THE NEED IS THE CALL

 

A number of weeks ago my pastor was preaching from the New Testament book of Acts, chapter 13.  The account tells the story of how, while the church at Antioch was praying, worshiping and fasting, the Holy Spirit made it clear that they were to separate out Barnabas and Saul to the work for which He had called them.  Commissioned and prayed for by the church, they were sent on their way by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel in Cyprus. 

Our pastor, in speaking of the nature of the call of God, pointed out that in this instance the church had been in prayer for the direction of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit had responded by specifically appointing Barnabas and Saul, and the church had responded by sending them out with the gospel. 

One of the things he said in his sermon about how God calls was this:  Sometimes the NEED is the call.  In other words, sometimes the Lord makes a need known and the need itself becomes His call on our lives. 

This was what happened in Acts 16.  The Apostle Paul and his companions had been traveling through Phrygia and Galatia.  They wanted to move into Asia but the text says that they were kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word there.  The Bible doesn’t give us any explanation about how the Holy Spirit made this clear, but however it was, they could not go.

While they were wondering what to do next, Paul had a nighttime vision of a man from Macedonia who was standing and begging Paul to come and help them.  In that case, the NEED in Macedonia WAS the call, and Paul responded by concluding that going to Macedonia was God’s plan and leaving at once.

There is another illustration of this I think, in the 6^th chapter of the Old Testament book of Isaiah.  Isaiah has a vision of the Lord seated on the throne of heaven, with the train of His robe filling the temple.  Above Him, Isaiah saw seraphim and heard them calling to one another, saying:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.”

At the very sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook!

When Isaiah saw and heard all this, he said:

“Woe to me!  I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty!”

Verses 6 and 7 say:

“Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  With it he touched my mouth and said, “See this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Immediately then, Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?  And who will go for us?”

I had always thought that the Lord has issued this call directly to Isaiah until I a radio pastor speak about this verse.  He said that the call Isaiah heard was not necessarily issued to Isaiah.  It could have been that the Lord issued A call, and Isaiah was the one who heard and responded.

If this is so, then it is another illustration of what my pastor referred to as: “The NEED is the call”. 

Isaiah’s response to God’s call was: “Here am I.  Send me!”

My pastor’s sermon immediately brought me back to the day in 2012 when I read a link on Facebook encouraging readers to think about donating a kidney.  I knew that Jennifer from our church, who had posted the link, needed a kidney and I had known it for some time.  But it was only then that my heart finally “heard” the need.  Her need became God’s call on my heart to take the next step of pursuing donation.   

I wonder whether I have ever missed a call because I was not in tune with the Holy Spirit, not really in a place to listen for His “voice”?

Did the Lord ever say, “Who shall we send and who will go for us?”, and I did not hear?

It’s not always easy to stay in the kind of sweet, intimate fellowship with the Lord that puts me in the opportune place to hear when He calls.  Too often I choose lesser pursuits to occupy my time than spending time in God’s Word and in prayer. 

The best times of my life, however, have been those where I am actively waiting on the Lord.  Those are the times when He shines His light on a need and invites me to join Him in some plan of His to meet it.  When that happens, I want to HEAR Him and join Isaiah in saying:  “Here am I, Lord!  Send me!!”