The Lord is speaking to me this morning about "the call" that He has sent out around the world in this hour. The spirit of God has gone out over all of the earth with a call: "Come and follow me". The invitation is simple, but the cost is everything. It is the foundational question of the gospel "will you forsake all and follow me".
Matthew 4:19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Luke 22:18 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Matthew 10:38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
John 12:26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
To those who are hearing this call for the first time, or maybe the first time in a long time, this is an invitation to be saved, to experience a rebirth. A death to guilt, shame, fear, and dispair and a birth into freedom, victory, true joy and life filled with true love. Love that is only found in the person of Jesus Christ. This tug on your heart, whisper in your ear, or even a shout in your inside is a doorway to experience real life, a life of abundant love and peace that is greater than your ability to comprehend or understand. This is a call to salvation - to repent and be saved by the power of the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. You are being summond, called, invited to receive your true identity and purpose. If you will respond to this call, your life will forever be changed. It will cost you everything, but you will soon find out that what you are giving up is worthless in comparison to what you will gain. Still it is an invitation that requires a response and a choice. The call has gone out and today this is an opportunity for you to be forever changed and encounter the love of God. This is available because of the sacrificial love of Jesus when He died on the cross for you and rose from the dead making a way for you to also rise with Him into freedom from your sins. Now is a moment for you to respond. I encourage you to choose life - choose Jesus!
For those who have already received salvation and are walking in the freedom of Christ, there is a fresh call that is knocking on the door of your heart today. It is the call into the unknown. You have responded to the call of salvation, either recently or many years ago. You have been set free from the chains of sin, addiction, shame, fear and more and yet the Lord is calling out to you once again saying "will you once again put down your nets and follow me".
Matthew 4:19-20 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.
I am reminded of the movie series Frozen. In the first movie Elsa is crippled with fear and by the end she discovers that love is more powerful than her fear. She sees love break the power of death and what she thought was a curse was actually a gift when it is yielded and motivated by love. Then in Frozenn 2 it begins with an invitation. There is a call that comes to her spirit that causes her discomfort. She has come to a point in her life when finally things make sense. Her relationship with her sister is restored, she has taken her place on the throne as queen over her land. She is beloved of all and life finally makes sense. Then, out of nowhere, comes this calling, a beckoning that only she can hear that is drawing her beyond the water. She doesn't know where it is leading her or what it is leading her to, all Elsa knows is this calling "into the unknown".
It is the same calling that the children of Israel received when Moses came to them while they were still slaves in Egypt. After 400 years of slavery, the Lord called Moses to go and speak to his brothers and sisters (the Israelites) and tell them that the Lord, the great I Am, is going to set them free and bring them into a land they do not know (an unknown land - a promised land). After many miracles, signs, and wonders the Lord did as He promised and the Israelites were freed from a life of slavery into freedom and started out on a journey towards their new home. However, after a few short days they are confronted with a seemingly great barrier standing in the way of their promised land, the Red Sea. On top of that, the armies of Egypt are now approaching from behind wanting to bring them back to the very place they had just been freed from - back into a life of oppression and slavery.
Here is the dilema the Israelites faced in their minds and souls. Although they had seen the Lord move in many signs and wonders to suddenly deliver them from their evil task masters in Egypt, they were being called and led into the unknown. They were heading in a direction they did not know, a land they knew nothing about, and were moving in great uncertainty towards something promised but not understood or comprehended. So here they are feeling trapped between a vast body of water that was the Red Sea and the quickly approaching army of Egypt. At that moment, what they knew in Egypt suddenly seemed like a much better option than whatever might be ahead of them in an unknown promised land. Now God came and interupted their cries of dispair and wishing that they were back in slavery rather than dying at the shores of the Red Sea. The Lord came and parted the waters allowing Israel to walk on dry land through the water to safety on the other side. Even more, the Lord closed the waters on the army of Egypt destroying the enemy that was in pursuit of them to bring them back into captivity.
I hear the spirit of the Lord calling His people out into the unknown once again. We have been set free, we are no longer slaves. We are being invited to leave what we know, what is comfortable, all that is familiar to a place we do not know, but has been promised to us. The call is to "come away" and follow Him. Forsaking all in pursuit of the One who is our purpose, destiny and calling. We are not following a ministry, a lifestyle, a prophetic word, or religion. We are being called to follow Jesus to wherever He is leading. Though the journey is unknown, the one who is calling us is not. He is known to us. He has revealed himself and His Father to us by His spirit, and it is this spirit that is now calling us today. The call is to follow Jesus into a journey that is uncertain, but the promised land is that He is with us for every single step. When we reach the physical or spiritual obstacles like the Israelites experienced at the Red Sea, we are called to trust that the One we follow is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. He will make a way. He will come through and bring us out unscathed, unharmed, and we will see our enemies that are in pursuit destroyed and consumed.
So will you come out, come away, and heed the call of Jesus once again. It is time to respond. It is time to follow Him into the unknown! Amen
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