What Kind of People Does God Use? Six Characteristics

The new nature of a person who has been born again after turning to God seeks to do good works, to do God’s will, and to get results from the time and effort invested.

Being used by God is the dream of almost every Christian. But God has requirements for a person who wants to serve effectively to build His kingdom on earth.

Taras Sen, head of the international ministry “Christ is the Answer” and pastor of the same named church in Rivne with more than 20 years of ministry experience, offers six characteristics of people who are used by God in His work.

1. Having a Pure Heart

God deals with people who seek to cleanse themselves and maintain the purity of their hearts.  

“Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.” (John 15:3).

According to Jesus, the Word of God purifies. Therefore, it must be read, received, dissolved in your heart by faith, and practiced in your daily life. Along with God’s Word for the sanctification of the heart, we have the Holy Spirit.

We must remember that God looks at the intentions of our hearts, which must be good.

We might say that we want to serve God, but is it really in our hearts?

One may want to glorify oneself by trying to benefit oneself. But God wants to see in us a desire to serve Him wholeheartedly, to do His will, not to satisfy our ambitions.

In the Bible, we find examples of people who walked well with God, but at some point sinned before Him. For example, Moses did not enter the Promised Land:

“And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”” (Numbers 20:12).

Many people lose their callings because of a careless attitude toward sin and stop serving after reaching a certain level.

But if we continually keep ourselves from sin, God will raise us higher to bear more fruit for His glory.

2. Proactivity

People who have zeal for God’s work are used by God.

“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent” (Rev. 3:19).

A man who is zealous for God does not need to be pushed; he wants to serve on his own.

When we give room to the Spirit of God, He creates both desire and action in our hearts, encouraging us to do this or that.

When we show zeal for God’s work in our life or ministry, when we look for opportunities to serve God, to bear fruit for God’s kingdom, God will lead us.

How can we be proactive? Act on the principle of “open/closed doors. There are times when God opens a door and we walk through it, and there are times when we need to move randomly, as if testing to see if the door is open or closed, and act accordingly.

God can do much more than we realize, and not in the way we expect, but He wants us to take the initiative.

So we must pray, seek God’s guidance, and move forward, learning, growing, and looking for opportunities to serve.

3. Selflessness and Commitment

To succeed in any endeavor, we must put in a lot of effort and give up everything that gets in the way.

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Php 3:8).

All the things we have given up for Christ’s sake seem to us to be lost, but in God’s eyes they are not.

First, God will reward us in heaven. Second, God has the power and desire to reward us on earth and bless us in our ministry.

Our prayers, fasting, and efforts are all sacrifices to which God responds. There is no success without sacrifice. As much as we sacrifice and devote ourselves to God, the reward will come from Him.

When God sees that we are not looking for a comfortable place, but are willing to serve Him devotedly and give Him all we have if necessary, God will respond to our sacrifice and bless us.

But it is necessary to make sure that there are no extremes, because everything has its time and its place.

Indeed, there are money, strength, and time that belong to our families, and we should give them their due.

4. Fulfillment with the Holy Spirit

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zech 4:6).

Sure, we use our time, skills and strength, but without the Spirit of God and being filled with His power, we will not succeed.

We need the Holy Spirit to go before us, to strengthen us, to heal us, because there are attacks of the devil in the ministry, and we can meet them with the power of God.

Without God’s power we will stop, we will drop our hands, we will lack faith.

When we are filled with the Spirit of God, we feel the Spirit, we understand the will of God, God guides us, we are directed in prayer, the Holy Spirit will put intentions in our hearts.

We must protect our hearts from sin so that we do not quench the Spirit of God.

5. Faithfulness

To be faithful is to be trustworthy. Not all people are faithful; many do good things for the sake of some gain, without putting their whole heart into doing God’s will.

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Col. 3:23).

God expects us to be faithful in every way, especially in our relationship with Him. We must also be faithful to our family and treat them accordingly.

To be faithful in service, even when it is not easy or unnoticed. It is important to learn to do the dirty work, the work that no one wants to do. And God, who sees it, will recognize us as faithful and will trust us in greater things.

6. Humility

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

When people humble themselves before God, His power flows into their lives. He likes to fellowship with humble people because He is humble.

But we must learn to humble ourselves before God, not before problems, sins and our enemies.

The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of humility.

As long as we remain simple and humble, God and His grace will be with us.

Christ is the Answer Ministry Press Center.