I heard someone say this week that the call of God begins with a new piece of information. When I first heard it, the statement struck me as too simple. In my mind and experience the call of God is something special and at times mystical. I think of the Holy Spirit coming on me and feeling an unusual amount of emotion and presence of God.
I am not going to say how it is that God speaks to us, but as I thought of this statement, I couldn't help but think of Nehemiah chapter 1, verses 1-4, where we see Nehemiah hearing a report of the condition of the people of Israel being in great trouble and the wall of Jerusalem and gates of the city being burned. The scripture records Nehemiah's actions and words.
In verse four it says, "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven." Verse five then tells us what Nehemiah prayed and how he confessed his sins and the sins of his people.
As we read the first four chapters of Nehemiah we can see a very clear progression of Nehemiah's reaction to this new piece of information. I believe God spoke through the information into the soul of Nehemiah. I believe he put a deep spirit of prayer in him and a call to do something about the need. Look at the progression of God speaking to Nehemiah and him responding with the part of the vision he had to fulfill in this process. I have identified the "I's" and the "we's" in the next verses and chapters to highlight the process of the call moving from one person, Nehemiah in this case, to a "we" - God's people also embracing the vision God gave to Nehemiah.
Check out this progression.
.
Nehemiah 1- 4
Chapter 1
The Need - He (I) heard from his brothers the need. The need was the call.
Then Prayer - Drove him (I) to his default behavior when exposed to the need
Then Time - He (I) waited until the right time to act, pray, consider and listen
Then Risk - Vision has risk--He (I) went before the king with frown on face
Then Provision - The king gave him (I) time off, timber and an escort
Then Assessment - He (I) reviewed the challenge, rode the gates and fences alone, at night, and did not inform others of the vision
Then Announcement - We - Nehemiah let the leaders know what the vision was and solicited support
Then Implementation - The work began (We), A number of individual groups rebuilding the wall. In fact 42 different groups worked together
Then Opposition - Tobiah, Sanballet and others criticized and threatened
Then More prayer - Default behavior back to prayer from the threat
Then Completion - We completed the wall and We celebrated
We are a family who will operate this organization we call Teen Challenge within the values we embrace. We hold true that the change factor in Teen Challenge is the Jesus factor. He is the one that sets the captive drug addict free. Jesus is the one who receives credit for making the real difference in someone's life. Yes, we have a program that helps direct individuals to the right kind of care and compassion that promotes change, but it is Jesus who makes the difference. We as a family own the responsibility of following the values no matter what the current culture is suggesting.
We as Teen Challenge leaders must not be swayed by government policy, financial manipulations, or by new laws that are in direct contradiction with God's Word. We must not let the spirit of entitlement destroy our own personal responsibilities and we must not let the spirit of tolerance push us away from our biblical stance on issues.
Listen leaders, you must spend time in the word of God and in the presence of the Holy Spirit if you want to stay the course. The Bible is the final authority, not society or culture. The soft approach to sin will always lead to compromise and destruction of an organization. Please hear me, we must adhere to biblical accountability.
