Does My Past Disqualify Me From Being Used by God?

No. And Scripture does not just say that gently. It proves it repeatedly, loudly, and with some of the most unlikely people you will ever read about. Your past is not a disqualifier. For God, it is often exactly the thing that qualifies you.

This is the question a lot of us carry but do not say out loud. We have been in church. We have been saved. We love God. And still, somewhere in the back of our minds, we have a running list of things we have done that we quietly believe put a ceiling on how far God can actually take us. And the enemy is very happy to keep that list fresh.

Today we are going to go through some names. And by the time we are done, I need you to ask yourself honestly why your name would not belong on the same list.

What Kind of People Does God Actually Use?

Jacob was a thief. Not in a vague way. He dressed up like his older brother Esau, tricked his blind father Isaac into thinking he was someone else, and stole a blessing from the Lord that was meant for Esau. He was a deceiver. A thief. And God changed his name to Israel. The children of Israel, God's chosen people, are the descendants of a man who stole his way into his inheritance.

If God could use a thief to father an entire nation of His people, why can He not use you?

Moses was a murderer. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and intervened. Good heart, wrong execution. He killed the man. Then he realized people had seen it, so he ran. He was on the run when God showed up in a burning bush and said, I need you to go free My people. That murderer on the run became the man God used to deliver an entire nation from slavery under Pharaoh.

If God could use a murderer to free His people, why can He not use you?

Rahab was a prostitute. She lived in Jericho, the promised land the children of Israel were about to take over. She was not one of God's people. She was just trying to take care of her family. But she was in a unique position. Her profession meant strangers were always coming in and out of her house without it looking unusual. Which meant when Joshua sent spies to scope out the land, he sent them to her house. She hid them. She negotiated for her family's safety. She put a scarlet rope on her door as a sign. Joshua 2:11 (NKJV) says she told the spies, "The Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath." This woman who was not part of God's people recognized who He was and acted on it. Her family was spared. And Rahab the harlot is in the lineage of Jesus. The Savior of the world came through her bloodline.

If God could use a prostitute to deliver His people and place her in the bloodline of Jesus, why can He not use you?

What About After Salvation?

Some of us are not worried about what we did before we got saved. We are worried about what we did after. We gave our life to God and then we still made some choices that we are not proud of. And the enemy has been using that to tell us that the jacked-up stuff after salvation is the real problem. That we should have known better. That we did know better. And so now we are disqualified.

Meet Peter. Peter walked with Jesus. He was in Jesus's inner circle. He walked on water. He was the one who said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and received a name change and a promise that the church would be built on that confession. And then, after all of that, after years of walking with Jesus, Peter denied even knowing Him. Three times. In public. While Jesus was on trial for His life.

And then Jesus rose from the dead, sought Peter out specifically, and restored him. Three times He asked Peter, do you love Me? Once for every denial. And that same Peter who denied Jesus became a founding pillar of the early church.

If God could restore and use the man who publicly denied His own Son, why can He not restore and use you?

Let Me Be Honest With You

I flat-out told this to our community and I will tell you here. I had an abortion. It took me until my thirties to say that publicly. I had already been teaching. I had already been doing things for the kingdom. But I felt like if that one came out, if people knew, I would be done. The ceiling would come down. God could not possibly use someone who had done that.

The devil is a liar.

There are no limits to how God can use you. None. Your past does not put a cap on His plans. And when you let the enemy keep you in a corner, hiding behind your history, the people who need your story never get to hear it. And that is a loss for the kingdom.

Shed the belief that your jacked-up past limits what God will do with your life. Shed the belief that your mistakes after salvation disqualify you. And shed the shame that has been keeping your story locked away from the people who need it most.

Take this to the Word yourself. Romans 8:1, 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, Hebrews 11:31, 2 Corinthians 5:17.

What This Means for You

What is the thing in your past that the enemy has been using to tell you God cannot fully use you? And what would it mean to stop agreeing with that lie today?

This continues the Mighty Misfits series. Last time, we looked at why God uses the last and the small. Next, we will talk about why being behind right now does not mean you are out, and how David faced a giant with the most unlikely weapon imaginable.

I teach God's Word weekly inside the SheShed Community, and this is exactly the kind of teaching that hits different when you're in the room for it. The replay of this teaching, "Mighty Misfits," is available inside the community as well. Come sit with us.