You Are an Attraction, Not the actual Blessing: You are a channel to the Actual Blessing – You are an advert, a magnet, an attention to direct people to the actual blessing
Song: you are the Lord, that is your name, you will never share your glory with any man….
In a world consumed by the search for meaning, wealth, and recognition, we’re a generation obsessed with celebrity. We admire talent, celebrate success, and often, without realizing it, place people on pedestals. The average person is burdened by the desire for approval, constantly thinking about what others say of them. We all want to be recognized for our achievements—we all want to be a celebrity.
But what if our role isn’t to be the actual main event, but an advertisement pointing people to the true product? The accomplishments we celebrate in the natural world, which appeal to our five senses, are meant to be attention-grabbers. They are designed to lead people to what they really need.
Consider this verse from the Bible: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
This scripture perfectly summarizes the core idea: men see you, but in turn, they are meant to glorify your Father in heaven, not you.
Let’s dive deeper into this discussion.
God’s Call to a suffering world
Our generation is grappling with deep suffering and a profound spiritual void. The Bible describes a world lying in darkness, desperately yearning for salvation (Isaiah 60:2a). As 1 John 5:19 states, “we know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Mankind is in dire need of deliverance from this oppression, groaning under a fallen state. God is constantly calling out to humanity to save them.
The challenge is that God is spiritual, and the “natural” or fallen man doesn’t instantly understand or appreciate spiritual things. They respond to physical things—what makes sense to their five senses. This is why God needs a channel, a bridge that can translate between the spiritual things God wants to give and the physical things that man can receive.
This is where you come in. You are the bridge between the spiritual and the physical. The whole idea is simple: people need saving, and God is ready to save them. But first, He needs to get their attention. Since the language of God is spiritual and often foreign to the natural mind, He uses you—an instrument who is both natural and spiritual—to get their attention through the physical and direct them to the spiritual.
Your Feats Are the Entry Point
The human race is fascinated by things that appeal to our physical senses, such as achievements in art, music, sports, and technology. These are the things that capture our attention every day. What is your own gift? Is it physical (like your beauty, physique?) Is it Mental (High intelligent quotient, sharp Retentive Memory, Hilarious, Singer)? or Spiritual (interpreting dreams, seeing visions etc) – All these gifts are for bringing the attention of perishing men to the salvation of God – not for your self gain.
God gave you your talents and skills to shine so you can draw people’s attention to Him, not to take the glory for yourself. Ultimately, it is God they need, not you. If you are fortunate enough to be recognized by others—no matter the avenue—it’s your responsibility to direct them to who they truly need. You are not to keep the attention for yourself. You were meant to be an advertisement for the product, not the product itself. It is kind of hard coming to terms with this truth as it may sound counter-intuitive, especially when we pour our hearts into developing our skills and passions. However, understanding this fundamental truth can revolutionize how we view our purpose and impact others. Here are two key aspects to this understanding:
Our intentional refinement of gifts: Our abilities and talents, which attract recognition, are a way to draw others and point them toward God—the true and unending blessing.
We are not the actual blessing: We are the bridge to the blessing that this perishing world needs.
The Holy Spirit: The Blessing the World Needs
We’ve established that what people truly need is God, and we are the vessels He uses to direct them to Himself. The other part of this truth is that the God they need lives inside of us—the very bridge connecting the physical and the spiritual.
The Holy Spirit is God living inside of us. He created humans to be vessels He could inhabit, allowing Him to save a perishing world right in their own territory—the physical realm. We are like containers to be filled. The Holy Spirit lives in us, and the measure of that presence determines how available His power is through us to save others.
The apostles and early disciples of Jesus are a perfect historical example of the “bridge” concept. Before Jesus’s death and resurrection, they were natural men, often confused and fearful. They followed Jesus, a physical person, and were drawn to his miracles and teachings, which appealed to their five senses. They were the first to “see His good works.”
However, they were not the ultimate blessing themselves. Their understanding was limited, and their impact was local. Jesus told them to wait for the infilling of the Holy Spirit because He knew they couldn’t fulfill their mission in their natural state.
The book of Acts describes this transition. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit descended upon them at Pentecost. This wasn’t just a personal spiritual experience; it was a divine enablement for public display. The manifestation—speaking in other tongues—was the “attraction” that grabbed the attention of a diverse crowd of people from different nations.
This event perfectly illustrates the model:
- The Attraction: The apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit, leading to the public manifestation of speaking in other languages.
- The Audience: People from all over the world were astonished, recognizing their own languages being spoken. The physical, audible miracle got their attention.
- The Bridge: Peter, a man who had previously denied Jesus out of fear, stood up and used this attention to point them to the source. He explained that this event was a fulfillment of prophecy and directed them to Jesus, the true blessing.
- The Result: The people were convicted and asked, “What shall we do?” Peter’s response was to point them to spiritual healing: “Repent and be baptized… for the forgiveness of your sins.” As a result, 3,000 people were saved.
In this instance, the apostles were not the “celebrities.” Their miraculous manifestation of the Spirit was the advert, the attention-grabber, that directed people to the actual product: salvation through Jesus Christ. Their lives became a continuous cycle of receiving the Holy Spirit and using its manifestation to serve as a bridge to a world in need of a spiritual blessing.
Your Role in Salvation of a perishing world of men
You and I, as the bridge, have two major roles to play for this operation to be balanced and complete:
- Be a vessel for the Holy Spirit. We must surrender and make ourselves available for the Holy Spirit to fill us. Without this, what God wants to do through us may not be possible. This is the most important part of the process because the solution the world needs is provided only by the Holy Spirit. So we must give him our totality to fill us up as vessels worthy of use.
- Refine your gifts to excellence. The manifestation of our excellent gifts before an audience of people is what draws their recognition and attention to us. We must do our best to refine our gifts, shine our light so that others will through our light be directed to the salvation they need.
God wants to rescue a generation through us, His vessels. He has endowed us with gifts we should display before men, and this attention is meant to be a call to direct them to the God living inside us. But for this to happen, we must have an increasing presence of the Holy Spirit. Without it, we have nothing to offer the perishing beyond a physical display of gifts, which only has a physical impact. The world needs a spiritual healing, and that comes from the God in us.
Conclusion
So, what does this all mean for us? It means recognizing that every talent, every skill, and every opportunity for recognition isn’t just about us. It’s an invitation to be a beacon, a pointer, and a bridge. Instead of clinging to the spotlight, we are called to reflect it back to its source. Our ultimate purpose isn’t to be the celebrity people talk about, but to be the channel through which they discover the God they truly need. Go out there and shine—not for your own glory, but so that others might see the light and glorify the Father in heaven.
In a world that constantly tells us to be the main character, we are given a higher calling: to be a vessel. Our gifts and achievements are not meant to make us the center of attention, but to be the signpost that points to the ultimate blessing. When we live with this understanding, our purpose becomes less about personal ambition and more about divine mission. We are not the blessing, but we carry the Blessing within us. And it is this divine presence, working through our refined talents, that will truly heal and save the world. Let’s embrace our role as a bridge and guide others to the God who is ready to fill their every void.