Filled

We can realize, day by day, that God has invited us to come to know Him through Jesus Christ, and do exalt His name through the way we live. 2nd Timothy chapter 2 relates:
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor.
21 Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.
22 Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

So, we can make ourselves ready for service to our King.  We recognize that He is calling us to a walk of obedience, and that our faithfulness to God results in fruitfulness through God. So, we allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse us, to make us more like Jesus Christ, and from that place of holiness before God, we can put Him on display through us.  We can set our hearts to pursue what He has in store for us, devoted to bringing Him honor. 

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Fruitfulness for the glory of God proceeds from our faithfulness to God. In John 15, we see the words of Jesus; He says:
14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

While February 8 might not be considered any sort of federal or state holiday, it certainly would be considered a historic day in the spiritual realm.  In Wilmore, Kentucky, it was the day that a chapel service began, but did not end - that day, or the next, or the next.  Prayer, confession, and worship continued for over two weeks at Asbury University, and it reverberated across the nation.

Meanwhile, in Norman, Oklahoma, on February 8, the University of Oklahoma verbally agreed to allow a group to rent Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium for an event called, Fill the Stadium.  That's according to OU Daily.  Now, this website was chiding, it seems, the organizers because 20 or 30 thousand people showed up in an 80,000 seat stadium.  Quite frankly, that's immaterial.  Because our call is to be obedient, and allow God to bring the results. 

The event, according to the website, "featured artists Kari Jobe, Chandler Moore and Chance the Rapper along with evangelist Nick Hall from Pulse ministries. Backed by Pulse, Josh Robinson, an entrepreneurship senior, and Nathan Wong, a marketing senior, founded and acted as co-directors of Fill the Stadium."

The Oklahoman quoted Nathan Wong, who said: "I thought the event was incredibly successful," adding, "We had over 2,000 people respond to the Gospel and while that's exciting, that's just the beginning. We will never actually know all the life change that happened on April 29 but we know that God moved on that night and when God moves, special things happen."

The report stated:

In his message, Hall said Oklahoma had a profound effect on his faith testimony because he had attended a Billy Graham evangelistic mission effort in Oklahoma City as a young man.

He urged the crowd to shine their cell phone flashlights if they had ever suffered from depression, knew someone who committed suicide or contemplated suicide themselves. He said he didn't have all the answers to their challenges nor did anyone else on the program lineup, but God did.

"I want to tell you something about God. God sees you. God loves you," he said. "I think we're in a famine of people being heard. I want to tell you whatever you're going through tonight, he loves you."

It's been said before, but it's highly applicable here: we are called to be faithful; God is responsible for the results.  So often, we can get caught up in what we can see - but, like one of the organizers of the OU event said, "We will never actually know all the life change that happened..." Again, numbers don't tell the whole story - we can certainly rejoice that up to 30,000 people showed up and 2,000 responded to the Lord.  But, that is not all - we can rejoice that God, by His Spirit, touched hearts.

Goals are good, and these organizers had a goal - they wanted to "Fill the Stadium."  They didn't - for any number of reasons.  But, the bigger concern was souls.  When we measure according to human wisdom, we miss the whole scope of what God is doing - and His ways are immeasurable. We can be discouraged when appearances would say we missed the mark.  But, we can be encouraged when we know we have been obedient.   They wanted to "fill" the venue, but what occurred is that the organizers - and attendees - may have been ful-filled because of the presence of God.