SUNDAY - 29TH OCTOBER, 2023
MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO
THOSE WHO ARE WAITING FOR THEIR CALL TO CALL - What Is Purpose Series 006?
Matthew 9:9, KJV
"And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him".
People, there are those whose calls are over due. Where they are and what they do is what they're already seeking to yield up. These people have come to a defining moment of having known where they should be by discovery. They have learnt they are made for more. Joseph once pretended to have learnt by divination (Gen.44:15). That simply tells us we can arrive at knowing - the means irrespective though ours should be by the Holy Ghost. In a way similar, the heart gripping such people as Matthew have had persistently tell them they're wrong till now still being at the tax office. So, they're therefore seeking avenues, bodies, platforms by which they may express their callings. On this wise, they hope in all expectation that a trigger would enforce their being harvested and turned around and about into the calling that they have sensed.
Many of the people in this category are also those who are afraid to launch out on their own because of timidity and respect/fear of men. They are working as revenue collectors. They are well off. They are doing fine but they still seem not to be satisfied. Having thought on what life is all about and what they'll use their lives to serve (if collection of tax would be all to it), they conclusively conclude that there has to be more to their lives. Yet, they wait for that thing to show up. Having been woken up to the call that has gone over them even before birth, they now await that calling to manifest and call them away. The separation and sanctification of their vessels into doing their call is now what they await. These people are those who are not far from the kingdom of God even if they are sinners. The moment they have come to the place of heart burdening, burning and hope of what next reveals them as those that the Lord could easily have for Himself. Such people are only waiting for an opportunity to go and be with the Lord in their callings. What they're waiting for so that they might enter into the pool of their callings is the moving of their waters. Once they hear that shot in the air, off they go.
The Bible records that Matthew sits at the tax collection office and the Lord calls him from there. Immediately, without giving thought to it or showing hesitation of any kind, he left to follow Jesus. You'll wonder at the strangeness of what just happens to Matthew and why he didn't even give time to balance the account or report to the head office before departure. That's because what Matthew himself has been awaiting and looking forward for has come. The day it therefore comes, Matthew knows there's no room for dilly dallying. He has already made his mind up and prepared himself for that. He knows that this is the vehicle to join and it must not pass him by. All the heart burden he has had till then is what is revealing what he has now gone to be with. When Jesus calls, he just leaves like that. It didn't take a second of counting, calculating or strategizing because he had thought it well afore then. He had thought on going into a life that'll be more fulfilling and he recognized this specific call as the answer to that. He has counted the cost long time before Jesus ever came to call. He had muttered confessions often that the time would come and the opportunity be availed him to leave the tax office into his purpose and life burden. But it never came until then and since it never came until then, he sits still working (not being caught dead as idle) until the call that has gone over him reveals itself. Your call will call! Jesus saw Matthew at the tax office. You too will catch the attention of God today. He'll attend to and solve the riddles of your life. That weariness and emptiness in you will therefore come to an end because you'll then be assured to have found your life's task that you won't feel at a loss or doubt doing with your whole life.
Brethren, there are those who have come to a juncture. A juncture of let the next phase begin. A juncture of what next thing to do but which they lack the initiative to launch into (or they'll look as dabblers). On this note, they await their call - their moving of the water. You see, this is why I love watching adventures and tactical movies where soldiers operate. In one operation that I watched, an ongoing soldier gives a signal to the incoming soldier that once he sees the sign, he should come in immediately not doubting. We ought not just dabble into our callings. We should be called to it either by a heart longing, some assuring or revelatory words. All in all, you must have assurance that you didn't initiate this process but that it came from God and of God's will. Don't just dabble into any call or office. Even if you're tired at your tax office now and you're in high expectation that your Messiah and Rabbi should have come to collect you, patiently wait for it. Let the peak of expectation be reached for that is when the testimony is more glorifying. Don't suddenly defect from your office until Jesus Himself passes by and says, "now, follow me". Until you hear this voice; until you receive such call, until you're this way launched, until you have received a confirming and divine thought like this, you must not seek to act on your own device, strategy or mere desire. You probably want a confirmation and a stamp on those things you have felt till then. Matthew at the tax office got to a place where it became, "you either show up or I perish here". At that instance, Matthew was not only ready having been faced by the insatisfaction of still being a tax collector but he immediately follows Christ when He calls him. If your time does not fill up, when you hear the call, one thing or the other of the world - in the secular would still be appealing to you. It may be the high salary, elite company or prestige of the former occupation or life that won't let you go. But you must have been worked on to the extent that all these are counted as dung by the time Jesus calls you away to purpose. If your "follow me" should come and you begin to give excuses like many that we know, you'll not only miss your opportunity but that'll also reveal you as having not being dealt with as to be put in the condition of a pregnant woman waiting for the delivery of her child because she has already entered into labour.
Anyone who's therefore made ready is such that has no care, thought, obsession or expectation for any other thing other than the call of destiny to come and be with Him and discharge that burden. The Bible records that those invalids wait for the moving of the water. They are just not waiting. They are waiting expectantly knowing their lives depend on it. They've become watchmen both day and night knowing that their herald of healing may come. As such, whenever the angel comes, there's always someone who'll be found to immediately enter into that availed opportunity or privilege.
John 5:2-3, KJV
"2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool... 3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water".
Just like these wait for the moving of the water that they might get in, Matthew waits for the call that he might leave the custom office. He has grown weary of what he does and sees often. Though this job pays him well yet he seeks that one thing that'll be unto him a living water so much more that he'll not thirst after another or come to the well to draw again (John 4). And when it came, he unhesitatingly follows. Some of you, your call is long over due. Jesus already came for you but you've been refusing till now. Will you be like Matthew who leaves once? Will you come to the end of yourself, worries on what to eat, wear and security of life and defunct to answer the call on you now? This is the best hour. This call is too ostentatious to lose. It's like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Cling to it. Let this voice confirm somethings you've been receiving till now and assure you that's the path to follow. Either the call is to ministry or some other professions you're persuaded about, I pray for all those Matthews who are weary of the labour they're currently in, knowing there's more to their lives than making money and putting their hands into their mouths that the Lord will satisfy you. You'll live to be felt by humanity! You'll see what next! For further help, you can call any of the contacts at the devotional's tail. We'll be with you as you make this attempt.
PRAYER: Lord, satisfy my weary and longing heart with what is 'meat' (purpose) indeed. Let my call calls.
BIBLE IN A YEAR: Lamentations 1:1-2:22; Philemon 1:1-25; Psalm 101:1-8; Proverbs 26:20
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