Now in the church there are different anointings and callings given to certain people by the Lord for specific purposes, these are the 5 fold ministry gifts. Now what about everyone else? What is God expecting from us? What is His plan for us? There is one thing that is the same for EVERYONE and is part of God’s plan and will for each one of our lives, and that is to transform us into the image of His son Jesus Christ. This means that more and more we will show the love, patience, kindness, heart and attitude towards things in life that Jesus did when He came to earth, what an example to follow! So as you probably know, becoming like this for most of us is going to be quite a process.
This process is called the road of the cross and it is something that each of us have to decide to take for our own lives if we are wanting to change and to grow as Christians to become more like Jesus. It would mean us denying ourselves, giving up our desires and ambitions in exchange for God’s plan for us and to surrender our lives to do His will…. No, not our will, that we think God will approve of, but actually really waiting on Him and responding to His will, in spite of everything we may think. How many times have you done something that was completely out of anyone’s, including your own, rational thinking in order to follow something that was on your heart? (most of the time you kind of agree even if its classically “radical”! – nice try though) This is walking the road of the cross! You need faith to do this, and you will experience God’s grace to get through!

See, most people get caught up thinking that God’s plan for them is a specific something, in a particular somewhere doing some kind of certain thing… But we need to remember that the work that God has planned for us on this earth starts in our own hearts, changing our own personality, characteristics and overcoming our flesh. The only way Jesus can increase in us is if we decrease. There is NOTHING we can do or bring to anyone unless we begin to allow the Lord access to change our hearts and lives, because otherwise we will be bringing ourselves, and we’ll soon see how useless we are in our own strength. The light we need to shine in this world is the work of the cross in our lives and the more we die to our flesh, the brighter the light (Jesus) will shine THROUGH us! He is the light!