Remember Your Calling

Wayne Matthews

June 16, 2012

I remember some time ago (I think it was around about four years ago), I’d been asked a question, and the answer to the question that I gave was that I was working on plan ‘A’.  I remember that quite distinctly because of the vision that I possessed.  Well, there is good news; I am personally still working on plan ‘A’.

Something that has happened recently has given me the opportunity to reflect on my calling.  So brethren, do you remember your calling?  Because I distinctly remember mine and my calling began around thirty years ago, and in that time I have been working from that day of my baptism on this plan ‘A’.  And in this plan ‘A’ there are sections that I’m not aware of and as I continue forward there are things I’m not aware of...but I’ve had time to reflect on it.  I reflect at times when my wife and myself lived in a caravan park with my two children.  I remember times when I had absolutely nothing and a member of the Body of Christ delivered a food basket at the front door (rang the doorbell and left) because other than that we had nothing to eat.

I remember times when I was bankrupt; I had nothing, absolutely nothing.  I remember in the very house, I can picture it; I remember going off in a particular corner in the dining room and saying to God, “I have no idea where to go from here – absolutely none!”  And I had tears!  I had no idea because I was trying to do it all myself.  Well, I put the house on the market because I had no choice, and a house that was overvalued, in the winter (up where we lived there was hail, there was freezing, everything was frozen over, the car was frozen over), one week later a person from Queensland where it’s 30C all the time basically came down and bought a small house and they had two or three children.  That was a miracle!  Why would somebody come from Queensland to Melbourne and buy this house?  I knew why they bought it, because it was the only way out.

So I remember many things in my calling.  I remember all the ups and downs and the moving forward; but I have always known the way of life that I chose in 1982/1983.  I know the way and what I’ve been asked to do by God.

So brethren, do you remember your calling?  Well, there are some in the Bible - and I will hopefully get time today to cover two in particular - and they are obvious callings.  The first one is Moses and his calling and the second one is the apostle Paul and his calling.  And you’ll find in scripture that the apostle Paul recounted or talked about his calling to others when he was asked about what happened to him; more than once that he did that.

But firstly, let’s look at two obvious callings. The first one is Moses in Exodus 3:1.  And in this, brethren, I’m asking the question, “Do you remember your calling?”  Do you remember?  ...and the things you’ve had to face?

Now, at this point Moses is around eighty years of age.  Exodus 3:1 – Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back of the desert, and he came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Verse 2 - And the angel/messenger of the LORD/Eternal appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush: now, this hasn’t happened to us where you’re seeing something and it’s obvious that this is not normal.  This is a manifestation to appear physical so Moses could see it.  So, he, Moses, looked, and, behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.  Then Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn. When the Eternal saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him... God called to him.  So, to me, I remember the day that I saw something that I’d never seen before, and I hope we have time to get to it.  But I remember the exact scripture that I saw and its part of the beginning of my calling and no one can take that from me because I saw something that no one else could see.  That’s where the difficulty comes in. But I saw something.  So God called me, and at the same time, fortunately, I was blessed that my wife was called at the same time.

...from the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am. A calling is when God reveals or begins to reveal Himself to us by the power of His holy spirit, and it’s in the mind.  We begin to think differently about things.  That’s what our calling really is.

Verse 5 - Then He said, Do not draw near to this place: take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. And of course, in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (I’m not going to turn there) we know that only God can make something holy.  So, if God’s spirit dwells in us we are holy.  And of course that is one of the reasons why we should never pull down a member of the Body of Christ, because God has set them aside for holy use and purpose, they’re sanctified by God for holy use, for a use and who are we to then criticise what God is using - very presumptuous of us if we do that.

Verse 6 - Moreover He said, I am the God of your Father, Yahweh Elohim, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God.  So there was a fear here, which of course at this point in time it’s a physical fear.

And the Eternal said, I have surely seen the oppression of My people, now, some of these scriptures should jump out at us, brethren.  Here is God saying, ‘I surely have seen the oppression of My people.’  So no matter what we go through on an individual level God says He sees His people.  He sees everything about us and what we may be going through individually, because God’s looking after His Church.  ...My people who are in Egypt, well, we’re in the world, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrow; God knows our pain no matter what it is, at whatever point in our calling we are; from the very beginning right through to today God sees what He is doing with people. And it’s all for a purpose that He’s working out.  It’s the same today.  Any oppression by Satan’s system on any level, no matter what it is, God sees it.  God is not blind to the oppression of His people, individually or collectively.  The Church of God has God’s spirit and therefore God is fully aware of every need we may have.

