The importance of character.

Character is a subject that is not discussed in

many circles today. Problems arise when ministries are

growing too fast. In other words, the anointing upon the

person’s life has developed faster than the character of the

individual. Ten or twenty years down the line, it blows up

and the ministry comes to nothing because they didn’t

allow their character to develop.

 

They didn’t walk in the fruit of the Spirit. They

didn’t walk in love. They didn’t walk in the joy of the

Lord. They didn’t work on their marriage. They didn’t

make sure they had a solid foundation at home. They

didn’t take care of their children. Their children end up

backsliding away from God. They end up in a divorce

and things just don’t have a solid foundation.

 

Counting the Cost

“No one builds a tower unless he counts the cost.”

Do you realize the cost of being involved in the ministry?

It’s glamorous to look like you are going into the

ministry, but have you realized the cost? What price will

you have to pay to walk in that place?

When I started in the ministry, I was, as they say

in the military, gung-ho. I was ready for anything. If God

wanted me to run an arctic expedition and preach to the

Eskimos I would have done it. I was ready to go at the

drop of a hat, without ever finding out what it entailed.

Sometimes it is good to be that way, because if you knew

what was coming up, you wouldn’t go in the first place.

I am reminded when the Gulf War was on and the

young men were going to the Persian Gulf. Different age

groups were going. There were the eighteen-year-olds,

just out of school, who had watched several Rambo

movies. Then there were the guys who were twenty years

older, who had been through the Vietnam War. They

were going out of a different sense of duty.

The young man didn’t know what he was getting

himself into. The first time he dives in a fox hole and

those mortars are flying over his head, he suddenly

realizes he is in the middle of war. The older man knew

what the commitment was because he had already faced

the heat of the battle.

 

Coming Ready or Not

When you first enlist in God’s army, you may not

know what it entails. Sometimes you say, “Lord, I’m

ready for this.” That is the way I was. I would pray,

“Lord, I’m ready for that. Lord, I’m ready to go here.

Lord, I’m ready to do this.”

The Lord said, “Rodney, sit down and shut up.” I

would get upset and complain, and the Lord said, “You

are not ready.”

Then you go through several years of saying, “I’m

not ready, Lord, I’m not ready, I’m not ready.” The Lord

comes to you and says, “Now, Rodney, go and do that.”

“O God, I’m not ready!”

He says, “Yes, you are.”

You see, four or five years ago, you were ready in

your own ability, but now you know you can’t do it in

your own ability. So you are ready in His ability. When

we are not ready in our ability, when we feel the weakest,

that is the time when the Spirit of God can rest the

strongest upon us.

 

When I Am Weak Then I Am Strong

Like the Apostle Paul said, “When I am weak,

then I am strong” (Second Corinthians 12:10). He was

able to say this in the middle of trials and tribulations.

Paul had a thorn in the flesh, which was not sickness and

disease, but was persecution. Everywhere he went in his

life and ministry, he was either shipwrecked, beaten, left

for dead, spent time in jail, spent a night and a day in the

deep – he always had troubles and persecutions.

Paul prayed, “Lord, remove this thing from me.”

Some people think he got rid of it. No, he didn’t. The

Lord said to him, “No, I’m not going to remove it from

you. My grace is sufficient for you. My anointing is

sufficient for you. My ability is sufficient for you to bear

this persecution.”

So Paul said, “Most gladly therefore will I rather

glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest

upon me” (Second Corinthians 12:9). He didn’t say

anything about sickness. He said, “I will rejoice in my

infirmities and my weaknesses that the power of Christ

may rest upon me.” Remember that the Lord sent Ananias

to Saul to tell him the things he would suffer for the name

of Jesus.