How Do I Know It Is God Speaking to Me?
(How did I know God told me that Vivian and I were to go to Venezuela, and how did I know that we were to be involved in Kenya?
The Call of God is the Call to
Sacrifice Self
Examples in the Bible that we have of the calling of God to
men and women to a specific task or to a life-long ministry are numerous, but
as I mentioned in the first part of this essay (two posts ago), their motivation in acting in the way
that they did was not that they hoped to gain something out of the experience
for themselves. Rather, in each case they were instead required to give up something of themselves.
All was for God. Nothing was for self.
When Does God Call Us?
There is another aspect about the calling of God to the
various individuals in the Bible that we can notice, and which may surprise
some people. This is that God’s calling of them actually significantly predates
their own realization of it.
I previously mentioned the calling of God to the Apostle
Paul on the road to the city of Damascus. It was at the moment that Paul was
blinded by the bright light and heard the voice from heaven that he knew God
was calling him. Yet, he later came to realize that this calling had always been in God’s plan.
Paul wrote to the Galatians, “God, who had set me apart even
from my mother’s womb and called me through
His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among
the Gentiles” (Galatians 1:15-16
NAS emphasis added).
Paul may have had the specific event on the road when the
calling came to him, but the fact is—the calling was always there. It is just
that God had a particular time in mind as to when Paul was to begin acting on
the calling. Before this to happen, there was a preparation in Paul that needed
to first take place.
Isaiah said the same thing. “The Lord called me from the womb;
from the body of my mother He named me” (Isaiah 49:1).
The words of the prophet Jeremiah are even more astounding:
“The word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Before
I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you
apart and appointed you a prophet to the nations’” (Jeremiah 1:4-5 emphasis added).
It is important for us to know that God is not just
“making things up as he goes along,” and calling someone simply when a need
happens to arise. Although from our perspective, events in our lives may be
developing and evolving, God’s plan is not. God has had all things arranged
from the very beginning, including the calling of these men, and including our
own calling.
The Apostle Paul told young Timothy that God “has saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not because of our own works, but by His own
purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time eternal” (2 Timothy 1:9 BSB).
Paul also wrote to the Thessalonians, “God has chosen you
from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith
in the truth. It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may
gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 2:13-14 NAS).
What does “from the beginning” mean? Paul also wrote about
this to the Ephesians, saying that God “chose us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him” (Ephesians 1:4 NAS). [1]
“Before the foundation of the world!” “Before time eternal!”
That is a very long time ago. So whether we consider the
words of being called from our mother’s womb or being chosen from before the
foundation of the world, we can see that God’s intention for each of us has
been in his mind from a time before we can imagine.
Next the writer says that God did this in “many portions (or
parts)” and in “many ways.” These two words used are polumerós [3] and polutropós [4] . This is the only time in
the Bible when these two words are used.
What? Don’t I Get to Choose?
Some people react negatively to the fact that God has
determined all of these things for them, saying that this must mean that our
choices in life do not matter.
This is a deep subject indeed and I have written
of it in other places,[2] but instead of departing
from our present subject of being called of God, allow me simply to say here
that when Paul writes of being chosen and predestined, his intention is that in
knowing this, his readers will be reassured of their standing before God, and
that it would be of great comfort to them.
Indeed, that is also how I view the subject. It is
comforting to me to know that God has known me from eternity, and that he has
been involved in my life from the beginning.
In the words of Isaiah the prophet:
Now this is what
the LORD says—He who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, Israel: “Do
not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are
Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you go
through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the
fire, you will not be scorched, and the flames will not set you ablaze. For I
am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” (Isaiah 43:1-3 BSB).
Understanding this, I know that God will also complete in me
what he has begun. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a
good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6 NAS).
How Does God Speak to Us?
It is helpful to remember that, although the calling of God
comes not in any prescribed manner that we may think, if it truly is the
calling of God, it will come in a way that we will not be able to ignore.
As much as Moses tried to ignore God’s calling, and Jonah
tried to ignore God’s calling.(see the previous post), they could not. In fact, none of the people in
the Bible about whom we read and were called by God could ignore his calling. Nor
will we be able to. We have the option to disobey God’s call as Jonah first did,
certainly; but we will not be able to ignore the calling and deny that it must
have been God speaking to us.
But how does he do this? How does God call us?
