Elijah. And Balaam. These are the first two who came to mind as I saw this prompt.
Delivering messages was one of prophet Elijah’s main duties. God would give him a direct word, which he would then relay directly to someone else. There’s the time when Elijah marched right up to King Ahab, told him it wouldn’t rain or even have dew for the next few years until God said it was time again, and then walked out. He had not requested a meeting with the king. There was no press release or alert of a press conference so that people were prepared to receive the word. Elijah didn’t even take the time to shop for a new outfit.
Balaam was also a messenger, though not the poster boy most of us would think of. The king asked him to come and curse the Israelites and offered to pay him. God told him no…and Balaam went anyways. Then God said He would be in charge of the message. Balaam’s intent was to do his job and fill his wallet. In this case, he would gladly curse God’s people if it meant coming out the richer. Balaam, despite the warning signs and crazy encounters found himself in a position to act as a harmful messenger. But when he opened his mouth to speak, God’s words came out instead. Everyone was shocked.
God uses messengers all the time. Sometimes they’re obvious; sometimes they’re reluctant. He uses US as His messengers. Sometimes the message is easy–like encouraging someone. Sometimes the message is very difficult–like a warning or bad news. Despite our human hearts, we can be used for divine purpose.
That’s grace right there! We can’t get caught up in aesthetics, stats and readership.
When our platforms stand on ‘thus saith the Lord’, we’ll have an unexpected outcome.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today I’m one of many messengers. Find more at this link up here.