Chapter Two: God’s Higher Calling: Our Duty

“Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts: so shall I talk of Thy wondrous works.” ~ Psalms 119:27 Why is God’s Higher Calling so important? “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” ~ Romans 8:12-14. God’s Higher Calling is important for us to live because it is our duty! We are debtors to God. God made us His own and He bought us with a price. “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” ~ 1 Cor. 6:20. As God’s Children, we are bought with a great price and our lives are not our own. How we often forget this, and live for self and selfish motives. Maybe, we try to appear like we are living the Christian life in order to get the praise of men. The Pharisees in the Bible lived their life for the praise of men. Christ called them hypocrites. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.“ ~ Matthew 23:27. Duty is that which a person owes to another; that which a person is bound, by any natural, moral or legal obligation. It is our duty to live a higher standard. We are to do our duty by continuing to give back our all to Christ. “Our all” would be every fiber of our being. Someone once said, “Life - put your heart into it.” If we are really truly living the Christian life, we will put our all into doing right. If we really want to put our heart into life, then we must first define what LIFE is. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” ~ John 14:6. Jesus Christ is our Life. We need to put our full heart into serving Him. God’s higher calling is our duty. We are to be faithful by doing our duty which is avoiding meritocracy, and living a higher standard. The word “Duty” has the same connotation as the word obedience. “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;” Ephesians 5:6. We need to obey God’s higher calling for our lives. God’s higher calling is not meant to be drudgery, but rather it is to be a delight and our hearts desire. We ought to have a delight to go up higher no matter what it may cost! Because remember, we are not only supposed to do our duty but we are to exceed it! “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” ~ Luke 17:10. God’s Higher Calling is not only for the stage of singleness but it is for the married stage, the stage of motherhood and fatherhood, for the stage of youth and the elderly. It is for all stages of life! I’ve heard these phrases used: Singleness-God’s Higher Calling, and also, Motherhood-God’s Higher Calling. But which one of these is correct. Which one is God’s Higher Calling? The answer may surprise you –Neither! God brings each individual to a stage of time in their life and in each stage each individual is to be living God’s Higher Calling. It is not the stage of life that is God’s Higher Calling but rather our entire life is supposed to be a life set apart to serve God in a higher standard of living. I wrote this in my Bible after I was approached yet again for being single… “My duty is not to get married or to stay single, but rather to do what God has for me in the time He has given me to do it.” In essence, my duty is to obey God, live apart from the world and continue to be teachable so that I can continue to go up higher. What does God have to say about our duty? “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14. Oh my dear friends, God has a precious plan for your life. He formed it with his own hand and longs for you to obey his every command. God’s Higher Calling is not something we can make a one time decision to do. “Yes, from now on, I’m going to live God’s Higher Calling.” Oh, It may start with that thought, but it is a daily thing… a moment by moment thing. “And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,” ~ Deuteronomy 10:12. God’s Will for our lives is to live our lives in the fear of the LORD. We are to daily walk in all His ways; this includes loving Him with all of our heart and serving Him with all of our Life. This is exactly what God’s Higher Calling is all about. It is not a one time decision that we make and never think on again. Why is it that so many can go to the altar and get things right, but when they wake up on Monday morning they have forgotten all about the decisions they made? I’ve been there as I’m sure you have too. The answer really is not that difficult. To have complete victory and to stay consistent with the decisions made, there has to be a daily renewing of the mind. The Battle for life starts in the mind! What you think will effect what you do! “Sow a thought, reap a deed. Sow a deed, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a Character. Sow a character, reap a Destiny.” ~ Pastor Hammett. How can we avoid mediocrity? “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” ~ Romans 12:2. Every day and yes, even every minute the world is trying to conform us. We are being feed information from the world every time we step out the door. I’ll never forget one year at camp, I had to run out to the store midweek into camp. My mind had been surrounded by God’s Word, godly messages, and godly leaders. As I walked into that store, I felt like a “peculiar person.” The feeling that I didn’t belong flooded my soul. “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” ~ Titus 2:14. I also was aware of the shroud of ungodliness that surrounded me. All I wanted to do was get out of that store. I felt as if every one of those lost souls had a demon on their shoulder and I walked in with two angels of light by my side. I soon heard cursing and rock music and thoughts began to flood my mind. Why? Because the world is trying to conform us and Satan is trying destroy us. He wants to keep us from going up higher. Oh, God may use a mediocre Christian, but He can’t use them to their full potential. But the Christian who is living God’s Higher Standard He can use to their fullest and above their own full potential! A preacher once gave this illustration: “God has every one of His people in his dishwasher of sanctification. He often comes and pulls one of us out to use but if we won’t let the dishwasher clean us and we remain dirty He can’t use us and puts us back in to be re-washed. The dishwasher represents trials that God puts us through to purge us of our sins, but if we won’t yield things to the LORD so He can clean us, we won’t be used!” How can we live the Christian life to the fullest potential? “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” ~ Romans 12:1. We are commanded to be holy. It is our duty to be holy. We have to renew our mind daily! It is not just a one time thing! I bring this up again because we live as if we think holiness and victory are something we get a hold of once at the altar, but that is not where we get holiness. It starts in the mind not with some action, but with a reordering of our thinking. How do we renew our mind? The Sunday School answer, Read your Bible, pray, memorize Scripture and meditate on it. We hear these words so often. However, we could do some of these things and still not renew our mind. Let’s go to the wilderness shall we. So many men were taken out to the wilderness to learn life lessons. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days. John the Baptist lived in the wilderness. Elijah, Moses, Joshua and Philip all spent some time in the wilderness. I can’t say I’ve spent time in a real wilderness. I did spend some time hiking with my family out in the dessert of Arizona. And from these hikes, God gave me a picture of what it is to renew your mind daily and how trials lead to a sweet close walk with God… The Necessity of cool clear water in the wilderness ~ We started out each with a bottle of water in hand. Some of us grabbed our water from the fridge and some of us grabbed our water from the pile of water bottles sitting out. Even though, we had walked only for a short time, those of us who did not have refrigerated water soon found our water not to be just warm but hot. Though it was wet it was not thirst quenching. The Word of God is our water. It is in the wilderness of life that we need that fresh cool view from the Word of God. This takes time. But time seems to escape us and we find ourselves racing to read anything in the Word of God just for the sake of reading it. The water is wet but because we don't take the time to ponder and meditation on the Word of God and what God has for us, it does not quench our overly dry thirst. The Longing for shade in the wilderness of life ~ God's Presence and Prayer, without these two things we will never be able renew our mind with the Word of God. When the things of this life have compassed around us and we are in the wilderness where the sun is pounding down this is when our time with the LORD can be the sweetest. “Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” ~ Jeremiah 31:2-3. This verse speaks of God loving us and drawing nigh to us. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” ~ James 4:8. “Purify your hearts, ye double minded,” we can do this only when we are in communion with God. If we let our thoughts whether good or bad run our life, we will not hear from God. “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” ~ James 1:8. Our thoughts will keep us from doing what God wants us to do. We need to bring every thought before God. “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” ~ 2Cor. 10:5. When we get to a place where we are continually yielding our thoughts to God, we will find such rest and peace. God wants to cover us with His wings. He wants to protect us from the World. “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” ~ Psalms 91:4. It is under His wings that we have sweet communion with Him. “For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.” ~ Isaiah 51:3. This is such a precious verse, because the wilderness can be a place of distress and great grief and loneliness. But when we look to the LORD and begin to fellowship with Him in the midst of the wilderness, it is as if the sand becomes grass, trees spout up, a stream appears, and soon before you even know it you’re standing in a peaceful quiet oasis just you and the LORD.