The writer of the book of Hebrews gives us a very
instructive phrase in the very first verse of his book when he writes, “God,
after He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in
many ways…”
I will give the completion of this sentence in a moment, but
first I would like to stop here and look at what the writer wrote in this verse
up to this point.
In the period covered by the Old Testament, God spoke
through the fathers and the prophets. Some of these individuals I had mentioned
in that same previous post. These were men and women who were recognized as
individuals who had a vital relationship with God, and to whom God often
communicated his word.
Two Words to Know
I cannot expand much on the meaning of the second word (polutropós), since it simply means in many ways, as in saying, “there are
many ways to contact your friend: telephone call, email, text, letter, as well
as others.”
We can however, learn a little more about the first word, polumerós, since the many portions has the sense of something
that is comes in different segments—first one, then another a little later,
then another, and so continuing. This is similar to saying to your friend, “I
will first phone you to tell you a bit of what I am thinking, but later I will
send you a letter explaining my full intent, and then later still I will come
to your house and we can talk about it.”
And this is exactly what the writer of the book of Hebrews
means in the completion of his sentence when he writes: “In these last days,
God has spoken to us through his Son.”
This is helpful for us to remember. God has used different
manners to speak with his servants through the ages, but all of it was leading
up to the time when God’s message would be completed in the person of Jesus
Christ.
In the day in which the author of the book of Hebrews was
writing, the final authority was the very Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Jesus as the Word of God
So closely linked to the word of God was Jesus that he was
even called the “Word of God.”
In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became
flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the
one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 14 BSB)
Of course, Jesus Christ is no longer among us in the flesh.
We cannot go out with 5,000 other people to sit on a mountainside to listen to
his teachings, but his words to us continue primarily in two manners.
The Holy Spirit as the Word of God
First of all, while we may not be able to hear Jesus
speaking with our physical ability to hear, the Christian is actually indwelt
by the Holy Spirit. This may not seem as “real” to you, since it is not the
same as seeing a person with your physical eyes and listening to him with your
physical ears. Nevertheless, in some ways, this manner of the indwelling of the
Spirit is actually even more beneficial to us as believers, since He is ever
present with us. This at least is how Jesus explained it shortly before
leaving.
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus told his disciples, “it is for
your benefit that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate (paraklétos—Comforter, Helper, Counselor)
will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7 BSB).
Jesus went on to explain that the presence of the Holy
Spirit among us is who works in our thinking and consciousness to first show us
our own depravity and need for a savior. Then, to those who have believed, the
Holy Spirit works “in regard to righteousness,” which is to say that the Holy
Spirit is ever present with us to teach us how we ought to live.
When Jesus taught on the mountainside and other places, when
he was in the market walking among the people, and in every moment of his day,
he was teaching people how they were to live. He was giving to them a
perspective of life that they had not before seen. He was teaching them how to
follow the word of God and to live in a manner that was the way that God has
intended for us from the beginning.
This is also the ministry of the Holy Spirit as he indwells
the believer. He is with us on the mountainside, when we are in the grocery
store, and in every moment of the day, he is always present to teach us how God
has always intended for us to live.
We Treat the Holy Spirit Just as the People Treated Jesus
When Jesus spoke to the people, the types of reactions that
he received were numerous. Many people mocked him, many rebelled against his
words, and many simply ignored him. But many also believed him. Many followed
him. Many learned to listen to his words and became his disciples.
It is not different today with the Holy Spirit. Many mock or
rebel, most simply ignore him, but many also believe. Many follow his words and
learn to live not according to the ways of the world in which they had been
raised, but according to the way the God has always intended for us to live.
Hearing the Holy Spirit
It is perhaps a little confusing to use the words “to listen
for and to hear” the Holy Spirit, because this is not something that is
accomplished with our physical ears.
But that is the manner in which we are to
think of it.
Written repeatedly in the messages to the churches in the
book of Revelation are these words: “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear
what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”
And Jesus told us, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom
the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to
your remembrance all that I said to you…For the One whom God has sent speaks
the words of God” (John 14:26
NAS; 3:34 BSB).
But on the practical level, how is this done? How do we
“hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches”? If it is not with our
physical ears, then how?
The Holy Spirit Speaking Through the
Scriptures
Some words of the Apostle Paul are helpful in this: “Now we
have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so
that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also
speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit,
combining spiritual thoughts with
spiritual words” (1 Corinthians 2:12-13 NAS).
