The Positive Difference of One Person 1

This is your Friend and Minister, Dr. Joshua Uhiara, bringing you Healing Word

from the Master, a program of the Master’s Vessel Ministry which lets you know

that Jesus loves you as you are, but loves you so much that He will not leave you

as you are.

Friends, we return to our discussion last time on: The Positive Difference of One Person. We took the text from 2 Kings 6:8-18.

PRAYER:

Father, we’ve come again. We are coming to the throne of grace, now and asking Your permission to search the scriptures; asking for the Holy Spirit to make the scriptures clear to us – causing Your Word to come alive. Grant this, dear Lord, to all. Grant me, also, unction as I bring this message today to my friends, in Jesus Name. Amen!

Last time we saw that people make differences in life. A person can make a difference. It depends on what kind of difference he makes. But we are talking about making positive difference in the lives of people. And we saw the example in the life of Elisha the servant of God in Israel. He saved his nation; saved the king from the hand of their enemies, the king of Syria.

We also saw that you don’t have to have privileged information from heaven to make a positive difference. You can have common sense and keen observation because one of the cabinet members of the king of Syria made a positive difference. Also he saved the rest of his cabinet members from false accusation from the king who thought there was a mole in his cabinet – a spy in his cabinet. He said, No! Because he observed that there was a man of God in Israel who was revealing the secrets of the king of Syria to the king of Israel. And thereby he saved his people.

I also mentioned the positive difference that Rosa Parks made in the United States: the black lady who resisted leaving his seat to a white man to go to the back of the bus. And this was what started the revolution as it were that propelled the blacks to the place where today they can sit anywhere in the bus, in the airplane. And it is this Rosa Parks refusal that made it possible for a black man to sit in the White House today in the United States.

Then we stopped at the place where the servant of God Elisha sured up the trembling heart of his servant, because he saw that God has sent them deliverance. But his servant could not see that. Because of that he was trembling.

Some of us cannot relate to the trembling heart that accompanies a treat to one’s wellbeing, the loss of income, the loss of health, the possibility of even the loss of life. Through his close relationship with God, Elisha for the second time, made a difference in a person’s life. He arrested the uncontrollable fear that had gripped the heart of his servant. Those who are close to God are able to help people with diverse needs both tangible as well as intangible. Elisha told his servant, those who are with us are more than those who are against us. And his servant must have said, is everything right with my master today? And he looked around. Those who are with us? You, myself – who else? God opened his eyes and he saw the multitude of angelic deliverance that God sent them.

Friend, I want to challenge you to dare to make a difference. But, for you to dare to make a difference in somebody’s life, you must dare to be different. Elisha dared to be different from the rest of the people of Israel. How different? You may ask.

When the king of Israel, Jehoram, the son of Israel, was in a bind militarily he went to the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom to Elisha for help. Listen to the words of a man who dared to be different,

2 Kings 3:13-14

¹³ Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.”

But the king of Israel said to him, “No, for the Lord has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”

¹⁴ And Elisha said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you, nor see you.

He had an uncompromising bold stand against the idolatry of Ahab’s family. He was not afraid of a king who had murderous background and murderous tendency. Elisha dared to be different. The servant of the king of Syria dared to be different from every other member of the king’s cabinet. He spoke up in defense of himself and his fellow cabinet members when others were too afraid or ignorant to say a word. All who have made a difference, especially positive difference, have always dared to be different. The problem we have in our nation today is that we don’t have many people who dare to be different. We have sycophants instead.

The four Hebrews exiled to Babylon, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah come to mind quickly. They were young men who dared to be different. They said to the servant of the king, we will not want to eat what is sacrificed to idols. We want to eat vegetables only. And when they dared to be different and would not mess themselves up with idolatrous food God backed them up.

Daring to be different is costly, friend. There is a price to pay for daring to be different. It may cost you your friends. People may think you are nuts. It may cost you money. You may not get that contract. You may forgo certain opportunities to make money. It may cost you respect. You could be insulted for being different, made fun of for being different. Don’t be afraid because God has absorbed all the cost for those who would stand with Him.

The other day, when I was telling the Lord that I would dare to be different, I could perceive that he reminded me that there must be a cost to dare to be different. But I quickly told the Lord that there would be no cost greater than the one He had already paid. There will be no price greater than the one he had already paid. So whatever it will cost me was already in His budget, and He knew it. That is why He says to you and to me, My grace is sufficient for you for My strength is made perfect in weakness.

Friend, dare to be different, and God will back you up. Let us not forget that the opportunity to be different in order to make a difference is here and now, not in eternity. The difference of one is only in time. The difference that one will make is only here and now in time. One taken from a billion makes a different, doesn’t it? It is no longer a billion. It is a billion-minus-one. But, if you take one from infinity, there is no difference. It is still infinity. Infinity is like eternity. One cannot make a difference in eternity. It is now – It is in time. Will you, friend, make a difference now? In this nation we need people who will dare to be different to make a difference now in this country?

PRAYER:

Faithful Father, this nation is in dire need of men and women, boys and girls who would dare to be different and therefore make a difference. We need such people now, dear Lord – now in this nation. Will You strengthen us. Will You strengthen my friends as they hears this word. May they make up their minds today to be  different, in Jesus Name, Amen!