Somebody invited me to a discussion on how to reach our city for Christ. One man presented a proposal for constructing a church for every kilometre of major roads. Another man suggested that it should be one church for every 1000 people. What shocked me most was, the organisers just encouraged discussion on this without any objection.
Why do we think that God's work can be done by human power and through human wisdom? The above case was actually worse, thinking of churches as buildings and thinking that the important thing was to build them and expect people to just fill them! Others think that our natural abilities are what must be used for the kingdom of God, e.g., if we have a good voice our calling is to sing and bring out DVDs!
The kingdom of God is the work of the Holy Spirit in which He uses people who are yielded to Him. He sometimes makes use of natural talents God has given people, but He works even with those are not gifted and who appear to be unattractive in a natural sense. The apostle Paul was said to have no charismatic or impressive personality or oratory skills (2Co.10:10). But when he depended entirely on the Holy Spirit he was able to impact most of the then known world for Christ! The important thing is to lay ourselves down before the Lord and depend on Him to guide us and work through us in His wisdom and power.
Of course, God sometimes chooses His servants and trains them in natural ways before He entrusts them with spiritual responsibilities. Moses and Daniel had a lot of secular training, and Paul a lot of scriptural knowledge before God began to use them in His work. But in every case God tests us to see if our priorities are right and if we will be faithful in small things, before He can entrust us with spiritual responsibilities (Lk.16:11).
What can one accomplish for God with his own wisdom and strength? Only things that will get destroyed in the fire later (1Co.3:12,13). Paul knew this and he was very careful not to depend on his knowledge or skills when it came to serving God (1Co.2:3-5). How opposite is what many churches do when they invite the famous, the talented and the successful people of this world to speak to them or work in their committees?
What God is looking for are people who are surrendered to Him (Ro.12:1). What He wants is not our clever ideas or talents but a willingness to do just what He tells us. "Now the most important thing about a servant is that he does just what his master tells him to" (1Co.4:2 TLB). Isn't it good to begin by asking the Lord, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" Whatever it is that He wants us to do, isn't it wise for us to recognise that nothing in God's kingdom can be done without His power, and then to ask Him to supply us with His anointing to serve Him according to His Spirit's power and leading? Isn't it also necessary to cleanse ourselves from every secret desire to seek wealth, honour, position or prominence before people (2Co.7:1)?