HIGH-CALLING
REALITIES
©
Morris Ruddick
"And
he said to the king of Israel, Put your hand upon the bow. And
he put his hand upon it, and Elisha put his hands upon the king's
hands. Then Elisha said, shoot. And he shot. And he said, The
Lord's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Syria. For
you shall smite the Syrians till you have destroyed them. Then
he said, take the arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, strike
them on the ground. And he struck three times and stopped. And
the man of God was angry with him and said, you should have struck
five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until
you had destroyed it. But now you shall strike Syria down only
three times."
2
Kings 13:16-19 AMP
Jesus
similarly spoke stern words when he said: " Not
everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom
of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father. Many
will say to Me, 'Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast
out demons and done many wonders in Your name?' I
will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness!" Matt 7:21
We
stumble when we fail to face the realities of our callings. Jesus
summed up the failure to grasp and follow through in addressing
God's will in our spheres as the practice of lawlessness. The
fact is that we each are in need of adjusting our mind-sets, facing
the realities outside our comfort zones and addressing the "follow-through"
of our callings.
King
Saul's downfall took root when he failed to heed the Lord's command
in destroying the Amalekites and was sidetracked into keeping
the best of their herds when the Lord had instructed otherwise.
As God's chosen, the book of Romans describes a blindness among
the Jewish people regarding their grasp and response to the full
significance of their callings. Similarly, as we read the Spirit's
admonition to the seven segments of the Church in Revelations,
we find the Church with its own issues in responding to high-calling
realities.
Throughout
His earthly ministry, Jesus used the phrase " he who has ears
to hear " to describe our grasp of the spiritual, in order
to operate in oneness with Him. With the admonitions given to
the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, again and again we read "
He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the
Spirit is saying ."
The
significance from doing the will of God hinges on listening to
and heeding what the Spirit is saying. It pivots on the difference
between what we might try to do for God and what we allow the
Lord to do through us. This bears on maintaining the mode of having
ears that hear what the Spirit is saying. Otherwise, we precariously
tread a fine line that Jesus warned about when he said: " I
will declare, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness!" Matt 7:21
A
Hard Example
There's
a very revealing story in 1 Kings 13 that speaks to this issue.
The Lord spoke to a certain prophet to go to the King and speak
a specific word of judgment on the reprobate condition of not
only his leadership and the declining spiritual condition of Israel,
but to note a future leader who would restore Israel to the Lord.
It was a word that had both tactical and strategic implications.
With
the word the prophet was instructed to speak was the direction
that the prophet do nothing apart from what the Lord instructed
him, including not going back by the same way, nor stopping to
eat or to drink. Just go and impart the word of the Lord and return.
Yet something happened that resulted in the young prophet paying
an extremely high cost. He was killed by a lion before his return
home. Here's the sequence from 1 Kings 13: 4-22:
"When
King Jeroboam heard the man of God, he stretched out his hand,
saying, 'Seize him!' Then his hand withered and the altar was
split apart. Then the king cried,
'Please entreat the Lord's favor and pray for me, that my hand
may be restored.' So his hand was restored. Then the king said,
'Come home with me and I will give you a reward.' But the man
of God said to the king,' the Lord commanded me not eat bread,
nor drink water, nor return by the same way.' So
he left by another route from the way he came to Bethel. On the
way, an old prophet came to him and said, 'Come home with me and
eat bread, for I too am a prophet and an angel spoke to me to
bring you back to my house.' So, as they sat at the table, the
word of the Lord came to the old prophet and
he cried out, saying, 'Thus says the Lord : Because you have disobeyed
the word of the Lord , ate bread, and drank water, your corpse
shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.'"
While
some conclude that the older prophet simply tricked the younger
prophet by getting him to stop and imbibe on the way back; it
seems apparent that the younger prophet first erred by praying
for the King to have his hand restored. With that misuse of his
authority and anointing, the younger prophet undermined the short-term
part of his mission and as a result, reaped the consequence. His
mission fell short because he failed to grasp the full significance
of what the Lord wanted him to do. Whether it was due to bowing
to the authority of the King or just unconsciously wanting the
King's approval, he fell short when he reversed the judgment that
God had rendered to King Jeroboam when his
hand withered.
Holding
Fast To God's Instruction
This
story forewarns those called with high callings to avoid presumption
and to spend the necessary time in His presence to fully --- tactically
and strategically --- comprehend the dimensions of what the Lord
may be entrusting us to accomplish. God
forbid that we should miss the will of God on diversions or waste
our efforts and the anointing on superficialities.
Whether
it is the example of King Saul, or the young prophet, or the seven
churches in Revelations, among those called and anointed with
high callings, there exists an enticement to interpret reality
through our natural predispositions and worldviews that result
in us " being like everyone else ." It incorporates the
temptation to be seduced by fear, short-sided cultural biases
or trapped by a self-absorbed blindness. The dynamics of this
spiritual myopia may come from our own successes and the need
to be recognized; but in reality are blinders to the will of God,
serving as pathways of destruction.
Our
assignments, as with the recognition of the phases to our callings,
need to be adequately bathed and then birthed in our prayer closets.
Models
of Facing Reality
The
realities and response to operating in Egypt and Babylon, with
Chaldea, the wellspring of sorcery in the wings, are incorporated
in the lives of Joseph the Patriarch and Daniel. Joseph and Daniel
are both models of people of God who had every temptation to "be
like everyone else" thrown at them. Likewise, after their promotions,
they easily could have been enticed to resign themselves to the
"comforts" and conclude the blessings were designed as a "reward"
for them.
Yet,
both Joseph and Daniel never diverted from the purposes of God.
