Can God Use Me If I’m Not Perfect?
Most of us carry a quiet list of reasons God probably can’t use us. We haven’t prayed enough, we don’t know enough Scripture, we’ve made too many mistakes, or we’re just not the type. So we admire people who seem bold in their faith and assume that kind of life belongs to someone else. Someday, once we finally get it all together, maybe God will use us too.
Jesus saw it differently. In John 14:12 He said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” Notice who He’s talking about. Not the especially gifted or the spiritually elite, but anyone who believes on Him. That promise was never meant to sit on a shelf.
When Joseph Morris preached on this passage, he pointed out that Jesus gave us two keys to living it out: authorization and presence. Acts 10:38 says God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, and He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil. Jesus laid aside His glory and walked this earth as a man filled with the Spirit, and then He turned to His followers and said, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:21). The same name He gave them and the same Spirit who filled them have been given to us.
Authorization is the authority that comes with the name of Jesus. When Jesus sent out the twelve in Luke 9, and later the seventy in Luke 10, they didn’t spend years earning the right to minister. He authorized them, and they went. There’s a boldness that comes from knowing you’ve been given permission, the same way a teenager with a brand new driver’s license can wave at a passing police car instead of ducking. You aren’t sneaking around in God’s business. You’ve been sent.
Presence is the Holy Spirit living in you. Jesus said the Spirit of truth “dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17). Authority without presence can become mechanical, and presence without an understanding of our authority can leave us passive. Together, they look like the ministry of Jesus carried by ordinary people.
This is usually where we get stuck, because we keep inspecting ourselves. Joseph Morris used a simple picture. On a hot, dry day when the grass is burning up, you don’t stand in the yard examining the garden hose. You just want water on the lawn. We spend so much time evaluating the vessel that we forget the point is what flows through it. When you pray for someone, the question isn’t how long you prayed that morning or where you went to school. It’s whether you trust the name you’ve been given, the name above every other name.
That doesn’t make character unimportant. Paul spent all of 1 Corinthians 12 explaining how the Holy Spirit works and then followed it immediately with 1 Corinthians 13, the great chapter on love. Every gift of the Spirit exists to show people the goodness of God. As Reverend Joseph put it, real spirituality is restoration, lifting up the very people others have written off.
And perfection was never the entry requirement. Peter is a good reminder. He spoke too quickly and failed in some very public ways, but he was the one who stepped out of the boat, and he was the one God used to heal the man at the temple gate in Acts 3. God isn’t waiting for you to be flawless. He’s looking for people willing to believe Him and step out.
So here’s something to try this week. Ask God to show you one person who needs encouragement, prayer, or help, and then act on it instead of talking yourself out of it. If someone shares a need, offer to pray with them right there rather than promising to pray later. Keep it simple, keep it kind, and take your eyes off your own qualifications. Put them on the name of Jesus and the Spirit who lives in you.
You don’t have to wait until you feel ready. You’ve already been authorized, and He’s already with you.
Jesus saw it differently. In John 14:12 He said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” Notice who He’s talking about. Not the especially gifted or the spiritually elite, but anyone who believes on Him. That promise was never meant to sit on a shelf.
When Joseph Morris preached on this passage, he pointed out that Jesus gave us two keys to living it out: authorization and presence. Acts 10:38 says God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, and He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil. Jesus laid aside His glory and walked this earth as a man filled with the Spirit, and then He turned to His followers and said, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:21). The same name He gave them and the same Spirit who filled them have been given to us.
Authorization is the authority that comes with the name of Jesus. When Jesus sent out the twelve in Luke 9, and later the seventy in Luke 10, they didn’t spend years earning the right to minister. He authorized them, and they went. There’s a boldness that comes from knowing you’ve been given permission, the same way a teenager with a brand new driver’s license can wave at a passing police car instead of ducking. You aren’t sneaking around in God’s business. You’ve been sent.
Presence is the Holy Spirit living in you. Jesus said the Spirit of truth “dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17). Authority without presence can become mechanical, and presence without an understanding of our authority can leave us passive. Together, they look like the ministry of Jesus carried by ordinary people.
This is usually where we get stuck, because we keep inspecting ourselves. Joseph Morris used a simple picture. On a hot, dry day when the grass is burning up, you don’t stand in the yard examining the garden hose. You just want water on the lawn. We spend so much time evaluating the vessel that we forget the point is what flows through it. When you pray for someone, the question isn’t how long you prayed that morning or where you went to school. It’s whether you trust the name you’ve been given, the name above every other name.
That doesn’t make character unimportant. Paul spent all of 1 Corinthians 12 explaining how the Holy Spirit works and then followed it immediately with 1 Corinthians 13, the great chapter on love. Every gift of the Spirit exists to show people the goodness of God. As Reverend Joseph put it, real spirituality is restoration, lifting up the very people others have written off.
And perfection was never the entry requirement. Peter is a good reminder. He spoke too quickly and failed in some very public ways, but he was the one who stepped out of the boat, and he was the one God used to heal the man at the temple gate in Acts 3. God isn’t waiting for you to be flawless. He’s looking for people willing to believe Him and step out.
So here’s something to try this week. Ask God to show you one person who needs encouragement, prayer, or help, and then act on it instead of talking yourself out of it. If someone shares a need, offer to pray with them right there rather than promising to pray later. Keep it simple, keep it kind, and take your eyes off your own qualifications. Put them on the name of Jesus and the Spirit who lives in you.
You don’t have to wait until you feel ready. You’ve already been authorized, and He’s already with you.