You must long to be a man / woman of God
In the Bible we sometimes come across verses that use the term ‘man of God’ or ‘friend of God’ or ‘man after God’s own heart’. Here are some examples:
Deut 33:1 Now this is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the sons of Israel before his death.
Sam 2:27 Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, ‘Did I not indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh’s house?
1 Sam 9:6 He said to him, "Behold now, there is a man of God in this city, and the man is held in honor; all that he says surely comes true. Now let us go there, perhaps he can tell us about our journey on which we have set out."
Jas 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he was called the friend of God.
1 Sam 13:14 "But now your kingdom shall not endure. The LORD has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you."
When you read verses like these, do you just read them and move on? Or does your heart burn with desire to be such a person?
It is true that in the Old Testament, the term ‘man of God’ was closely tied with the word ‘prophet’, but when I talk about being a man of God, I’m thinking of being someone who God respects and can count on to do whatever He wants them to do. The New Testament term that is loosely tied to this type of person is ‘bondservant of God’.
Are you a man / woman of God? Are you a friend of God? Are you a man / woman after God’s own heart?
Do you want to be a man / woman of God?
If not, why not?
Children sometimes want to be like famous rock stars or actors, and parents sometimes want their children to be doctors and engineers, but God wants His children to become men and women of God. And that is what children of God should want to be and want their children to be.
If you do have that burning desire to be a man / woman of God and are not already one, what are you doing to become such a person?
I want to be a man of God.
To be specific, I want God (and not men) to consider me a man of God. After all, if some human being thinks I’m a man of God, but God doesn’t, of what use is that?
And I want to urge you too to desire to be a man / woman of God.
You must desire to be a man / woman of God.
For the rest of the book, for the sake of brevity, I will use the term ‘man of God’ to refer to both men and women of God. God looks at the heart, and not at the gender of a person.
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