Equip

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11)

When we encounter Jesus, everything changes.  We open our treasures and present them to him.  He takes them and returns blessing we didn't even know we wanted or needed.  This is what happens when we are empowered.  We not only receive God's forgiveness.  We receive His Spirit: a gift beyond measure.

And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. (Matthew 2:12)

The Magi came because of their old life.  They followed a star.  They went home by a different route, following the Spirit of God.  They were changed.  They were empowered.  Now, God was equipping them for a different life with Him.

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son." (Matthew 2:13-15)

Joseph was also being equipped.  God sent him an angel to help him choose the right thing: stay with Mary and raise Jesus as your own son.  He did.  God gives us whatever we need to do what God calls us to do.  Joseph stayed.  Joseph protected Jesus.  Joseph raised Jesus as his son and as a gift from God.

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." (Matthew 2:16-18)

Some people will hear God's call and be empowered.  Those people, then, are begin equipped by God for works of service.  Others hear God's call and fight against it.  God will continue to reach out to them through their final days.

How about you?  Have you been empowered?  Are you being equipped?  Do you know what works of service God is calling you to do?