Verse 8 - I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, well, today it’s very similar to the ‘day of the Lord’ that we are now in.  God sees what is happening, He knows what is happening and He is going to deliver. He is going to deliver His people – that’s a promise.  ...and bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; so we know there are two aspects then.  There’s a spiritual side of it where God will deliver a people - 144,000 over 6,000 years will be delivered into a promised land that many died not inheriting.  And of course the other aspect is we are going to enter into a millennial period which is a deliverance from the bondage of Satan, from that captivity that he has held people in.

...to a place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites ...which is unbelievers.  So God will take over an area where unbelievers are and it will be delivered to a people, His people.  We know spiritually we have been delivered by Passover because we’ve been granted the gift of repentance.  And what a gift that is, brethren, the gift of repentance, the ability to repent of something that we may have said or done or thought, but we can repent at any time.  It’s a wonderful gift that the world doesn’t understand.

Verse 9 - Now therefore, behold the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me: and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians, unbelievers, oppress them.

Verse 10 - Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt; out of the bondage of this world.  So God has promised to deliver us.  So, on a spiritual level we are in the process of being delivered, and it takes time.  It just doesn’t happen instantly.  So, once we are baptized, our sins are forgiven, we then begin a journey; once the hands are laid on us and we receive God’s spirit we enter a journey, and no matter how long it takes, plan ‘A’ continues.  And you know what I’m talking about.  We continue!  We’re still on the same plan.  Nothing has changed, other than hopefully myself internally, but over time I have had the blessing of the ability to think differently.  One way of thinking, a carnal mind over time, of making decisions, learning that while necessarily that wasn’t the best way to do it, or I shouldn’t have said that, or I should have responded differently, checking, repenting, tried to move forward and asking God to strengthen the process in me, which is God living in me.  Now, we are all going through that same thing. Some have only just started...just started; others have been going for thirty, forty, fifty years in plan ‘A’.  Isn’t that marvelous?  Isn’t that wonderful?  I find it so encouraging, so motivating.

Nothing has changed with God’s plan of how He’s going to deliver His people from bondage, physically but also spiritually, nothing is going to change.  God’s plan ‘A’ is perfect and still in place; it’s exactly as God planned it.

Verse 11 – But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?  In other words, “Why call me?!”  Well, I’m sure we’ve all had those feelings somewhere along the line where you think, “Oh, God, why?  Why have you called me at this time?”  But after a while we come to see that we rejoice that we were called.  I rejoice that I was called.  I am so thankful that I am not in the world and I am glad that I have been shown plan ‘A’ and that God dwells in me to see it and to live it.  It’s a blessing.  And the more that we dwell on our calling we can see how God works with us and we learn from error.  Generally we make mistakes and we go, “Whoa!  I shouldn’t have done that!”  That’s how we’re learning, that’s how we were created, to learn, to change, to choose to change, to choose to repent, and that’s a great gift.

So He’s saying, “Why call me?  Why call me to go through all this and face these unbelievers?  Why do I have to go and face Pharaoh?  This is.... this is.... and I don’t really want this job,” is what he’s really saying.

Verse 12 - And so He said, I will surely be with you; Brethren, do we believe that on an individual level?  I do.  But do you?  Do we really believe that God is with us no matter what?  Because here is a promise, God’s saying, ‘I will certainly be with you’, and I know that God has been with me through many trials on a personal level.  Many!  And I know God has been with me and He’s brought me through them.  It’s painful...it’s been painful but I’ve managed to continue to go forward; by the grace of God go I.

...I will certainly be with you and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you:  so God is going to give a proof that God is with Moses. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, in other words, they’re called out like us, called out of the world; you shall serve God on His mountain.  Well, we’ve been called to serve God.  God is with us today.  We are here today because God dwells with us and we in Him.  So, God dwells in us and we in Him. How do we know that?  We know we are in Him because we believe the truth, we believe what He tells us.  So if anybody says, “How do you know you’ve got God’s spirit?  How do you know you dwell in God?”  Well, it’s about a unity of mind, so if we believe the truth God is in us and we in Him.  Isn’t that beautiful?  It’s a wonderful thing, to be able to believe the truth.

