The place of God’s calling.

(Thoughts taken from Pastor Bill Bolin’s sermon: Passages)

Have you ever prayed to God to guide you to the “place” where He can release His calling into your life? Where and when does this happen? Is there a program we can follow that can direct us to the place to receive our purposes? I am a pretty big fan of Christian education. I would recommend that you would commit yourself to learn the Bible from solid, spirit-filled, doctrinally sound and balanced Bible teachers.  As we look at the story of Elisha we find him not in a nationally known prophet school but in his regular life’s work when God releases him in his calling.

“So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, while he was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth .  And Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on him.” (I Kngs 19:19)

 We also find Moses who also chose not to go to the top leadership school, but he chose the desert.

 “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him is unseen.” (Hebrews 11:27)

“Now Moses was pasturing a flock…to the west side of the wilderness.”

(Exodus 3:1)

We have to be careful to not despise the place where we are at spiritually. In my own life, I am guilty of looking around at my peers (most of my close friends are in vocational/professional ministry) and seeing God work in their lives, and being upset at God because I am not seeing the same opportunities while I am plowing fields or watching some sheep in the backside of the desert.  A lot of times I have felt like Job:

“Behold, I go forward but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him; He turns on the right, I cannot see Him.” (Job 23:8-9)

Let us all be encouraged that God knows where we are at. Not only does He know where are at, but more than likely He has led us to the place where we are currently at, so that He can prepare us for the purposes on our lives. The story of Moses and Elisha emphasizes the faith/supernatural dynamic of the place of preparation for God’s purposes in our lives. This dynamic, Paul highlights in 1 Corinthians 1:28

“and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are.”

Your situation right now might be one that is not a desirable situation, but know that as you continually live by faith, know that God is leading you and preparing you to receive your anointed mantle.

Key Verse: Deuteronomy 4:2

“Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.”

These words came from Moses (Lk. 24:44) to the people of Israel. This was a new generation of people, ready to enter the promise land with a new leader Joshua. These words are very similar to the words that Paul gave Titus. Paul told Titus to appoint elders (new leadership) in every town and train leaders who would “hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” (Titus 2:9)

There seems to be an important theme when passing a baton to a new generation. That important theme is the integrity of the Word of God.  Paul instructed Titus to hold fast to the faithful word. What did Paul mean by “hold fast?” Hold fast has a couple of meanings. One of the main meanings is to hold oneself opposite. Which means anyone who comes in and directly opposes the integrity of the Word of God, we cannot give in by letting someone or the culture to add or subtract from the Word of God. The Church needs to stand in direct opposition to that type of influence.

What exactly are we suppose to stand in opposition against? Here are two thoughts on this subject.

Salvation by works. We need to stand against a culture who strongly believes that the good that we do will bring salvation and a relationship with God.  People that believe this will one day ask: was the life I lived a life worth living? Or a salvation by works will lead people to disillusionment, and the meaning of their life will be meaningless. This is a perverted doctrine of salvation that leads to a life without meaning or a life that struggles to have meaning.  The only meaning of life comes through Jesus Christ who paid the ultimate cost for our meaning and purpose – death on the cross. (See Gal. 1:6-9)

Selfish ambition.  Which kingdom do we want to build? Do we want to build God’s kingdom or our kingdom?  We should always have an attitude of contentment of who we are and where we are at in God’s will.  So that we can teach the Word of God without the need to be grow our influence at all costs. We add or subtract from the Word of God, to make the Word of God more appealing and more adaptable to the culture around us which could help us move up the corporate ladder or stand in front of a bigger crowd. We need to be satisfied and content and become more concerned about the integrity of the Word of God then our popularity polls. The pure Word of God will bring true wealth. 

(See I Tim. 6:1-6, Phil. 4:11-13)