Have you ever longed to be somewhere, or have longed to meet with someone whom you have missed and loved? When you know there is a day that is coming for that time to be fulfilled, are you counting down the days? How excited are you when that day approaches and now you are counting hours and not weeks or months – or years?! When you are on that journey you can be counting down the minutes and asking – “are we nearly there yet?”
Do you think about how you would react when you finally meet Jesus? Have you thought about that moment when He opens His hands, and you see the ‘scars’ where once the nails were? Enough to make you melt.
When we get there, as believers in Christ, there is nothing more that we should desire but to hear the words from Jesus as he says in Matthew 25, verse 21- ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ Wow!! Jesus has left us ‘talents’ to use on the journey to meet Him and we are expected to use them to show His love for us! We are expected to get ready by our righteous deeds as His Church! Revelation 19 verses 8 says -•“it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.“
Let us love Him, one another and be servant hearted. These are the attributes that Jesus expects of His Bride! Wherever the Spirit leads us on our journey, He will get us to our destination. In the book of Acts, chapters 6 and 7, we see Stephen a man full of the Holy Spirit and doing great signs and wonders. But there was a need in the church, and Stephen led by the Spirit, volunteered. It was a servant hearted gift. Being led by the Spirit leads to being servant hearted and not an unhealthy fixation of chasing the ‘power’ of the Spirit. The Spirit should lead to servanthood as Jesus demonstrated by washing the disciple’s feet. Stephen was on the journey that would lead to doing great things whilst serving. Following false accusations borne out of jealously, Stephen was placed before the council. Standing before them, we see in Acts 6 verse 15 that the face of Stephen shone like an Angel. Whilst being ‘stoned’, Stephen saw heaven opened with Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. The servant – The Holy Spirit had led Stephen to the Master! The first martyr and certainly not the last! The Holy Spirit is still working today and leading many to the Master! Stephen is a worthy recipient of the wonderful words – “well done my good and faithful servant – enter into the joy of your Master!”
Praise be to God.
