Ezekiel's Mission

What makes a mission a success or a failure? Does a successful work for God mean that every person we talk to turns to God, or are we successful just for our obedience? God gave Ezekiel a mission, and He also provided the means by which to measure the success of that mission.

In Ezekiel 2:3-5, God's mission for Ezekiel is to simply go and tell the Israelites that they have rebelled against God. Just as we are now commanded to go and preach the gospel, Ezekiel was commanded to go to his own countrymen and preach the gospel. Ezekiel 2:6 adds that Ezekiel was not to be afraid of them or their words. Both them and their words are specified. God protects those who are following His will.

Ezekiel 2:7-8 then defines what will constitute success on Ezekiel's mission: listen to God's words, don't rebel. That's all Ezekiel had to do. His success wasn't reliant upon the response his message would generate; it wasn't based on the number of people who agreed with the word of God. His success would only be measured by his obedience to God.

So, when we feel like we're failing in our mission because we don't have new converts every day or week or month, or when we feel like we're doing something wrong because we aren't seeing the results we expected, we should remember that our success is not measured by the response of men, but by our own response to the will of God.