Called to Preach
Throughout our nation
there are hundreds, if not thousands of churches and pastors that have
differences in the doctrines they teach their congregations. Each one of us
seek a church to attend where we see and hear those things being taught that
appear to be truth and what we consider to be a message from God.
The Bible teaches us
that a person must be called of God
and sent by God to preach or
teach the meaning of his Word and if they are not called and sent by God, they
should be considered false preachers and teachers.
Rom 10:15 “And how shall they preach, unless they are sent?
as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”
If all the preachers
and evangelists in the world that say they have been called of God to preach
and teach, really were called and
sent by Him, they would be teaching the
same message and in all cases saying
the same things? Just as Paul instructed those in Corinth to “speak the
same thing”. It stands to reason that they would and there would be no
differences in their doctrines. Because
of this it is evident that all of these people are not sent by God to preach and teach. Most
certainly it does say that to us. Then knowing that we are being instructed by
false teachers, how can we tell which is which? Which ones God has sent and
which ones have not been sent. The scriptures say that the Lord sent preachers
and teachers to bring us into the unity of the faith. How can our bible teachers
keep us in the unity of the faith when they all teach different things?
Eph 4:11-13 “And he gave some, apostles; and some,
prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers”; [12] “For the
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ”: [13] “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and
of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ”:
We read in our Bible,
specifically in Ephesians 4:5, that there is “One Lord, one faith, one
baptism”. This one Lord would be speaking the
same thing to all of his people and by way of those teachers He has sent,
would be teaching us the principles of the “one faith”.
Satan set out in the
Garden of Eden to deceive Eve and cause her to fall out of the will of God and
he succeeded. He was so successful doing this in the beginning that he has
continued now for thousands of years and is even more
subtle now than he was then. For in this day, he does not appear to us in the
form of a beast of the field, but in the
form of a minister. Can you believe
that? Will you believe what the Bible says? And if you do not believe
this, then read what it says in 2nd Corinthians 11:14-15.
“Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light” and his
ministers are transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end
shall be according to their works.”
Yes his ministers
will pay for the errors they teach because of being so deceived, but that is
not the worst part, so will those innocent followers that are being misguided
by their false teachings.
So what can we do?
How can we be certain that a person truly sent by God is teaching us? The Lord
said that in the last days, the false teaching would be so close to the truth
that it could deceive even the elect. And I say to you, if you do not follow
the leading of the Spirit and keep
His Word, you will not be able to tell which is the truth and which is
false. For Jesus said, the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth and teach
you.
Note exactly what was
stated in the above paragraph. It is absolutely imperative to keep His Word. There is only one truth
and that is His Word as He spoke
it in the beginning, just as He gave it to His Prophets and Apostles. We
cannot depend on what any man teaches us, without determining if it lines up
with the original scriptures. We each, as individuals, have the
responsibility to insure that we know what the truth is and hold to that truth,
just as He gave it to them in the beginning.
Now even in the days
of Jesus, the apostles could do nothing unless Jesus ordained them and sent
them. Does the Bible not say that He
gave them power against unclean spirits, to heal all sickness and disease and to preach the gospel? And when the twelve apostles went out,
they did all these things because He
sent them. There were definite signs that followed them confirming their
ministry.
Mat 10:7-8 “And as
you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” [8] “Heal the sick,
cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely you have received,
freely give.”
Some time later,
Jesus also sent out seventy more of his disciples to preach the gospel, cast
out devils and heal the sick. They also were successful in doing these things
because He sent them and those same
signs confirmed their calling.
Luke 10:17 “And the seventy returned again with joy,
saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through your name.”
After the
resurrection of Jesus, He commissioned His Apostles to go into the entire world
and preach the gospel. But He also said to them, wait in the city of Jerusalem for
the Holy Spirit to come upon you, and then you will have the power to
accomplish the task I am sending you to do. Now the Greek word “dunamis,” which
was translated into the English word “power,” actually means “miracle-working power.” Jesus
knew that they would need this miracle working power for their ministry to be
effective as it was when He sent them out before. The powers to heal the sick,
cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out devils.
