Task Specific

 Whether a business or an army, ten people or a thousand, without a chain of command and delegation of responsibility, it would all go to ruin. It wouldn’t be a slow decline that can be measured over the years; it would be quick, sudden, and violent, like bringing down a building with a few pounds of dynamite.  

A chain of command maintains order and discipline, prerequisites to any endeavor requiring more than a handful of people to go smoothly. There are rules that must be followed, orders that must be carried out, tasks that must be accomplished, and responsibilities one must take upon themselves in exchange for requisite compensation. In the old parlance, if you want money, you have to earn it by the sweat of your brow, and more often than not, it won’t be pleasant or likable.

If you love what you do and can still make a decent living at it, you are blessed. My wife loves what she does. To her, it’s not work, and so she can sit and lay out an entire floor, draw lines, put in measurements, and do tedious stuff that would drive me up a wall without once complaining. I can leave home, come back three hours later, and find her in the same spot, doing the same thing as if no time had passed.

When you apply for a job, you fill out an application, itemize your skills, then go on to the interview part, where your potential boss asks if you can carry out specific duties and responsibilities the job may require. For the most part, excluding coding, accounting, or anything requiring a four-year degree, the tasks are mundane and repetitive.

Long ago, just to cement the idea that I never wanted to work for anyone ever again, I applied for a job as a third-shift shelf stocker at Walmart. Wouldn’t you know it, I got hired. I could have likely gotten a better job, but I wanted the worst I could get, which fit the bill within driving distance. I worked there for three months, five days a week, ten hours a night until I knew that I would crawl over broken glass while on fire before I worked for anyone dumber than me ever again. Let’s just say the night manager would never have been mistaken for a genius.

I did the job well enough; it wasn’t rocket science. The first night one of the other third shifters told me I was moving too quickly, something I’d never personally been accused of before, and I should slow down because I was getting paid by the hour, not by the shelf. I thanked him for his advice but still kept my own pace because even though it was only $7.25 per hour, I’d committed to doing the best job I could, and I wasn’t going to break my word just to pacify the lazy.

I did the tasks I was assigned to the best of my ability, and at the end of every week, I got a check that seemed incongruous with the ten hours per night I’d put in Sunday through Thursday.

When it comes to the lives of men, there are certain things the Father is responsible for, others that the Son is responsible for, and others still that the Holy Spirit is responsible for. Once you begin to understand the interworking of God in your life, you come to realize that there is a division of labor among the three, and each work interdependently toward the same goal. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will never be at odds. They are in perpetual harmony, complimentary of one another.

 

Although readily dismissed in the modern-day church, the Holy Spirit is responsible for carrying out what many assume falls under the purview of the Father. I get that if you leave your Bible in the plastic wrapping, it keeps fresh longer. Still, perhaps just for their own edification, some should read it before going off, regurgitating what they heard someone else say, insisting that the Holy Spirit no longer has any responsibilities or influence in today’s world.

That was for back then, brother, the Holy Spirit’s back in heaven, and here we are stuck on earth with no power, no authority, nothing but the stories of yesteryear to keep the fire alive.

John 16:7-11, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see me no more; of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.”

The allocation of duties is evident in these four verses. Jesus said He would send the Helper once He went away, then the Helper would convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. As long as the world is convicted of sin, meaning there is still repentance, and men reject the darkness for the light, then the Holy Spirit is still present and active.

It’s not your job to convince someone of their sinfulness. Your job is to speak the truth and be a light. The Holy Spirit convicts the world. It is He who convinces someone of their error and sin. I’ve known believers who grow angry with themselves because they can’t make headway with an individual. No matter how much they try to show them the error of their ways, they are stone, and nothing gets through. That’s because they were trying to do what they were never tasked with doing.

You plant the seed. You speak the truth and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. When He convicts those of the world of sin, it breaks them, humbles them, and brings them to the foot of the cross, where they find remission of sins through repentance.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.