Ezekiel 4:15
Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.
One of the greatest Christians in the Scriptures that often does not get recognized for what they did is Ezekiel. We know he is a prophet of God, but his greatness is often overlooked because of the great messages God gave him to preach.
I believe the greatness of Ezekiel is that he had no stopping points with God. Let me explain. God told Ezekiel to take dung and use it to make bread as an object lesson to eat while he preached a message to Israel. Ezekiel told God that he had never allowed any defiled thing into his mouth. God then told Ezekiel that instead of using human dung that He would allow him to use cow’s dung to make this bread. Ezekiel did not balk at God’s command but did what God told him to do. This could have easily been a stopping point for Ezekiel, but he understood that he would rather be obedient to God and eat cow’s dung than to eat a steak and be disobedient to God. This was not the only instance that God asked Ezekiel to do rare and embarrassing things, but he obeyed God each time he was asked.
What is your stopping point with God that you will not go any further with His requests? Many are willing to do the easy things for God, but they rebel and disobey when He asks them to do something difficult. You will never know the magnitude of God’s power working through your life until you remove all stopping points that you won't go beyond if God asks you to do something. Let me share some stopping points that you must move beyond.
The first stopping point is family. Ezekiel lost his wife for the LORD’s sake, but did not quit. The family has become a source of worship. People say they will not lose their family for serving the LORD. My friend, serving the LORD has never caused anyone to lose their children; those children simply chose not to serve the LORD. It is not the parent’s fault that a child rebelled against God because their parents served the LORD. If you use family as a stopping point that you will go no further, you will limit what God can do through your life. I am not saying not to care for your family, but you cannot let family be a stopping point when God asks you to do something that might take some time away from the family.
The second stopping point is finances. Many people stop when God asks them to give something that is beyond their seeming ability. Finances have caused many to take a job that keeps them out of church, which means that job has become a stopping point that keeps you from giving your all to God. God is very capable of supplying your needs, and if you give Satan an opportunity to cause you to use finances to stop serving the LORD, he will always cause you to have financial difficulties that will keep you out of church.
The third stopping point is your life. Are you willing to give up comforts and entertainment for the sake of serving God? Many stopped serving God when it causes them to be uncomfortable and tired. Many have stopped serving God when it takes them from their fun in life. Many have stopped serving God when He asks an individual to step out by faith and risk it all for His cause. I have learned that whatever God asks me to do that He will always be there if I will step out. It may seem like a foolish decision to trust God by faith, but you will always meet God at the destination that faith is taking you.
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