In Chapter 4 of Ezekiel we find that The Lord taught Ezekiel through a number of signs. He first asked him to make a clay tablet and then to lie down on one side for 390 days, and then to lie down on the other side for 40 days. Ezekiel was to be an object lesson to the people of Judah who were in Babylon, showing them how God was punishing Jerusalem and the people of Israel and Judah. He was a living demonstration of his message.

The Lord asked him to do some strange things like cooking food with dung, shaving his head and beard, and keeping just a little bit of that hair with him, to show that only a few people in Israel would be saved (5:1-4). If you become a prophet, you will have to forget about your good looks!! If God tells you to shave your head you will have to shave your head. You can't say, "Well, Lord, that won't make me look nice." He had to cook his simple food on dung. It would have been far easier for Ezekiel if he had been a priest. But as a prophet, he had to be disciplined in his eating habits and disciplined about his appearance. He could not be bothered by what people thought about him. He had to please only God.

So don't ever complain about your appearance or your food to God, if you want to be His servant. Accept whatever God gives you and obey whatever He tells you to do. God has sovereignly determined every little thing in your life. When I was a young man of about 22, I started preaching God's word. And I started losing my hair at that age. But I never prayed that I would stop losing my hair. I thought there must be a reason why God had allowed it. And I found the reason. I found that everything that happened to me even at that age was related to my ministry for the Lord. I was only 22, but when I stood before people to speak, because I had lost so much of my hair, people would think that I was 30 or 35 years old. So they were more prepared to listen to me!! If they knew that I was only 22, they might have despised me because of my youth! So I saw that God had a purpose even in something as small as that.

If you are totally sold out to God from your youth and say to Him, "Lord, I am not interested in my food or appearance or anything. I want to be filled with Your Holy Spirit and anointed to serve You. And I want to be true to that anointing until the end of my life. I don't want to follow the example of other preachers. I want to look at Jesus. And I want to look at the example of these prophets. I want to follow you wholeheartedly" - I can assure you that you will have a very exciting life. God Himself will teach you His word and speak to your heart. He will give you words to speak to other people. But you must be totally sold out to Him. You must have no ambition or desire on earth, not for honour, or acceptance, or money, or anything. Everything you have must be God's, your body, your time, your money, your family, everything. If you are willing to be like that, there is no limit to what God can do through you.