Acts 1:4 “And, being assembled together with them,
commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the
promise of the Father, which, said he, you have heard of me.” Acts 1:5
“For John truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy
Spirit not many days hence.” Acts 1:8 “And you shall receive power, after the
Holy Spirit is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth.”
It’s the same today.
He must send you and you must be
baptized with the Holy Spirit in order to have the power to do the works He
is sending you to do. If the signs are
not following a person’s ministry, as they were in the apostle’s days, then
the Lord has not sent that person.
In the third chapter
of Jeremiah, the Lord says “I will give you pastors according to my heart”. And
again in Romans 10:15, Paul says, “How shall they preach, unless they are
sent?” The Lord God will confirm the ministry of those he sends to preach, with signs and wonders and all those he
sends will speak the same message, if they stay true to their calling.
On the day of
Pentecost, after they were baptized
with the Holy Spirit, Peter gave his first sermon to the Jewish people. The
very first day three thousand people were converted, not because that was the
first time they had been preached to, but because the Holy Spirit confirmed Peter’s calling with many signs and wonders.
Acts 2:43 “And fear came upon every soul: and many
wonders and signs were done by the apostles.”
There are a lot of
men called to preach in this day, but how many of them have been called by the
Lord and sent to preach?
Can you tell if the Lord has sent a
man or not? In some cases you can
because they are so far off of the Word and have no signs following their ministry, it is
obvious that they have not been sent.
But in other cases,
there are those that are so close to the
truth, maybe just a little bit off or just changing the meaning a little
bit, that you will not be able to detect it unless you have the Holy Spirit
confirming God’s Word to you. Nothing will take the place of your own personal
confirmation of the truth of the Word by the Holy Spirit.
How does a person
know for himself/herself personally if they have
been called by the Lord into the ministry? The answer to that is if you have
any doubt at all, then God has not called you. Let us look back into history
and see how God has called people into service before.
God called Moses by speaking to him from a burning bush and
confirmed his call to the people with certain signs. Moses knew from an early
age that he had been called of God for a certain work, but it was very
late in his life before he was sent to do that work. He first had to be prepared
by God for that ministry, which was done after spending 40 years in the
wilderness. Moses was called, prepared and sent by God.
God called Gideon by sending an angel messenger to him and
confirmed that call with certain signs.
Paul the Apostle heard the voice of the Lord in a bright
light and God confirmed his call with a sign of prophecy being fulfilled. Paul
received his call, but was not sent out to preach until he had received the baptism of the Spirit and
prepared himself for three years to do the Lord’s work. Many signs and wonders
followed Paul’s ministry. (Acts 15:12)
The twelve apostles
were called by Jesus personally, but were told to wait for the baptism of the
Holy Spirit before they started their ministry. Only with the power of God performing signs and wonders in their
ministry would it be effective. The confirmation of your being sent by God,
with signs and wonders following your ministry, is necessary for it to
accomplish God’s will.
Many others in the
Bible received their calling as God spoke through His prophets. Others God
spoke to directly or through angels. I believe that when God calls a person
into service, it is as clear as any other instruction someone in authority
gives you. Many men in this day use the scriptures as the sign of their calling
and say when they read a certain passage that God was telling them to start
preaching. There has probably been many a man called into the ministry,
but the man, instead of waiting for God to send him out, thought that he was
ready and impatiently started on his own, only to fail because he did not wait
for the anointing from God.
What are the signs that will follow the ministry of one who has
been called into service by the Lord? This is very important for all believers
to know in order to recognize that a person has been sent by the Lord to minister to his
children. If we follow one who has not been commissioned by the Lord, it will
be like the blind leading the blind and both will fall into the ditch.
In Matthew, the 11th
chapter, Jesus told the disciples of John the Baptist to go tell John certain
things that would convince him that God had sent Jesus.
He said to tell John
about the things they saw happening;
the blind were receiving their sight, the lame were walking, lepers were being
cleansed, the deaf were receiving their hearing and the dead were being raised.
