Called
and Chosen
Recently
I listened a Don Nori video someone had posted on Facebook. In the
video it said we have to let go of something we've held onto to go
into the place God is desiring for His people. Mr. Nori indicated
that the “pentecostal experience” has to be laid down for us to
enter into the supernatural realm that God has called us to operate
in. And the words that caught my attention were God has called.
I
thank Mr. Nori for being used of Holy Spirit to stir up this message
in me. While he went on to discuss the letting go to enter in
process the thought that “all are called” stuck in my mind and
which I invite you to explore with me in this message.
In
Matthew 20 Matthew shares with us one of Jesus' parables of the
kingdom of heaven and likens it to the owner of an estate who went
out in the morning and found laborers who agreed to a certain wage.
At the third hour and again at the 11th hour he hired more workers,
the last ones, of course, not working very long. The first workers
complained at the end of the day that the last ones hired got the
same wage as those hired in the morning. Jesus responds to the
complaints saying,among other things; “...those who are last will
be first and those who are first will be last.” Then some
manuscripts add For many are called but few are chosen.”
Then
we go to Matthew 22 to yet another parable of the Kingdom of heaven.
Matt: 22: 2-14: The kingdom of
heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son and sent
his servants to summon those who had been invited to the wedding
banquet, but they refused to come. Again he sent other servants,
saying, Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have prepared my
banquet; my bullocks and my fat calves are killed and everything is
prepared; come to the wedding feast. But they were not concerned and
paid no attention and they went away – one to his farm, another to
his business. While the others seized his servants, treated them
shamefully, and put them to death. [Hearing this] the king was
infuriated; and he sent his soldiers and put those murderers to death
and burned their
cities. Then he said to his
servants, the wedding is prepared, but those invited were not worthy.
So go to the thoroughfares where they leave the city and invite to
the wedding feast as many as you can find.
And those servants went out on
the crossroads and got together as many as they found, both bad and
good, so the wedding feast was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to
view the guests, he looked intently at the man there who had on no
wedding garment. And he said, Friend, how did you come in here
without putting on the wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then
the king said to the attendants, Tie him hand and foot and throw him
into the darkness outside; there will be weeping and grinding of
teeth. For many are called (invited and summoned) but few are
chosen. (Amplified)
The word called here is
the word (2822 )
kletos in the Greek with root meaning of being invited
and figuratively a “calling.” People can “call you” to give
you an invitation to a party or to a wedding. We all know that if
we get an invitation to a wedding or a party or get a note in the
mail or email saying we are hired for a job, get “called” for a
job, that we must respond to that “call” or “invitation” if
we want the job, or be party to the wedding, etc.
Chosen is the word
eklektos (1588)
which comes from a root that
relates to the individual, even to the being called by name,the ones
“elected”. So if I received a wedding invitation, I become the
“chosen one” or the “elect” when I arrive at the wedding with
my invitation and am escorted into the wedding or the party, etc.
In the two parables of the
kingdom of heaven, it makes a distinction between those invited and
those who attended. The first parable is about the calling process
and that it doesn't make any difference if you were the first called
or the second or the third, at the beginning of the day, in the
middle or at noon. The key is, do you respond to the call and that
invitation welcomes all to whom it is extended regardless of the
timing. All get the same reward. This first parable is about the
oneness that is involved in the call. The second parable deals with
this issue also but an additional aspect of the call. In the first
with the call came the common wage regardless of when the call came.
The second parable it is about the call itself. The call or
invitation provides with it the equipping to be qualified to be a
part of the wedding, the party, or whatever the call was to.
In
Matthew 22 it speaks of those who had earlier been “bidden” or
“called” , that were not worthy. This about those that were
called. Those who had already
been called. Clearly the calling isn't what makes us “worthy.”
Yet we are told the calling and the one who called are One. He who
calls us is worthy and therefore to as many as respond to the call,
respond to the Caller.
If
we are going to fully understand the meaning of this calling and
chosen, we will need to understand the context in which it is
written. These are parables of the kingdom of heaven. In both these
parables Jesus is referring to what the kingdom of heaven is like.
In looking up Appendix 114 of The Companion Bible we
see the word kingdom is basileia
and refers to sovereignty not territory and the sphere of influence
rather than extent, which in common languages refers to the dominion
of the king...king's dominion. And as we look at this more clearly,
here Jesus is talking about how things are seen from the heavenly
sphere. So as we look at the terms called and
chosen we are looking
at language that deals with the heavenly sphere of influence and
sovereignty.
What
does this have to do with “calling.” Jesus is telling us, it
appears, that in the heavenly realm, from the throne of his
rulership, his call and invitation to me qualifies them within
kingdom sphere. However, it is conditional on it being responded to.
Those who responded to the call, became “worthy” of the call by
the caller. Those who didn't heed the call, did not receive or walk
in the value that was extended to them in the call. And in the call
there is a “wage” or a “reward” as some may call it. In
Ephesians 1:3 (Amplified)
it speaks of “our Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly realm.”
