WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24
Scripture: Mark 10:43-45

Mark 10:43-45 says, “Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Jesus said, ‘Guys, you have it absolutely backward. You are perverting your God-given authority to rule righteously by using it to subjugate your friends rather than serve them.  Using God’s power for personal gain to build your own kingdom is not good. It will undermine your God-given purpose and hurt others in the process. You will disqualify yourself if you continue.’ What is stunning and amazing about this is that this issue was so strong that it continued through the Last Supper and the only thing that delivered them was their own denial of Christ, and all twelve of them did it. It was the supreme failure and it was that failure that broke that spirit in their lives. They finally were delivered, but that deliverance was accomplished through personal sorrow and pain that walked them deeper into their Sonship. I hope we can hear this because God is not fooling around with this issue at all! He gives us His authority and we are to use it to serve people. We cannot use it to build our own kingdom. That is a death sentence to a ministry. The purpose of ministry is building people up in Christ, at times to the point of laying down our lives for others! Building a personal kingdom guarantees failure. Jesus laid down His life as the Ultimate Servant of all. He arose from what looked like the ashes of defeat and forged the path in leading many sons to glory. Gloriously the disciples rose up from their own personal ashes of defeat. Beyond pride and selfish ambition, beyond other areas of failure, they rose up to fulfill their ministries in becoming humble servants and agents of glory for Him. For us as for the disciples failures can be stepping stones to victory as long as those failures are covered with acknowledgement and repentance. We must, however, pass the character tests to move toward maturity and power.