Greetings family and friends in the name of Jesus Christ. The blog today is for the citizenry of heaven’s kingdom. First, let’s share a brief history lesson. Conscription, sometimes called the draft, is the compulsory enlistment of people in a national service, most often a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day under various names. President Roosevelt’s signing of the Selective Training and Service Act on September 16, 1940, began the first peacetime draft in the United States. The last draft call was on December 7, 1972, and the authority to induct expired on June 30, 1973. Being born in 1952, I was classified as 1-H (Holding) when the lottery for Vietnam ended. During the 1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon campaigned on a promise to end the draft. He had first become interested in the idea of an all-volunteer army during his time out of office, based upon a paper by Martin Anderson of Columbia University.
The irony in the Kingdom of Heaven is it is both a conscription and voluntary call to service. It is a paradox. Make no mistake about it. When you are transformed into a new creature who is the disciple of Jesus Christ you are called into service. How you respond may be somewhat voluntary. But the consequences of that choice carry eternal impact. Said, another way, God’s choices count and your choices matter. With that introduction I want to draw your attention to the right choice for your life in ministry, that is, in the service of our King.
There was a time when twelve men were given an opportunity to make a choice. Two chose wisely and ten did not.
Num 13:30-31, NKJV
- Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”
- But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”
You know the historical account. That decision of the majority cost everybody forty years of their lives in the desert or their life in the process. From that group, only the two faithful ones entered the promised land. Not even their leader, Moses, was able to enter the promised land.
So, the question seems obvious. You, citizens of heaven, members in the family of God, and called according to the service to which you are called in Christ Jesus, how will you respond to God’s conscription on you and your ministry? This is for today, in this moment. It is not for some later time when it becomes convenient. There is never going to be a time when convenience determines the correct choice in your call for service. Service is a commitment, a devotion, a choice based on faith and anticipated consequences, not on convenience.
In 2016, Christine Caine spoke these timeless words. “We live in a world that is full of injustice, that is full of pain. In your own nation, I don’t know that there’s been a more pivotal time than where we are right now, and this is not the time for the church to fall back. This is not the time for the church to pull back. This is the time for the church to arise, for the leaders in the house of God to understand the purposes of God, to understand the plans of God, to be full of the courage of God, and to say, ‘We are well able to go and take the land. We are well able to lead our people in the midst of the darkness, in the midst of the despondency, in the midst of confusion.’ It is the people of God that ought to be arising.”
Her challenge is timeless because it is the same true challenge that has faced the people of God from antiquity to now and will continue until our Lord’s return. What is God calling you to step into during these tumultuous times?
You are reading this because you are a Ministry Leader. Whether a Board of Director, a Ministry Director, an Officer in an organization, a Pastor, or simply the exalted Servant of the Most High God as a Soldier of the Cross whose number has just been drawn. Today’s challenge is for you to decide how you will respond to the “Call of God” on your life and ministry. Please understand you are working within a body, an army, of believers. So, do not take off in some direction without letting the rest of the body know what you are doing. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
In Numbers 13:30-31 cited above, both groups of people reporting were exactly right in their assessments. In verse 30, Caleb and Joshua, reporting through Caleb, knew they could take the land. They knew they were “well able to possess” the prize, to reach the goal. Likewise, the other ten men reporting in verse 31 knew they were not strong enough and would be overthrown in their attempt to take the land. How can that be true? How can both groups be correct? They were both accurate because they were reporting on two different things. Caleb and Joshua were reporting from the perspective of what God can do. The other ten were reporting from the element of human ability.
Do not be afraid to attempt the heavenly goal(s) at God sized levels. Do not be misled to thinking only the elements of human capacity should determine your possibilities. You are not being conscripted into an earthly nation’s forces. You, YOU, dear family, and friends, are conscripted into the services of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. YOU, because it is really Christ in you, are well able to succeed in the service, the ministry, to which you have been called.
The word minister means servant (*-See Below). You are on assignment, in a mission, responsible to the King we call Jesus Christ. You are to FOCUS ON JESUS AND FOLLOW HIS PLAN. Too many have clouded the mission of the Church by reducing it to what mankind can do. That is an unacceptable level of service. In farming, it is like using a double dual wheeled, four-wheeled drive tractor to pull a mower to mow a small yard. It is not the right fit for the job. Friend, YOU have been called to do great things in the name of Jesus Christ. Right where you are now, right in what you are doing in the Church of Jesus Christ, how can you take the offensive and do the God-sized ministry to which you have been called? Only you and the elements you choose to allow you to hesitate are holding you back.
Pandemic, economic collapse, hardened hearts of mankind, inability to assemble in traditional forms, nothing can stop you from doing what God wants you to do. It is not what you or I wants but what God has called you to do that is important. You are where you are because this is where you need to be. YOU ARE WELL ABLE! WE ARE WELL ABLE. The victory is the LORD’s!
REMEMBER: Do not hesitate in your ministry. You already have the right tools, the right knowledge, the right training, and you will receive additional training as needed. Most of all, you have the right POWER, the power of the risen Lord who is within you. Move forward, take the field. Report to others, sharing on SWD Media and with your Superintendent and Fellow Ministers, the successes God is doing in your ministry. Do not become isolated during isolation. You are part of an army, the LORD’s Army. You are not alone, a single soldier, on an enemy’s frontier. YOU ARE WELL ABLE to make a GOD-Sized response to his call upon your life and ministry. We will celebrate your victories together at the celebration table of our Lord.
Be strong and courageous in the Lord Jesus Christ. Focus on Jesus and follow His Plan.
* Thayer’s Greek Definitions
G1249
διάκονος
diakonos
Thayer Definition:
1) one who executes the commands of another, especially of a master, a servant, attendant, minister
1a) the servant of a king
1b) a deacon, one who, by virtue of the office assigned to him by the church, cares for the poor and has charge of and distributes the money collected for their use
1c) a waiter, one who serves food and drink
Part of Speech: noun masculine or feminine
A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: probably from an obsolete diako (to run on errands, compare G1377)
Citing in TDNT: 2:88, 152
