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March may feel like the beginning of madness and mayhem.
You can sorta tell when you see the fields swaying to your sowing… pleading for your tending.
You know they’re kinda calling you...but inadequacies?, they can come in slow and seep right in.
There were phone calls to make and ministry decisions to complete – you know the weight of it all: they bear ramifications that can alter both your friend’s life and yours, yet you’re still left dealing with some ghosts of the past.
It’s the gap between the Call and the called.
The gulf between the great need and your great weakness.
Like a stark reminder of who you really are.
Of how little you really have to complete the call and finish the job.
And I keep telling myself – when the tides of life are fast changing, you can either run from the call or rise to the occasion.
But, let’s not discount the Caller!
When circumstances are calling for our arising, we can simply, humbly come.
Come bringing in our limited abilities and finite resources.
Come running right towards the arms of the One who first loved us, and then called us by name.
Because this is truth: God can give you power greater than your calling, and anointing greater than your anxieties.
Every call in life whether in the creche, or in the classroom, or in the courtroom, it’s always a call to plumb the depth of the Father’s love for us.
King David, his was a special story.
We can glean into his greatness and achievement, learn from his mistakes and his crashing failures.
Yet only when we see the role of the Holy Spirit in his life would we discover the secret of how a shepherd boy became a king, and how the average us can become a life giver, a history maker.
His story is really a story about a man with shoes too big to fill. And about a God who relentlessly keeps His word no matter the cost, and loves His people no matter the pain.David eventually became the great, great, great grandfather of the Saviour of the World, Jesus Christ.And honestly?, his story is about what our lives can potentially be when we flow with the Holy Spirit and submit to His power.
So whether you’re called to the job, or to the service, we are all called to pastor.
Because all of lives are fields ripe for His harvest, and all of us are called to be pastors of our own congregations: be it our children, our coworkers, or our church.
And you can rest assure knowing that God will equip the man He’s called.
You can’t potentially botch the job, butcher the joy, batter the confidence when you believe in this one thing: that though you don’t quite have what it takes to do the job you’re called to do, you can trust in the God who does the calling.
He will prepare the man for His mission, and He will empower you for the impossible.
He.will.work.you.out.
So never, ever, underestimate the role of the Holy Spirit in your life.
David was a shepherd boy with a call to kingship, and upon his appointment, the Lord asked Samuel the prophet this:… “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being King over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons” 1 Samuel 16 – 1
“How long will you grieve? It’s time to move on and go… fill your horn with oil.”
And He’s asking us the same: “How long will you grieve? I want to anoint you today.”You know, God doesn’t size us up the moment we walk into the room – He doesn’t judge us on how much we’ve got it together on the outside.He looks into our deep within; sees our potentials and our pitfalls, and yet whispers this: “I’m more than able to turn sinners into saints and victims into victors.”The Spirit of God who hand-picked David is the same spirit who looks us right in the eye and into our future — and know what we are capable of becoming — in Him.
God sees David through the hardships that came with his call and equipped him right from his humble beginning, through to his battlefields, right into his royal throne.
He is the Good, Good Father, and in those tender wake of the night, He’ll let you know:
He’s pleased with who you are, He loves you dearly, He’s backed you securely.
So we too can rest our inadequacies, fears and doubts – because He knows us intimately, and transforms us powerfully.
And out of who He is, we’ll become all we can be in Him.The Bible says that the Holy Spirit rushed upon David from that day forward. You see, David’s first anointing wasn’t actually to be a king, but to be a shepherd.
His great appointment requires an anointing in daily boldness, an anointing for wisdom and strength in the little and the great, an anointing to receive favour, even when the whole world seems to turn against him.
The epitome of that 15-year-old boy wasn’t to search for his identity, but to practice his shepherd heart by chasing after the lions and the bears to protect his lambs.
Who then are the lambs in your life?
Because your lamb is more often than not, an indication of what your calling is today.And the same power of God is what will make you walk mighty, no matter how big the shoes you need to fill can be…With love from our family to yours,xoxo
