Are You Willing To Answer The Call?

In Isaiah Chapter 6 we read of the challenge of God to Isaiah. Notice that God could not challenge him until someone had died; someone who had tried to interfere with the purposes of God. Often we cannot respond to God because there is someone or something that is getting in the way and stopping us from doing what we know we should be doing. It may be some selfish thing we are holding on to? But whoever or whatever it is, we will not be able to become a true disciple of Jesus until that person is put in their rightful place (or removed), or that something has been laid on the altar of God at the Cross, i.e. given over entirely to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Out of a death, Isaiah was challenged by God to answer the call of allowing Him to send him to share the Message and Word of God to others. It took a vision from God to show him the holiness and glory of God. That vision also showed Isaiah his own unworthiness and that he was a man of unclean lips! God is like that. Often when He reveals more of Himself to us, He allows us to see something of ourselves that we do not like; then we have to repent and deal with whatever it is He reveals to us.

As a result of God’s dealings with Isaiah, Isaiah was brought to a place of total abandonment to God. When the Lord said, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Isaiah was ready to respond with “Here am I! Send me!” (v.8).

•    Have you come to that place of abandonment to Jesus Christ yet?

You will know when you have, for He will speak to you and reveal more of His plans and purposes for your life. You will be more willing than ever to answer His call and do whatever it is He asks of you. Know for sure that God never asks us to do anything that we cannot do. We can always do what He asks of us. We may never have done it before, but we can do it. The moment God got Isaiah’s full attention and commitment, He said to him “Go and tell this people . . .” (v. 9). This is exactly what Jesus gave to His disciples (us) in the Great Commission before He went back to the Father in Heaven: “And He said to them (His disciples), ‘Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes (what you say) and is baptized (in water) will be saved; but he who does not believe (what you say) will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe (that should be you and me): In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues (baptized in the Holy Spirit); they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they (you and me) will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.’ So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they (the disciples who believed what Jesus said) went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen’” (Mark 16:15-20).

JESUS IS OUR EXAMPLE

Jesus Christ came into this world, called His disciples to follow Him, and showed them Who He was and what He could do. He took them with Him, so they could see the demonstration of the power of God working through Him and confirm to them that He was/is indeed the Son of God. Then He sent them forth to do what He had taught them. Notice in Mark 16 20: “They went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word (their words spoken) through accompanying signs.” Jesus had faith in His disciples to put into practice the things He had taught them. He so trusted them that He gave them authority to initiate things, and He went with them to confirm what they were saying and doing. Far too many of us are still waiting “for God to do something” when He has already done things and commissioned us to carry on His work!

Surely the desire of every Christian’s heart should be to please the Lord Jesus Christ! He so loves people that He desires that every person on the face of the earth in our generation gets to hear the wonderful Gospel story of why Jesus came to earth, and that they can be saved and redeemed because of what Jesus has accomplished for us through His death, burial and resurrection (2 Peter 3:9). It must be possible, because Jesus commanded us to do it. This is not a day to be “playing church” or getting caught up in social events, but rather to be fulfilling what He has commissioned us to do. “Who will go?” is the cry of the heart of Jesus. What is your response? What is my response? I’m sure none of us want to stand before the Lord in that day of giving an account of the life we’ve lived, with empty hands. I’m sure we do not want to be like the person who buried their talents and failed to use them for the purposes for which God gave them to him (Matthew 25). Let us, like Isaiah of old, come before the Lord with a willingness to fulfil whatever He asks of us. We will never regret doing that ~ and we will be very surprised at just how willing the Lord is to use those who are available and useable. God Bless you.