Cling to the call

Dear Friend,

Would you do something on purpose if you knew it would bring trial and hardship into your life? Tell me, is this not what us servants of the Lord do every single day of our lives?

It is no coincidence that every time progress is made or is about to be made in my ministry I am hit head on with an attack from the enemy. And the more progress is made, the more evil, vicious, and diabolical these attacks become.

I am here to tell you that the devil plays for keeps and so should we. His attacks are designed to destroy your life and the call God gave you to fulfill. Never play games where the devil is concerned.

Your mouth would drop open if I were to tell you what I went through just to get this letter to you. Then again, you probably already know because you could very well be going through the same thing. In fact, I'm sure of it. Why else would God have me share this letter with you?

There is, however, good news in all of this. Last night when I went to bed I looked around and said, "Hey! Guess what? I'm still here! The devil didn't stop me!" Yes, like you, I get attacked a lot but as of late the trials don't seem to last very long. Victory comes quickly and the devil's endurance seems to be forever dwindling. Praise the Lord!

My dear, dear friend, the Lord sent me here to tell you that neither will the devil be able to stop you if you will only hang in there and never give up. This is the message the devil so desperately tried to stop me from sharing with you.

This message came with a price so I am now begging you to please don't let the devil steal from you the passion that has taken you this far in the fulfillment of your God given dream.

Think about it this way. The devil wouldn't be attacking us this hard if we weren't treading on his territory. In fact, your progress can be measured by the trials you face. No trials equals no progress, little trials equals little progress, and great trials equals great progress. Tell me, what type of trials have you been going through lately?

What am I saying? If you are being attacked like I am, then that means you are being successful in your effort to tear down the kingdom of the enemy. For that I salute you. I am proud of you and so is the Lord. And when you go to bed tonight you also will be able to look around you and say, "Hey! Guess what? I'm still here! The devil didn't stop me!"

Hallelujah! I close with these encouraging words: "Hang in there! Never give up! Press on!" Below is a message I wrote called "Cling To The Call." I pray it blesses you because no person who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Feel free to contact me at any time because like Jesus I will be a friend who sticks closer than a brother. God bless.

His servant. Your friend,

Randall J. Brewer

“CLING TO THE CALL”

BY

RANDALL J. BREWER

“Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, ‘Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’

"Then He said to another, ‘Follow Me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.’

"And another also said, ‘Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God’” (Luke 9:57-62).

In other words, God expects you to finish what you begin. He did not anoint you with His power just so you could run away when the going gets tough. 1 Chron. 14:8 says, “Now when the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. And David heard of it and went out against them.” Like David, you’ve been anointed for a reason. God has poured His power into your life so you can fulfill your call. We are in this battle to win and not fail.

Paul writes in Rom. 11:29, “For the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable.” God is not going to go back on the call He placed on your life. Whatever it is He called you to do will always be there. It is up to us as to whether or not we’ll cling to the call and not run away.

In Paul’s final letter before his death he tells of a man who turned his back on the call on his life. 2 Tim. 4:9,10 says, “Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica.”

Or how about the rich young ruler? “Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up your cross and follow Me.’ But he was sad at this word, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions” (Mark 10:21,22).

Both of these men had a call on their life and they turned their back on what God wanted them to do. Yes, Satan has mounted an all out assault against those who have been anointed by God to fulfill His purpose on planet earth. This means we’ve got to dig our heals into the ground, cling to the call, and never, never give up.

Tests and trials come to all Christians and sometimes we slip and fall. There is, however, no shame in falling as long as you pick yourself up and continue the quest to fulfill your heavenly call. Ps. 37:23,24 says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholds him with His hand.”

A similar verse is found in Micah 7:8, “Do not rejoice when I fall, my enemy; When I fall, I shall arise; When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.” The Christian life can be compared to a long distance marathon. The twenty-six mile marathon is a race that demands perseverance, discipline, and an unwillingness to quit. If we apply this same tenacious determination to have “a walk worthy of the calling with which you were called” (Eph. 4:1), if we “run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1b), we are assured by the Word that we will live a victorious life.

Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 2:14, “Now thanks be to God Who always leads us to triumph in Christ.” We need to always remember that the word “Christ” means ‘the anointed One and His anointing.’ What this verse is telling us is that God will give you the victory over the enemy as long as you continue to flow in the power of the anointing.

The battle may be the Lord’s but in order for us to walk in the victory that He died to win for us we all must have the heart of a champion. A champion is a person who doesn’t quit. If you fall you are not a failure. If you fall and quit, then you are a failure.

Thomas Edison failed in thousands of experiments as he tried to fulfill his dream of inventing the light bulb. But he didn’t quit. Because he didn’t, today we all benefit from the results brought about by this man who had the heart of a champion. Likewise, Abraham Lincoln lost several elections in his lifetime but he also didn’t quit. Eventually he was elected to the highest office in the land and became one of the greatest presidents in the history of the United States.

