Greetings again my Brethren. Let us continue to look at more of some things we must overcome in our life to be able to respond to the call of the LORD. I am ever amazed at the thought of many Christians who are waiting on God to do the work in them that will allow them to move in obedience to respond to Him. They are waiting for God to do all of the work, well that is not how God has things arranged. They ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins, a good thing, then they expect (as many Christians are wrongly told) God to take out His magic wand and bonk them on the head and remove their desire for smoking, alcohol, pornography, you name it, but continue to go to bars cat houses, and places where they talk not about God and His things. They wrongfully think (because they have been told so) God will change them and He will, but first there must be a coming to the end of their desire for the things of sin. I hear of many Christians who say they are homosexual they say they have prayed, fasted, had the preacher pray and fast, but have not kicked out their homosexual lover. To kick the habit we must come to a place where we truly hate that thing in our lives, where it makes us sick to just think of it. Then there in that place of low degree the person can see his need for God and God can move even in supernatural ways to remove the ungodly things in our lives. You have heard of people who give their hearts to the LORD and suddenly he takes away the desire for tobacco and alcohol well I believe this happens, but I also believe it does not happen unless the person has already come to place where they detest the habit and desperately want to have this removed from their lives. I was a Christian for many years, yet I still smoked a pipe, cigars, or even cigarettes. I liked smoking, so I smoked. God never convicted me of it so I smoked. Yes it is unhealthy and bad for your body and yes I believe Christians ought not smoke, but I will promise you will smoke like a chimney until you are convicted by God and/or you feel the need to stop. We must come to a place no matter what the issues are that we have had enough in our strength then and only then can God take it from there in His time. In James we read, “For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. 9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: 10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.” (James 1:7-10) Why does the brother of “low degree” rejoice? Well he has been brought down to a low place where Jesus is. Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11:29) Unless we are brought down we will be double minded and unstable in ALL of our ways.
This month let us look at another things we must overcome to answer God’s call and that is our physical disability. I cannot do what God wants because I only have one leg, one arm, one eye, but if we all are honest we all have some type of physical mental, or emotional disability. I think one of the greatest example of someone called by God to do something, yet they reject His call because of their perceived disability is Moses and his inability to speak. In Exodus we read,
“And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither theretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
11 And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?
12 Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. 13 And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. 14 And the anger of the LORDwas kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.” (Exodus 4:10-14) Being slow of speech and tongue and not eloquent is what happens when you spend 40 years following after sheep. Moses was trained in the palace of pharaoh trained in all of the social graces, all learning, and all warfare yet when God called him he could not connect three words in a sentence. ah a man of low degree. Now God can use such a man. So Moses complained and God chided him back and said I will have none of that and told him, “I will be with you,” “I will be thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say.” God made us! He told Moses, “Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind?” He (God) knows us, he made us, He knows our frame, our weaknesses, and infirmities. So our disabilities are no excuse to answering God’s call to us. If God calls us He will make a way. Look at verse 14, “Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well.” God always has a plan around our plans. Like Moses we better learn this.
Next month we will continue to look at some things in our lives we MUST overcome to be able to answer the LORD’s call in our lives. Do you hear Him calling? Please know God is calling. Walter Beuttler said if you build God a temple He will inhabit it. Have you built God a temple? If you do He will abide and wait for you. Written by David Stahl
