DAY 27 with Teresa Ann:
(Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see where you can hear this via podcast).
AMBASSADOR
When you think of that word, “Ambassador”, what do you think of? Well for me, my thoughts come up with one word that probably most would think as well and that is, “representative.”
What about you?
Are you ready for this? So I looked up that word and it’s so much more…
by definition: an AMBASSADOR is an
accredited diplomat SENT by a country as its official representative to a foreign country.
This definition causes me to pause. Think about this…any country that sends their diplomat IS accredited and the ambassador’s greatest concern is of the country who sent them. Not only that, but an ambassador has everything they will need and more, knowing that everything is provided for; all the way down to their toothbrush and toothpaste. How often have I felt like we were barely making it and YET everytime my TRUE HOME, GOD HIMSELF, always came through.
However, my first correlation with ambassador is Jesus Himself. How He was sent as an accredited diplomat into the earth to represent heaven. And now that we have accepted Jesus Christ into our lives, we get to step into HIM and in HIM is how we are representatives of heaven.
Do I reveal who I have been sent by and from? Now think about it, we place so much emphasis on what earthly family we have come from…and with that comes either self qualifications or self disqualifications from how we were raised from being lavishly loved or horribly rejected; deeply cared for or neglectfully abandoned; notably recognized or hurtfully ignored; seen as valued treasure or detestable trash.
Yet as an ambassador, we have been sent from much further than our earthly heritage, but truly citizens of heaven; our true country. With that said, we are now getting the opportunity to reveal and show off WHO we are truly sent by; our Heavenly Father, the ONE who knew us BEFORE we were formed in our mother’s womb, this is WHO we get to represent.
But how? I’m learning, like most of you that it’s in our responses to GOD versus reactions to the circumstances and hard people. We simply have the opportunity to respond to HIM, yet again. The moments of conflict and seeming push back is our signal to push into the Father even further and see conflict as another way to reveal HIS power in the midst.
Just think, it is NOT an obligation but a GET TO. We get to do everything in our lives with our best form of excellence; no longer saying as an excuse, “This is just who I am”…but now saying with that GOD mandate, “This is who I truly am in Christ as the more I step into Who HE is, it’s not me doing the doing, but HIM getting “to do” through a willing vessel, even while the flesh doesn’t “feel” like it.
Well here’s a hilarious news flash…The flesh will NEVER want to do what’s right unless it knows there’s something in it for self. It even talks us out of doing it GOD’s way because we didn’t get the results we had hoped for and yet the results are so far reaching than the now. We change “strategies” to the ways of the world and even get “results”, but they aren’t eternal ones. These fleshly strategies only fix the now and we echo instead of “It is Finished”, we unintentionally declare with even our actions, “It is undone”…it’s like going down a street with “No Outlet”.
An ambassador of heaven doesn’t care about the rewards, because they know that GOD HIMSELF is a REWARDER to those who diligently seek HIM and that their every need is provided for. They are content and only concerned with representing WHO sent them and everywhere they go, they echo, “IT IS FINISHED”. It’s the only way for the ambassador to allow their nation of heaven to have a greater voice to who they’ve been sent to.
Today, I am reminded to not get too comfortable to the place where we’ve been sent. This is all temporary; let us invest more IN HIM WHO IS ETERNAL, more so than investing in things that moth eat and rust destroy. We GET TO be representatives of heaven so that heaven can invade our earth within our families, relationships, businesses, workplace, communities, where we shop at, where we eat and beyond. Building our life upon HIS LOVE FOR this world, NOT for the things of this world.
REVEALINGS OF THE WORD WITH HOLY SPIRIT:
II Corinthians 5:11-21; Matthew 6:19-24; Philippians 4:19; Romans 12:1-2; Hebrews 11:6; John 3:16-21
LET’S TALK:
- How do you see an ambassador now? Do you see your role as an ambassador as so vital now in your world?
- What part of this does it make you want to know GOD more?
- Do you have a testimony that echoes the life of being an ambassador of heaven? Perhaps you don’t have one yet, but perhaps you have one that impacted you?
- What have you been learning about declaring “It is Finished”, versus unintentionally declaring”It is undone”?
- We know that the currency of heaven is faith…so how are you utilizing faith today as an investment?
Click on the graphic below to listen to this devotional via the “Let’s Talk with Teresa Ann” Podcast:
To me, an ambassador is one who is operating on behalf of whomever sent him. He is not there on vacation or with a personal purpose.
That means, my agenda has NO place. It’s similar to when I’m at work – I’m there to perform my duties, with excellence, but that’s all. Whatever my personal agenda for the day is, I am to set it aside when I walk into work. Being emotional, having a pity party, giving less than my best or stomping my feet to get my way has NO place there. My boss may graciously listen to my worries or my fears, but the assignment comes first. They expect that I’m bringing my A-game every day.
I need to do the same for God. HIS agenda is the ONLY agenda. For me, the “option” of swaying between what I want to do and what I’m called to do needs to finally end. Kingdom work must come first.
I want to be so deep in His river of glory that the riverbanks disappear. It marvels me that the only person in the entire bible whose face radiated God’s glory was Moses, after God allowed His goodness to pass before him. And he wasn’t even under the new covenant! If he can know God to that depth, and we have Holy Spirit’s power, then so can I and so can you! And SO MUCH MORE! I want to see this world get brighter and brighter as the Body of Christ gets brighter and brighter.