A champion never quits! A champion will always focus on the outcome of whatever it is he is trying to do. Abraham, as he was leading young Isaac up the mountain to offer him as a sacrifice to the Lord, kept his faith focused on the promise God had given him. He knew that if necessary God could raise up his son even from the dead in order to fulfill the promise that he would become the father of many nations.

Joseph kept alive in his heart the dream God had given him that one day he would be in a position of authority. Before this happened he was first sold into slavery by his jealous brothers and later thrown into prison for shunning the lustful advances of Potiphar’s wife. Despite all this Joseph was a champion of the highest order and he didn’t quit. Eventually he became a wise leader in Egypt second only to Pharaoh and one day his Godly wisdom helped save the lives of thousands of people when a seven-year drought ravaged the land.

Among those saved because Joseph hung on to the dream God had given him were the members of his own family. Later, after the death of his father, Joseph tearfully listened to his older brothers as they pled for their very lives. They cried out and said it was their father’s final wish that they be not put to death for selling their younger brother into slavery many years before.

Knowing they deserved the full fury of Joseph’s wrath and expecting it to be put upon them, they went and fell down before him offering their total servanthood. How shocked they must have been as they heard the warm hearted Joseph speak these famous words, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now, therefore, do not be afraid. I will care for you and your little ones” (Gen. 50:19-21).

The message Joseph was conveying is that when things go wrong, when plans get interrupted, if you will put your trust in God there is always hope and then assurance that your God-given dream will come to pass.

Because there is an enemy arrayed against us, a truth all believers must face is that our plans rarely unfold before us as we originally thought they would. How many times do we set goals and make plans only to have something beyond our control interrupt them?

More than once this happened in the life of the apostle Paul. He writes in Rom. 1:13a, “Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you but was hindered until now…” He says in 1 Thess. 2:18, “Therefore we wanted to come to you - even I, Paul, time and again - but Satan hindered us.”

Did you catch that? Time and again - over and over and over - Paul had his plans interrupted. This was also true in the life of Jesus. Look how many times angry mobs of people drove Him from their presence. He wanted to teach these people and heal them, but His plans were interrupted.

The reality of it all is that if we are to fulfill the call on our lives then we must be ready and prepared for our plans to get interrupted. At the same time we must know what to do about it when they are.

Scripture teaches us that when plans get interrupted one must make the most of what’s left over. Always have a Plan B and a Plan C and a Plan D. God can do just as much with a Plan B as He can with a Plan A.

Look what happened to Paul. We read where he was hindered from going to Rome. That was Plan A. He then moved on to Plan B and wrote these people a letter what we know today as the Book of Romans. What the enemy meant for evil, God meant for good. If the enemy hinders you from fulfilling Plan A as he did with the apostle Paul, then cling to the call on your life and let God help you make the most of Plan B.

By all means, always seek the Lord in everything you do and never, ever stop making plans. The Word says in Prov. 16:9, “A man’s heart plans his way but the Lord directs his steps.” How can the Lord direct your steps if you have no plans?

Wisdom will also dictate that you should never get so wrapped up in Plan A that you don’t make a Plan B. Always make sure you’ve got a spare tire in the trunk of your car. God never intended for Adam and Eve to sin but knowing they would He had a backup plan. His Name was Jesus!

Israel had the evil King Saul as their Plan A for a king but out in some field tending sheep was God’s Plan B, the great King David.

Always have more than one plan and don’t get discouraged if your main plan gets interrupted because it probably will. When it does, give it to God and put all your effort into Plan B. This does not mean you’ve failed. What it probably means is that at this particular time God can do more with Plan B than He can with Plan A.

More than likely Plan A will be fulfilled first and then Plan C and somewhere down the road Plan A will sneak up on you and will also be fulfilled. Never give up on Plan A but do not be afraid to lay it aside and go on to Plan B. Trust God for guidance and when the time is right the manifestation of Plan A will find it’s way into your life.

Paul’s letter to the Romans was written at the end of his third missionary journey but at the conclusion of his fourth and final journey he did indeed end up in Rome. Paul’s Plan A did eventually get fulfilled and from a Roman prison cell came some of his most inspired writings. All things worked out for the good because he clung to his call and never gave up. Plan B got fulfilled and in time so did Plan A.

A lesson to be learned here is rarely in life does Plan A get fulfilled first. Life is full of roadblocks and detours and we must not doubt or get discouraged. The key to receiving it’s eventual fulfillment is to have the strength and maturity to lay it aside and move on to Plan B.

Take the same faith and spiritual energy you had for Plan A and use it instead on Plan B. For sure, when you trust God He will see to it that all your plans get fulfilled. It worked for Joseph, it worked for Paul, and it will work for you as well.

