Welcome to this blog as I continue the series ‘THE CALLING’. In the previous blog, we saw in-depth about what the calling of God is. In this blog, we are going to see how to walk in the calling of god over our lives. Now that we have understood ‘what’ the calling of God is and some of the important things about the calling of God over our lives, let us go to Matthew 7:21, where we saw Jesus saying that doing the will of God is the only way to enter heaven and If we read further, the scriptures say like this:
On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’Matthew 7:22-23
Here we see Jesus saying what He meant when He said ‘WILL OF GOD’ in the previous verse. In other terms, Jesus is saying how we are to stand and pursue the calling of God over our lives. In verse 22, Jesus says that just because we did something ‘FOR’ God doesn’t make it the will of God over our lives or it means that not everything that we ‘can’ do for God become what God wants us to do with our lives. Moreover, Jesus gives a very interesting reply to the ones who say they did so-and-so for God. Logically His reply to the people who didn’t do the will of God should have been “you did not do the will of God. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.”But, Jesus replies, “I never knew you“ . Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.” So what does this mean?It means that the ones who did what they did, did not do it because they had a relationship with Jesus, rather they did it because they thought that’s what they had to do or because they saw that the things they did was useful and good and brought people to God. They let their experiences and sight dictate what God had for them and not His relationship.They did not know what the calling of God was over their lives. All they knew was they were called. They did not do what they did as a result of their relationship with Jesus. They were doing what they did more like a trial and error experiment.We ought to not just receive but walk In the calling of God every single day of our lives as a result of the relationship we have with Jesus.This is why Jesus, instead of saying “you did not do the will of God” says “I never knew you”. We might say we know God, but does He know you? we don’t see Jesus saying you never knew me, but we see Him saying I never knew you. We must know God and at the same time, God must know us. In other terms, our relationship with Jesus should be a two-way relationship and not a one-sided relationship. So the answer to how is the relationship we have with Jesus.Now that we know that the relationship with Jesus is the origin and source of our calling on a day to day basis, let us see how to stay in this relationship thereby staying in the calling of God till we reach heaven. In Exodus 34 Moses received the 10 commandments of God the second time after he broke it the first time, tells us what happened in Moses’ life on the surface level, it also conveys a deeper meaning if we look closely. The conversations we have in the relationship with Jesus, as I said earlier, must always be a dialogue, and Exodus chapter 34 shows us just that. The whole chapter is a dialogue between Moses and God almighty. It also gives us a deeper understanding of how our relationship with God must be.
Then the Lord told Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on them the same words that were on the tablets you smashed.Exodus 34:1
The first thing that God says in this dialogue is to chisel two stones. What does stone mean? Well generally, stones always tell a story. In Jacob’s life, the stone on which he laid his head and slept was used to build an altar and a memorial that said and represented a character of God. In David’s life, the stone he used to kill goliath said the story of the victory God gave to Israel through David. Even nowadays we use stones in highways on which are markings that tell us how far we are from a certain place. It helps us know how close we are to reach our destination and how far we have come in our journey. Therefore, stones always tell us a story. So what story does this stone say? Well, this stone was going to be used to tell the Israelites what the commandments or the will of God was for them and for generations to come after them. So, what does this stone represent in our lives today? The stone represents the life we live in our body on this earth. When we take any person on this earth we always talk about their story. It may be what they have done or who they are or anything for that matter, but people always tell us a story. Just like a stone is never in the shape we need it to be, our lives also are never like how God wants it to be, that is why the first thing that happens in our relationship with Jesus is chiselling our stone or our life.