So this sign that is given is really, for us, the truth.  The very first sign we have is truth.  Now, we’ve been called into the truth and we have the truth and we stand with the truth, and that is the first sign.  The world has rejected this first sign, that the truth has been preached to the world where God has desired it to go to, but it has been rejected.  Just like Moses...and Moses is worried and saying, “Well, you’ve given me one sign... is that enough?”  We’ll get to that.

So we’ve been called out of this world to serve the living God in His holy mountain, in His Church.  We can serve God in spirit and truth.  So, we serve God in spirit and truth.  I remember one time somebody was talking about fellowship and an answer came back to that person saying, “Well, you can be in fellowship on the Sabbath with nobody there because you can be in fellowship with God.”  That’s what it’s about!  The main purpose of the Sabbath is fellowship with God – that’s the highest priority of all, then fellowship with God’s people where God dwells.  Fellowship with God – same thing – but it is important to fellowship with God.  That’s a command that we choose to obey with God dwelling in us.

Verse 13 – then Moses said to God, Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel, and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you; and they say to me, What is His name? What shall I say to them? In other words, Moses is trying to get a lot more proof about... saying, “Well, this one sign, is that enough?  I’ll need a bit more evidence for these unbelievers.”

So at the moment we’re at a position where the world does not believe God’s end-time apostle or the two prophets that He has sent.  The world won’t believe them.  The scattered Church won’t believe that God has sent them, because it is about the truth.  The scattered Church has rejected the truth, which is a sign of where God dwells.  The truth is a sign of where God dwells, and only those whom God has called or awakened can believe God.  And that’s why we can’t ever judge or condemn anybody that’s in the world, because if you can’t see spiritual matters you can’t see spiritual matters.  God has to give spiritual sight.  And that’s why we should rejoice!  The fact that we can be here today on God’s Sabbath and we can rejoice in it, that we see; and we know others can’t see because God hasn’t given it to them.  We’re not better, we don’t lift ourselves up over it, it just happens to be that we were called at this time to fulfill a role which God has promised to deliver us from at the end, whenever that’s going to be.  We don’t know when, we will just keep going on plan ‘A’ until God decides that He knows us and that is it, it’s guaranteed.

Verse 14 - And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM: and He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.  The God of our fathers, Yahweh Elohim, has sent an apostle and two witnesses, two prophets.  If they really wanted to know God, where would you start?  Well, I would strongly recommend chapter seven of the book, ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’ because it’s a proof. And  you know, they won’t believe now and can’t believe maybe, because God has to awaken and call, but that evidence is coming...that evidence is coming.

Verse 15 – Moreover, God said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, like to the scattered Church, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is My name for ever, and this is My memorial to all generations. Go, and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, I will surely visited you, and have seen what is done to you in Egypt:  Nothing is hidden from God.  It’s saying today nothing is hidden from God, and God has seen what has happened to the Church.  He has seen it!  God sees what His people today have had to face and are now facing.

Verse 17 - And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt, that’s a promise, brethren. That is a promise and it still stand today.  That God will bring us up out of and deliver us out of Egypt, out of that bondage.  Now, I know that that process on a spiritual level has begun in me, because without knowing it, when I was first called and I probably still have a lot that I don’t see, but I am in bondage to my thinking.  I am in bondage to my thinking.  Now, certain things I see in prejudice, that I am prejudice.  I admit that, in certain things.  And I’ve worked hard at certain levels to overcome those prejudices in me that God has revealed to me.  But I know there are others that I can’t see yet and are not aware of them...but I know they exist in me because my thinking is not always the way God thinks and God is not prejudice.  But I know that I am and when it’s revealed to me I’ll work on it...but it’s not easy, it’s painful to come out of prejudice!  It really is hard; it’s difficult to come out of a prejudice in the mind toward whatever it is.  It can be people, race, colour, age, height, weight, and much more...lot’s more about the way we think, but it takes time.

But I know that God will deliver me out of it as long as I continue to choose to repent, and that’s my desire, that God never takes His holy spirit from me, because the day He does I know that I’m back to where I started, ‘natural carnal mind, hostile to God, not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.’  Full of prejudice on every single matter...prejudice!  Because that’s the mind of man!  We are all prejudice, it’s just we have to work out our way through it with God to find out which one it is that we should be working on.

