How does God get His tasks accomplished on earth?

[John Zain]

(1) -- Does God create a man to have certain aptitudes, skills, abilities, etc.
with a particular task in mind that He wants him to do (later, of course)?

… OR …

(2) -- Does God choose a man who has the aptitudes, skills, abilities, etc.
to do a particular task that He wants him to do (soon)?

 

[biggandyy]

Why can't it be "both and" rather than "either or"?

 

[afaithfulone4u]

The answer is both, Yet God is the maker of us all and can take down or raise up who so ever He wishes.

For God may use one who already has a skill or heart to do something such as Saul/Paul who thought he was doing good to kill Christians.
But then He may raise up one such as Pharaoh just to make him an example of God's power. But one thing He will not do is take our free will, we must have an inkling in our heart(where only God can see) to do something before He will expand it rather it be for a good or evil deed.

 

[JB_Reformed Baptist]

(1) -- Does God create a man to have certain aptitudes, skills, abilities, etc.
with a particular task in mind that He wants him to do (later, of course)?

… OR …

(2) -- Does God choose a man who has the aptitudes, skills, abilities, etc.
to do a particular task that He wants him to do (soon)?

By using the instruments that he has gifted (spiritual/carnal), created and directed.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:


PS: Now the milk lessons can cease, don't you think?

 

[Arnie Manitoba]

(1) -- Does God create a man to have certain aptitudes, skills, abilities, etc.
with a particular task in mind that He wants him to do (later, of course)?

… OR …

(2) -- Does God choose a man who has the aptitudes, skills, abilities, etc.
to do a particular task that He wants him to do (soon)?

I ponder this every day and do not have a difinitive answer

i have seen the hand of the miraculous in situations that none of us would approve of

I have seldom seen the hand of the miraculous evident in people who teach it all their lives

The most striking conclusion i have come to is that God likes the genuine article

And dislikes the fakes and phonies who try their best to be some perfect christian model or something.

I have not answered your question John Zain

i do not know if God makes these people genuine from birth

or if he chooses them because they were genuine on their own

God looked at Noah and liked what he saw

Who made Noah the way he was .... God or Noah ?

I do not know.

be genuine my friends .... be genuine .... never mind who made you that way

 

[John Zain]

This question has interested me since 1994,
when after being called to be an evangelist to the villages of Bulgaria …
… I was speeding on dangerous mountain roads in my little rocketship
(a much over-powered VW Golf-1), when I really sensed God saying to me (2 or 3 times):
“I raised you up for this purpose …
I gave you the necessary skills and abilities to do this work for Me.”

I was shocked a few years after 1994, when I read Jeremiah 1:4-5
“Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” ”

Isaiah 49:1,5 is a tad bit similar …
“The Lord has called me from the womb;
from the womb of my mother He has made mention of my name.
… And now the Lord says, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant …”

If anyone can produce a passage similar to the Jeremiah 1:4-5, I would be grateful.

 

[Arnie Manitoba]

I have pondered Jeremiah 1:4-5 as well .... I see it as applying specifically to Jeremiah himself (not us) because he was a prophet.

And you make a good point jeremiah was sanctified before he was even born

Do those verses apply to you John Z .? .... I would say no ... because you have not been sanctified as a prophet (like Jeremiah was)

But does God have a other specific tasks for you to do down here .... I would say definitely yes .... including your skills and your location and your natural born abilities to help Jesus build His church.

And your tasks were probably determined before you were born .... I think that is cool

I always tell all my christian associates to be themselves , be genuine , faults and all , god has designed each one of us a certain way for a certain purpose while we are down here.

"Successful" Christians tend to simply be themselves and away they go.

Sure beats the hell out of trying to play some perfect pre-conceived christian role model or something

my thoughts anyway

 

[John Zain]

Arnie,

In the NT, the most important leaders were apostles and prophets.
IMO, next were evangelists, followed by pastors and teachers.
So, if a prophet is pre-ordained with gifts before birth, so could an evangelist be.

But, all I have seen to support all of this is that one passage in Jeremiah.

Of course, the real question is ...
How many other believers are pre-ordained with gifts before birth to do specific important tasks?

 

[101G]

2 John Zain, greeting in the name of the Lord Jesus the Christ,

Ephesians 1:4 "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love".
Ephesians 2:4 "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them".

Romans 8:29 "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren".

Love and Peace
101G

 

[Rex]

(1) -- Does God create a man to have certain aptitudes, skills, abilities, etc.
with a particular task in mind that He wants him to do (later, of course)?

… OR …

(2) -- Does God choose a man who has the aptitudes, skills, abilities, etc.
to do a particular task that He wants him to do (soon)?

Balaams ass comes to mind reading the OP Numbers 22:21 . It looks a lot like a man exercising his own wisdom.

1 Cor 1
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”[c]

20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”[d]

Do you resemble that remark John? The Apostles did.


27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,