Action Steps To Being a Person God Will Use in these Last Days
Living in the last of the last days is a guarantee that you will meet people with serious needs.
These end times you live in are going to become increasingly filled with hurt and pain — with people who are crying out for the answers you carry because you have the Holy Spirit residing within. At any time, you can tap into His divine power to help family members, friends, and individuals you encounter who are under assault. There are people all around you who need God’s healing touch, and you can give it to them.
If you’ll act on the following seven simple steps and make them a consistent part of your life, they will help you become more spiritually sensitive to recognize those whom God has put in your path to help. Practicing these steps as a way of life will help you get your mind off yourself and become more focused on the needs of others. All of these steps are a vital part of your becoming a vessel of deliverance, healing, and power whom God is well able to use to help struggling people become strong and get on their feet again.
These points are simple, but if you will practice them, you will position yourself for God’s power to flow through you to others. There are so many needy people in our time, and God wants your voice to become His voice to those who are crying out for answers. Your hands can become His hands to bring deliverance and healing to those who need a divine touch. Your feet can become His feet to bring answers to those in darkness whom Satan has tried to keep blinded to the truth.
For you to become a highly effective instrument in God’s hands to bring His love to hurting humanity, I suggest the following simple, life-transforming action steps.
1) Get your eyes off yourself.
You will become a person God can use to help people in need only when you get your eyes off yourself and start focusing on those around you. Philippians 2:4 says, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”
Perhaps you are dealing with certain issues that seem like mountains in your life — but always remember, there are people around you who are facing much more difficult challenges than you are right now. A trick of the devil is to get you so self-focused that you are swallowed up in your own needs and fail to see the needs of those around you. God wants you to shift your focus to others so you can enter the territory that the devil has gained in people’s lives to set them free and help them take back what he has stolen.
As you surrender to the Holy Spirit, He will empower you to bring help to those around you, and He will also meet your needs. Galatians 6:7 says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Never forget that the law of sowing and reaping is true. It will go into effect for you when you begin to focus your attention on others. As you meet their needs, God will see to it that your own needs are met as well. So I encourage you to ask yourself these questions:
Who are the people in my life who need my voice to bring an encouraging word to them?
Who are those individuals who need my hands to impart a healing touch to them?
Who are the ones who need my feet to bring them strength and support?
In these last of the last days, you are going to meet many people who need answers and help that only God can give, and He most often uses His people who have become yielded instruments in His hand. You are called to be one of those instruments. However, to be effective in that divine role, you must shift your focus off yourself, open your eyes, and allow the Holy Spirit to show you the needs of others whom He will send across your path.
2) Evaluate the spiritual environment around you.
You must learn to evaluate the needs of others — their spiritual needs and their level of spiritual receptivity — if God is going to use you to help people. Jesus referred to this type of sensitivity with a very unusual example in Matthew 10:16. He said, “…Be ye therefore wise as serpents.…”
The word “wise” in this verse is from a Greek word that means to be prudent, careful, cunning, discerning, thoughtful, intelligent, or sensible. It is a perfect word for Jesus’ illustration of snakes that He used to instruct us on how to be His representative on this earth, for snakes are careful, discerning, intelligent, and prudent in how they act.
For example, when a snake moves into new territory, it lies low, stays quiet, blends into the environment, and evaluates the situation to see opportunities in the area. That is a wise strategy to adopt when God is asking you to touch someone’s life who is new to you. Move carefully as you begin to step out to obey the Lord.
Lay low, stay quiet, blend into the environment for a while, and evaluate that person’s spiritual needs and spiritual condition before you act.
Allow the Holy Spirit to give you insight and wisdom on what He is asking you to do to help that person. Then when you sense a green light from Him and you have a sense of what your part is in reaching out to that person, seize the opportunity to reach out.
Don’t ignore the Holy Spirit’s prompting when it is time to act. Become the source of help that individual needs at that moment. If you wait too long, the opportunity may pass because you didn’t act in God’s timing.