Verse 17 - And I have said I will bring you out of the affliction of Egypt, it’s a promise, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to the land flowing with milk and honey.  So, we know that promise.

Verse 18 – Then they will heed your voice: and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him, The LORD God of the Hebrews has met with me: and now, please, let us go three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.  Brethren, in our life we should always remember nobody can stop us sacrificing to the Lord our God.  Nobody!  Because it’s in the mind...it’s in the mind.  So, we sacrifice ourselves for the benefit of others.  We sacrifice the self.  Who can stop you and me from sacrificing our self to the benefit of others?  Nobody.  No matter what the situation is!  No matter what the situation is, because it’s God that does it in and through us.

We have to choose to sacrifice the self, and that’s why we’re here, because we have chosen to sacrifice the self, to put the self-desire down, to sacrifice for the benefit of others.  And guess what?  That sometimes hurts.  It sometimes hurts to sacrifice the self, because a non-sacrificing attitude is driven by pride.  That’s the only reason we don’t sacrifice ourselves, because we’re pleasing ourselves and pride is there, we may not just see it.

So let us, brethren, always continue to assemble in fellowship to worship God in spirit and in truth, no matter the situation.  Can be done anywhere as long as the mind is working and we choose to use it to praise God when He tells us to, we can.  Let us continue to keep the Sabbath day holy. It’s a choice we have.  Let’s continue to keep the Holy Days no matter the environment or situation.  Let us continue to obey God. Because it’s all in the mind; it’s about the mind and the way we think.

Verse 19 – But I am sure that the king of Egypt, which is symbolic of Satan and his system, will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand.

Verse 20 - So I will stretch out My hand, this is God talking, and strike Egypt, which is the world’s system today, with all My wonders which I will do in its midst: and after that he will let you go. Now that should be relevant, brethren, to the ‘day of the Lord’, because God is going to stretch out His hand and strike the unbeliever to bring them to repentance.  It’s a merciful act, to bring them to repentance, to see.  So the world can’t understand that God can pour out a plague on somebody, and on people, and children and women die, and it’s done out of mercy and love.  Because it takes a spiritual mind to understand that is the best thing for that people.  And they can’t understand it, but we can.  We know that all things work to the good of those who love God, which if we have time we’ll get to it.

Verse 21 - And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall be when you go that you shall not go empty: So, what do we carry in our hand today, brethren?  We carry the truth.  We stand and we have the truth.  We are not empty-handed by any means; we have the truth with us.

Verse 22 - But every woman shall ask her neighbour, namely of her who dwells near her house, articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing: and you shall put them on your sons, and on your daughters; so you shall plunder the Egyptians.

Exodus 4:1 - Then Moses answered and said, But suppose they will not believe me, well, I think we’ve all experienced that!  True?  What about if they won’t believe me? ...and suppose they won’t listen to my voice: suppose they will say, The LORD has not appeared to you.

You know, brethren, suppose somebody said, “Wayne, I don’t believe you were called!”  Well, it’s just like Moses and the burning bush really.  You can say, “Well, I don’t believe that you saw the burning bush.”  And he would say, “But I did.”  Someone can say, “Well, I don’t believe you were called and you have God’s spirit.”  And I’d say, “But I was called and I do.”  You see, you can’t negotiate with people that can’t see because we see something different.  It’s not putting them down, it’s just we see something different, that’s why we’re here; we see something different.

So today it’s the same as... Suppose they say you’re wrong!  Suppose they say you’re a cult!  Suppose they say you’re just continuing to follow a man!  Suppose they say those things.  Brethren, we know, we remember our calling.  We remember our calling.  But I can’t convince anybody, and nor would I try, that we’re not part of something that they hate.  It doesn’t bother us, really deep down, because they can’t see so we just move on.  We move on, plan ‘A’ continues.

Verse 2 - So the LORD said to him, What is in your hand? And he said, A rod. Remember brethren, symbolic of us for the truth.  What’s in your hand?  What’s in my hand?  What’s in our mind?  The truth is in our mind. And He said, Cast it on the ground. So he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. So, we can often throw the truth out to somebody but it doesn’t come back because they can’t see it, can’t hear it.  That’s what the Church has been doing, speaking the truth in love for a long time.

Verse 4 - Then the LORD said to Moses, Reach out your hand, take it by the tail.  And he reached out his hand and caught it by the tail and it became a rod in his hand: So why did God do that as proof?

