Are You ‘Strung’?

//Speaker Highlight:Patsy Cameneti

We are anointed to preach the Gospel—to tell people that Jesus has come! He has redeemed mankind. In fact, Hebrews chapter 7 says that He has redeemed us completely. He saved us to the uttermost. Anything that was broken, He fixed. Anything that was distorted, He straightened. Anything that was fractured, He completely remade. Hallelujah! Jesus created a brand-new species of in-Christ people, and every area of our lives is planted in His death, burial, and resurrection—in His first coming.

However, for our lives to sing, for our lives to have the purpose God has ordained, we must also plant ourselves in the second coming of the Lord. Then we’ll have a purpose for our lives.

There’s a purpose in us having healed bodies, for example. It’s not just because there are things we want to do in life. No! There’s something Jesus wants us to do, and we can do it better if we are healed.

It’s the same with our finances. Jesus was made poor so that through His poverty we could be rich. We can use our faith in this fact to access divine grace that explodes in our lives in abundance. While we could just be so happy to have more and more, God has given us power to get wealth so He can establish His covenant in the earth. Why? Because Jesus is coming again!

There’s also a great purpose for our children. I look at my kids and I think of the destiny upon their lives. It makes me wake up every morning with purpose to be a mom. I’m anointed to be a mom. Why? So they won’t drive me up the wall? No! I’m anointed to work together with the Holy Ghost to help form these people for their divine purpose. In the world to come, I won’t be their mom. But the one I call Lord will be their Lord. I want them to know Him, and that gives me purpose for my kids.

Just as a guitar serves no purpose unless it has been strung, so our lives have no purpose unless they have been strung between the first and second coming of the Lord. The Apostle Paul finished his course because he was “strung.” He used eternity to help people understand how to live now.

In Romans chapter 14 he told the Romans to quit judging and looking down on each other. It wasn’t just because they’d be hindered from receiving their blessings. It was because they would one day stand before the judgment seat of Christ (vv. 10–12). In Second Corinthians 1:14 he said that the very reason he was writing to the people in Corinth was that Jesus is coming again and he wanted them to have a good report on that day. He wanted to be proud of them.

And then we see in Ephesians 1:21 that Jesus is raised above all principalities and powers and might and dominion, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. There is a world to come! And that gives us a reason to live now.

In Second Timothy 4:1–2 (Amplified) Paul said, “I charge [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by (in the light of) His coming and His kingdom: . . . preach the Word!”

In the light of Jesus’ second coming, Paul said we are to preach the Word! There are so many other verses we could go to. But the reason Paul preached was not to have a great ministry; it wasn’t to see how many people he could get on his mailing list or how much money he could get.

No, Paul was “strung.” His Epistles are full of the revelation of what Jesus did in His first coming. But those Epistles are also full of reminders that Jesus is coming again. Paul built his ministry knowing that he did not want to stand before Jesus in the end having just experienced the blessings. He wanted to help other people get there too.

There is a first coming, and there is a second coming— something now and something then (1 Cor. 13:12). And like Paul, we need to hook up to that fact. Then the Father will tune every area of our lives. He’ll play our finances, our families, and our bodies. And while we’re alive on this planet, we’ll become part of His plan for that second pivotal event—the return of Jesus Christ.