Following your own heart is a fallacy. Following the Master is the way of truth. A master can give you a heart for that which you know nothing about. As it turns out we all need a heart transplant when it comes to knowing God: Jeremiah chapter 24 verse 7
A novice apprentice or disciple is prone to take instruction and interpret it according to their own feelings instead of actually listening correctly in order to fulfill their duties. This leads to occasional embarrassment (if they are intelligent enough to realize they weren’t listening) and correction.
The less exact and detailed the instructions the higher the probability of an apprentice totally screwing them up, or basically any man for that matter. Most men are to busy thinking what they’re thinking to be thinking what someone else is thinking.
As a sixth generation painter with seventeen years experience I can’t say whether I have mastered my trade or not. There is a lot I do not know, but what I do know I know well. Though it is less important on new buildings now due to advancements in spray technology and tapes etc, I still haven’t met any painters better with a brush than my father and grandfather in their prime.
It is not skills or talent that make a master though, even though a master will possess both. What really turns a disciple into a master I believe is the acute awareness of all that transpires In their chosen domain, both within themselves and outside of themselves. Nine out of ten people on jobsites aren’t inclined to think any further into the future than the instructions they have for the moment.
As admirable as it is to be so willing to please the boss, if you didn’t tell some guys it was time to have lunch they wouldn’t realise they’re hungry. What’s amazing about the miracle of Jesus feeding the multitudes with a few loaves and fish isn’t just the supernatural multiplication, but the fact he had to tell them after three days that they should eat.
Moses was a master in Israel. But what made him a Master? Was it the education of Egyptian royalty he received growing up? Undoubtedly God had ordained it for his future. Was it the years herding in the backside of the desert that prepared him for leading God’s sheep?
Was it the wisdom of his Father in law, or the quick thinking of Zipporah his wife? All these examples and more certainly point to the path of becoming a master. Yet I don’t think these are ‘that’ which makes the Master.
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What made Moses a Master? I believe it was his absolute awareness of God. He knew the presence of God, and he knew the way God felt and thought. All his actions carry the weight of this awareness. He had something that the people did not. Total awareness of God and his ways at all times.
How I wish I could be aware of the thoughts and feelings and presence of God like Moses and Jesus! Just Like I can on a house that needs painting, I would be instinctively able to know what I need to do at every moment.
I would be able to instruct others also, something which comes easily amongst other painters on the job site but not so easily amongst the children of the kingdom of God. I would be able to square up and finish my work in the alloted time I have been given, without wasting time looking at my watch. More than this, I would, like Moses and Jesus, know how to intercede and solve the problems of those who know not what they do.
A master painter can cover a multitude of sins on walls and woodwork, but a Master of life will cover a multitude of sinners.
The truth is, I was absolutely terrible when I started painting with my father. But a Master makes bad men become the best men.
‘Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. ‘Matthew chapter 5 verse 48
Show me your ways oh Lord! Better to be your apprentice than another man’s Master.
Joshua Robbie is a Press Service International young writer from South Africa