Verse 5 - That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.  So there was a proof given to Moses to say, well if you do that they will then believe you, by this rod turning into a snake.  So, we’ve been given proof because we see the truth that sits in God’s Church.  God provided proof that He was with Moses.  So the first sign that we have as God’s people, the proof we have is the truth.  We have proof, we have the truth.

Verse 6 – Furthermore, the LORD said to him, Put your hand in your bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand turned leprous like snow.  So this next sign is obvious physical proof that only God can achieve.  So if Moses did that, his hand is normal, he puts it inside his coat and he pulls it out and it’s leprous, how would you deny that?  It’s obvious physical proof that this is God’s servant. This is proof – and you put it back in, pull it back out, and it’s normal.  Now, to the eye you would say, “Whoa!  That’s an obvious physical sign that God is with Moses.”  So God gave him more than one proof.  He’s given him the snake and now the leprous hand to prove it.

This sign is the obvious proof that only God could achieve, which is clearly written in the book, ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’.  That is a proof, brethren, because as people have read the book it’s an obvious physical sign.  At the moment it sits there, but once things are being fulfilled in the book as written it’s an obvious physical sign that you can’t deny, that God has told this in advance.  It’s not as if it’s just happening and then said.  No, it’s been told in advance and God will fulfill it because it’s going to be an obvious physical proof that people cannot deny.  And that’s where we are in the ‘day of the Lord’.  An obvious physical proof is coming.

Verse 8 – then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign.  So, we know they haven’t heeded the first sign, which is the truth that was in God’s Church, but the opportunity to heed the second sign is about to come upon them.

Verse 9 - And it shall be if they do not believe even of these two signs, nor listen to your voice, so this is going to go on and they still don’t believe...which the Bible indicates that a lot won’t.  They won’t believe.  ...that you shall take water of the river and pour it on dry ground; and the water which you take from the river will become blood.  Blood is symbolic of death.   ...on the dry land.  So, the last proof that God says He’s going to pour out – not only just obvious physical signs but death, because death humbles.  Death in a family humbles. Death of close friends humbles, it really does.  It changes the thinking.

So here is the last sign that God says, “Well, if you’re not going to believe all this, death is coming.”  And we know that is coming.  Death changes peoples thinking.

One way that a lot of people will come to see the truth and believe it from an obvious physical sign, is through a second life.  So people will die and be resurrected for the hundred year period and they will believe, because when you’re resurrected you’ll know something’s different....something is different to where I was, and the environment is different.  So that in itself will be a proof and it will humble people.  Because all the things they thought they had, and all the things they thought they had acquired have gone, because when you’re resurrected there you stand.  So whether you had title, whether you had money, whether you had whatever, it’s all changed.  You’ll be humbled really quite quickly to realize, “Hey!  I was wrong!”  That’s what the second resurrection really is going to prove.  It’s going to be by death, the vast majority.

So this is the final proof that will be revealed to them in a personal way.  Death is very personal, because when you’re resurrected you know things are different.

Verse 10 – Then Moses said to the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, and so in other words, I’ve got a speech here... really making an excuse here, saying, “Well, look, I’ve got a speech problem and really I think you better find somebody else.” ...neither before since you have spoken to your servant: but I am now slow of speech, and slow of tongue.  What he’s really saying is, “Look, I don’t want to do it.”  That’s what he’s really saying deep down, “I don’t want to do it.”

So the LORD said to him, Who has made man's mouth? So brethren, we shouldn’t be afraid of anything, because when God desires an outcome He says, “Who has made man’s mouth?”  or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? So, who sees this truth?  God says He does it.  He does it.  He says, “I made it and if I decide for someone to be called to see the truth I do it.”  There is nothing we can do to make people see the truth.  God does it all.  Have I not, the LORD? So God makes it very clear.

We have to be careful not to limit God.  God is with us, God is still working to an outcome to create Elohim.  That’s the purpose of our calling!  The trials and tests that we face on a daily basis from the day we are called is all for a purpose that God is working out in our lives individually so that He can create Elohim, so that we individually can enter His family – plan ‘A’ hasn’t changed, we’re still on the same path.  God is still working to create Elohim.  We’re all on that same journey.  That’s why we should not forget our calling!  It is unique to you as an individual.  It’s unique to me.  Things have happened in your life that you’ve probably never explained to people because it’s personal between you and God.  It’s between you and God!

