Tues CG: The Will and Call of God

The will of God. The call of God

This is my personal opinion. :)

The will of God and the call of God are not the same.

The call of God is how we can serve Him. The direction in which He has empowered us to serve. We have to receive first to serve.

The will of God is how He can serve me. The will of God is for me to be happy, to enjoy life, to reign in life, to be blessed in health, prosperity and peace. The will of God is to give us Jesus. Jesus is our answer to our every need. The mystery of His will is Christ in us the hope of glory. It is to enjoy intimacy with Him, being One with Him.

And then having that revelation knowledge of the will of God, we can then walk the call of God.



How do we fulfil our calling?

Christ in us, the hope of glory.

The grace of God. When He calls us to do something, we don't have to do it by our self-effort. The Holy Spirt (the spirit of Christ) in us, He will do it.

When God calls us, He will fulfil it. We, through Christ, can do it because of His faithfulness and His righteousness.

That really relieves the pressure. 'cos we don't have to do it. We can't. He can.


How do we know His calling?

His sheep know His voice. That's what the Word say. Believe it. You will know it. He tells us.

Can we miss it? Maybe we want to hear what we want to hear, like Paul, preaching in the synagogues instead of to the gentiles.

But even in our mistakes, God is still gracious. He can still bless our mistakes. God is still true to His Word, still willing to sozo even when Paul preached in the synagogues to the jews.

42So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. 43Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. (Acts 13)

4And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. (Acts 18)


But the Lord will make all things work for our good - like Joseph.

And when we miss it, He will never leave us and still lead us to the call. That's just so great! It means we can never miss it! It means even when we are stubborn and refuse to, God can still persuade us, in spite of ourselves!

Acts 18

5When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. 6But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, "Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." 7And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justus,[a] one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. 8Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized.

9Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, "Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; 10for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city." 11And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

When Paul tried to preach to the jews, they rejected Christ again. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. Because of this particular incident, Paul finally gave up and declared that he will go to the gentiles.

God sees our heart. He also knows us better than we know ourselves. And in this case, He knew Paul's limit. We know that where God leads, there is a grace. In this case, God was the one who led Paul to this group of unrepentent Jews (v5). So in spite of being compelled by the Spirit, the sharing was a disaster and propelled Paul back into God's calling for Him. It was the Lord who encouraged Paul's mistake.

So you see, how can we miss it? He loves us so much that He will not allow us to suffer even the consequences of our own mistakes for long. Praise the Lord!

Our Abba is a creative God. By hook or by crook, in this case, it's by crook that Paul was 'tricked' into reaching his boiling point. Abba does have a sense of humour. :)

Of course, looking back it's funny now. But it wasn't funny then. If only we knew what we knew and just trusted in Him. Sometimes, we have to remind ourselves, to take oneself beyond time, and beyond surrounding circumstances and be blind to all that; and just rest and remind ourselves that El-Shaddai, who is also my Abba, my Father loves me and has everything under control. :)

[note Acts 18:5 - the phrase 'compelled by the spirit' or 'pressed by the spirit' (KJV, NKJV, Young) are missing in some translations. (NASB, Amplied, NLT, NIV)]

Personally, I believe that since Abba loves me too much to leave me nor forsake me, He won't just keep quiet and let me carry on with my mistake. And since the holy spirit is in me, He teaches me all things. As long as I am in the Word, it is a light to my path, my guide. [Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path - Psalm 119:105] It is impossible for me to carry on in the wrong direction where there is a light.