God’s Ongoing Call: Responding to God’s Guidance

Friends, today we close our sermon series on Communicating with God with an exploration of how to understand God’s ongoing call through the act of responding to God’s guidance. We’ve discussed, in these past four weeks, how to deeply connect with God in prayer (saying the Disciples Prayer), listen to God’s voice in a noisy world (centering with The Jesus Prayer), and how to connect with God through the voice and action of other people (accepting and treating people as your co-creating equal). Knowing that we are connected with God in a creative way, we see how highly important it is to remain vigilant to God’s guidance in our daily walk.

God’s Communication always invited response

*Our scripture reading from James reminds us how quickly forgetfulness can enter into our minds, especially when desires of the flesh become enticing. A lack of community involvement with like-minded believers will escalate the desires of the world and stifle godly righteousness and control, leading to misinformation and disinformation. This skewed information, that does not come from God but from selfish desires, alters true devotion to God’s call on your life which can lead to you rejecting God’s guidance and stuck, inappropriately reacting to temptations, cravings, unrighteousness, and moral filth while wickedness expands its territory in your life and community.

*Hear the words of Isaiah 6.8-13,

Isaiah 6:8–13 CEB

Then I heard the Lord’s voice saying, “Whom should I send, and who will go for us?” I said, “I’m here; send me.” God said, “Go and say to this people:” Listen intently, but don’t understand; look carefully, but don’t comprehend. Make the minds of this people dull. Make their ears deaf and their eyes blind, so they can’t see with their eyes or hear with their ears, or understand with their minds, and turn, and be healed. I said, “How long, Lord?” And God said, “Until cities lie ruined with no one living in them, until there are houses without people and the land is left devastated.” The Lord will send the people far away, and the land will be completely abandoned. Even if one-tenth remain there, they will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, which when it is cut down leaves a stump. Its stump is a holy seed.

This scripture is misapplied frequently and usually starts and stops with verse 8 without any explanation on its meaning and contextually is neutered. Verse 8 seems to be very nice as a divine call to a messenger and a messenger offering himself to the divine call. This verse by itself appears to be a nonchalant request but it is actually the complete opposite.

The community of Israelites was in a chaotic pickle of impending doom with other nations. The divine call preceding Isaiah was for the community to return to obedience, righteousness, mercy, forgiveness, holiness, etc…and it was rejected time and time again. The community was dissolving into pomp and circumstance with religious overtones that superficially honored God with their lips but denied him with their actions. Hundreds of years pass by as the community became more individual, more cliquish, more oppressive, and less in-tune with God’s divine call.

The Isaiah 6 call represents a call to proclaim judgement, doom, destruction, death, and a forced exodus that is impending for the once favored Israelite community. Isaiah is not a proud prophet, like Jonah happily proclaiming destruction of the unrighteous Ninevites. Isaiah accepted a call that was hard, terrifying, and not one that any person would desire to say to their own people. The divine call said that the path Israel has taken over the past number of generations is going to lead to your destruction. It is inevitable that the surrounding nations will not tolerate you anymore. The impending doom will feel like God’s judgment, yet it will be implemented and enacted through powerful foreign nations until the community lie in ruins. What remains will be like a tree stump, this will be the only remnant left to return to obedience of God’s ongoing call and guidance. Verses 11-13 is a gloom and doom message that Isaiah volunteered to proclaim to his own people.

Our James scripture simply reaffirms what has been going on for many generations within the Israelite community and all the established cultures worldwide when God’s guidance and wisdom is ultimately rejected. Listen to Psalm 19.7-8 as it discusses how abiding in God’s guidance can strengthen our mind, emotion, and spirit.

Psalm 19:7–8 CEB

The Lord’s Instruction is perfect, reviving one’s very being. The Lord’s laws are faithful, making naive people wise. The Lord’s regulations are right, gladdening the heart. The Lord’s commands are pure, giving light to the eyes.

When community breaks down and individualism rises up, then opinions and selfish desires will take the place of facts and divine righteousness. If a disconnected community doesn’t change its ways then it will eventually have an Isaiah prophet to proclaim the inevitable, self-caused devastation, since it did not listen to the James prophet proclaiming to stay connected to the divine source of creative wisdom and righteousness.

Justifying Grace in Action

*Our own Wesleyan theology helps us see that through a heart transformation we can remain connected to what God is communicating with our community. If our heart is in the transformational process, then we have a greater sensitivity to spiritual matters that aligns with the will of God and not overwhelmingly alarmed, shocked, and dismayed by the chaos of the world, in which we live. *Darrell Bock says,

Knowledge of what God requires is not enough. Such knowledge needs to be put into practice. Love that comes from the heart responds with the hands. In the NT, the Spirit enables the believer to respond (Rom. 8:1–11).

Darrell L. Bock

We also discern that when we individually or collectively mess up, or not listen to the voice of God, we can repent and return to a right relationship with ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the community. We don’t have to be like the nation of Israel and consistently reject the ongoing prophetic messages of God’s call, reject God’s guidance, and ultimately face impending doom. We, as a restored and merciful community can stay in relational connection with God knowing the future is yet to be realized and, through our actions, we can co-create a future with God that demonstrates fruitfulness, hope, mercy, and love. All of this action requires that we not only hear God’s ongoing call but also demonstrate ability to effectively respond to God’s guidance.

