God’s invitation is to come launch your faith out into the deep!
The Bewildering Call of God
God called Jesus Christ to what seemed absolute disaster. And Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death, leading every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken. His life was an absolute failure from every standpoint except God’s. But what seemed to be failure from man’s standpoint was a triumph from God’s standpoint, because God’s purpose is never the same as man’s purpose. This bewildering call of God comes into our lives as well. The call of God can never be understood absolutely or explained externally; it is a call that can only be perceived and understood internally by our true inner-nature. The call of God is like the call of the sea— no one hears it except the person who has the nature of the sea in him. What God calls us to cannot be definitely stated, because His call is simply to be His friend to accomplish His own purposes. Our real test is in truly believing that God knows what He desires. The things that happen do not happen by chance— they happen entirely by the decree of God. God is sovereignly working out His own purposes. If we are in fellowship and oneness with God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, then we will no longer strive to find out what His purposes are. As we grow in the Christian life, it becomes simpler to us, because we are less inclined to say, “I wonder why God allowed this or that?” And we begin to see that the compelling purpose of God lies behind everything in life, and that God is divinely shaping us into oneness with that purpose. A Christian is someone who trusts in the knowledge and the wisdom of God, not in his own abilities. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the calm, relaxed pace which should be characteristic of the children of God. |
Old sailors know about this call, of those who have that predisposition and experience of being at home in the sea.
I’ve even heard it said that sometimes there is even a very definite and unworldly beaconing and calling that they feel, almost as with a magnet, drawing and beaconing them to come.
Well, God’s calling is much like that; but to answer it will requiring our willingness to face the unknown, and loose our long established moorings of the status quo, and the average and ordinary, in our own little harbors of safety.
Battleships are very impressive to look at and I for one love to tour them and marvel at their beauty and awesome might and power; but battleships though they may come into a harbor from time to time, the harbor is never its home. No, battleships are made for the open seas!
And so it is with us, for like those battleships, neither have we been made for the safe and ordinary; but we are constructed and destined for greatness, to be soldiers of the Most High God, and as such for us to stay in safe harbors, just rusting away in idleness, looking impressive, as no doubt we often think; but nevertheless it is a complete waste of God’s resources; and never did He intend for us to remain in shallow waters.
I like what the above devotion said about how God’s ways and means at accomplishing His purposes are so far different from ours!
Truly as it God says in the Bible: “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, ‘says the LORD.’ And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts“
(Isa 55:8-9)
Yet for us to continually attempt to navigate solely by our understanding, our experience, and our limited knowledge, is to severely handicap ourselves if we desire to be fit for God’s service.
Notice in the above devotion how Mr. Chambers points out how God’s call upon Jesus Christ, at least at first glance, from this world’s perspective, and with its values, Jesus life first seemed like an absolute disaster and failure; in that Jesus ended up dying on a Cross; leaving each of His disciples with a broken heart, and an extreme sense of loss!
Truly, from this worlds standards, Christ’s death on the cross looked in every way to be an absolute failure, but not to God!!!
We must understand this by faith, that what seems to be a failure from man’s standpoint, when done in cooperation and in obedience to God, will always end up to be a huge triumph, because God’s purposes, and His ways of doing things, are always much different from that of men.
Compare that with what’s going on in your own life today, and what you are presently facing. Possibly to you, in your understanding and in all that you are presently hearing from your own committee voices (your self-talk), within your own thoughts (which is quite often where the enemy attacks us), and possibly also from those around you, among your family, friends, and coworkers, who are also seeing only from a carnal perspective, from all of these different voices you may be hearing nothing but that you are a failure!
Again at this point we must pause and remind ourselves that God’s purposes are not ours; and that His ways and means of accomplishing His purposes in our life are far different from anything we would think to do, or even imagine.
From our perspective, and with our limited understanding and foresight, it often appears as if everything is going in exactly the opposite direction, from where we need to go; and if we spend very much time listening to our committee voices, then we will soon find ourselves discouraged, depressed, and maybe even angry, as though we have been abandoned by God.
Did not Jesus also feel abandoned, as He hung on His Cross?
So too will we; and we must also recognize that we too are called to carry a cross that we are to die on. And by death I mean we die to our own understanding, and our ambitions; as we relinquish complete control of our lives and our wills to be directed by the Holy Spirit.
Until we have done that we are not where God is calling us to be, neither physically, spiritually, nor mentally… and we have in fact chosen to remain anchored in our safe harbor!
Just as we read what Mr. Chamber said in the above devotion: “The call of God is like the call of the sea— no one hears it except the person who has the nature of the sea in him.”
Likewise, until we have God’s nature inside of us; until we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and are continually being refilled everyday (for we leak in this world); and until we have put on the mind of Christ (as scripture instructs every Christian to do); then we are navigating solely by our limited understanding, and our own limited knowledge, and so of course we are handicapped.
We must understand and know by faith that every trail, and every circumstance that we face in life, that each and everyone is a test, where God is watching us to see how we react; and whether we will obey His leading, or follow our flesh?
We must understand also that the things that are happening in our life, as a result of decisions and choices that we have made, have either taken us closer to God’s purpose, or have possibly delayed God’s purpose in our life; and truly not until we have completely relinquished our perceived rights to self, as the masters of our destiny, and have give that over to God, it’s not until we have done that, that we know ALL things are now being worked together for our good, according to God’s master plan for our life… because at that point God knows that we love Him and are truly submitting by faith to His call and plan for our life!
We all are looking to experience so much more; and instinctively we all know there has to be more to our life than what we have thus far experienced. The problem occurs when we are looking to fulfill our desires and our will; and not God’s!
To the extent we all do this, by nature, and even (as the Bible says) each one of us like dumb sheep, we have gone astray, as we have chosen our own way, travelling by the sparks of light that we have made, with our limited understanding, without regard to the plans and purposes of God for our lives; and to the extent we all do this, it is called SIN; and it is that sin which has separated us from our God!
The road home, to be reconciled back into God’s family, and then to be put on course for the absolute ride of a lifetime; and experience what Jesus Called an “Abundant Life,” it requires that we begin to live our lives much differently from the way the world does; it requires that we begin to chart our course by the directions found in the Holy Bible, meaning that we must begin meditating upon it day and night, to know what it says; and it also means that we begin to sensitize ourselves to the presence, the voice, and the leaning of the Holy Spirit in our lives; and that we begin to walk in communion with Him moment by moment, 24/7, 365 days a year.
However, none of that can even begin to happen until we loose ourselves from our present moorings, and we launch our faith out into the deep, for it is ONLY in the deep that the Holy Spirit hangs out.
That is where all the action and excitements is; where miracles and the supernatural become everyday occurrences. Selah
It is also where we experience an “Abundant life,” as we are fulfilling our destiny in cooperation with, and in union and oneness with the Spirit of God, who lives inside of every born-again child of God!
So my encouragement to you today, if you haven’t yet signed up for this adventure, that you don’t put it off another day; and if you are a Believer but are hanging out in your safe harbor, begin today to let go, and let God!!! Selah
Shalom,
Skip Barland
SB SALT AND LIGHT MINISTRIES 