You know when God has worked and intervened into your life.  You know when God revealed truth!  I remember when God revealed truth to me.  All 57!  I understand that I couldn’t work that out, but God gave it to me in His mercy and a blessing.  I’m just thankful I saw it! But I remember them, I know them – can’t memorize them all in order but I try to live them where I can.  And that’s what we’ve been called to.  We’re in the truth, brethren.  God is in us, we in Him because we believe Him, we believe the truth.

Verse 12 - Now therefore go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say. God is with us, brethren.  We are to do the best we can - the best we can – and God will do the rest.

So Moses’ calling was very obvious to him, and he had a battle because he didn’t really want to go through with the job that he had on hand.  We face some battles coming up to us, that there’s times we may balk and think, “I don’t really want to go through this battle.”  We just must remember our calling.  Remember God is with us and we have to trust in Him and don’t limit Him.

Paul’s conversion, Acts 9:1.

Acts 9:1 - Then Saul, or Paul, as it was later changed to, still breathing threats and murders against the disciples of the Lord, the Church of God.  Here is someone openly persecuting the Church.  ...went to the high priest and asked letter of him, the high priest, to the synagogue of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, who... any of the way; Guess what?  We are of the way!  It’s a way of life – we’re of the way.  So here we have somebody that is hunting down people like us who are being called, believe God, and here is someone hunting them down individually, whether man or women, that he might bind them and bound them to Jerusalem. As he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and this is about noon, and suddenly a light shone around about him from heaven: Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? or Why are you persecuting Me?  Because when we persecute somebody in the Body, a member of the Body of Christ with God’s spirit, we’re persecuting Christ and God, we’re against them.  That’s what we’re really saying when we do those things, because God dwells in us, in His people.

Verse 5 - And he said, Who are You, Lord/Master? Then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting: it is hard for you to kick against the goads. So we need to look at that we’re not resisting God.  We really have to be careful that we’re not resisting God’s will in our life, and sometimes things that we go through individually we need to call out more to God to help us through, individually, whatever the situation is, whatever it is in our life.

Verse 6 - So he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what would you want me to do? This is submission, this is humility.  Because this is the way through any trial, submission and humility.  No matter how severe the trial is in our personal life, no matter what it is, the answer is humility.  That’s why the Church has always recommended if we enter into a severe trial we should submit ourselves to God, and one good way is fasting, because it’s an outward sign to God that we want God’s will in our life, we want sin forgiven.  Is there something we don’t see that we want taken care of?  We’re willing to repent.  That’s what fasting is, a willingness to repent.  We want God to be with us, we don’t want to be cut off because of unrepented sin.

Then the Lord said to him, Arise, and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.  And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, now, they didn’t hear the words, as another scripture later on, which you’ll see, which people can use as a contradiction scripture, but it actually says ‘hearing a voice’.  Well, you can hear a voice but not understand the words that are spoken.  So you can hear a sound but you don’t hear what is being spoken, and that’s what happened.  ...and seeing no one.  Then Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one: so he’s blind; but they led him by hand, and brought him to Damascus. And he was there three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.  So he fasted.

Now, there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, so here’s a vision in the mind. And he said, Here I am, Lord. And so the Lord said to him, Arise, and go to the street called Straight, and enquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he is praying, so we can see brethren, from this we should be just encouraged.  God knows everything!  God knows everything; He knows our situations.  And in a vision, he can’t see it because he’s blind, true?  This has to be in the mind... because he’s blind; Saul had seen a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.  So this is done by the power of God’s spirit.

We see truth in our minds eye and that’s why we can’t convince someone of the truth, brethren, because it’s in the mind.  Truth is in the mind. What we see is in the mind.  How do you transfer something in the mind to someone whose mind is closed?  It’s like hitting the wall.  Like in Australia we say ‘it’s like spitting in the wind’, because when you spit in the wind it comes back all over you.  So you don’t spit in the wind.  So it’s the same.  Trying to convince somebody of the way of life we have chosen, because God called us, that just sounds so arrogant!  If you try to tell someone, “Well, you don’t understand; you see, in 1981 God called me.”  Whoa!  Because it’s all in the mind.  God didn’t appear to me and say, “Hey Wayne!   I’m calling you!”  It’s in the mind!  I began to see spiritually. Not my own strength.  I realize that because of my lifestyle I was not in any way associated to God’s Church.  None of the commandments were being kept because my mind was carnal.  So, I know my calling; and that’s something brethren, I’m urging you to look at – your personal calling, your personal relationship with God.

