[ecko_quote source=" Isaiah 42:1]Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold[/ecko_quote]
A true servant of God is one who is upheld by God, not by money or by a Fellowship/Church /organization or any other human agency. The Lord is the One Who should uphold us at all times. Men may give us gifts and positions but we must never depend on men. The word "uphold" refers to that which we are dependent on. We must be dependent on the Lord alone. It is when we come to the place of helplessness that God puts His Spirit on us.
In Isaiah 42:5-8, The Lord tells us: "I have called you in righteousness. I have called you to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon." This is a great ministry. But always remember one thing: "The Lord says, 'I will never give My glory to another.'" (Isa. 42:8). We must never take any glory for ourselves in our ministry. To take the credit or the glory for ourselves is a very, very serious crime. It is worse than stealing money. God may bless you and your ministry and use you mightily, but He will never give His glory to anyone. Once you start aiming to get the glory of God, you will destroy yourself. Once you start promoting yourself before people, drawing people to yourself instead of drawing them towards the Lord, and taking credit for what God did, you are on the very dangerous ground. This is how thousands have lost God's anointing over their lives.
In Isaiah 42:19,20: "Who is blind but My Servant? Who is deaf like My Messenger? Who is so blind as the One who is at peace with Me totally, so blind as the Servant of the Lord?" This looks like a puzzling verse, especially since it refers clearly to Jesus (as we can see from Isa. 42:1). What does it mean? It means that a true servant of God will be blind and deaf to many things that he sees and hears around him. He sees many things, but he doesn't observe them (Isa.42:20). He doesn't go around looking for sin in others. He doesn't go around listening to people in order to catch them in something they said. The Pharisees were like that - always waiting to catch Jesus in something which He said in order to accuse Him. Many Christians are unfortunately like that too - always waiting to accuse someone of something that he/she said and often this is because they are jealous of his ministry. Do not be like them.
Be deaf and blind to many things that you hear and see around you. Did you hear that someone made a false accusation against you? If you were deaf you would not have heard it. Be "deaf" then! Isn't it good for a servant of the Lord to be "blind" to attractive women? You have eyes, but you don't see. You are "blind"! You have ears, but you don't hear! Because you do not judge by what your eyes see or what your ears hear. This is how Jesus lived and this is how we must live too (Isa. 11:3).
1 Corinthians 2:15 says that "a spiritual man cannot be discerned by those who are not spiritual". A godly man is, therefore, a very lonely man - because very few can understand him. His actions and words are often misunderstood , even by those who know the Scripture well. Religious people only know facts about God. They don't know God Himself. In the midst of many religious people, we can find only few who actually know God Himself. Job was one of those rare individuals in the Bible. If you are a person who knows God, you will be misunderstood by people who only know about God but not He Himself.
Remember that religious people could not recognize Jesus and thought He was the prince of devils. How can they recognize a godly man today?
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