In the closing days of this age, you’ll find yourself in all kinds of spiritual environments and will meet people with all different types of spiritual needs. So apply yourself to learning to discern the Holy Spirit’s leading in your spirit. Allow Him to develop spiritual discernment in you so you’ll know when and how to administer help at the right time and in the right way.
3) Get rid of judgmental attitudes toward people.
You must free your heart of judgmental attitudes if you are to be a person God can use to help people who are in need. Having sound and reasonable judgment is not the same as being judgmental. Having sound judgment refers to being able to comprehend a situation clearly so you can arrive at an accurate conclusion about that situation. On the other hand, being judgmental refers to maintaining a negative, nitpicking, disapproving, condemning, and hypercritical attitude regarding a situation or a person in need.
If you are going to be a person God uses to help others, you must be able to judge a situation without being judgmental about it. In John 8:3-11, we read where Jesus was confronted with a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery and was being condemned by religious leaders. When Jesus saw the judgmental attitude of those religious leaders, He intervened in the situation to save her life. It’s important to note that Jesus never condoned her behavior; He acknowledged it was wrong. But then He spoke words of liberation as He told her to go and sin no more. Jesus judged her situation but was not judgmental of her, as were the religious leaders.
Frequently Christians get confused about the difference between making a sound judgment and being judgmental. You must be able to come to a reasonable judgment about a person’s situation in order to help that person. But if you are judgmental toward the one who needs your help, it will hinder the love of God from flowing through you to that person.
Especially in these last days when people’s morals have become confused, it is important for you to be able to judge situations without being judgmental. So be diligent to rid yourself of judgmental attitudes so you can remain a clear channel that God is able to continually work through to bring help and deliverance to others.
Take Jesus as your Example. Do what He did when He was confronted with that woman caught in the act of adultery. Evaluate each person and situation; see that person’s situation in light of God’s Word; and then come to a conclusion without falling into the trap of being judgmental in your attitude. This will keep your heart free to be a channel through which the love of God flows, and you’ll become a ready help to those in need.
4) Assume everyone needs encouragement.
You must develop the mentality that everyone you meet needs encouragement if you are going to be someone God uses to help people. You are surrounded every day by people who are struggling in their personal lives, in their minds and emotions, and in their relationships. They may not open up to you about it, but many people you know are deeply struggling even now as you read these words. They need your encouragement, even though they may not realize it themselves.
In this end-time hour we’re living in, so many people have morally veered off track. So many people’s lives are not built on a solid foundation. More than ever, people need the help and strength that Jesus Christ offers them. Very often, God will provide that strength and encouragement through His obedient children. And He wants to use you.
I advise you to play it smart and assume that everyone you know needs some type of encouragement.
In Romans 14:19, Paul exhorted us to get busy finding ways to “edify” other people. That word “edify” is a translation of the Greek word oikodome, which is a compound of the words oikos and doma. The word oikos describes a house — fully built and complete. The word doma pictures the roof of a house. When compounded, the new word oikodome pictures a specific, well-thought-out plan to construct a well-built house from its foundation all the way to its roof. In other words, this word depicts the complete building process from start to finish.
To build a house well all the way to its conclusion leaves no room for sloppy, last-minute planning. Careful consideration of every detail is required. Likewise, there is no room for careless thinking when it comes to edifying and encouraging others.
God knows exactly what is needed to encourage those whom He brings across your path. The Holy Spirit — who is the Chief Architect and Engineer — wants to show you how to edify those around you. So ask yourself:
Am I ready to receive His plan?
Are my spiritual ears open to hear His plan?
The Holy Spirit is ready to give you that plan — if you will listen and allow Him to work through you to encourage those who really need it. Romans 14:19 states clearly that this is the will of God. So get in agreement with Him about your assignment, and start learning today how to become a continual source of encouragement, ready to edify and encourage those in your life who need it — and more people need it than you think!
5) Surrender to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
You must surrender to the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are resident within you if you are going to be a person God can use to effectively help people in need. In First Peter 4:10, we are told, “As every man hath received the gift. ”
According to that verse, every believer has received gifts from the Lord that empower him or her to minister to others (see Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 1 Peter 4:10,11).
