Character of the Servant

Understanding Servanthood
Today’s Focus: Character of the Servant
Scripture: John 4:23,24; John 14:15; Isaiah 56:5; Luke 15

Greetings Kingdom Citizens
What is the character of the servant? First the servant is someone who is completely subjected and submitted to the Master. They are consumed by the Will of the Master. The Will of God is revealed to those who seek Him and worship Him in truth and in spirit (John 4:23,24). However when we do not know or the revelation of Christ is absent in the lives of people then the proclamations that people make “in the name of Christ” is just like producing golden calves in the name of Jesus. Servants are solely dependent on the Master. The servants of God do not depend on human beings.

Dependence on human beings is an area of our lives that all of us have had to migrate from if we are to mature in Christ. If we are to be the servants of Christ, then we depend completely on Him. This is why Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek the rulership of God (Kingdom of God) over your life first and seek to be in right-position with Him (righteousness) and all these things that are needed and some desired are added unto us by God. One of the areas of life that we struggle with this is in relationships where the people depend on each other to fill the emotional voids in each other’s life. These voids can only be filled by the Spirit of God because it is the Spirit of God that makes you whole. Filling each other’s void is always a temporary fix and may times it leads to us carrying other’s burdens that we were never created nor meant to carry.

Next, a servant always responds to the command of the Master. The servants of God love the Father and in showing that love they respond to His commands. John 14:15: If you love me, keep my commandments. Servants have no expectations of pay or rewards for what they do. Their pleasure and desire is to serve the Master. I know this is messing with someone because in these times of the prosperity gospel, we are to pray for riches and people say if you are obedient then God will give you something. We are to serve because that is a part of the divine nature of God (2 Peter 1:4) and we lay down our lives, the rule over ourselves, so that others may live. This type of servanthood requires strict obedience.

Now let me show you the importance of obedience in the life of a servant. Before the fall in the Garden there was no need for faith. Huh? Yes, there was no need for faith. Adam simply obeyed the commands of God His Father. So obedience to the Father was the forefront principal in the maintaining the Earth. Faith did not come into play until after the fall. Why is this the case? Faith simply takes us from being double-minded and double-visioned (soul and spirit) to being single-minded and single-visioned (Lead by the Spirit). When we are obedient we come under the covering of the one who is speaking, namely the Spirit of Christ.

Isaiah 56:5: Even unto them (eunuchs or servants) will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.

Isaiah spoke of a name which is higher than that of sons or daughters to those servants of the Father’s house who carry the characteristics of being a servant and being in strict obedience to the Father. When you look back at the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) when he came to his senses he said in Luke 15:19: “And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.” The son simply wanted to be in the presence of his father. The wonderful thing about this story is that the father accepted him back as his son and clothed him and gave him all back what was rightfully his and all he has to do is stay in right positioning with his father and serve him in his house. Now in contrast the elder brother that was already in his father’s house becomes self righteous and speaks to his father about what he did and why he did not receive “the party” (Luke 15:29). When you become self-righteous you cannot appreciate the love of a father and this is why the father in the prodigal son story explained to his son that even though his son went astray he still loves him and he celebrates because this son was dead and now alive but as for you who already serve me in the house, everything the father has is already yours. So watch this:

You do not serve the Father for an inheritance because if you are in the House, everything that belongs to the Father is also yours because you are joint heirs with Christ and Christ has received everything from the Father and He is the mediator of the inheritance and He dispenses the inheritance to the sons as desired by the Father.

So we serve the Father out of love for the Father because it is our desire to please Him through our service, worship and praise. We do this from the position of a servant allowing Him to live freely and unconditionally through us to accomplish His Will in the Earth for our lives.

We will continue to look at the character of the servant and look at and example in scripture.

Peace, Love and Grace from the Father,
Calvin Calhoun, Jr.