Nothing in this universe happens by accident. For everything there is a reason and a purpose. There is a reason for the sun, the moon, and the stars. There is a reason for summer and winter, spring and fall. Rivers and oceans serve a purpose as do trees and grass, rain and sunshine. There is also a reason and purpose for you. You were not born by accident and before you were conceived God had a preplanned purpose for your life (Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:11).

The end is near and the Spirit of God is moving across this planet like never before. Indeed, the end-time harvest has begun and we need to ask the Father to reveal to s the specific part He wants us to play in this great event.

Col. 1:9,10 says, “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Ever since the Garden of Eden, when God gave man dominion over the earth, He has chosen people to work with Him to get His will and purpose fulfilled on planet earth. He needs faithful servants who will cling to the call and help manifest His presence in the world today. If you have made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life you have been sent to act as a representative for Him everywhere you go.

2 Cor. 5:20 says, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ…” Wherever you may be and whatever you may do, understand that you are representing the King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus said the Father receives glory when we “bear much fruit” (John 15:8). He also said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do because I go to the Father” (John 14:12).

Jesus sent us into the world to do the works of God and He has equipped us with the authority of His Name and the power of His Word. He even sent the Holy Spirit to live inside of us along with the ability to hear and obey His voice. All He is looking for are believers who will cling to the call on their lives and be obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit as He directs you to the fulfillment of that call.

Nobody can determine what will become of your life but you. Rom. 4:18 says Abraham “contrary to hope, in hope believed that he might become…” Abraham was an old man and was still planning and working on what he was to become. In faith he set out to become “the father of many nations.” There is no standing still in the kingdom of God.

All believers are on a journey to become something and if you do not know the destination of what you are to become there is an easy way to find out. You are going to become whatever comes out of your mouth. Your life will always move in the direction of your strongest, most dominate thought. Listen to yourself. If you don’t like what you hear you can change it by thinking, talking, and acting on God’s Word.

To change what’s coming out of your mouth you must refocus your attention. Turn it toward God’s Word and keep it there. Fill your heart with an abundance of God’s Word and your mouth will get in line. Matt. 12:34 says, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” As you diligently do this you’ll be changed from the inside out.

By giving God your total, undivided attention you’ll readily recognize what He wants you to do. Respond quickly to what He says and begin to build your life around the revelation which has become your call in life. Before long God will give you a confirmation of the vision He placed in your heart just as He gave Joseph two dreams to confirm the call on his life (Gen. 37:5,9).

Your vision from God, when grabbed onto, will become your reason and purpose for living. Your future will be consumed by your desire to fulfill totally and completely this high calling from God. 1 Cor. 7:20 says, “Let each man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.” God’s will if for you to abide in your call and cling to it. In the Old Testament the book of Ruth tells the story of a young maiden who clung to her future calling and dream. Let’s review her story.

After the death of their two husbands, Ruth and Oprah were encouraged by their mother-in-law Naomi to return to their homeland of Moab while she herself returned to the land of Judah. The city of Moab was named after the son of Lot born through an incestuous union with his eldest daughter (Gen. 19:37).

The Moabites grew hostile toward the people of God and as a result the Israelites were commanded to exclude them from the congregation to the tenth generation and to maintain a coldness and indifference toward them forever (Deut. 23:3-6; Neh. 13:1).

Moab was a cursed city whereas the land of Judah was considered to be the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. For Ruth and Oprah, Moab represented a sinful past whereas Judah was the symbol of a glorious future with the living God.

In one’s pursuit for the fulfillment of a heavenly call the first thing a person should do is forget the past. 2 Cor. 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things become new.”

When God called Joshua forth to cross over the Jordan River into the Promised Land the first thing He said to him was, “Moses My servant is dead.” In other words, Moses was their leader for forty years but now he’s gone. Pick up the pieces and move on. Forget about the past and aim toward the future. Go forward and not backward.

Paul says in Phil. 3:13b, “…but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” In the book of Ruth Naomi was God’s connection to a higher calling for the two recently widowed young maidens. Ruth 1:14,15 tells us that Oprah kissed Naomi goodbye and returned to her people in Moab. Ruth, however, clung to her precious and much loved mother-in-law.

By clinging to Naomi, Ruth was in fact clinging to her heavenly call. Listen to the love and devotion coming out of this young maiden’s heart as she responds to Naomi’s encouragement to return to Moab. “But Ruth said, ‘Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. The Lord do to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me” (Ruth 1:17,18).

Because Ruth clung to her call, represented by Naomi, she later became the great-grandmother of King David and was in the blood lineage of Christ. Her story is still told thousands of years later. Fulfilling the call on your life will take time, commitment, and a refusal to quit. Oprah walked away from her call, Ruth did not. The Bible says, “many are called but few are chosen” (Matt. 20:16). Those who get chosen are the ones who cling to the call. Do it today.

PRAISE GOD
BLESSED BE THE ONE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD