THE CALL OF GOD 2

"Therefore,... I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision."
Acts 26:19 (NKJV)

• If you know that you are called, and you are very sure of it, then you have had to face it squarely and be serious with it.

• Be attentive to God that you may hear and keep pace with Him.
  PUT your hear in His heart in order to hear whatever He is thinking of saying (1 Corinthians 2:10-12).
• Stop playing with what concerns your Life, the Call is about your future, and the earlier you pay attention to it
  the better.

• Take note of these:
GOD is a moving God, He can ask you to move from one place to another, do not hesitate or be rigid, and do not pretend you have not heard, you may suffer if you do so.
GOD may permit unforgettable experiences if you disobeyed Him (Jonah 1:1-4,15-17).
EACH assignment has a commencement time and the time of completion.
SOME are working behind God’s schedule for their lives and ministries, this is the reason why it seems they are toiling and struggling in the Ministry work.
KNOW that God determines the number of years or months you are to spend in a place, and before you move on to another place or be given another task.

• A Particular assignment

• God could ask you to start a particular programme in the church, or an outreach on the Radio Or the TV, on line Media—and later instructed you to stop it.
• God may ask you to move your base, the place where you operate your ministry from where you are to another place .
• In all these, whenever He commanded you have to obey promptly.
• Disobedience and delayed obedience attract sanctions Or punishments from God.
• You should know that God is a military, not a democrat, and He rules by decree (Exodus 15:3).
• He deliberates with no one before He does things (Psalm 115:3).
• He seeks no consent or permission of anyone before He does things: "WHATEVER THE LORD PLEASES HE DOES, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deep places" ( Psalm 135:6).
• He is all in all, the Sovereign God, Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient. OBEY Him promptly as He has commanded.
  AND whatever He instructed or commanded should not be subjected to deliberation.
• Paul said:

1. "But when it pleased God, who SEPARATED me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace,
2. to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
3. nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus."
   Galatians 1:15-17 (NKJV)

IN OTHER WORDS, he did not discuss or deliberate with anyone about what God has told him pertaining the work of Ministry.

• The journey of A Minister of God!

• God does order the feet of His ministers.
• Every assignment has different phases or stages, each phase or stage has a time limit, duration which God expects you to accomplish it.
• You must know when God is through or done with a phase and want you to move to another phase.

• Take note:

• Some programmes have durations, time limits, Or terminal period.
• Your staying in some places has duration, time limit—it is terminal.
• You need to know that our God is a moving God.
  YOU must learn to move with the cloud, you should be able to know when God is through with a particular phase of your ministry and wants you to move to another phase (Numbers 9:16-19).
• You should also know that every ministry has an appointed place (2 Samuel 7:10,11).
• If you failed to understand these important points, you can be on the same spot, marking time, without any significant progress for any number of years.
• You can be stagnant, suffer reproach, ridicule, even attacks from the kingdom of darkness because you have lost contact with the Owner of the work—God the Father.

• What to do when God moves

• Move with the cloud, that is, move with God (Numbers 9:17-23).
• Cooperate with God even when He said you should move to a place that may not be your choice place, you may not like it, but obey anyway.
• Pray and fast before you move, pray ahead about the place you are
  going—where you are moving to (Hebrews 11:8).

• How do you know your assignment or programme has finished in a place, and there
has to be a change or a stop?

• There may be hardship, or lack of finance.
• Your comfort may be touched.
• People who are friendly may suddenly become unfriendly—they become your enemies.
• God may stop all the means of income.
• If you delayed too long, God may permit the work to be scattering, all you have laboured over the years to build Begins to crumble.
• The people you have laboured on, those whom you have raised, may begin to rebel against you.
• Persecutions may arise from the people in the community—the residents of the place.

• Example: the early church was to be Christ's witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth; but they did NOT obey the command, they lingered in Jerusalem, thus God permitted persecutions (Acts 1:8).

• In the early Church the problem started with grumblings and complaints from the members who were sidelined, and that resulted in the appointment of Deacons to manage the business affairs of the work (Acts 6:1-6; 8:13).
• Afterwards the persecutions from the people of Jerusalem, the Jews.
• That led to the killing of Stephen and the scattering of other Christians (Acts 7:57-60; 8:1-3).
• Which ultimately resulted in the spreading of the Gospel to Samaria and other parts of the world; which Jesus had earlier commanded them to do (Acts 8:4; 11:19-21).
• Possibly they would not have experienced some problems if they had started spreading earlier as Christ had commanded them to do (Act 1:8; 8:4; 21:8).
• It was the persecution and the martyrdom of Stephen that took Philip to Samaria, a great door of ministry was opened to him there, his evangelistic ministry opened up.
  You know, he was just a deacon in the Jerusalem Church, he never knew he had the potential to preach.

• He was called to the office of evangelist—to operate as an evangelist.

• If you overstayed in a place, you may suffer terribly for it, and it is always costly.
  MAY the Lord give you understanding.

• Obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22,23).

• If God wanted you to move Or change the course of your Ministry, but you refused and things are tough; then you begin to pray, fast, sow seed—all spiritual principles may not work, and nothing new would happen until you have obeyed.
• Every spiritual principle would fail to produce results when it is done under a disobedience.

• To obey is better than sacrifice.

• For you not to suffer and be a casualty of evil, learn to listen and obey promptly as God has commanded.

• You will not fail in Jesus name.
Peace!
TO BE CONTINUED