Call of God

​Providentially, Jerry discovered Reverationyears ago and signed himself and many African pastors to receive this weekly devotional.  Over time he began to correspond with me and to invite me to come to Nigeria to minister.   Because I had never met him, I resisted his requests.  But in January 2007, I invited him to join us in Kenya so I could get to know him, he could see our work firsthand and then together we could seek God’s will regarding future ministry. I am so glad that God brought Jerry into my life . . . 

Brother Jerry shared with the Kenyans about his life years ago.  He was an alcoholic who turned to marijuana and harder drugs.  His friends were immoral and in order to party with them, he stole money from his father.  While he was practicing sin, Jerry’s mother, concerned for his soul, fasted for three days and prayed for his salvation.  

One day in front of a cave with two pagan friends, Jerry happened to stare at some beautiful trees when he heard a voice say, “This is the beauty of the Lord.”  Feeling very parched he heard the same voice say, “This is a little taste of what hell is like.”  Jerry noticed that a rock was pressing against his back.  The voice said, “This is the weight of your sins.”   All of this sobered Jerry to the point that he left his friends and returned to his home on the last day of his mother’s fast.  The next day a pastor named Wakawa came to his home and led him to understand his need to put his faith in Jesus Christ.  Wakawa taught Jerry how to be a Jesus-follower.
 
Meditation
Ephesians 4:1-3—I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us.  
 
Can you imagine how blessed we were as Jerry shared with us the call of God on his life to be an evangelist. Likewise, Jerry was stoked as our Disciple Maker team trained him.   God so interlaced our hearts that by the end of our trip Jerry agreed to join our First Cause Pathfinder Team.  This team actively shares Christ and creatively looks for ways to expose people to the need for disciple maker training.

Recently Jerry sent me this message from Nigeria:
The past 13 days caught me training about 1,300 people on Soul Winning One-to-One across 5 States. 600 plus of the people trained were pastors. After the training, we went out of the streets and saw the Lord move in a MIGHTY way! It is evident that the Lord has created a hunger in the hearts of people and they need only to be approached with the life-changing and high-powered Gospel of Jesus Christ! This is evident as we witnessed across the 5 States with tremendous results!

We spoke to 4,794 People in 13 days 3,103 got Saved! Including 334 Muslims 1,535 were already born again and 156 rejected our message.  The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation...PLEASE PRAY: that the Lord will sustain and integrate these new converts into different churches where they will be nurtured.

God’s purpose for us is that we would make disciples of all nations! Oswald Chambers once stated, “The call of God relates us to the purpose of God” (So Send I You).  Jerry strongly feels the call of God burning in his heart.  The Lord is using him to make a huge difference across Africa.  Will you ask God to give him wisdom and strength and to provide for his needs as he serves with us in training people to share their faith while pointing them to the critical task of making disciples?  
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What about you?  Do you understand the call of God on your life?   Are you following His plan?  We hold the very Key in our hearts so how can we not be compelled to share with the world the One Who unlocks the door to heaven!
 
Inspiration
Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the Gospel of God . . . The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him.—Oswald Chambers in My Utmost For His Highest
 
©2007Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)