanted to pay. And we mishandle what we were given to work with in the first place.

Your destination determines your preparation. And this is true of our faith. When you know where you are going, you understand what you need to do now to step into tomorrow. So, if God has called you to lead a church one day, how are you going with serving others? If God has called you to preach at conferences around the world one day, how are you going with sharing your faith with your neighbors? If God has called you to write songs and lead worship one day, how are you going with setting up the chairs and packing down the sound system? If God has called you to finance kingdom expansion one day, then how are you going with tithing?

The truth is, the season you are in right now is preparation for where God wants you. As it says in Luke 16; we must learn how to be faithful with the little so God can entrust us with much. This is why it's important that we never despise the days of small beginnings. Because it’s in these times that God forms us, God moulds us, God shapes us, and God prepares us for everything He has called us to do.

We often hear about King David, the giant slayer, the city taker, the man after God’s own heart. But when you look at David’s life, you quickly see that his fame in the palace was prepared by his faithfulness in the paddock. When the prophet Samuel goes to the house of Jesse (David’s father) to find and anoint the next king of Israel, no one knew it would be the young shepherd boy. Not only was David the unlikely choice, but he also wasn't even an option until they went through his seven other brothers first.

Where was David when the other brothers were being observed? David was out in the field. And not only that, after David gets anointed as King, He has to go back out to the field for another fifteen years. The powerful thing about David was not his appearance, his skillset, or his personality; it was his faithfulness.

All the victories that David saw as a King were forged when he was a shepherd. Every war won on the battlefield was because he learnt how to fight on the farm. Every hidden season can be a fruitful season, every trial can be a blessing, and every setback can be a setup, and this is possible because success is not in the destination but in the preparation.

QUESTIONS:

1. What is your paddock right now?

2. How can you be more faithful with what is in your hand today?