Do you know the call of God is anything God asks us to do and that is His will? We all need to understand there are general calls and specific calls. A general call applies to all believers while specific calls are personalized by God depending on assignments. A general call is like communing with God daily, discovering God in His Word, loving people just like Jesus loves them, being gentle, kind, patient, having self-control and living according to God’s Word.
Then there are specific calls: God may have asked you to go somewhere in particular, call someone to encourage them, forgive someone who has hurt you, or change careers. He can call you to go to Bible school, lead a home group, get involved in youth ministry or children’s church, give a certain amount of money to a specific cause, stop something you have been doing for a while, or start something new.
So, do you know what God has asked you to do? What is your commission? And are you postponing the call of God?
The first thing I notice is that when we postpone, there is an intention to do the thing which is asked or planned. Many people have the thought that they will do what God has said…but just not right now. There’s a thought of “I will do it…one day”. However, the longer we delay, the more likely we will disobey. Delayed obedience is in actuality disobedience.
Why do we postpone what God asks us to do? Might I suggest that it’s because we don’t really trust Him. I have learnt that to know the Author is to trust the Author. God’s Word shows us that when God calls us, He enables us to fulfill that call. Therefore, I have learnt I can always trust Him because: –
God is a God of invitation Galatian 5:1 (AMP) It was for this freedom that Christ set us free (completely liberating us); therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery (which you once removed).
God is always working for my good-Romans 8:28 (NKJV) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. The enemy tries to convince us that by postponing the call of God we are protecting ourselves from bad things. The truth is, when we delay obeying God’s will, we are keeping ourselves from God’s best. But we need to understand that obeying the call is not always easy.
So, what about God’s Will?
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God’s Will comes at a cost.
Romans 8:32 (TPT) For God has proved his love by giving us his greatest treasure, the gift of his Son. And since God freely offered him up as the sacrifice for us all, he certainly won’t withhold from us anything else he has to give.
Matthew 16:24 (TPT) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If you truly want to follow me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share my cross and experience it as your own as you continually surrender to my ways.
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God’s will doesn’t come at a convenient time.
Luke 9:59-62 (NKJV) Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father. “Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. “And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
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God’s will in our lives will be contested.
God’s will is contested through contradictions -Joseph and his God-given dream.
Genesis 45:5 (NIV) And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.
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God’s will is also contested through disappointments -Job lost almost everything.
Job 1:21(NIV) He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”
I have a conviction that we cannot lose when we do God’s will at the time, He asks us to do it. On your way to discovering God’s specific will for your life, commit to being faithful with God’s written will which is found in His Word. We have a call to be about our Father’s business: “Not my will but Yours be done” Luke 22:42.
The Lord speaks to us in the book of Jeremiah about His wonderful will for our lives. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11. God’s will is always the best place for us. God will always bring His good work in us to completion. There comes a time when we must make God’s will and His call our first and greatest priority.
Love ReinaBeaty.