There is an old country song that said, “I’m chasin’ the neon rainbow, livin’ the honky tonk dream.” Very few artists find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow making their dream come true. Few make it to the ranks of a one hit wonder. Many will quit and get a “real job” or continue to sing on weekends in smokey old bars for “nickels and dimes.” Others will die of some addiction because of their depression over not making it to the Grand Old Opry.
I am afraid that many Christians are chasing their version of that neon rainbow. We have many “prophets” running around telling Christians that they will be rich and finance the Kingdom or have a TV show or some other form of worldwide ministry. Most will not have that prophecy fulfilled in their life. They will chase it, but it will elude them. Many will feel as if they are failures and live out their lives in depression. Others will turn away from God cursing Him until they die in loneliness and bitterness because “He did not fulfill His promise” that He never made. Some who seem to have reached the end of the rainbow by becoming well known are turning away because what they thought was the pot of gold turned out to be pyrite.
If you look throughout Scripture, God had far more nobodies than superstars as we would call them today. Some were one hit wonders as they came on the scene to pronounce God’s judgment and we never see them again. There were few Samuels, Elijahs and Elishas. Only Daniel lived in comparative luxury. Jeremiah had to deal with four hundred false prophets that lived in luxury and he suffered much because of them. After all, why should the king listen to him as he was outnumbered four hundred to one? Yet, he was right. Amos was a herdsman and a picker of sycamore fruit. He gave us one book in the Bible and that was it as did a few others. We even have an unnamed prophet that completed his mission, but messed up afterward. Had he not listened to the old prophet would we have heard more of him and even his name? We will never know.
Hebrews 11:35b ...and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
I would venture it is safe to say that few, if any, people receive a prophecy that they will be one of these heroes and heroines of the faith. Yet, there are far more of these people in the world today than superstars. We do not know their names. They are not writing books. Well, technically, maybe they are because their deeds are being recorded so they are writing their testimony in blood and tears. They do not appear on talk shows or travel in private jets wearing costly array and jewelry. They may be dressed in rags and adorned with scars, but they are beautiful in God’s eyes and will receive eternal rewards more so than many of us, including the superstars made that way by men, though not necessarily wise men.
We all seek identity and purpose, but we often see those things as something spectacular. Our identity is in Christ who came not as a king, but as a babe in a manger living as a carpenter until He was thirty. A fairly routine and average life for the King of kings. He was not even special in His appearance. He looked like any average Jewish man of the time. No, He was not blue-eyed with blond hair. If you have any picture of Him that is not Jewish you should trash it. Albeit, you should not have any image of Him because it would be a false image. Anyone that has had a vision of Jesus who does not look Jewish I would question. The average height of a Jewish man in that day was 5’ 1” so if He is 6’ 2” in a vision, I would also question that vision. Even John did not mention Him as being taller than He was on earth though His other attributes were being displayed differently, but certainly not 900’ tall demanding ransom money. We are to try the spirits.
I suspect that Jesus was a master craftsman as a carpenter. Since He was not trying to display who He was until thirty, I may be wrong, but I suspect He did not become a superstar of carpenters, but His work would be excellent. Some of it might be with us today, but He would not have signed the articles less we make an idol of them like Moses’ brazen serpent that had to be destroyed for that reason. Hence, no shroud for that reason.
What if all you are called to be is a Child of God in a career or just a parent raising up godly children whom He may use in a greater way than you? What if you could impact your community by being the best you can be? My son was never ordained. He was never a pastor. He never preached a sermon, but he made his job a ministry as well as a means of paying the bills. When he died in 2017, there were hundreds of people that came to honor him and told stories of how he prayed for them during their therapy sessions or how he helped them in some way off the clock. He had more influence than many pastors who preach to a flock that has no outreach or impact on the community. Barron had no international influence, but his reward may even be greater than someone who did. If his love and testimony inspired others to live more for God then he accomplished more than pastors who preach to congregations that are unmoved by the sermons content to be pew warmers just waiting for the Rapture.
Many times in history the nobodies did more for the Kingdom than the ones who had greater influence because the influence went to their head. It became about their glory and not about God’s glory. They may have turned more people away from Christ than to Him. The nobodies may well have cleaned up the mess of the superstars saving those souls that were turned off by the proud and wealthy.
While there were abuses during the era of a more paternal form of Christianity, it was more biblical and effective than what Horatius Bonar called “a soft and effeminate Christianity” which was emerging when he said that in 1890 and we see prevalent today. Not only has the concept of “Onward Christian Soldiers” gone away, but we are into more subjective interpretation of the Word or ignore it for the sake of experience and even to please the culture. Indeed, many of the prophecies given are more of a maternal, supportive type than a paternal directive. There is no pastoral concept of “reprove, rebuke and exhort.” Both are needed, but it appears the paternal has been kicked to the curb with the increase of prophetesses and the prosperity gospel. Anyone who seeks to correct someone, especially erring prophets, are tagged with being unloving, legalistic or a heretic hunter. Indeed, who are you to question such people?
That is one of the problems of superstar Christianity. It creates an elite that can never be questioned. It promotes pride. It promotes people thinking they cannot serve God because they do not have the degrees or even the gifts some may have or not have as the gifts they have may not be of God. (Matthew 7:21-23)
Like Amos, I am not a prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I suspect that God will raise up a lot more like Amos in these days. Revival has not come under the ministry of the superstars. Yes, some pockets here and there, but not the huge sweeping one many have predicted will come right before the Rapture. They could be wrong as there was not a sweeping harvest right before the Flood and Jesus even wondered if there would even be any faith on the Earth when He comes, which does not speak to one huge last harvest.
Indeed, if there is a wave of revival that comes like a Tsunami, it may come from the millions of nobodies that God calls, like Amos or John the Baptist, to convict the established superstars and the theologians. In many ways, Western Christianity is like a dry Texas grassland in August after great rains in the Spring. There are a myriad of churches and ministries, but there is no real power to make the grass green. When God moves upon His nobodies, there may first come a fire of zeal that will burn off the chaff and then a drenching rain of the Word spoken in truth and power to bring forth fruitful fields that will produce a greater harvest than if left with the status quo though is not be as sweeping as some predicted. We have eighty-one churches in my town and only a third of the population attend church. Even if we dropped to thirty churches, but two thirds of the town were saved and serving that would be a great revival though not as good as one church and one hundred percent saved and serving.
Are you willing to be nobody? Seek Him! Find your gift and use it in your family, church and community. You may be the spark that brings the fire and then the rain. Stay humble and He may exalt you, but your exaltation may be right where you are without jets, best selling books or Armani suits. God once said He was looking for a man to stand in the gap. He did not say a rich man, a wise man, or an eloquent man. Just a man He could use. Will you be that nobody? The world needs to see you as one God can use to fill the vast gap between the Book of Acts and what we have today. May He find a way to use me and you! Maranatha!
