WTW 2021
31 December
Ephesians 4
What is Your Calling?
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
Ephesians 4:1
What calling have you received?
There are a great many brothers walking fully in the calling they have received. There are a great many more brothers not walking fully in the calling they have received. There are many, perhaps even all these and more who simply do not even know the calling that has been declared or even know about any calling.
Let us open the pages of this book this morning and look afresh at this ancient letter, this fresh rhema message for this morning.
When we look around, we can easily see this fact, this situation, this need for many brothers to be rekindled, for some to be reignited, to fan again the flame of fire, to seek God and for the Spirit of God to fill us afresh again.
What is the evidence of God at work in our lives in keeping with the calling we have received…through the laying on of hands? This evidence is not limited as some limit it. God’s WORD is power. His power is not limited to words. His power transforms lives. His WORD is power for real life transformation and revival.
The laying on of hands…
This laying on of hands…many more brothers need to receive God’s clear and specific calling. God is calling.
What is the evidence of God at work around us…around you where you are…in your home, your family, your neighborhood, your circles, your networks?
Can you read John 9 and look around you seeing eyes being opened and even greater things happening in lives, and that you are engaged in, involved in?
Praise God!
Let us continue to look even more closely into this perfect WORD this morning and we will see even more wonderful things in this law, this WORD, things which pertain to life and godliness, things which will awaken us, revive us again, things which will transform and renew us, invigorate us again to spur us on, to draw us close to our Father and to each other by His Holy Spirit in power and in love.
Ephesians 4.
Wisdom in the WORD 
Good word. Maybe a reminder, refreshed perspective on our position and vantage point can help.
A brief recently shared a truth from Colossians 1:12 by putting it this way: “WE ARE GOD’S WILL.” Wow. When you put it that way, it really packs a punch.
We’ve been chosen by God. This is expressed over and over in Scripture. You might ask: “how could we be chosen, hand-picked before we existed?”
Ephesians 1:4 says that God chose us in Jesus, meaning He identified and selected us to be born again, before the foundation of the world. I can’t explain it, but God looked forward into time, saw us as His image bearers and said to Jesus: “At some point, these image bears we create will go their own way, and we’re going to have to rescue them. When that happens, I want that one and that one and that one…” Not based on anything He saw us doing or any goodness we possessed on our own; because no such goodness exists apart from Him.
So, we have been chosen by God and we originate from Him. Jesus understood this and spoke about it in His prayer to the Father in John 17. He Himself (in His earthly form) originated from the Father and acknowledged this publicly.
In John 17:2 Jesus says the Father gave Him authority over all mankind and that Jesus could give eternal life to all those given to Him by the Father. This goes back to that pre-creation conversation they had.
Then Jesus goes on to acknowledge that 11 of the 12 of the Father’s pre-creation picks worked out; Jesus had shared the truth with them, and they had accepted it, they’d joined Team Chosen.
Then Jesus says something incredible – “they are not of the world.” He says it in verse 14 and again in verse 16. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” This is what He says about all those who believe in Jesus through this Gospel message (verse 20), including us.
How’s that possible!? We were born here on earth. Jesus was too, but we know about His immaculate conception; He was born of the Holy Spirit.
Wait! So are we – reborn of the Holy Spirit. Once reborn, our homeland, our citizenship, even our origin is no longer seen as what it was. But we are now heavenly, and God’s desire is for us to be heavenly here on earth. In this, the Kingdom of Heaven comes near, it meets the world in its darkness and brokenness and brings light and healing.
This is how we’re to see both ourselves and every other person who has accepted the truth; as being on Team Chosen. Encourage each other in this truth. Then consider: who else has been chosen but either doesn’t know it or hasn’t yet accepted it?
LikeLiked by 1 person