Twenty-third Mountain Peak

"And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me; And said unto me. Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified." Isaiah 49:2,3

THE LORD HAS CALLED you and me from our mother's womb and we are chosen by Him. v. 1, Jer. 1:5, Gal. 1:5. It does not matter whether we are born into a rich or poor family. As children of God. we are chosen before we are born. My mother had two daughters before I was born. She wanted a son. She made many vows to have a son. One day before my birth, a man came from a village in north India, and told my mother she was going to have a son, but that he would not live with her. She was afraid when she heard that, but it was true. In my childhood days, I was in boarding schools and hostels, and then in England. I never stayed at home in my childhood. I knew God had a plan for me in all that but never knew what it was. Any plan of His is a perfect plan. God wants us to be His servants, and these words are not meant only for preachers but for every believer. Every man or woman should be God's servant, because we have been chosen to do something for Him, Some people think of salvation as merely having their sins forgiven, and they are satisfied to be at last in a corner in heaven, like some people who come regularly for meetings and occupy their own favourite corner. They don't have any interest in sharing in the work of God. But Scripture is very clear. Every believer has some job to do. Howsoever foolish or weak or whatever may be the age, it does not matter. God wants every believer to be His servant. Every believer has his handicap, but he has a work in the house of God. What a privilege. All of us can do something to build up the house of God.

v. 2. All of us have mouths and so can be used of God. Those who have no mouth cannot of course, be used. If you have no mouth, you cannot eat, and even a dumb person must have a mouth for eating. Every one of us can be used in giving God's word, if we believe that God can use us as His mouth-piece to help someone in difficulty, to encourage them, or to save them. We may, use the Word in prayer if we cannot say anything of ourselves. When we find somebody lonely and dejected we should take him aside and pray with him and thus encourage him. Many need to be encouraged and strengthened even if already saved. In some instances we can pass on a verse from the Bible as instruction or warning, and thus everybody can be benefitted.

There was a poor illiterate man in a village. One day I was preaching about giving the word of God to others. He said to me. How can I give the word of God, when I cannot read, I said "Supposing you get a letter. What will you do"? He said "I will go to somebody and get it read". "This is God's letter to you. Go to somebody and get it read". This man was a very poor man and had a torn shirt. He had one goat and lived by it. He sold it for four rupees and bought a big Bible. He went to his village carrying the Bible and on the way he met a man and asked him to read the Bible, the man asked him "Is it a Christian book?" and when he was told it was, the man scolded him and went away. A small school boy passed that way. This Christian asked him to read a passage from the Bible. The boy wanted to show off that he could read and he read. The man who rebuked him came back. When he overheard what the boy was reading he came back and said: "Are such words indeed written in this Book? Then forgive me, I never knew that." In this way this Christian went on asking others to read while he marked the passages of warning, instruction, encouragement, salvation etc. One day I went to the same village and I saw the same man with a clean shirt, and he got up and asked me if he could give his testimony when I was taking the meeting. I wondered how he would be able to give his testimony but he did, and told us how the Lord was using him among Hindus and Muslims just by his paying heed to the message he had heard! and he also said the more he testified the more he prospered. So in the same way you also can be used among your friends by passing on a few words from the Bible which will benefit somebody in sorrow, tears and distress. Tell the Lord to give you a message for somebody and ask Him to use you as His mouth-piece. v. 2. He will hide you. People will try to harm, but they will not succeed if you are in His service. We are well protected like the polished shaft. The polished shaft refers to arrows. The shaft of the arrow is carefully polished so that it can fly through the air with the least resistance. The words of a believer, in the hands of God, are tike polished shafts, striking home to the mark. Our words must be like that, and let us not use idle words. When we go here and there, we must pass on God's words as a testimony. By these simple means many homes have been blessed and there is a real change. Every believer, however handicapped, can be used thus as God's witness. v. 3. The promise is: "Thou art my servant". This helps us to realize our claim on Him and to talk to Him. whenever we go into His presence, saying: "I am thy servant. Lord teach me, so that I may be used to pray or to witness for Thee, and to help others by encouraging and strengthening them.