Paul was not overselling his message when he said that his
words were ones taught to him by the Spirit of God. His fellow apostle Peter
also said this of Paul: “Our beloved brother Paul also wrote you with the
wisdom God gave him. He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them
about such matters” (2 Peter
3:16 BSB).
As a matter of fact, Peter further said, “But know this
first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own
interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men
moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:20-21 NAS).
Paul also affirms this by saying that “All Scripture is
God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and
for training in righteousness” (2
Timothy 3:16 BSB). This is exactly what Jesus told the people that the
Holy Spirit was to do (John
16:8).
Combining Spiritual Thoughts with
Spiritual Words
In the words of Paul, we are able to hear the Holy Spirit by
combining spiritual thoughts with
spiritual words.
We receive the words of the Holy Spirit through the
Scriptures, at least primarily so. We may receive spiritual words also from
someone explaining the words of Scripture to us, but most importantly, it is from we ourselves reading the Scriptures. We
should never complain that we cannot know God’s will for our lives if we do not
read the Bible.
When we read the Bible, not only are we convicted of the sin
in our lives and given correction, but we are also trained in righteousness (to
again use Paul’s words). Put in some other words of Paul, we are given
spiritual thoughts. These are the thoughts that we are given as we read the
Scriptures, which are the very words of God (God-breathed), and which are
transmitted to us by the Holy Spirit.
Some Personal Examples of Combining
Spiritual Thoughts with Spiritual Words
Venezuela
Many years ago, when Vivian and I were seeking God’s will in
our lives concerning committing our lives to foreign missions, we were sitting
in a chapel service listening to the speaker telling the story of the Exodus of
the early Israelites out of Egypt. We were, in fact, in an orientation for a
mission organization, having been invited by them to go to Venezuela, to teach
in a Bible Institute there.
We had not yet committed to that task, however. Instead, we
had put off making any decision at all concerning the invitation until we went
through the orientation for the mission organization. In the weeks prior to
that time, we had only been praying what I considered a bold prayer.
We prayed that during the orientation, God would make the
decision plain to us. The way in which we asked him to do this was to confirm
the answer in his word—the pages of the Bible. You can see why I considered
this a bold prayer, because I had read the Bible, and nowhere does it say that
Don and Vivian should or should not go to Venezuela.
But that was our prayer. We had no firm preference one way
or the other on whether we should commit ourselves to this work. On some days
we thought it might be the best thing to go, but then on other days we thought
the best thing would be to stay home. We were ambivalent on the decision. We
went back and forth.
However, it was important to me that I would have a firm
confirmation from the Lord. I had lived overseas previous to this time, and I
had met and gotten to know several missionaries while they were living on the
field. All missionaries go through difficult times, but there were a few whom I
had met who were at the point of wondering if they were supposed to be in that
work at all. They were wondering if they actually had been called of God to be
in that place.
I never wanted to be in that situation, or worse yet, put my
family through that situation. I knew that if I were to bring my family
overseas, we would be bound to face some situations that were difficult and
discouraging. That is almost a given. However, I never wanted to descend so far
to where I had to question my calling from God.
That is why I asked for a scripture. When difficulties came,
I did not want to say, “Am I supposed to be here?”
Rather, I wanted to at least be able to say, “Lord, here is
your promise. You have sent me here. Now, what am I to do about this situation?
Sitting in the chapel that day, the speaker was talking
about the Exodus. He was at the point in his message where Moses was standing
on the banks of the Red Sea as the Egyptian army was bearing down on the great
multitude of the Israelites.
It is not completely clear exactly where the crossing of the
sea took place, but many think that both up the shore and down from the spot,
there were steep hills or other geographic obstacles that that would prevent
the people to continue fleeing. In short, they were trapped.
“Was it because there are no graves in Egypt that you
brought us into the wilderness to die?” the people complained to Moses.
Although Moses spoke confidently to the people that the Lord
would intervene, neither did he know what to do. Moses then goes to the Lord.
We are not given the conversation that must have taken place
between him and the Lord, but whatever it was, Moses must have put to God this
difficult set of circumstances of being trapped, asking him what to do.
God’s answer was direct and to the point: “Why are you
crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward” (Exodus 14:15).
It was at that point that the Lord also spoke to me. Like
Moses, I realized that in the weeks previous to when we were attending the
orientation, I had been constantly been putting my own set of circumstances
before God, circumstances that I saw as difficult.