Without the evidence of
those signs and wonders, John would not have been convinced that Jesus was the
sent one.
When Jesus sent his
twelve apostles out
to preach to the Israelites, He gave
them power to do those same miracles that He was doing. Without those signs following their
ministry, the people would not believe that they were sent by God and would not
hear the message being preached to them. For the miracles were to get the
people’s attention and cause them to believe that God had sent them out to
preach.
If those same signs
are not following man’s ministry today, how can we be sure that God has
commissioned him to preach the gospel? We cannot be sure!
Look at the story of
Moses in the 4th chapter of Exodus. Moses told God that he did not think the people would believe
him no matter what he said, so God gave Moses some signs to prove to the people that He had
sent him. The same must be true today; signs
and wonders being performed in Jesus’ name will evidence the proof of God’s
calling.
The Lord said in John
10:27 that His sheep will hear His voice and will follow Him. Today we hear many voices saying they
are of God. They say believe this, go this way, do these things, abstain from
certain other things. How can we be sure that we are listening to the right
voice? Hebrews 13:8 states that Jesus never changes. He is the same today as He
was then. He is doing the same things, preaching the same gospel and performing
the same miracles to prove the calling of those that have been ordained by God.
Heb 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today,
and forever.”
Mal 3:6 “For I <am> the LORD, I [change not];
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
Man not only has a
responsibility to be sure that he is called by God to preach before he enters
the pulpit, but he also has a responsibility to insure that what he is
preaching is the truth of God’s Word.
Just because the
Bible has been handed down to us through the past generations and we have been
told that it is the Word of God, does not relieve us of the responsibility of
insuring that what it contains is the truth of God’s Word. A person would not
pick up any other book and believe everything it says without reservation,
unless he researched it to the best of his ability and felt confident about
what it said.
So knowing that man,
who is not infallible, has translated the original scriptures into another
language that we can understand, we owe it to God and to those who we are to
teach, that what we are teaching is identical to what the original scriptures
said.
Just as Paul the
Apostle told Timothy to study to show himself approved, so must all other men
who believe they have been called to preach God’s Word. If every preacher
living today studied God’s Word to insure that what he was teaching was
identical to the original scriptures, we all would be in the unity of the faith
today and these diverse doctrines that have divided God’s people would not
exist.
There is a difference
between being called of God to
preach and being sent by God. In
between the calling and sending is a period of consecration and preparation.
The apostles were not
ready to be sent out when they first received their call from the Lord. There
was a period of learning the Word as they followed Jesus during His ministry.
There was a period of consecration after His crucifixion and resurrection, when
they determined in their hearts that His Word was in fact true and determined
to consecrate their lives to the ministry of His Word. Only then were they
prepared to receive the anointing of the Spirit and be sent out to perform His
work.
It is not enough just
to be called of God and then start out to preach the gospel. All men are not
called to preach, some are called to do other things. After God’s calling, a
person must determine what God has called them to do and prepare himself for
that specific work. First, it takes consecration, preparing yourself to
give all you have to the calling you have received. When you are prepared, then
God will give you the power necessary to fulfill your calling by His anointing
upon you. Then, and only then are you ready to be sent out to do the work He
has called you to do.
If God has called a
man to preach the gospel as He did the apostles, then He will give that man the
same thing the apostles received and signs
and wonders will confirm his calling. If these signs and wonders do not follow his ministry, then he either
was not called to preach or he did not properly prepare himself to be sent out.
Too many times man gets in a hurry to do what he thinks God has called him to
do before he is properly prepared. He
fails to wait for God to anoint him for the work and send him out into a
ministry.
Nowhere in the Bible
did the Lord ever send a man to preach the gospel without confirming his
calling with signs and wonders following his ministry. In John 10:37, it is
recorded that Jesus said: “If I do not the works of
my father, believe me not.” Why shouldn’t that apply to any man that
says God sent him? Should it be any different now? The answer is absolutely not.