A Unique Call

*Last week we processed how every person in the body of Christ brings a uniqueness to the collective whole of God’s kingdom. Every person’s response to God is unique and significant in the unfolding of God’s work in the world. This uniqueness is not limited to the time when we are awake and engaged in relational action with other people. The moments when we are asleep and in that transient state of meditative rapid eye movement, we are spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically responding to God with a divine uniqueness that can impact the world around when we wake up. I’m reminded of different stories of scripture where the entire world changed due to a meditative response to God’s call.

Genesis 15.1, 5-6, 18 discusses how Abraham had a vision which resulted in a covenant between him and God that effected the entire future race of the Semitic people. If Abraham would have reconciled, in his mind, that this was only a crazy dream then who knows how different the entire Semitic world would be today.

Genesis 15:1 CEB

After these events, the Lord’s word came to Abram in a vision, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your protector. Your reward will be very great.”

Genesis 15:5–6 CEB

Then he brought Abram outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars if you think you can count them.” He continued, “This is how many children you will have.” Abram trusted the Lord, and the Lord recognized Abram’s high moral character.

Genesis 15:18 CEB

That day the Lord cut a covenant with Abram: “To your descendants I give this land, from Egypt’s river to the great Euphrates,

In Acts 10.1-15 we see both the Gentile Cornelius and the Apostle Peter have visions of God’s call that guided them to one another. Cornelius’ vision was to gain favor with Peter, a Jewish man that was directed by human tradition not to have relations with the Gentiles. Peter’s vision confirmed God’s call to send the message of Jesus to the Gentile world through the relationship with Cornelius.

Acts 10:1–15 CEB

There was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion in the Italian Company.He and his whole household were pious, Gentile God-worshippers. He gave generously to those in need among the Jewish people and prayed to God constantly. One day at nearly three o’clock in the afternoon, he clearly saw an angel from God in a vision. The angel came to him and said, “Cornelius!” Startled, he stared at the angel and replied, “What is it, Lord?” The angel said, “Your prayers and your compassionate acts are like a memorial offering to God. Send messengers to Joppa at once and summon a certain Simon, the one known as Peter. He is a guest of Simon the tanner, whose house is near the seacoast. When the angel who was speaking to him had gone, Cornelius summoned two of his household servants along with a pious soldier from his personal staff. He explained everything to them, then sent them to Joppa. At noon on the following day, as their journey brought them close to the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted to eat. While others were preparing the meal, he had a visionary experience. He saw heaven opened up and something like a large linen sheet being lowered to the earth by its four corners. Inside the sheet were all kinds of four-legged animals, reptiles, and wild birds.A voice told him, “Get up, Peter! Kill and eat!” Peter exclaimed, “Absolutely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” The voice spoke a second time, “Never consider unclean what God has made pure.”

The apostle Paul describes in his defense before Agrippa in Acts 26.12-18 that his heavenly vision or his meditative response to God’s call, effectively transformed the region of Judea and expanded to the land of the Gentiles. Paul’s vision was utilized to breach the Gentile barriers of relational contact within the bounds of Israel and expanded outward to non-Israelite nations.

Acts 26:12–18 CEB

“On one such journey, I was going to Damascus with the full authority of the chief priests. While on the road at midday, King Agrippa, I saw a light from heaven shining around me and my traveling companions. That light was brighter than the sun. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice that said to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you harassing me? It’s hard for you to kick against a spear.’Then I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are harassing. Get up! Stand on your feet! I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you as my servant and witness of what you have seen and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to open their eyes. Then they can turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, and receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are made holy by faith in me.’

Every single one of these visions, and this list is definitely not exhaustive, was unique to the person and had an amazing effect towards that specific person and their community in which they lived and developed. Edgar Allan Poe said,

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

Edgar Allan Poe

The only time these visions, meditative rapid eye movements, dreams, unconscious/conscious life events made an impact beyond the individual is when the individual took their response to the community. An active response to God’s ongoing call is essential to hear God, see God, focus on God, while creating a community that will imitate God’s loving, forgiving, and merciful nature.

Forward Thinking

*So, I am putting out a challenge to all of you to reflect on God’s call in your life and take concrete action, whether in personal spiritual growth or community service. Can you like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. say that you have dream and then act upon it. Can you take an assumed vision and mix it together with a plan to co-create a future that looks increasingly peaceful and less chaotic? Can you develop a connection with a neighbor, a stranger, a person of peace, a person on the other side of the aisle, that could effectively change the course of your communal history? Can you effectively say that you can hear God’s Ongoing Call and then respond to God’s guidance to make this world a place where you and your community can communicate with God in a new and fascinating way? Francis Shaeffer said,

If God exists and we are made in His image we can have real meaning, and we can have real knowledge through what He has communicated to us.

Francis August Schaeffer

The world is changing, church community is changing, worship is changing, will you change with God’s incoming call? Will you be Abraham? Peter? Paul? or remain someone that nobody will ever hear from again because you rejected the guidance of God? The future is ours of the making, alongside God, do you accept the challenge of responding to God’s ongoing call? Amen.

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