“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble.” 2 Peter 1:10
Throughout the Bible, in particular the New Testament, and this specifically revealed, with regard to Jesus’s teachings and the Apostle’s writings, the issue and subject of KNOWING the truth, and being fully persuaded of its application and working in the life, is an essential matter. It is not the will of God that the believer be “double-minded,” or that he doubts that which is declared as truth to his heart. It is also not the will of God that a believer not KNOW what his calling is, both in regard to his relationship with God, but also in regard to that which God has called him or her to trust Him for. Each member of the body of Christ has been given not only a mandate, a “place” and function in the purpose and plan of God but has also been equipped with gifts and capacities that God alone has provided in a more than sufficient manner, so that the believer can go forward with assurance, believing God for His highest and best. It is of great importance to not only know these things, but to become fully convinced of them, so that by faith, there can be a going forth in full assurance of faith, nothing doubting. How is this possible? For something so important, and in need of being clear to the believer, has not God provided the answer?
In both the words of the Lord Jesus and the writings of the Apostles, we find a theme that is not only consistently given to all who will believe but made available to be proved and confirmed to the heart. It is that of the “fruits,” or the proof of the new birth, which the Lord says is essential if one would enter the kingdom of God. So, in the search of every believer coming to KNOW his or her calling from God, the believer must begin at the beginning, the beginning of what the Apostle calls, “…the new creation,” or the “new man” in Christ. It is very important to always begin at the beginning, and though we will not go back into the vast consideration of eternity concerning our calling, we will begin at the moment when the lost sinner becomes a saved soul, having been forgiven of all his sins, and made to be, by the Spirit of God dwelling in the heart, a new person, with a new perspective and means by which to live.
In Wade Robinson’s great hymn, “Loved With Everlasting Love,” he writes: “…Heaven above is softer blue, Earth around is sweeter green; Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen: Birds with gladder songs o’erflow, Flow’ers with deeper beauties shine, Since I know, as now I know, I am His (Christ’s), and He is mine.” Wade Robinson is seeking to communicate through this beautiful stanza that a change has come in the life, so radical and extensive, that it cannot be hidden, nor denied. It is in essence the presence of Christ in the heart and life who manifests HIS life by revealing the fruits of that life, the fruits of the Spirit. There is the freshness of newness, and the increasing knowledge that something eternal, and monumental has taken place in the essence and foundation of the life. That newness is the impartation of Christ’s life by the Spirit, revealing the ways of God and Christ’s life, that he or she may KNOW God, the Father, and Christ by the Spirit.
Beyond the new beginning, with an ever-increasing knowledge of Christ, we discover that He has given to every believer the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The Spirit of God, in answer to believing prayer, begins to fill the believer with the knowledge of God’s will. With the certainty of Love’s faithfulness, God reveals His calling and confirms it.
Dear Father, Confirm Your blessed calling. In Jesus’ name, Amen.