Our Blessing & Responsibility

Celebrate our Past!
Terry R. Baughman

“I planted the church, and Apollos came and cared for it, but it was God who caused it to grow. This means the one who plants is not anybody special, nor the one who waters, for God is the one who brings the supernatural growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6-7 TPT).

We stand on the shoulders of giants and our vision is unobscured. We see clearly and further due to this elevated place of support. If it were not for those who stood in the past, we could not stand presently in this position of trust and responsibility. We are gifted a great opportunity and an awesome task to leverage the talents, the investments, and the properties with which we have been endowed. We cannot miss our moment! 

Because of the many sacrifices of past heroes, we are able to celebrate successes they would have never dreamed possible. In humility, we should celebrate all those who have preceded us. Everything that we enjoy are the fruit of those who faithfully planted, watered, and tended the good seed placed in fertile soil. Because they labored, our harvest is greater. Because someone laid a good foundation we are able to build for a better future. This is both our blessing and our great responsibility! 

Paul stressed the connection between ministries and our reliance on other men and women to fulfill our ministry. Any success we enjoy is due to the contribution in the kingdom harvest of others who work with us, or have gone on before us. The church is a body, and we are all connected. Any good thing that comes from our efforts is a team win. We (all of us) are workers together with God. 

The Apostle also emphasized our utter dependence upon God when He said, “It was God who caused it to grow.” We are nothing! “God is the one who brings the supernatural growth.” As much as we are dependent on those who have gone before, nothing would have been accomplished except for God’s supernatural empowerment to complete the work. Paul wrote, “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6 NKJ). What He has been doing through us will be finished. He is faithful to complete it! 

The harvest comes at different times for different species. Some vegetables come to fruition and are ready to enjoy within a few weeks, while fruit trees take years to begin their season of fruitfulness. Nature has a way of developing patience in the gardener. You can plant and prune, water and nourish, but the harvest cannot be hurried. When the time is right and the season has come the natural fruit is produced in abundance. 

We long for the latter rain and the great ingathering of the last days, and it will come, but it will only come in His season and in the fulness of the time. Just as Jesus appeared at the prescribed moment in history to enact the greatest hope for all of humanity, we rejoice in the promise of redemption prophesied for the end of days. Joel spoke the Word of the Lord, “It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh” (Joel 2:28 NKJ). Peter declared it to be accomplished on the Day of Pentecost, “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16 NKJ). What was fulfilled then continues now as God’s Spirit is being poured out in every nation and around the world. 

An understanding of our past and how we arrived at this moment is crucial to our continued success. We did not arrive here by accident or due to our own special abilities, but only by the grace of our God. He saw us and saved us in spite of our failures and He redeemed us from our sins. Now we are commissioned to fulfill His purpose and we are privileged to serve in His Kingdom. 

We are another link in a long succession of Apostolic ministries. We do our part and fulfill our calling. Then, we pass the torch to another generation to carry on what we faithfully communicate to them. So, on this Father’s Day, and every day, we celebrate our past and we believe in our future! 

​Theme passage:
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 NKJ).