I have spent some time meditating on Phil 3:12 to 14. "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
As I pondered these verses, the Lord began to reveal to me three barriers to achieving the goals that He had set for my life. I have a sense that I am now at the threshold of the next stage of my life and ministry. Inwardly I know that God has a mission for my life which he wills for me to fulfill and that the only person that can stop me from fulfilling this call is myself.
Some of you reading this may also be on the verge of something new. Perhaps God is calling you to a higher level of ministry, calling you to step out in faith in a new area which you have no experience or competence in. He has set a goal in front of you and you are uncertain if you can discharge His call.
Three barriers lie in our path. The first is the barrier of pride. "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect". The greatest stumbling block in ministry is our pride. When we feel we have made it, or can do it, or that we are the best person for the job because of our abilities, then we lose the anointing. This is because pride causes the ascendancy of the flesh and quenches the Spirit. It is only when we humbly admit that we cannot, that the Spirit empowers and enables us.
The second barrier to our goal is our past. "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead". We all have things in our lives that continue to hold us back. Past failures, past humiliations, past pain, past sins. The past continues to grip us with fear such that each time we try to go forward, the past pulls us back. But we must realise that God is not limited by our past. He can and will restore the years the locust have eaten. As we step in faith into a new tomorrow, God will lift us far above our past, into His glorious purposes. On our part, we must let go.
The third barrier to reaching our goal is our lack of perseverance. "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." When ever God calls us to a higher level of faith and ministry, the devil will quickly move to oppose us. The need is for us to "press on". "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" (2 Tim 3:12). When Jesus was anointed by the Spirit at His baptism, immediately He was tested by the devil in the wilderness. Perhaps the testing of our faith at the outset of our first step into a greater promise is to test that which is in our hearts, to break our reliance on ourselves, and to burn away our false and selfish motives. We press on. We must expect opposition so that when it does come, we will not become discouraged and fall away from our goal. May God be glorified in our lives.