And it doesn’t matter what people say or do in the Church or out of the Church because it’s about you and your relationship with God and what you’ve built with Him and the lessons He is teaching you, the spirit that He has poured out to you, the character He is developing in you, because it’s Him developing it in you individually.  We’re all at different levels, we’re all learning different things.  And the only way that I know that I have learned lessons is to go through the trial.

I have made mistakes as a minister of God.  I’ve said things and done things that in hindsight were stupid.  But how did I learn they were stupid?  It’s like touching a stove – “Whoa, that doesn’t work!”  That’s how I learned!  So we will make mistakes – we will make them – and the best way, learn from it and adjust.

So here in verse 13 - Then Ananias said, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, so here you’re in the Church and all of a sudden Paul has been taking them and arresting people and removing them, taking them, and some to be killed... how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem: So Saul had a negative reputation because he was persecuting the Church.  The Church today has a negative reputation.  It has a negative reputation with the Church that was scattered and the world.  It’s true, we have a negative reputation.  Does it faze us or bother us?  No, because it makes no difference, because if you can’t see you can’t see.  It’s about as simple as it gets.  Simplifying God’s truth there, but that’s true.

And here he, Saul, has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon Your name. But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name, Brethren, we are chosen vessels of God to bear His name!  Isn’t it amazing?  Isn’t it wonderful to read these things and to understand that’s what God has done to us?  We didn’t choose it, God chose us and we responded.  So we bear His name.  ...before the Gentiles, which are unbelievers, kings, and the children of Israel:  So brethren, we have all been called for a purpose.  We have been called for a purpose.  Sometimes we think we know what that purpose is, but the reality is we don’t know sub-clause 1.4 of plan ‘A’.  We can’t read it yet because it hasn’t happened.  It hasn’t happened, but we’ll adjust to what that sub-clause is and we will continue forward.

So we, brethren, are being called for a purpose, and we don’t fully see that purpose.  We know the end result of the purpose, to enter Elohim, but along the way lessons each of us individually have to learn is different.  Each one is different.  We make choices and we learn.  But it’s a wonderful, beautiful thing if we just reflect on our calling to date, how far we’ve come in this.

Verse 16 - For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake. Isn’t that wonderful!  These scriptures, to me, when I went through them they jump out, they really, really affect me now, because it says here, and I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.  So any suffering we may go through in the Body of Christ is for God’s sake, it’s for Christ’s sake.

Romans 8:16 – The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God:  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, Christ suffered. He was persecuted. He was deriled.  No one listened to Him. He spoke the truth, no one could hear.  He suffered.  Well, brethren, we’ve been called to suffer.  Whatever that suffering is in each individual life, and it is different for everybody, but we have been called to suffer, that we may also be glorified together.  Isn’t that beautiful? Christ suffered, God the Father raised Him up, and now He’s been glorified to be our High Priest and soon coming King.  What an honour it is to suffer for Christ, if we fully grasp it, because one day we’ll be glorified as well.

So, we’ve been called to suffer the hostility of this world, the pride and the greed of Satan’s system.  We’ve been called to fight against our nature that is motivated by pride.  So not only is there a persecution but we are also called to fight, but it’s in the inner man and people can’t see it.  I know I’ve been in shopping lines and I learned a lesson today when we were out somewhere, someone said, “Change lines,” and I’ve learned; no, I’m staying in this line because any time I’ve changed line my wife comes over with me, she whispers over in my ear and says, “Why did we change lines?  It’s slow.”  So, I’ve learned, I think I’ll just stay here and endure this line because you’re better off.

So brethren, we’ve been called to fight in the inner man.  I’m standing in that line – do you think anybody in that shopping mall or wherever it is knows what I’m battling in my mind?  They don’t care, they wouldn’t understand it; but I’m in a line and I’m battling something, I’m fighting, I’m having this massive battle about something and they say, “Next!” and I walk up there and she can’t see anything or hear, but meanwhile it’s going on in the mind.  True?  You all do the same.  That’s the fight we fight, but to the world... wouldn’t have a clue...would not have a clue.

