Tag Archives: few are chosen

Faith

Whom God Chooses…Part 2a – Blessed Assurance




 

Going From Called To Chosen Means Having Your Faith Tested – IT IS PART OF THE PLAN

STATEMENTS OF FAITH

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Heb 11:1

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. (1Pe 1:6-9)

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have her
perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (Jas 1:2-4)

A MESSAGE FROM GOD

‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. (Jer 29:11)

WHAT JESUS HAD TO SAY ABOUT IT

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” (Joh 15:2)

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” (Joh 14:21)

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (Joh 14:18)

 Training Wheels

Having the faith of the chosen means having absolute assurance you are in God’s plan. We are dealing with faith in God’s plan, meaning we may not always see what it is that God is planning.

It is not difficult to see you are in God’s plan when things are going exactly as they should. For example, when Moses threw down his walking stick and it turned into a snake and ate up the snakes of the High Priests of Pharos court. That is a dead giveaway that what God said would happen is what would happen. Recall that Moses and God rehearsed that on Mount Horeb.

Moses had been chosen. What do you do, however, when you are in training to be chosen, and circumstances show up? Is it any different from when God prepared Moses for his call?

God will use circumstances to train your faith.

The faith comes in when you do not see the plan, or even God in your circumstances. Sometimes the plan you thought you saw is not the plan God had in store for you.

This is the time for your faith to be tested in the fire. This is good news. It means you are being strengthened. Circumstances are a time to rejoice. Circumstances mean that God is about to reveal Himself.

When we are in the crucible of our circumstances, we are in a position to discover we either do not want to answer the His call, or to discover we want to answer His call regardless why we are in that circumstance.

Circumstances are where you get to know God better, and you get to see where God is in your life. It is where the Spirit of God will reveal places in you where you get to grow to be more like Christ.

No circumstance or problem will exist in your life that will not also come with a revelation of who God is in your circumstance. This is the crucible where you are smelted and purified. This is the table where the potter molds the clay. And where the clay is fired.

The goal here is that you are made into the image of Christ, so that God’s ultimate plan can be fulfilled through you. That plan was laid out by Jesus Christ at the end of the book of Matthew. We are to go in to all the world and teach and make disciples. We are all asked to answer that call.

If you are in this crucible, then you are already walking the walk of a chosen one. Here is where your faith grows and your joy in the Lord increases.

What We Will See

Part Two of this series will reveal God’s plan in our circumstances.

We will go from the confusion of our circumstances to the absolute assurance that we are in God’s plan.

Part One was about understanding that we have to be less of ourselves and more dependent on the strength and grace and power of God through Jesus Christ. This takes faith in the one who called you.

This part will explore how that faith is developed to the point that you begin to see the truth in this promise of God:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

(Rom 8:28-30)

We will see that, even though God did not bring on your circumstances, He, in His wisdom, used this circumstance to grow you up. Therein lay the difference between the called and the chosen.

This will not happen in a vacuum. It will be public, and sometimes painful. But it will always be to the best good God has for you. You will become a Godly person, in the image of Jesus, and others will be drawn to Him through your life.

Many are called, few are chosen.

Let’s be about it!

Stay tuned for Part 2b.

 


Standard
Faith

Whom God Chooses…Part IA – What Then…?


Then Peter said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?”

(Mat 19:27) – NASB – e-Sword

 

Coming to the end of yourself is hard work. It is hard work because we do not really feel like dying to ourselves. Not really. We say we want to, but when it comes right down to it, we would rather Jesus compromise on what He meant when He said take up your cross and follow Him.

Between the being called and being chosen, you will go through a boot camp designed to empty you of you, and fill you with Him. The reason Jesus said few are chosen is because it is difficult work having to come to the end of yourself.

It took 40 years of shepherding sheep for Moses to reach the end of himself. It took Joseph a couple of decades of hardship to go from a spoiled brat to the most powerful man in Egypt. It took David years in the caves before he wore the crown. It took Peter being sifted by Satan before he could truly serve Jesus. It took Paul 11 years to get from Damascus to his first journey to spread the gospel.

We have to be brought to the place in our hearts where we understand that we can bring nothing to the game but our love of Christ, our love of Mankind, and our salvation. Even those things, we learn, are not ours, but were given to us by God.

Not all acts of obedience will result in fire falling from heaven and devouring the prophets of Baal. Some acts of obedience will carry you right into the lion’s den, or a fiery furnace. Sometimes our own stupidity carries us to very dark places, but God uses them to shine His light in our lives. Even then, we learn that, unless we get out of the way, and let the Spirit of God grow us up, we will have to go back to the classroom and relearn this lesson and retake the test.

In all cases, whether our obedience has brought down fire on our own heads, or our stupidity has done the same, we will find we are in a circumstance where we have two choices. We can take matters in our own hands, and forfeit whatever it is that God is trying to accomplish in us, or we can surrender to the mystery of God in this, and see Him walk us through this circumstance in a way that God is glorified in it.

Every circumstance has two purposes for you, the called. You will grow to be like Christ in this, and God will be glorified through Jesus Christ. This is why it is hard to be chosen. We want all the goodies, but the lessons leave us cold and fearful.

Until we appreciate we are helpless to be what God wants us to be, and have nothing God needs, we will get to repeat many lessons. The goal is not to make you feel worthless. The goal is to make you just Like Jesus Christ. This is an upgrade. This is what the world fears will happen. Our religion and the rest of the world is content for us to be complacent and religious, at best. But the minute we decide we genuinely want to answer the call, and do it no matter the cost, then we have joined the fray, and all bets are off. Your life will change.

When we learn to see things as Jesus saw them, we will see we are really free. We are beautifully made creatures, in the image of the Living God. We are valuable. We are no longer slaves to the world, or to sin. This is a message that the world does NOT want anyone to understand. We are free because of what Christ did on the Cross. When we decide to answer this call, we have to learn about this freedom. The message of the cross is the one message all religions and world systems fear so much, it is becoming against the law to preach it.

If you decide to take this journey from called to chosen, you will eventually find yourself in a place where your only hope and resource is going to come from the living God. When we run out of ourselves, we will be able to see Jesus fill us and flow from us in miraculous ways.

We just have to get out of the way.

Are you in a place where you cannot retreat, and you cannot see how to move forward? This is the place of purification. You will, if you chose, be able to see the Sovereign God move on your behalf in ways you never imagined. When you fall completely on Him in love and trust, you will see how precious it is to be a child of God. No matter how dark and scary things get, here, never give up on your faith in Him. He will see you through it. It is not until you come to the end of yourself that you will really be able to be the conduit through which the Spirit of God can flow.

While you are being purified, the world is watching. Let God be glorified. Let the world see “One like the son of God” standing in your midst. Do not struggle against the roaring lion, but let the peace and power of God overwhelm the circumstances for you.

When you finally get to the point where you can say, “I have left all, and have nothing left.” You will be able to see and experience the riches of the Kingdom of God in your life.

It is all a choice, from the time you are called, and the time you are chosen. God is patient. Be chosen. Let God have His perfect will in your life. You may be the only Jesus your corner of the world sees when you are too weak to stand in Jesus way.

Until you come to the end of yourself, it is hard to see the fullness of Christ in you.

Let’s be about it.

 

Standard