FORERUNNERS
John 3:30
FOREUNNER
a person or thing that precedes the coming or development of someone or something else.
A sign of something to come.
The great men and women that we have been hearing about through this UNQUALIFIED message were forerunners. They all were sent for a specific time and purpose to proclaim the coming of something greater, someone greater... And I believe that this is what God is calling us to be even now...
John the Baptist
saiah 40:3-5 “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all the flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
A few hundred years later came the prophet Malachi, who made a similar announcement:
Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts.
After the prophet Malachi, 400 more years passed and nothing happened. God was silent. No prophet and no revelation. Godly people kept looking for the Savior but found none. Religion had become a show and hypocrisy a way of life. Religious leaders were blind guides. Israel was under Roman rule until John the Baptist...
Matthew 3:1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.’”
He readied the hearts of men to receive Jesus…
“… I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
John gave us the perfect example of what it means to be a forerunner. Everything we do is always meant to point to something… to someONE greater than us who’s coming. We give a only a taste of the greater hope to come.
“He must increase and I must decrease.”
Characteristics of a forerunner...
1. Those who have invested time in the presence of God. They are those who abide.
John 15:5-7 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples..
Our first and primary responsibility is to know the Father, to remain close and to remain dependent.
There’s a price for our closeness. To whom much is given much is required.
2. They have eyes into heaven. They aren’t held by the timeline of this world but God has given them eyes to see what He sees.
Jeremiah 1:4 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
5 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.”
6 Then said I:
“Ah, Lord God!
Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” #UNQUALIFIED
7 But the Lord said to me:
“Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’
For you shall go to all to whom I send you,
And whatever I command you, you shall speak.
8 Do not be afraid of their faces,
For I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord.
9 Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me:
“Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms,
To root out and to pull down,
To destroy and to throw down,
To build and to plant.”
11 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?”
We are the ones who see what God is doing from afar off and see Jesus and calls everyone and say like John “look! He’s coming! This is the man I was talking about!”
We prepare others to get to know our Christ.
3. Those who take the risk and say, “YES”.
God is in our YES.
Sometimes we can feel the weight of our YES. Most of the time, It’s only later that we find out exactly what we said YES to... Regardless the foundation of our YES is a confident trust in a good and loving Father and a holy reverent fear of an all-knowing God.
If God is calling you to it, Learn to say YES no matter where you are.
4. They aren’t spectators. They aren’t merely teachers. They are demonstrators.
They are not just hearers of the Word of God, but doers. They are not just spectators, and they don’t mind getting their hands dirty. They believe to the point of demonstration.
Forerunners are demonstrators because they understand that it’s not of their own doing. They are merely vessels.
John 14:1
Matthew 10:20
“You haven't come to know Me in fullness until you get to know Me in that manifestation that doesn't come through man or by the hand of man. That is where the keys of the kingdom for your hand will be found. There is a glory and a manifestation of who I am in you and around you that will not come to you by conferring with flesh and blood.”
A.Life… you are forerunners and you will be leading this campus into encountering a real and living hope that is in Christ Jesus.
John the Baptist was a forerunner of Christ’s first coming. We are forerunners for His second coming.
Hebrew 6:19-20 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Isaiah 60-62