Who Is a Servant Of God?
by Pastor Dag Heward-MIlls
You do not have to be a pastor or a missionary to be a servant of God. We all know that priests, prophets, evangelists and pastors are servants of the Lord. We know that such people are privileged to be called the servants of the most high God. What a blessing they have to serve their maker. However, the good news is that other people who are not ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ can also be servants of God.
Indeed, the Bible is full of stories of people who were not pastors but were servants of God. God called them His servants and that is what they were. Some of these men were kings, politicians, businessmen, millionaires, farmers and even non-Jews.
The fact that people, other than priests and evangelists, are called servants of God has great implications for everyone. It means you can be a servant of God! A banker, a lawyer, a doctor, a politician, a pharmacist and a tax collector can be a servant of God.
You do not have to be in full-time ministry to be a servant of God. You can be working in any secular field and still be a servant of God. It is important to take note of all the people God referred to as His “servants”.
A servant is somebody who carries out the wishes of another. A servant is someone who serves the interests of another. From now onwards, you must consider yourself a potential servant of God. A student can be a servant of God! A businessman can be a servant of God! A teacher can be a servant of God! You can carry out the wishes of Almighty God no matter your occupation. The greatest job you could ever do is to be a servant of God.
It is no surprise that priests, Levites and prophets are called servants of God. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were not pastors but God referred to them as His servants. I know that you would like to think of Abraham as a pastor. But Abraham was not a pastor. He was simply a servant of God. I also know that you would consider Moses to be a pastor. However, Moses was the head of state of Israel. God referred to King David as His servant. Indeed, both Moses and David were heads of state of Israel and were predecessors to people like David Ben Gurion, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu. A head of state is not a pastor. A head of state can be a servant of God. Both Moses and David were wonderful servants of God. Make sure that whatever position you occupy, you become a servant of God.
Job was the greatest businessman from the East. Since Job was from the East, he was probably Chinese, Korean or Japanese. Job was so wealthy and yet was called a servant of God. God even boasted to the devil about His servant Job. From heaven’s point of view, Job was a servant of God. Today, wealthy businessmen hardly serve the Lord. If you are a businessman, you can be like Job and be a servant of God. This book is being written so that you can become a servant of God. God wants you to be His servant. I would advise you to become God’s servant. There are many advantages to being a servant of God. And that is what this book is about! Decide to become a servant of God. Decide that you will be called one of God’s servants. Let heaven regard you and respect you as a servant of God. Let us look at the amazing list of people who were called servants of God in the Bible.
1. Priests and Levites were servants of God.
And, behold, the courses of the priests and the Levites, even THEY SHALL BE WITH THEE FOR ALL THE SERVICE OF THE HOUSE OF GOD: and there shall be with thee for all manner of workmanship every willing skilful man, for any manner of service: also the princes and all the people will be wholly at thy commandment.
1 Chronicles 28:21
2. Prophets were servants of God.
And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of MY SERVANTS THE PROPHETS, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel.
2 Kings 9:7
But my words and my statutes, which I commanded MY SERVANTS THE PROPHETS, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.
Zechariah 1:6
3. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the greatest businessmen, were all servants of God.
Remember ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND ISRAEL, THY SERVANTS, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.
Exodus 32:13
4. Jacob, the multimillionaire, was a servant of God.
But thou, ISRAEL, ART MY SERVANT, JACOB WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN, the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.
Isaiah 41:8-9
5. Moses, the head of state, was a servant of God.
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which MOSES MY SERVANT commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
Joshua 1:7
6. David the king was a servant of God.
And it came to pass, when THE KING sat in his house, and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies; That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, see now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the Lord is with thee. And it came to pass that night, that the word of the Lord came unto Nathan, saying, GO AND TELL MY SERVANT DAVID, thus saith the Lord, shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in?
2 Samuel 7:1-5
Therefore now, LORD GOD OF ISRAEL, KEEP WITH THY SERVANT DAVID my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me. And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father.
1 Kings 8:25-26
7. Zerubabbel, a secular governor of Judah and a leader of exiles, was a servant of God.
In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, O ZERUBBABEL, MY SERVANT, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts.
Haggai 2:23
8. A whole nation was referred to as servants of God. All Israelites were called servants of God and God did not want them to serve another.
And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile: And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. FOR THEY ARE MY SERVANTS, WHICH I BROUGHT FORTH OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT: they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.
Leviticus 25:39-43
And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight. And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with him. For UNTO ME THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL ARE SERVANTS; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 25:53-55
9. Job, the greatest businessman from the East, was a servant of God.
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And THE LORD SAID UNTO SATAN, HAST THOU CONSIDERED MY SERVANT JOB, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job 1:1-8
10. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, was called the servant of God.
Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and NEBUCHADREZZAR THE KING OF BABYLON, MY SERVANT, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
Jeremiah 25:8-9
by Dag Heward-Mills