“And it came to pass after many days …” (1 Kings 18:1, NKJV)
In 1 Kings 18:1-18 we read of the next phase of the unfolding of the mantle of Elijah. Note that verse 1 explicitly states, “And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, ‘Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.’” Mantles clearly take time to come into being!
Many believers have a level of anxiety concerning their calling, and do not allow the sufficient time for it to develop according to God’s timing. Isa. 28:16 is an important reminder of this: “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily.”
This does however not mean that you should not constantly be searching (Matt. 6:33). Many believers are content with just waiting around for something to happen – no. Listen to Ecc. 9:10 on this matter: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might …” In fact: “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).
But do not get discouraged too quickly because you feel your calling is not taking shape. A baby must gestate for 9 months, the child cannot be born without this period of development. If a butterfly is taken out of its cocoon before he has broken through the enclosure on his own, he won’t be able to fly, and the colours on his wings won’t appear as beautiful. The struggle to break out is absolutely necessary for its colourful flight!
In this period of searching it is important to not focus only on your calling. Calling and purpose is only a byproduct of intimacy. You should always, first and foremost, be concerned with your “first love” (Rev. 2:4). In following Him you clothe yourself with Christ.
There are of course many frustrations on the road to discovering your calling, as Gene Edwards for instance makes clear in his book The Highest Life: Living with the Indwelling Lord (read more on this on pages 92-93). Our consumer culture doesn’t help much either. We feel we are missing out if we wait for something, even if we know there are certain processes that need time in order to be fulfilled. (Good whiskey teaches us this.)
In the rushed nature of the modern era, with a surplus of available information, we feel we are not necessarily skilled in the essential aspects of our calling. But what these essential aspects are we don’t really know either, and also, it’s not like we have time to figure out what they are. We are slowly woven into a society where fragmentation, saturation and exhaustion is the norm. There are too many choices, too much to do, too many people to be acquainted with, too much to see, too much to listen to, to read, to know about, to buy, too much: “Each choice sprouts with its own questions. Might we? Could we? Should we? Will we? Won’t we? What if we had? What if we hadn’t? The forest of questions leads deeper and deeper into the dark freedom, then to the ever darker anxiety of seemingly infinite possibility.” (Os Guiness, The Call, p. 166).
Our lives seem to thus often correspond with Bette Midler’s old song – “I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m going.” Alas we are mostly going nowhere slowly.
Jesus was never frantically running around to do everything that needs to be done – He had an amazingly large calling which He had to establish within a very short period, but He knew exactly what to do and what to ignore. He only healed one man at the bath of Bethesda, not the many other hopefuls who were also ill. He was not concerned with the needs, desires and claims of the multitudes who followed Him; instead He called Zacchaeus, who was sitting far away in a tree, to come closer and eat with Him. He truly lived what He would later pray in John 17:4: “I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.”
In the onslaught of a society which keeps us in an always accelerating rat race which demands that we keep up with everything that is new and pressing, we often lose the essence of our walk with God, and thus of our calling.
But with all this being said: believers often also wait for the “right” time for something to happen, whilst the New Testament principle is different. In a section that is documented in John 7, Jesus speaks to his followers about Him revealing Himself – they cannot understand why He is waiting: “For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” (verse 4). But then Jesus says the following – “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready (verse 6). The NASB translates it as follows: “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune.”
Your time is always opportune … Calling isn’t something that is located in the future – it is happening now, today! Even if it takes a while to come into being, it is immensely important that you do not rely on “one day” being prepared for it. Today is important! Even in the Old Testament this is the principle, as we see in Deut. 27:10 (and many other examples): – “Therefore you shall obey the voice of the Lord your God, and observe His commandments and His statutes which I command you today.” The frequent reiteration of this in the book of Hebrews highlights the importance of this attitude:
- “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years.” (Heb. 3:7-9).
- “But exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’” (Heb. 3:13-15).
- “For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all His works’; and again in this place: ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, ‘Today,’ after such a long time, as it has been said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.’” (Heb. 4:4-7).
The reference to David in the previous verse is of course the prophet’s desire in Ps. 95:7: “Today, if you will hear His voice”! From this verse it is clear – it is the seventh day, the day of rest in which ALL WORKS ARE COMPLETE, but this is only today. Your calling can only be fulfilled today. More on this in the next teaching.
- Selah: Try to explain to someone the principle of “today”.
- Read: Ezra 4-6; Ps. 137; Hag. 1-2.
- Memorise: 1:6-7 (Is this teaching the reason this Scripture is the truth for our lives?)
