Empowering

...We are only God's servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It's not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What's important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. For we are both God's workers. And you are God's field... (1 Corinthians 3:4-9 NLT)

Praying and planting keeps us humble.  We recognize, much like a farmer, that there are many more things out of our control than those things in our control.  We don't know how to make a seed grow.  It just does.  It's a beautiful thing to participate in the plan of God.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13 NIV)

We all have different gifts, but when we use them we see God at work.  When we use them together as a team, people see God in our unity and they will be drawn to God.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. (Ephesians 4:14-15 NIV)

That's because Christ is the head of the body.  Our unity does not stem from agreement with one another.  It stems from our agreement with God.  As we draw closer to "the chair," we draw closer to one another as well.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:15-16 NIV)

God is the one who connects us to one another.  God is the one who causes the growth.  God is the one who laid out a perfect plan to empower one more to walk together with God.

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20 NIV)

As we go through life, then, we make disciples: followers of Jesus.  We baptize them into Him, teach them to follow Him, and trust Him to be with us every step of the way.  We empower one more to walk together with God.

How about you?  Do you allow God to empower you?  Do you empower others?  Do you see God at work in and through you?