Why We Sometimes See Spiritual Success As A Defeat!

Why We Sometimes See Spiritual Success As A Defeat!

Throughout my spiritual life I have been a part of or leader of various ministries. At this present moment I am a Pastor of a local church. There is an epidemic happening in churches and ministries  across the world where we tend to judge spiritual success off of carnal standards. I'll be honest, it took me at least two years into my pastorate before I understood what that meant. As a singer/songwriter I always judged the anointing of the song and my ministry by the reaction of those who heard it. As a Sunday School Superintendent I based the success of my ministry on the growth of Sunday School. As a Youth Pastor I based the success of my ministry off of the number of kids in the group and their response to what I taught. There's a problem with this type of standard for "success" in ministry. I spent many nights praying to God about my failures, how Sunday School wasn't growing, how the youth were being hard hearted and not responding. See, with this mentality and measurement of success, in my mind it was my fault! Obviously I wasn't praying enough, I wasn't preaching the right things, I wasn't promoting Sunday School enough, etc. I've always been a people pleaser, which in ministry is a terrible attribute to have. My first two years of pastorate went pretty smooth, my take on that is it was the "Honeymoon" stage and everyone was still getting to know me and the direction I would lead the church. Then it happened! Resistance! There was no avoiding confrontation, someone was going to be upset with me! Here's what the devil said, God is not the author of confusion. If I'm being successful in the pastorate roll then I can fix this. That was a lie straight from Satan. Then one night while seeking the face of God he spoke to me and for the first time in my walk as a spiritual leader in various ministries I saw the definition of spiritual

success through spiritual eyes instead of the carnal! As I searched scripture the evidence was there! Spiritual success is not determined by the number of people in the pews, the amount of the offering in the plate, the people's view of your leadership, people staying or leaving the church, it's not even based on the response to the message, or the spiritual growth of the people! I know, you think I'm crazy, but let's think about it for a moment, Spiritual Success is SOLEY based on whether or not you did what God told you to do! Nothing more, Nothing less! Let's look at two distinct stories in scripture that testify to how man gets it backwards on defining spiritual success. First, Isaiah was told by God that no one would hear his message and repent! God told him that he would have zero converts and Isaiah said, "I'll go!" On the other hand Jonah was told to preach to Nineveh, a town of 600,000 people! He resisted but finally gave in after God subdued him with horrific chastisement!  Then, in the greatest revival ever recorded, every person in that city repented and turned back to God! And here's the kicker, Jonah got mad because God didn't destroy them! That's how backwards we get it. Isaiah had tremendous spiritual success even though no one repented at the response to his message! Jonah had not spiritual success because he disobeyed God, even though so many thousands repented! That's because God, not Jonah, was the reason! Quit basing the spiritual success of the ministry God's placed you in off of carnal standards, base it simply off that one question, "did I do what God told me to do?" You can have a sanctuary full with money in the

bank and be a spiritual failure! The same is true that you could have no new converts for years and struggle to see one come to know Christ yet be a spiritual success! Look through the spiritual eyes to gauge spiritual success! And remember, everywhere Jesus went, there was conflict!

Isaiah 6:8-11King James Version (KJV)

8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,

Jonah 3 King James Version (KJV)

3 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,

2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.

4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Jonah 4 King James Version (KJV)

4 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

2 And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

4 Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?

5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

6 And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.

8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.

10 Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:

11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?