Prophetic Points to Ponder IV

“… I have never been eloquent… I am slow of speech and tongue…” Exodus 4:10

When a person comes face to face with the Living God his soul is laid bare and all worldly status, skill, and social achievement is quite simply, stripped away. From infancy, Moses was raised in the most progressive civilization in the world – Pharaoh’s Egypt. He learned its arithmetic, its poetry, and its magic; even became a general in its military. He was a learned dignitary, “educated in the wisdom of the Egyptians and powerful in speech and action.” (Acts 7:22) So what he said wasn’t exactly true. He could talk, he had lead, he was a real player in the land of Egypt – educated and enmeshed in Egyptian high culture.

Yet, here, in the Presence of God on the mountain, he realizes who he thought he was couldn’t hold a candle to who the Shekinah Creator said he was.

It’s a funny thing, isn't it? When God reveals his call on our life, we instinctively tell him why it can’t work. The subject of the conversation changes from his call to our inadequacies. First it begins as an opportunity – something of a surprise, something he knows we’d love to do. Then, somewhere in the midst of the discussion (and the discussion may last for years, by the way) it turns to an argument. Not long after that we sense God’s rising anger in our lingering procrastination. One day we come to our senses and realize that – yes, he has called us – and, no, we cant do it in our own strength.

That’s when God calls, “Bingo.”

This is called the, Conversion to Calling. It happens to all of us at some time or another. It’s when we realize our best can never touch what is needed to carry out God’s call on our life’s. It is a spiritual nexus – a colliding of worlds of sorts – where we are both completely convinced of the call of ministry on our life AND, in the same instant, realize our complete inadequacies for the job he has called us to do. How can we possibly live into the revelation of his call knowing we fall so miserably short of the Glory of God?

One more time – let’s say it together with God, “Bingo!"

This is exactly where we need to be (and exactly where we need to stay). It has been God's destination for us all along. When we arrive here, humbled at the mountain of God's Almighty Throne, his work, in one sense, has been accomplished. All those years he’s worked to get us off our pride and into humility accumulate here, at this one point in time. All the lessons of his sufficiency in the midst of our insuffencies have been predesigned for this one moment.

In a moment's flash we realize it's impossible to do anything God calls us to on our own. It's when we realise he's calling us to do it on his own.

Holy Father, I stand at the ceiling of my being, knowing that all I offer is tasteless to food from above. Breath into my brokenness with your Almighty Grace and, in the power of your Living Word, create in me a disdain for my efforts and ordain me for yours. In the Name of the One who changes my water to wine, Jesus Christ. Amen.