“The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity.” -Leonard Ravenhill
For the last three weeks we have been talking about how to live our the calling that God has for our lives! We have talked about how God has called us all to be ministers with a specific purpose. Let’s look at two more aspects of the callings that God has on our lives.
At an Opportune Time
God placed you here on the planet at a specific time and place. It is no accident that you live where you live today and do what you are doing today!
From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. (Acts 17:26)
You are at your particular spot by design. It is no accident that you are where you are today! RIGHT NOW!
When I was a kid we would have a missionary couple that would come speak at our church every year. They were older and had so many stories from a lifetime of ministry. Their names were the Freemans and they would come tell stories about their life and ministry in Africa that began in the 1940s. They were an amazing couple. One of the stories that I will never forget from her is one that she told about a time before she went on the mission field in Africa. She said that they were living in a small town in rural Texas on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Then one day when she was at home alone she felt the Lord tell her that she needed to go out on her front porch and wave. She thought, that is so stupid. She thought, “Why would I stand out there and wave? I live in the middle of no where and no one is going to see it.” She said eventually she gave in and stepped out on her front porch and began to wave her hand in the air in the dusty Texas air. Then just before she was about to quit, she saw a dust cloud in the distance. So she started waving harder as a car topped the hill driving toward her porch. So she waved and waved with enthusiasm as the car drove buy her house until she could see it no more. Then after the car was out of site she felt released from her assignment and went about the rest of her day.
Then not too many years later, the Lord called her and her husband to be missionaries to Africa. They rarely came home for long periods of time but to raise new support and tell the church about the revival taking place over the ocean. And the story goes, that on one trip, over 20 years later she was speaking at a church in Rural Texas, not far from where they used to live 20 years before. In the service a man stood up and began to tell his story about how God saved him. He said that he was on his way to commit suicide at the end of a dusty road on a hot Texas day, and while on his way to this spot of death he said to God, “If you are real, could you give me a sign.” Right about that time, the man looks up and sees a lady standing on a nearby porch waving their hand with joy and vigor with the biggest smile on her face. She was not waving asking for help, he said it was as if God himself was waving at him and saying, “I love you, and I have a great plan for your life.” He said, I don’t know who that woman was, but I am thankful for her.
We will never know the big picture this side of eternity. Could it be that our lives are the foundations for miracles that we may never see. Every once in a while we get a glimpse of the plan of God, but I believe most of the times we are just like Missionary Freeman, waving in the wind bringing about miracles that only the mind of God could orchestrate.
I don’t know about you, but I want to be part of those kind of stories. We can be if we say, “Yes” to our calling today. The will of god is in “The Now.” And in this moment, right now, we can say yes to God and His calling for our lives!
To Make an Eternal Difference
The impact that you and I have the opportunity to make is not just one that affects the here and now. We have the opportunity to affect eternity. The only thing you will ever touch that is eternal this side of eternity is a soul. Everyone you meet will live forever somewhere. Have you ever thought about that reality? Your boss will live for eternity somewhere, your neighbor will live for eternity somewhere. Every person that we see will live in eternity somewhere. We have the opportunity to make an influence on where. Wow! Think about it, the words that come out of your mouth, and the simple actions that you take on a Tuesday afternoon can affect eternity.
This is why to God all people have value. People are not valuable because of how much money they make, or what level of education they have completed, or what the color of their skin is. People are valuable because of whose they are. They are valuable because of who created them!
What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? (Matthew 16:26)
God gives us here the value of a soul. If you had a scale as big as the world itself and on one side you could sit the entire universe and on the other side you could would put one person. The scale would tip to the person every single time. You are more valuable to God than the entire universe.
“I am a minister, with a specific purpose, at an opportune time, to make an eternal difference.”
Write this out and put it on your mirror or in your car. Take a picture and make it the background on your phone. Walk your world understanding that God has put you here today for a purpose. It is risky, but it is the only way to truly live.