Verse 18 – For I consider the suffering of this present time not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.  And of course there are two things there.  The glory of God is revealed in us now when we submit to God and God’s spirit flows out from us to the benefit of others.  That is a glory; that is a wonderful glorious thing.  But also in a resurrection that it’s referring to.

Romans 8:28: Brethren, I’m asking questions today because I’m trying to... I know within myself that I’ve reflected on my calling and I have been so motivated by it.  Now, Ron often uses the words, “He’s pumped!”  I’m actually motivated because we move forward, we just move forward, and it’s so wonderful.  But I came to this scripture and I had to ask myself... Do I really believe this scripture?  Do I believe it and am I living it?  Am I living that?  And it’s a question that only you can answer in the inner man, or woman.

Romans 8:28 – For we know/for we see that all things work together for good, so no matter what happens to you individually it is for your spiritual good.  Because God’s working with you to get an outcome, a spiritual outcome!  So living in a caravan park with two children, confined space, unemployed, people delivering food, going bankrupt – having nothing, absolutely nothing, no money, not knowing how I was going to pay the next bill – was all for my spiritual good.  And you know what I look back to?  It’s exactly right, because I learned some lessons in that, I really did.  Spiritual lessons about Wayne, not about others, about me, about what I learned, how I prayed, why I prayed.  That’s what I learned.  And as Ron has often said, wouldn’t trade it in for anything, nothing.  But do we really believe this?  That no matter what we are in individually that this is for your personal spiritual development?  This is the way God works.

So, all things work to the good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. It’s a wonderful scripture.

Verse 29... So why do all things work together for our spiritual good?   Verse 29 – For whom God/He foreknew, the Church, He/God also predetermined, that’s mankind, to be conformed to the image of His Son, to be conformed, developed into the image of Jesus Christ, the mind of God.  The mind of God is what’s being developed in us.  ...that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  So the purpose of life; our calling takes us back to the purpose of life.  Why were we born?

So in closing, brethren, I remember the very first thing that I saw spiritually and I want to take you there because I have never forgotten it.  1 John 2:3 – I know I’ve talked about this before, but to me when I saw, it was so obvious, but of course I tried to show other people who couldn’t see and I had to learn over time there was a reason why they couldn’t see, and it’s nothing against them it’s just that God had not called them to see it.

So, I remember my calling and the first thing that I saw spiritually.  The very first thing that I saw spiritually was the Sabbath.  I saw the Sabbath!  In this very scripture I actually saw the Sabbath and I knew that the fourth commandment had to be obeyed and I’ve hung onto that belief of the Sabbath and it’s gotten me through some difficult times.  When the apostasy happened I remember going home with my wife and we sat up in bed until about 3:00am in the morning.  It was after Sabbath, and we thought, “What is happening?!  They’re wrong!”  Because I’d proved the Sabbath, so there!  We sat up there with our Bibles and we went through, and I went through all the Sabbath scriptures.  I went through all of them and I said, “They are wrong!  God showed me the Sabbath from the first time of my calling!  No matter what, we will just keep the Sabbath at home.”  We wouldn’t have lasted long because without God’s spirit you can’t do much, it’s just a physical thing.  But we knew that the Sabbath was right.  We knew we’ve got to keep the Sabbath.  We said, “Well, we’re going to keep the Sabbath by ourselves at home if that’s what it takes.”  ...because I knew this from the very day I was called.  Fortunately we received a phone call from another group of Sabbath keepers and we went to services the next week – even though we were asleep and dead I knew this to be true, I’d proven it, God had convicted me with this.  So, nothing has changed, I still see the truth of the Sabbath. Nothing’s changed since that time.

1 John 2:3 – Now, by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.  See, this jumped out at me, that the only way to know God is to obey Him and keep the Sabbath.  To me that was just so obvious, and He who says I know Him, and does not keep the commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him.

Verse 5 - But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him: by this we know we are in Him.  So brethren, we are in Him because we keep the commandments; God is in us, we are in Him.

Verse 6 - He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.  The way, that Paul persecuted.  The way.  The way of life that we live.

Today we are to stand, remembering our personal calling from God.  We are not better than anybody else, we have just been called for a purpose at this point in time.  We stand in the truth.  That purpose is to live the way of life that has been revealed to us by God.

So live a way of life that involves repentance - continual, ongoing repentance; obedience - submitting ourselves to God’s will; and humility no matter what is placed before us.  Brethren, I do ask you to remember your calling.

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