What Does It Mean To Be Called?

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="002a11c3.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Home Page"><U>HOME</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Book Page"><U>BOOKS   </U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Articles"><U>ARTICLES</U></A></div> <bR> <div>  <A HREF="id7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tapes"><U>TAPES</U></A>   </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Spiritual Warfare/Occult "><U>SPIRITUAL WARFARE, OCCULT   </U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sexual Abuse Issues"><U>SEXUAL ABUSE ISSUES</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Exposing the Darkness Seminar"><U>***EXPOSING THE DARKNESS SEMINAR***</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:greid@elp.rr.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:greid@elp.rr.com"><U> <img src="HTMLobj-722/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="67" height="50">  </U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>                                         </B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><U>TO BE CALLED</U></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>A young friend wrote me concerning his call in the Lord: "I don't even know how to know if I've been called. What's it feel like to be chosen?” </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Beloved brother; </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Your question really got me thinking. What DOES it mean to be called? Chosen? What's it feel like? In our country, that can be a complicated question. To be "called" here either means (a) you go to Bible School and find a church to preach in (or they find you - they call it being "in view of a call") OR (b) you get some wild-haired idea about starting a multimega television empire ministry, or (c) getting a recording contract with Word. But I'm afraid those definitions leave a lot of things out. Some people do ministries and make albums. Not all are called by God. And, a lot of unsung saints are in their calling without any public recognition by others: Intercessors, nurses, old saints who just look after newlyweds and care for lonely young people. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I think it's better to look at this the way GOD calls someone. It's not as easy as getting a license to preach or getting some good ideas. </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>First, realize EVERYONE is called to SOMETHING. We're ALL priests and saints. A Christian High School teacher is acting out his calling. A Christian doctor is called to save lives.  Everyone has a calling, and the body of Christ would be USELESS without all of them working to do their part.  But yes, there is something beyond living your calling. It's being CHOSEN - I mean, not a BETTER work than others, but a high work, a special work, in terms of focus and impact. Chosen ones must NEVER act or feel better to others. In fact, Paul said the higher the chosen place, the less the Chosen one becomes in men's eyes. More of a servant; more pressure; more warfare; more SUFFERING. A true chosen servant cannot live through the refining process necessary for their call without coming out with a permanent sense of their LESS-ness, their weakness and total dependency on Jesus for all they are and do. When I see "mighty men of God" who arrogantly parade their accomplishments, I wonder if they just chose themselves! (Not that Chosen ones may not start out proud; it's just that God will pulverize their pride so that His full glory can shine through the vessel unhindered. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Being chosen is kind of a mystery. It starts out as a KNOWING. How do I explain it? You just KNOW. For me, when I was saved, I just KNEW.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Something inside knew; it was a nagging hunger to be more. It was a dissatisfaction to be just another pew-sitter on the sidelines of the war. It became a driving force to tell people about Jesus. No one put it there. I had been to no revivals, heard no missionaries speak. It was simply, as Paul said, "The love of Christ compelled me." A holy compulsion! </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Did I run from it? You bet. I knew it would cost. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Am I sorry? Not one scratch. You couldn't get me to trade with anyone. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>One of the ways a Chosen One first knows is when they encounter other people. There is a desperate need to tell an unbeliever who Jesus is to you. Then, you begin SEEING people for the first time like Jesus does. You see their hearts. You see their hurts. You long to love them, comfort them, see them healed. Seeing a crippled child brings tears to your eyes. Watching the evening news becomes an exercise in compassion and grief. People MATTER to you. A friend of mine called me recently. "A boy in our town committed suicide yesterday. I can't stop crying, and I don't even know him! What's wrong with me?" Nothing. Nothing at all. To him, this boy was EVERY kid. This was a sign and a burden of God's chosen call. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Look at Moses. He was in Pharaoh's court. He was wealthy. Yet he saw the affliction of the Jews and he was CONSUMED with the desire to free them! SO much so, that Scriptures tell us that Moses preferred suffering with them and identifying with them rather than remain in all the glory, wealth, power and prestige Egypt gave him. In short, Moses could not HELP but follow his called heart! </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>That's what it feels like to be chosen. You don't know what, or how, you only know a Divine Something is eating you alive to be used by God. You know you MUST.</B></div> <div> <B>Somehow, some way, some day! As someone wisely said, if God has chosen you for a work, just try to do something else. If you end up totally miserable and still consumed inside, well, you're probably chosen. The most miserable, tormented Christians I know are those who abandoned their call. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Back to Moses: He did what many of us do when we know we're chosen: He tried to do it himself. He killed an Egyptian to save a Hebrew slave. Right motive; wrong method.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>God doesn't advance His Kingdom by human method. Like Moses, many Chosen Ones try to help God out. They "start a ministry" and it fails. They quit their job and "step out on faith", and when they go broke, they can't figure out why God failed them! (God never told them to quit their job!) But for truly chosen ones, not even that is wasted. Moses got discouraged and spent years in exile as a shepherd. I assure you, God burned the human effort out of him! (At the same time using his "shepherd" training to prepare him to lead Israel's flock - nothing wasted at all!) The next time, when God spoke to him from a burning bush, Moses was so convinced of his inability that God had to practically strangle him to convince him that He Himself would do it all! I'd like to save you the exile and discouragement. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>If you're chosen, you just know. So settle it here - you have not called yourself, so you can't fulfill it yourself. It is not in your power to do what He's chosen for you. Isn't that great? In fact, if you're chosen, NOTHING can keep it from coming to pass - except your own refusal - and God has a few whales around even then to persuade you. "Faithful is He who has called you, who also will do it." You don't have to come up with a plan, or build a kingdom, or promote yourself in any way at all. Just love Jesus - know Him - and wait. He knows your address. </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>There is a definite process for Chosen Vessels. First, whom He chooses, He refines. He cannot fully use unrefined vessels. For each it is a different refining work, a different time frame. You go from recognizing your chosen-ness to being in BOOT CAMP. It's grueling. You'll often wish God HADN'T chosen you. You'll long to just be a "normal Christian". You may scream like Jeremiah, "Look, I'm sick of this! I've had it! It's too hard! Get yourself another boy!" Then, after a few days of self-pity, you will come back to the Father and say, "It's like a fire in my bones. I HAVE TO DO THIS!" But in this very critical fire, He will build the Heart of True Ministry into you. Here are some things Jesus put into my life in my own fire. They are life principles built on my own tears and times of dark struggles: </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>(1) The love and compassion of Jesus for a lost. world and a bleeding church is the only legitimate motivation for true ministry. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>(2) A Chosen One is the LEAST - as Paul said, "The offscouring of all things". You must learn to suffer rejection well, misunderstandings, betrayals, loneliness, obscurity, thanklessness. You will ALWAYS be a SERVANT ONLY. Your only emotional strength will be His love, and the support of a few beloved Chosen Ones He will give you - and that is the one blessed Gift you have, those hand-picked warriors God gives who know - understand - and care, because they walk in that chosen walk as well.  You'll learn to abandon false hopes of being adored and being popular. You will be content to be a NOBODY so God can make you His SOMEBODY. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>(3) You will learn to be, as Paul said, completely independent of your circumstances. You'll trust neither wealth nor applause, health nor security. It is the ULTIMATE freedom to be able to say like Paul, "None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear to myself”.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>(4) You will learn to "see with seeing". You will suddenly be discontent with idle time, shallow fellowship and hollow religion. You will learn to see the failures of the church without being bitter or angry at the church for it; your anger at the wrongs will be mixed with a fierce and broken love that weeps for the church. </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>(5) Brokenness will become a way of life. I don't mean a sad-faced, "everything's bad" brokenness, but rather, a continuous state of tender heart, where weeping itself is a ministry of intercession and communion of the heart with Jesus. Remember always that tears are Heaven's Windows and bring clarity to your heart and purpose. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>There's so much else! But you'll learn your own life principles, I'm sure. I'll just tell you a vision I had. I saw a wheat field; God cut it down, gathered the grain, pounded it to powder, mixed it with water, made a bread loaf, baked it in hot fires, then took the bread, tore it and gave it to the hungry. Then He said simply, "This is what I do to my servants."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>A Chosen One, then, it to be a Living Sacrifice - bread to feed the hungry - wine poured on the altar for His dear Children and for the lost. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I know your fears. Is it all suffering, all trial? Of course not! I'd rather be chosen,</B></div> <div> <B>regardless of the cost, than be anyone or anything else. For I am free. I am full of</B></div> <div> <B>destiny and vision, purpose and eternity. And this is how you know: You have the</B></div> <div> <B>burning. You hear the Call. You see the price to be paid. Then you see Jesus and what He paid for the lost and broken and lonely, and you see the hurt and despair in people's eyes, and seeing it all, and still a cry from your deepest heart comes: "Whatever the cost, dear Jesus, whatever it takes, use me!" And then you KNOW. And then NOTHING can keep you from your call. Not even you. </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>The rest, well...it just happens uniquely by His design. Yours is </B></div> <div> <B>just to love Him, wait, get to know Him, and do each day what He </B></div> <div> <B>gives you to do. He will open doors no man can shut. It's not up to </B></div> <div> <B>you at all! Just obey - today. And tomorrow, some tomorrow, He'll </B></div> <div> <B>say, "OK son, get in the game. It's your turn now." And you'll take </B></div> <div> <B>the Torch passed to you by a hundred thousand saints gone before </B></div> <div> <B>and with the shout of a hundred million angels cheering you on.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Whom He chooses, He refines. Whom He refines, He equips, </B></div> <div> <B>empowers and uses mightily. Your burden becomes a vision, </B></div> <div> <B>your vision a reality. Never let anyone take your crown! </B></div> <div> <B>Blessed friend, the Glory of His Presence through your life </B></div> <div> <B>will make all the cost as nothing at all! </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I know you are chosen, because you have said that, to you, the most awesome goal in eternity is to hear Him say, "Well done, good faithful servant." You want that more than anything this world can give. That's how you know. That's how I know, for I am a servant to you, one called to walk with you, understand and set ablaze the heart of your call. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Always, </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>A Servant</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Romance of Ministry"><U><B>NEXT ARTICLE</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Articles"><U><B>BACK TO ARTICLE PAGE</B></U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>