Why? It was because they had conditioned themselves to listen
and heed His voice. They each operated at very high levels of
prophetic wisdom in their assignments; a level that was recognized
as being from God by the people of Egypt and Babylon; while simultaneously
reflecting the personal standard in Proverbs 16 that says that
" he who rules his own spirit is mightier than he who takes
a city ."
For
those called to make a difference, rather than being like everyone
else with a Christian sugar-coating, it will take both the prophetic
wisdom that comes from God and the mastery of fully ruling your
own spirit. The Psalmist described this dynamic of follow-through
as it operated in Joseph: " Until the time that His word came
to pass, the word of the Lord tested him ." Ps 105:19
Agents
of Change
God
gave both Joseph and Daniel wisdom and promotion to be agents
of change in pivotal, perilous times. Neither shirked nor fell
short of fully embracing both their identity and task as His ambassadors.
Regardless of the consequence, they trusted God and didn't vacillate
or water down God's will for them in the midst of a world steeped
in sorcery and antagonistic to what they stood for. Again and
again, they demonstrated the reality of God operating to all those
around them.
There
is no question that the dominion required for the change the Lord
was establishing through them involved strong confrontations with
the forces of darkness. Yet, each prevailed and saw God's authority
manifest in the midst of Egypt and Babylon's highest centers of
power.
There's
been a fresh word the Spirit has been imparting to the Body recently,
about a shift. God's purposes always involve the restoration of
His rule and authority. The shift underway, from a big-picture
perspective, gives focus to a transition from the Gospel of Salvation
to the Gospel of the Kingdom. It's a shift from the tactical to
the strategic. It involves the integration of spiritual, economic
and community dimensions of the truths of His Word as the strategy
for restoration needed to reverse the curse and break the mold
of the darkness trying to cover the earth.
God's
will is progressive and uniquely based on what I like to label
as the Issachar context: understanding the times and knowing what
to do. Joseph and Daniel understood the times and were exceptionally
used as instruments of God's purpose, because they knew what to
do. They were agents of change, who operated outside the box of
the prevailing standards of the worldviews of which they were
a part. They understood their authority as lifters of the gates,
those facilitating the Lord's entrance into the dominions entrusted
to them.
"
Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in! Who is the King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up
your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the
King of glory may come in! Who is the King of glory? The Lord
of hosts, You are the King of glory ." Psalm 24:6-10.
The
lives of Joseph and Daniel are distinctively apart from those
enticed by diversions; those Jesus indicated He would tell to
depart from Him, because He never " knew"
them.
The
Pivot Point of High Callings
The
distinction is based on the progressive will of God that cannot
be discerned apart from the Issachar context and hearing the voice
of the Lord for the place and time in which we live. Anything
short of that, hazards on the mold Jesus targeted so often: man-driven
religion.
Man-driven
religion and the consequence of those lured by it, is what Jesus
portrayed as the practice of lawlessness. Jesus described those
who would fall into this trap as those who would come to Him,
calling Him Lord, demonstrating outward manifestations of the
Spirit; yet would miss the significance and purpose of their calling.
It is the pivot point of high callings.
Jesus
spoke about the importance of understanding the times and the
seasons. The parable of the talents yields the context. Those
God entrusts with His riches and authority are expected to bring
increase and the establishment of His Kingdom rule, based on the
level of the gifts imparted. When dealing with high callings,
this dynamic is progressive.
The
subtle seduction for those with high callings is discerning between
the zeal of human effort of what may be "done" for God; and what
God is allowed to do through those strategically called, but yielded
vessels. That distinction incorporates an ongoing relational connection.
Jesus' words "I never KNEW you" is the mark of those whose practice
fails to listen and heed what the Spirit is saying. The
consequence of entering the "practice" of doing your own thing
can be deadly, as evidenced by Saul, the young prophet and Judas.
James 3:1 warns that there are those who will be judged with a
higher standard. In short, high-callings driven by achieving,
or anything other than hearing and heeding what the Spirit is
saying, is a seductive trap.
Scripture
says of Hezekiah, that he did not respond to the Lord according
to the benefit done to him, for his heart became proud because
of such a spectacular response to his prayer. Therefore there
was wrath upon him, as well as upon his people. Yet, Hezekiah
knew what it meant to humble himself and repent for the pride
of his heart; and in so doing 2 Chron 32: 26 tells us that he
averted the judgment he had triggered.
Facing
the realities of God's will and a high calling will require: time
in His presence to avoid operating outside our spheres; time in
His presence to avert the misuse of our anointing, gifts and authority;
time in His presence to prevent missing the shifts by mistaking
stepping stones and strategies for goals; time in His presence
to make sure our efforts reflect a sufficient understanding of
the times to enable us to facilitate, rather than impede the will
of God.
"Lord,
You have given me wisdom and might, and made known to me what
I asked of You; for there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets
and has made known these things." Dan
2:23,28
"For
I have not spoken of my own accord, but the Father who sent me
has commanded me what to say and how to say it."
John 12:49-50
"
Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies
ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward
call of God in Christ Jesus. " Phil 3:13-14
_________________________________________________
Morris
Ruddick is the founder of the God's Economy Entrepreneurial Program,
which imparts hope and equips believers in lands of oppression
and persecution as economic community builders. He is also the
author of "The Joseph-Daniel Calling" and "God's Economy, Israel
and the Nations," each of which address God's mobilization of
the economic and community dimensions of His Word. They are available
from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and other popular outlets.
2007
Copyright Morris Ruddick - info@strategic-initiatives.org
Reproduction
is prohibited unless permission is given by a SIGN advisor. Since
1996, the Strategic Intercession Global Network (SIGN) has mobilized
prophetic intercessors committed to targeting strategic-level
issues impacting the Body on a global basis. For more information
on SIGN, check: www.strategicintercession.org
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