The words “every man” in this verse are translated from the Greek word hekastos, which is an all-inclusive word that literally means every single person, no one excluded. This means that every person who has been born of the Spirit and who declares that Jesus is Lord has been supernaturally graced or endowed from on High with divine gifts — and that includes you!
But the verse continues, “As every man hath received the gift. ” The word “received” is from the Greek word lambano, and it means to receive into one’s possession or to take into one’s own control and ownership. It carries the idea of taking hold of something, grasping onto something, or embracing something so tightly that it becomes your very own. This means that God wants you to accept and take ownership of spiritual gifts as your own.
As a child of God, you’ve been richly endowed with gifts that have the power to make a powerful difference in someone else’s life. But you must embrace those gifts and allow them to flow through you if they are going to benefit those near you who are in need. For you to become an effective instrument whom God can use to help people, it is imperative that you surrender to these remarkable gifts and allow them to flow through you by the power and leading of the Holy Spirit.
If you will yield to the Holy Spirit in this area, these spiritual gifts that lie resident within you will flow from you to bring His help to those in need right when it’s needed. These gifts are intended to help people — so make the decision today to become skilled at yielding to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and allowing His gifts to flow through you to those who are in need of a divine touch from Heaven.
6) Don’t let fear stop you.
You have to say farewell to a spirit of fear if you are going to be a person God uses to help people in need. In Second Timothy 1:7, Paul said, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
The word “fear” in this verse is translated from the Greek word deilia, which depicts a cowardly and timid person. If this is how you feel about yourself, it is time to rid yourself of that feeling once and for all! Second Timothy 1:7 clearly says that God did not give you a cowardly or timid spirit. You have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside you, and He will give you His supernatural gumption to do whatever God needs you to do!
For God to be able to use you to effectively help others, it is essential for you to tell cowardice and timidity farewell forever. If you don’t, that timidity will stop you in your tracks when it’s time to help someone, because you’ll be too afraid to step out of your shell and do what is necessary. That timidity is a satanic trap to stop you from ever becoming a person God can use.
So boldly use the name of Jesus, and rebuke the spirit of fear in that great name! Take authority over intimidation, and tell it goodbye forever! Quit being robbed of resolve! For God to use you to touch those in need, you have to allow Him to develop an unshakable core of Holy Ghost boldness on the inside of you!
7) Remember that you are always on assignment.
You must remember that you are always on assignment if you’re going to be a person God uses to help people who are in need. In First Peter 3:15, the apostle Peter wrote, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”
The words “be ready always” are a translation of the Greek words that mean to be ready or to be prepared. It is an attitude that is always set to go, eager, prompt, and raring to get started. It is a perpetual mindset of being ready to take on a challenge or ready to take initiative of some sort. Inherent in this command to be ready is the idea that one must do everything in his power to equip himself for that moment when he is to be called to action.
This perpetual mindset to “be ready always” is made even clearer by the use of a tiny Greek word in this verse that means always, at all times, constantly, or perpetually. Peter was urging us, “...Be constantly and perpetually ready, set to go, and prompt to act. ”
Peter continued to say, “. Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in you. ” The word “answer” in Greek means to answer back, to reply, to respond, to explain, or to defend. Peter unmistakably was telling you that as a Christian, you must “...be constantly and perpetually ready, be set to go, and be prompt to answer every man who asks a reason for the hope that is in you. ”
Especially for those of us who are living in these last days when fewer people were raised in church and so many have so little knowledge of the Bible, we should not be surprised if people ask us about our faith. In fact, we should anticipate that they will ask. This is why this verse urges us to be prepared and ready to answer. In other words, we need to embrace the fact that we are always on assignment!
This is a prerequisite if you want to be used by God to be His instrument of love and help in people’s lives. You have to accept the fact that you are always on assignment — regardless of where you are or what you are doing.
So ask yourself:
Am I willing to be on perpetual assignment to help anyone in need whom the Holy Spirit asks me to help?
If you can say with conviction, “Yes, I will accept this assignment,” God will use you mightily in the lives of people who so desperately need the power of His love and presence that you carry.
