The Calling of God Is Paramount

With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. —2 Thessalonians 1:11

Moses was a person who had the call of God upon him, and yet he voluntarily gave up the treasures of palace life. It was said of Moses, “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” (Heb. 11:24).

Here was a man brought up in a palace who “chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time” (v. 25). Can you imagine someone who lived in a palace and who voluntarily gave it up in order to please God? Don’t tell me this had nothing to do with Moses’ anointing! I say it had everything to do with it.

The call of God on a person makes all the difference. Why did Moses do what he did? It was because the call of God was paramount.

Is the call of God upon you? Is your motivating sense of life the call of God? If you say, “Well, I am not sure if it is or not,” you ought to fall on your face before God and ask, “What has gone wrong? What has happened?” Do you have no sense of destiny? No reason for living? Have you been derailed to such an extent that there is no sense of the call of God on you?

You may hope that living conditions will change and this will give you a little bit of happiness. But the most important thing is to know that God’s call is on you. There is something for every one of us to do that is as important in our sphere as in any others in world history! Every Christian has a call from God, and when that grips you, and you know that God has a plan for your life, you will see everything else in a different light, including where you live.

Excerpted from The Thorn in the Flesh (Charisma House, 2004).