RESPONSE BY CALLING

Acts 26:13 …I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.

To my fellow reader and believer in the faith of Christ Jesus, I want to just share my heart with you concerning the response to the Lord’s calling upon our lives. Since we first gave our heart to the Lord, we felt and even heard the calling of Repentance, to be positioned in the place of complete surrender to Christ and to His plan in our life. I am sure as we think back to the day when we first came before Christ, and uttered our first words in prayer to God, it was a time we would not only never forget, but what keeps us so driven to apprehend the things of God and His Kingdom, because we responded to His calling.

In Acts 26, Paul shares his testimony to King Agrippa of when Jesus invaded his life on the Damascus road. He says in verse 13, “I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me” Paul makes known that he sees this light…brighter than the sun and the company he was with saw it also! The glory of Christ, the presence of God was shining AROUND them! They were in the midst of the presence of God! Yet only one, Saul/Paul, responded to divine intervention, the calling of the most high God!

Paul says in verse 14, “I heard a voice speaking TO ME”! Christ spoke to Paul, yet everyone was in the presence of God!

Matthew 20:16 …for many be called, but few chosen

I heard this before and this word became real in my heart concerning Paul and his company on the road to Damascus. Paul and his whole company did see the presence of God; they all had to have had a touch from God, but Paul got more than a touch….he got arrested at heart by the calling! I just think back when I was with friends, all in the same church, at times together we all felt a touch from God, but when the day came…I heard the voice of God, as well as some others. It was something beyond a touch; truly I was arrested at heart when I heard the voice of the Lord beckon for me and my heart beckoned in response toward Him! (See previous blog post, My Testimony).

The Word of God

In Luke 24, we are given the account of two disciples walking to Emmaus and talking to Jesus, not knowing at first it was Him until their eyes were open, because He was glorified after resurrection. Once their eyes were open and they heard Jesus preach to them concerning Himself from beginning of Genesis to Malachi, confirming of what all the Prophets said and so forth, the disciples admitted saying to each other, “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” verse 32.

When the word of God (Jesus Christ) was walking right next to these weary disciples and they began to hear the confirming word of Christ, which has called unto these disciples, there hearts began to burn within! Jeremiah says… Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. Jeremiah 20:9.

Beloved something happens when we respond to the calling of the word of God! Our hearts get light up on fiery unison with the heart of God!

Think about the young King of Judah named Josiah! (II Kings 22) When there came a time to repair the damages in the House of the Lord, the written word, the law of God was found and read to the king! Immediately some thing set in the heart of the king! He couldn’t contain himself! He rented his cloths! He heard the word! His response to the hearing of the word of God, but a deeper sense of calling the heart of this man! His heart immediately became tender to the voice of the Lord, yet burned with a violent passion!

Josiah was then unctioned to do a deep righteous cleaning in the land which God had him reign over! To take down high places of idol worship, to dig up under the carpets of the earth, the false prophet’s bones and burn them! Not one trace of unrighteousness! Call Josiah radical, because he was a man who responded to the calling of the Lord! His life immediately was apprehended by the word of God that was preserved through the damage of the house of God! A man who by apprehension of the divine, found himself leaning against a pillar, making covenant with the God of mercy and power to give ALL his soul, All his heart! (II Kings 23).

I encourage us all now, that when we, we who are the church, go and pray for God to repair our hearts, wherever we allowed the enemy to do damage within our heart, listen to and remember the calling of the Lord! Allow the fire of God, the deep sense of divine destiny to penetrate your being! Pick up that Bible which has been preserved for you and all man kind, and let your eyes see and your ears hear the voice of God!

There are some who in word love Jesus, but laugh off the things that are unrighteous! At times we pray for just a touch from God, but don’t dare ask for a serious arrest by the Lord! To commit our life in Him! We pray for our hearts to be set ablaze, yet many don’t find themselves in making covenant with the Lord!

I dare us to ask ourselves daily, “Lord I don’t just want to be good Christian, but I want to be possessed with your love, possessed with your Kingdom, possessed with your nature through my life!” Just wonder what would the world be like if every claimed Christian had that heart toward God? Do we find ourselves with a tender and zealous heart after the heart of God, for all people, or do we just laugh off the things of unrighteousness, as if it was not rooted from the devil?

Some, who love God, have neglected the word of God! Allowing other things to get in between the reading of the Word and the hearing of God’s voice, even in times of prayer, of fellowship with the King of all kings! Yet, now found themselves getting through life by only their opinions and not by the Word, both written and spoken!

Philippians 2:2,5 (2) Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind (5) Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Beloved, if we are to fulfil the joy of the Lord, then we need His joy to become our joy. When we are joyous about something, we do something to fulfil that joyous desire. Christ wants us to fulfil the joy of his plan and purspose in the earth. You might ask….well what is His joy? Jesus said in Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Jesus ascended to heaven, but His commission never left with Him, rather His commission remained here on earth for us to carry out. His commission is His joy, as it ought to be ours. God wants to use you, whether you are a teacher, nurse, student, whatever you do…God want to use you and ignite the Holy Spirit upon and within you to preach, encourage, edify, to those who are poor both literally, and even poor at heart with a void in their life, who know not Jesus. Even to use you to bring deliverance to those in captivity by the enemy’s snare, the grip of death. He wants us to bring sight to those who are blind, both literally and spiritually. To set a liberty those who are bruised. Beloved this is the acceptable year of the Lord to work though our lives!

When Paul responded to the calling of God, when his life completely turned because he heard a voice from the heavenlies, Paul immediately apprehended the calling of the Lord, Paul knew that now in his life was time for him to preach and show forth that it is the acceptable year of the Lord! A year, a month, a day, an hour that God will turn hearts back unto Him through the life of Paul. The same is with us all!

Praise God that He is raising up a people, who will and have responded to the calling of the Lord! I encourage you, that God wants to use you, as He arrested your heart, to go and usher others before His throne, that they may find themselves apprehended by His calling, by His gracious love and mercy.

Philippians 3:12-16 (12) Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. (13)Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, (14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (15) Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. (16) Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

God Bless