September 29th
The consciousness of the call
For necessity is laid upon me: yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! 1 Cor. 9:16.
We are apt to forget the magical, supernatural touch of God. If you can tell where you got the call of God and all about it, I question whether you have ever had a call. The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of it in a man’s life may come with a sudden thunderclap or a gradual dawning, but in whatever way it comes, it comes with the undercurrent of the supernatural, something that cannot be put into words; it is always accompanied with a glow. At any moment, there may break the sudden consciousness of this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life—“I have chosen you.” The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. It is not because you are sanctified that you are therefore called to preach the gospel; the call to preach the gospel is infinitely different. Paul describes it as a necessity laid upon him.
If you have been obliterating the tremendous supernatural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances and see where God has not been first, but your ideas of service or your temperamental abilities. Paul said—“Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel!” He had realized the call of God, and there was no competitor for his strength.
If a man or woman is called of God, it does not matter how untoward circumstances are; every force that has been at work will tell for God’s purpose in the end. If you agree with God’s purpose, He will bring your conscious life and all the deeper regions of your life that you cannot get into harmony.
Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986. Print.
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