§ CHISEL THE STONE
What chiselling our life means is to lose the things we need to lose and grow in the relationship we have in Jesus. It may be to lose a friend close to our heart or quitting certain habits that are not pleasing to God. We always need to pay the price of self-denial and losing some things we love for the love we have for God. To grow closer to God the only way is to grow distant from the world. This chiselling, God will bring in our lives as we grow in Him. This phase of our lives will be painful, but on the other side of the pain stands the amazing things He wants to do in and through us. The chiselling part always comes before the crowning part of our lives. God chisels us to bring our life into order and shape, for He is a God of order and discipline.The deeper reason why the chiselling comes before the crowning which most of us may not understand is that the chiselling part equips us and trains us to function to our full potential in our life. This process can be compared to how a clay pot is put in the furnace so that it won’t lose its shape or how the bow needs to bend to release the arrow. Most of the time we want the success and the actual call of God to take place in our lives without having to go through the pain. But we fail to realize that the God of all knowledge and wisdom is training us, and lets us go through that pain so that we would toughen up and become strong enough to stand in our calling till the end.This chiselling that God brings in our lives can be fully understood and received in the right way only when we are in the right relationship with Jesus. On the contrary, it is very likely that this phase may seem permanent. Why I say this is because when we read the latter part of the same verse we see God saying …I will write on them the same words that were on the tablets you smashed Exodus 34:1 What does this mean? It means that at the end of the process of chiselling we have the hope that God is going to inscribe His will into our lives and enable us to walk in the calling that God has kept for us. Or in other words, through Jesus, we have the hope and faith, because we know that God is going to use the pain, the problems, the sufferings, the chiselling and the pruning in our lives for something far greater and worthwhile in the days to come and will enable us to stay in His calling till the end.
§ PRESENT YOURSELF
The second thing that we need to do in this relationship with Jesus is to present ourselves to Him. In Exodus 34 verse 2 God says :
Be ready in the morning to climb up Mount Sinai and present yourself to me on the top of the mountain.Exodus 34:2
Here we see God asking Moses to present himself in the morning in mount Sinai. This text talks about the secret place we need to go to meet the King of kings and the Lord of lords. This secret place must be a place of surrender, a place of worship and a place of offering ourselves. Presenting ourselves before God always comes after the chiselling part. As God chisels and shapes us, our response shouldn’t be rebellion rather it should be surrender. That is when our secret place of relationship with Jesus goes to the next level, to a place of surrender and becomes a place of worship.
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.Romans 12:1
Paul beautifully captures the same idea that is present in Exodus 34 by saying that the true form of worship unto God is when we present our lives as a living sacrifice to God. Romans 12 further says like this:
Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.Romans 12:2
Paul says that only when we let God bring in the transformation of our minds and present our lives as a living sacrifice unto God will we be able to know the good, pleasing and perfect will of God. Only when we are in a relationship with God will we able to know the will of God and more so our calling in God. And in this relationship, we need to,1. Allow chiselling2. Present ourselves as a living sacrifice
§ NO DISTRACTIONS
In Exodus 34:3 God asks Moses to come to the mountain to meet Him with no one accompanying him.
No one else may come with you. In fact, no one is to appear anywhere on the mountain. Do not even let the flocks or herds graze near the mountain.”Exodus 34:3
The third and final thing we need to do in the relationship we have in Jesus is cut down every form of distraction in our lives when we go to meet with God. That is why in this text God is asking Moses to come alone and that no one else is to accompany him when he goes to the mountain to talk with God. God is very particular about this, He even says that not even the flocks and herds are to come near the mountain. So, how can we apply this in our lives?
Well, we need to cut off any kind of disturbance that is there in our life that is a hindrance in the relationship we have with God. These hindrances may be your gadgets, laziness or anything that stops us from meeting God with all our heart. God is asking us to throw that away and to never bring that along with us when we meet with God because if we do so we are sabotaging our relationship with God. That is why He says not to have any kind of disturbance when we go to meet with Him. We mustn’t let what others think of us and what others have to say about us come inside our relationship with God. This may not be so relevant to the people who are not known by many for what they do for God. But eventually, everyone will go through this phase because when we start walking in the call of God people will start to know us and they will start to judge us and always have something to say about us. It is our responsibility that we do not let these things become a hindrance in the relationship with God.Do not let others thoughts and feelings dictate your relationship with God. This is something we need to learn and always follow in the relationship with Jesus as it is something that He expects of us. The relationship we have with Jesus is the greatest privilege and the biggest gift we can ever get. We all have a choice to make, will you choose this relationship and walk in the calling of God or will you choose to do the opposite? “The road that leads to life is always narrow.”