The theme for today’s daily devotional by Pastor Enoch Adeboye is ”When God Calls You 1”.
SCRIPTURE: I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;” – Ephesians 4:1-2 (KJV).
The call of God is actually a call to God. Many people think that when God calls them, it is a call to something, whereas it is a call to Him. When He calls you, He is saying, “Come closer to me”. In Mark 3:14, the Bible says that the first reason He called the disciples was that they should be with Him.
The call of God is two-fold. First, He can call you to leave your sinful ways, to leave the kingdom of darkness and come to Him in the Kingdom of light. This is the call He made in Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”. We will focus on this first call today.
This call is the very one that every human being will receive. When you are in a service and you hear the preacher making the altar call, it is actually God Himself calling out to sinners to leave their sinful ways and come to Him for salvation.
There was a very notorious young man who brought someone to Church with his motorcycle. He waited for a little while outside the Church and listened to the sermon. When the altar call was made he considered surrendering his life to Christ, but then decided against it and zoomed off. Unfortunately, he got involved in an accident later that day and died. If only he had answered the altar call when it was made! Even if he had still died, at least he would have made it to heaven.
God’s call unto salvation is extended to everyone. He desires to call all sinners out of darkness into His marvellous light. He is seeking to make everyone a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation and a peculiar people (1 Peter 2:9). Some however, heed God’s call, become saved then start to sin again wilfully. Such people are not fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62) and He has promised to spue such out of His mouth if they do not retrace their steps back to Him. (Revelation 3:16).
Open Heaven For Today 11 June 2023 KEY POINT:
God’s call to salvation is a call to holiness. If you don’t live holy, you are rejecting the call.