Our
choice, then, as we consider our “callings” or our invitations to
ministry, is to decide if we are going to respond to the Caller and
make sure our calling (2821)
and election (1588.)
( 2 Peter 1:10) The responsibility of the one who recognizes the
invitation and has chosen to respond to that is the development of
the character of the Caller Himself, to develop diligence, virtue,
knowledge, self-control, steadfastness piety, brotherly affection and
Christian love.
To
be “unworthy” or to not be worthy
is to not accept the calling, to not respond to that call which
constitutes our “election” or being chosen. If I receive an
invitation, I don't become “chosen” until I take that invitation
and it is activated at the wedding or party. When I am attending the
party or wedding, I become the “chosen.” If I just stay home and
hold onto the invitation card or the text message on my phone or
email, I have not been yet chosen. I have only been “called.”
Jesus
adds one other detail to this invitation/calling issue and that is
the wedding garment. My understanding is that in the Jewish wedding
the participants, those that had been invited were given a garment to
wear as they entered the wedding. It was a garment of the groom's
choice for those he had invited. It was, in part, the recipients way
of acknowledging the value of the one who gave the invitation. It was
a way of honoring the giver of the invitation, the “caller”. And
it gave the honor of the caller to the one who was invited. Our
“callings” don't give us any sense of importance. Our importance
comes from the Caller and our choice to receive and activate that
invitation by receiving the garment and attending the event to which
we have been invited.
Now to go back k to the where we
started from in this message and the idea that God has called us to
operate in the supernatural realm, which is the realm in which He
lives and moves and has His being. It is the realm in which I live
“in Christ” seated with Him at the right hand of the Father. It
is the realm FROM which all ministry takes place.
So what does this have to do
with “ called and chosen.” It is not enough to be invited into
“ministry.” Many are those who work in ministry, doing the
“works of God” so to speak, raising the dead (haven't seen many
of these on this level), healing the sick, but they have not yet been
chosen. They have not confirmed their election or made sure their
calling by “being conformed to His image.” They are satisfied to
operate even as the goat nations in Matthew 25. But Jesus didn't
“know” them, was not intimately acquainted with them. Does that
mean they didn't have the “garment on”, or they didn't walk in
the worth and value of the One who Called them, they didn't
comprehend that they were the ones the Father had set His eyes upon
for Himself? Perhaps these are some of the questions we might ponder
and ask ourselves.
Mr. Nori speaks of leaving the
“pentecostal experience” and moving into the supernatural realm
that God has called us into. As we move forth in this period which
many call the “Third Day” we are becoming more and more aware
even as we read of the writings of the saints of old, that God's
invitation was to be “seated with Him in heavenly places.” We
understand that we have been called because we have been reconciled
to the Father. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “thy kingdom
come they will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” He taught us
that whatsoever we bind on earth is what is to be bound in heaven.
Sometimes
I find that we talk of the “supernatural realm” as if it were
some mystical strange place, not the foundational holy ground where
we have been chosen to live and move and have our being in Christ,
seated with Him in heavenly places at the right hand of God. OK , I
will be honest, I have much to learn about what this means and even
more to walk in that dimension here on the earthly realm. Many of
you reading this are more experienced in dealing with what some refer
to as supernatural or spiritual dimensions. However, experience
alone does not mean that we have made sure our calling and election!
Yet without the experiences and “works” there is no evidence of
our seating with Christ.
What kind of things can we think
of in our own lives that we have done out of our comfort zone as
“Christians” and even “Pentecostal” or “Charismatic”
Christians rather than our of Who Christ is in us and who we are in
Him and our place in the heavenly realm? Think of how easy it is to
prophesy our of the pull on our flesh man, our of our soul realm
rather than from our position in Christ and what the Holy Spirit is
actually saying?
As
I was studying this I also found a scripture I hadn't paid any
attention to deapite the many times I have read Ephesians in 2:7
that tells us he hath raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the
ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in
kindness towards us through Jesus Christ.
I know a few folks who have tasted and operate occasionally in the
power of the age to come. I trust this is another whole area for
us to ponder and inquire of the Lord as to its meaning.
Yet all of this, is dependent on
our willingness to accept the invitation, to put on the garment which
is our “righteousness” that comes from being “in Him.” How
many of us can remember the time when we knew the invitation but had
not really made sure our calling or election? We hadn't put on
Christ. We weren't being molded and shaped into His image. We hadn't
presented ourselves as living sacrifices, being renewed in the spirit
of our minds, casting down every thought and imagination that exalted
itself before the throne of God?
Today
God continues to call. The invitation goes to all. And that
invitation is without repentance. ( Romans 11:29) Just because
people don't respond to His invitation doesn't mean that He withdraws
it. It is there until the last breath. All of the callings of God
must be responded to by our own choice of receiving the Caller and
becoming conformed to His image as we put on that wedding garment,
which is His right relationship with the Father. Seated we are with
Him in heavenly places, how can our callings be anything else but
“supernatural?”
Rev. Meri Ford
