Should I Go Or Should I Stay?

MUFHH

“The call of God is not a reflection of my nature; my personal desires and temperament are of no consideration. As long as I dwell on my own qualities and traits and think about what I am suited for, I will never hear the call of God. But when God brings me into the right relationship with Himself, I will be in the same condition Isaiah was. Isaiah was so attuned to God, because of the great crisis he had just endured, that the call of God penetrated his soul. The majority of us cannot hear anything but ourselves. And we cannot hear anything God says. But to be brought to the place where we can hear the call of God is to be profoundly changed.” Chambers

 

To be called, but more to respond to the call requires us to yield everything to God … When Jesus spoke with people who were interested in following Him … He told them that they had to leave everything behind … What He meant was that to follow means to be completely devoted to God …Matthew 22:37 says we are to love God with our whole being … It is not just an attitude or philosophy of life, but a commitment to the Lord  … He is bigger than family … career … financial condition … physical condition … It means that we will trust in Him and do what He says … In John 21, Jesus asked Peter … ‘Do you love me more than the things of the world? ….. Then show Me’  (paraphrase)  

 

What we think is uncertainty as to whether it is God’s voice is often our own lack of faith in the One who is calling ….

 

"Luke 9:59-62"

Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God." And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

He did not say stop loving your family … He was saying … to follow Him meant that their devotion had to be to Him … someone once said that if Jesus is not Lord of all He is not Lord at all.  Not everyone is called to physically leave their family … but everyone is called to place family and ourselves in the proper order … individually we are to be living sacrifices ..  Romans 12:1.. laying our lives down .. Matthew 16;24 ….. and trusting fully in God …Prov 3:5-6 … relationally … we are to love God first then our Neighbor – others Matthew 22:37-39 … financially … not to love the things of this world … 1 John 2:15 … do not lay up your treasures on earth … Matthew 6:19-20

This is a new way …a difficult path .... when faced with this hcallenge,  many people stopped following Jesus … lost interest … they were not saved … they stopped following because He challenged them to give up what they loved … for something greater … This is Spiritual wisdom which is foolishness to the natural man ….

 "1 Corinthians 2:12-14"

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

 Listen to the Spirit and live for Jesus ….