When the speaker read aloud the words of the scripture, it
was as if the Lord was telling me, “Stop telling me about the pros and cons of
either staying or going, just go forward!”
Even though Vivian and I had asked the Lord for a Scripture
confirmation, I was not thinking of that at the moment, and even if I had, I
certainly would not have expected it to come in a story such as that. I would
have rather expected it to come from some words of Jesus, or from an admonition
of the Apostle Paul or one of the other New Testament writers. It did not. It
came from the words spoken by God to Moses on the banks of the Red Sea.
Whatever you may think of this confirmation to me, it was
those words given to Moses that sustained me through many very difficult
circumstances not only in Venezuela, but as the ministry expanded in scope,
through difficult circumstances in many Latin American countries and also
in other parts of the word.
As I heard the words of Scripture that in themselves were
unrelated to my question at that time, the Holy Spirit used those words to give
me what I will call “spiritual thoughts.” They were thoughts directed by the
Holy Spirit. I did not hear these words with the ears on the sides of my head,
but the words were real, and they left me with no doubt.
None.
Kenya
The second personal example of combining spiritual words
with spiritual thoughts come from my experience with getting involved with a church and orphanage in Kenya, a work in which I am still involved. This task began after my
retirement from overseas work.
At the time of this calling, Vivian and I were back home on
our little farm in Wisconsin, and glad to be there. We had enjoyed working
overseas, but I was tired from all of the activity of my work abroad. I was
looking forward to some carefree years on the farm, doing not much more than
taking care of my few highland beef cattle, and taking some quiet walks in the
woods.
I was not looking for anything else. I was not looking for a
plan for my life. I had a plan. My
life was settled, or so I thought.
The work in Kenya is with an orphanage. When the Lord first
spoke to me about that work, I had never before been anywhere in Africa, never
had I worked with anyone that was from Africa, and frankly, I had no thoughts
of ever going to Africa. It was not that I was opposed to going to that
continent, it was just that I was done with traveling.
It is actually quite a long story to tell of how God
presented the work in Kenya to me, but I will attempt to make it short.
Over the years, my work overseas had been challenging, but
enjoyable nevertheless. However, my last assignment before coming home had been
particularly difficult, and I was ready for a change in my life. When I put my
travel bags away, I said to my bags and may have even said it out loud, “Maybe
I will never need to use you again.”
I was done traveling and I was done asking the Lord for
further direction for my life. As I said, I considered the rest of my life
settled. I was home and I was retired.
Besides my farm life and quiet walks in the woods, I was
(and still am) a pastor of a small rural church called “The Log Church.” It is
a historic church of our area and is, as the name suggests, a church building
made of logs.
Every week, I would post the transcript of my Sunday’s
sermon on a blog site that I had maintained on the internet for many years.
From time to time, I would get a message from someone in the world to comment
or to ask a question about what I wrote.
One day I received a message from a pastor in Kenya, who
told me that they had been using my messages in the teachings for their church.
I was glad to hear this, and told him so. I told him I would pray for him and
for the church.
Over the next few months, we exchanged emails. He also sent
to me some of his sermons, which I thought were very good. In the course of our
email exchange, I eventually learned that the church had several orphans for
whom they were providing food and shelter. The pastor told me that they were
doing this for the children in obedience to the teachings of Scripture that
tell us that it is the responsibility of Christians to care for the widows and
the orphans.
“The greatest need in our area is the large number of
orphans,” the pastor wrote to me. “So we thought that we would start there.”
Then one day, he wrote to explain to me that their outdoor
latrine had collapsed, and that it had sent two boys to the hospital. The
government told them that unless they rebuild the latrine, and build it safely,
they would shut the church and small orphanage down.
This latrine would cost them about $700, and could I help with
this?
I told him no. I said to him that I do not just send money
to people. I said that he seemed like a very good man with a good heart, but
frankly, how did I know that he was not a scammer?
I was not afraid of insulting him, since I really did not
want to be involved anyway. I did actually believe him from the very beginning,
but the fact was, I could not be sure. I would be foolish to send him money
just on his word.
He sent me pictures of the caved in latrine. “I am not a scammer,”
he wrote to me.
Of course, neither was this any kind of proof. Nevertheless,
there was something about the situation that rang true to me. After several
more emails, I did finally send them a little money to help. Not the entire
amount, but a couple hundred dollars or so.
Now that I had allowed the door to be opened, I expected
there soon to be another letter asking for money, but none came, at least not
for a few more months.
