For those of you who think they have said "yes" to God.What Manner of Sacrifice Are You?Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the work of another believer to pour out your life sacrificially for the sake and faith of others? Or do you say I am not willing to be poured out right now, and I don't want God to tell me how to serve, or who to serve, or how He wants to use me? I want to choose the place of my own sacrifices. And I want to get the credit for what I am doing in His service, with people acknowledging my service. It is one thing to follow God's way of service if we are regarded as a hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for us by God requires us becoming a "doormat" under other people’s feet. God's purpose may be to teach us to say "I know how to be abased .... (Phil 4:12) Are you ready to be sacrificed like that? Are you ready to be less than a mere drop in the bucket- to be totally insignificant, that no one even remembers your name, even those you serve. Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and exhausted not seeking to be ministered to, but to minister?Some saints can't do menial work while maintaining a saintly attitude, because they feel such service is beneath their dignity, where do you stand today? Are you willing?" If I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all ( Phil 2:17)Being poured out as an offering is an act of your will not your emotions. If you tell God you are ready to be poured out as a sacrifice for His service, then accept the consequences as they come, without complaint, in spite of what God might send your way. God sends you through a crisis in private, where no one else can help you. From the outside your life may look the same, but the difference is taking place in your will.Once you have experienced the crisis in your will, you will take no thought of the cost when it begins to affect you externally. If you don't deal with God on the level of your will first the result will be only to arouse sympathy for yourself. You must be willing to be placed on the altar and to go through the fire; willing to experience what the altar represents- burning, purification, and separation for only one purpose- the elimination of every desire and affection not grounded in, or directed toward God.But you don't eliminate it, God does. " Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar"Ps 118:27. You bind the sacrifice ... to the horns of the altar' and see to it that you don't wallow in self pity once the fire begins. After you have gone through the fire, there will be nothing that will be able to trouble, bother, or depress you. When another crisis arises you will realize that things cannot touch you as they used to do. What fires lie ahead in your life? Tell God you are ready to be poured out as an offering, and God will prove HIMSELF to be ALL you ever dreamed HE would be."I am already being poured out as a drink offering. 2 Timothy 4:6)
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