The Call of God

The Call of God

1 Corinthians 15:1-8

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 

Look beyond the veil into the high places of the Most High God.  Only He can take us there and all of our life is about moving from this life into His.  We have been given eyes of faith that see beyond this natural realm into the realm of what is unknown to natural man.  It is even the Spirit of God that is revealing it unto us from glory to glory.  It is the vision of a resurrection life that gives us our greatest hope in this present temporal life.   We become so caught up in that which is so soon to pass away and will be no more remembered and we so often leave undone the weightier matters, the eternal matters.  We need eyes and hearts that have kingdom understanding and desire.  If we are a people of passion, then it should be a passion for the King.  No wonder the apostle Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17-23, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

  In one phase of our thinking and spiritual mind, God is everything and all that is worth living for, then, we switch back to our natural mind and we might say, ‘where is God?’  Does God even see what I do and think?  Is He really even aware of me in the light of all the vast, seemingly far greater elements of the universe that He must be cognizant of?  We walk with our lives pointed in the direction of Christ, not because of what we see or what science can prove to us, but because of what we believe and the confirmation we have in our hearts through the Holy Spirit’s indwelling. 

Do we see God?  No.  Do we hear His audible voice?  Most likely we don’t.  Then the natural man ask, how can you be sure there really is a God, let alone a God that personally knows you and loves you.  What kind of God would send His own Son to suffer and die such a heinous and cruel death?  The natural mind has a hard time wrapping its logic around this concept.  Yet we believe that God did send His only begotten Son in Jesus to reveal the nature of Himself to man, to be the way back into relationship with God that sin has robbed from us.  God is the master designer of the plan He had in Christ.  It is only in the acceptance of His death for our sin and our belief in His resurrection as witnessed by His disciples and after that, more than five hundred who witnessed His presence after His crucifixion as well as His ascension into heaven. It is in these tenants of faith that we have hope of our resurrection in Him.  

It is only as God bears witness in a man’s spirit that this truth becomes real enough that he or she can embrace it in faith.   It is the hope of our resurrection in Christ that compels our lives daily in him.  We begin to comprehend that life is not a dress rehearsal, it is an opportunity to implement spiritual and eternal concepts into our natural life practices and thinking.  It is a foreign concept to the natural mind that one must die to live.  The natural mind thinks that living is all about here and now.  It is all about “me”.  The mind of the spirit comprehends a higher concept.  It comprehends the concept of Philippians 2:1-11 which teaches, “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  

Natural man and human thinking will always have us scratching around in the barnyard of humanity, with our heads down looking only to the grub worms of this life.  A call and trumpet of God sounds throughout the heavens and into the earth, “All who will, let them come unto me, my burden easy and my yoke is light.”  Lift up your heads, lift up your hearts and stretch out your faith as wings.  We have not received the call of chickens; we have received the call as eagles.  If God has given us a call as eagles then why are we still acting and behaving like chickens with our heads still down, scratching through the dirt.  Lift up your eyes for your salvation draws nigh.  Stretch forth your wings of faith and allow the mighty Spirit of God and His wind to lift you up into your calling and your destiny.  He has called His people to soar above the earthen realm, to see over great distances and to be hunters that pursue the life of God.  

Lift up your heads you that are downcast and discouraged.  Have hope in your God.  What He has spoken He has not only the power to do, but also He will do, for He has bound Himself to Himself, for there is no greater.  It is a time to arise and shake ourselves from the dust and ashes of our humanity.  We are no longer identified with the first Adam who brought us under the law of sin and death, we are of the last Adam who has and is delivering us into the wonderful law of liberty and life in Christ Jesus.  We have a far greater destiny than this world can hold for us.  This is just our proving ground, the place where we begin to stretch and exercise the wings of our faith.  It is the time we must put on the mind of Christ and a whole new way of thinking.  Lift up your eyes!  Look beyond the veil.  See the heights that God has called you too and be no longer content to live in the confines and filth of the barnyard.  You have a holy destiny and calling in Christ Jesus.  Now pursue it with all of your heart.

Blessings,

#kent

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