But then, it did come. He wrote to me that they were in
a critical situation at the church with the orphans. They had had no food for
several days and there is no money. Again, could I help?
And again, I said no. It was not that I did not believe he
was telling me the truth, but there was no way to know for certain, and I did not
want to get involved. I said that I would pray, and I did. But as I prayed, the
Lord convicted me of my hardness of heart.
Like Moses, I gave every excuse I could think of why I
should not be involved.
“I did my bit overseas.”
“I am busy here—and I’m a pastor!” I thought that should
mean something (It did not).
“I have my retirement all figured out already.”
And finally, like Moses’ own excuse, I told the Lord, “Isn’t
there someone else that can do this?”
In this case, I had not prayed for a verse to tell me what
the will of God was for this. If I would have been honest with myself, I think
that I would have had to admit that I did not want to know his will.
But despite my excuses and despite the fact that I did not
look for any Scripture to help me to know what I should do, a verse came to me
anyway:
“If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet
closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (1 John 3:17 ESV)
That one hurt.
It is not that we can feed every hungry person in the world, but I had to begin to face myself honestly. God had given me this task, and I was closing my heart to the need. I was Jonah sailing in the opposite direction of the calling of the Lord.
It is not that we can feed every hungry person in the world, but I had to begin to face myself honestly. God had given me this task, and I was closing my heart to the need. I was Jonah sailing in the opposite direction of the calling of the Lord.
Then there was also this: I was reading the passage where
Jesus was teaching in a remote area, where more than 5,000 people were
listening to him.
When it was getting late in the day, the disciples came to
Jesus and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is already late.
Dismiss the crowds, so they can go to the villages and buy food for
themselves.”
Jesus answered them, “They do not need to go away. You give
them something to eat.” (Matthew 14:15-16).
Again, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, combining spiritual
words with spiritual thoughts. I realized that I was not unlike the disciples,
who were happy to have the people hear the teachings of Jesus, but when it came
to being involved with them by providing food, they wanted to send them away.
In much the same way, I was happy to have the people in that
remote village of Kenya to read my teachings, but when it came to their need
for food, I was telling the Lord, “Send them away.”
Finally I told Vivian, “I have to go to Kenya and find out
exactly what the situation is there. I cannot ignore this need and continue my
life as if nothing had happened.”
I took my suitcases down from their storage spot, I went and saw, and I got involved. I could do nothing else.
I had heard the words of the Holy Spirit.
The Words of Life
Jesus told his disciples, “It is the Spirit who gives life;
the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and
are life” (John 6:63 NAS).
We can choose to listen to the words spoken to us by the
world and even by our own reasoning, but at the end of all things, those words
will mean nothing. Those words will fall meaningless to the ground. It is only
the words spoken to us by the Holy Spirit that will endure. Learn to listen for
those words today.
********************************************
The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God
stands forever. (Isaiah 40:8
NAS)
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105 NAS)
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never
pass away. (Matthew 24:35 BSB)
He who calls you is faithful, and he will surely do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:24)
Before I formed you
in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed
you a prophet to the nations. (Jeremiah
1:5 BSB)
Paul, a
bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of
God. (Romans 1:1)
As Jesus was
walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew. They
were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
“Come, follow Me,”
Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
And at once they
left their nets and followed Him.
Going on a little
farther, He saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat,
mending their nets. Immediately Jesus called them, and they left their father
Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Him. (Mark 1:16-20 BSB)
As Jesus went on
from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,”
He told him, and Matthew got up and followed Him. (Matthew 9:9 BSB)
[1] See also: Romans 8:28, 30; 9:24; 11:29; 1 Corinthians 1:9; Galatians 1:6; 15; 5:8; Ephesians 1:11; 3:11; Hebrews 9:15; 1 Peter 2:9; 3:9
[1] See also: Romans 8:28, 30; 9:24; 11:29; 1 Corinthians 1:9; Galatians 1:6; 15; 5:8; Ephesians 1:11; 3:11; Hebrews 9:15; 1 Peter 2:9; 3:9
[2]
See especially my book, Reaching for
Eternal Truths, chapter: The
Creativity of God and the Free Will of Man
[3]
Adverb from a compilation of polus and meros
[4]
Adverb from a compilation of polus and tropos
Great thoughts on His calling.
ReplyDeleteTo Himself, a specific people group, a certain place, a singled out organization.
Eph. 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power. s&d