When God Comes Knocking (December 2002)

As you are assembling the "some assembly required" toys this season, search for the picture of the finished product, it may help in the process! As you do that, remember that God loves models and pictures - The Bible is filled with them. If we look closely at the stories of those who have walked with
Him in the past, we will see more than a cute heart-warming story of yesteryear, but rather a model or pattern for our walk with our Lord.

As Christmas approaches again this year, millions of believers will pass eyes and ears over the text of Luke 1 and 2 - rehearsing in Christmas plays, sermons and TV specials the words that have become so familiar. It is easy to forget that the record was not simply given for us to feel the warmth of a Hallmark moment. Because God gave each Word of His Scripture to us that we may be completely prepared to live a life that pleases Him, I wanted to take a minute and recall some principles from the life of the young Mary (cp.Luke 1:26-40) that defined her commission and call by God. I truly believe that models, like the one of Mary in this case, are one of the great teaching devices of the Scripture.

You see, God may be about to call you to something life changing. He may be on the verge of breaking into your life with a new problem, a new possibility, a new direction. How will you know it is Him? How will you know what to do? Here is where the model of Mary can help...

Journey in your mind's eye back two thousand years, to an unwalled village of Nazareth. The small cave style homes were built against the cliffs, each with a small pen for goats and sheep attached to the front of the house, a tiny rock fence that defined each property. Some olive trees offered a bit of shade near the houses and a spring ran into the valley a few hundred feet north of the village near to small the barley fields on the terraces. This was a poor town - without the resources to build aqueducts to bring water
close (as their city neighbors in nearby Sepphorus had done). In this town getting water meant taking a walk each morning, a jug perched upon the head of each of the women of the village. As best we know Nazareth was not more than a few dozen families, enough to have the requisite ten "heads of households" (a minyan) to have local synagogue prayers. The chalky road wound into town from the large valley of Jezreel to the south and connected Nazareth to the northern villages of Cana and Capernaum, as well as the larger Galilean cities of Sepphorus (still under reconstruction) and Ptolemais.

We do not know at what time of the year it was, but the Bible says that an angel appeared to a young unmarried virgin girl in that village, named Miriam. She was quite young, no doubt, but old enough to have gained a reputation of integrity and tender mercy that reached past the doorstep of the Heavenly palace. She was no one of consequence in her world - that is, until God came knocking and gave her a call that would change all of us!

The call was not as shiny bright as the plays of Christmas record. It was not bound up in a snowy white angel or the rumbling of an earthquake. It was a visitor that brought her the declaration of God's call. Though in hindsight she knew it was an angel, at the time the visit likely fell somewhere in the range between "I must be dreaming" and "Who is this that drops in on my life to share these words?". We know she took some time to believe the words, for the Bible records that the original greeting, "You are highly favored of God" caused her to be agitated and hesitant (Greek: "tarasso"; to be stirred and agitated as a pot of water, v. 29).

What happened next is recorded as a pattern that can help any among us that desire to follow God's call to a new direction. Look at the principles of how God commissions a believer:

Principle 1

God will never call you to do what He cannot accomplish through you as you yield to Him (Lk. 1:28) When the angel greeted Mary, he shared that God knew her character. We are not unknown to our Heavenly Father. Our failings, our victories, our hopes and dreams, our very personality is fully
grasped by God long before He calls us to do something in His name. He is aware of every shortcoming. Moses need not have told God of his speech problems, God already knew. Elijah need not have moaned about the lack of others to share the ministry load, God already had them counted. It is important that we remember that God wants us to be productive, useful to Him, and fulfilled in so doing. At the same time, it is important to remember that God knows what He bargained for when He bought us with His Son's blood. He knows us well.

Principle 2

God expects we will use our head, and not simply fly off in some emotional bliss when we think He may be calling. Look at verse 29, you see a skeptical and cautious Mary. She was not simply flattered into a new venture, she was careful to measure the words of this visitor. She felt a churning in her heart, an agitation. Often that is how a call begins. Someone says something that touches us deeply. Perhaps our reading of the Word becomes agitated. We feel like something is coming, yet we aren't sure
of the direction. Careful and considerate prayer and searching are the end of agitation. Emotional responses lead to poor choices. How many of us know of someone who moved or ventured out because "God told me" only to find them turning from that direction when they perceived they misheard the Most High?

Principle 3

God calls and commissions us to fulfill specific and measurable tasks that have an eternal impact when we yield to Him (1:30-33). I know what you are thinking, "Come on! She was going to bear the Messiah! God is not going to call me to anything that important!" I believe you are wrong.
God has a plan, and every spoke holds the wheel in place. Perhaps your call to parent your children does not seem dramatic, and I am equally sure the call to mother Billy Graham was not to his mother and father either. You have no idea what God is going to do with your faithful following of Him!
Greatness is revealed in our daily positive attitude about our walk with our God - NOT great actions taken for God (as measured by men)! The acid test of one's character is the uninspired momentary tasks of life!

Principle 4

Facing a commission with realistic problems and questions allow us to regulate our emotions. Mary expressed the problem of not "knowing a man" (1:34). She was right - there was no precedent for what the Holy Spirit was going to do. She rightly pointed out that apart from a Divine move of God, this was not going to happen. She knew how things worked, and the call she was receiving made no sense with her experience. She wasn't rejecting the words, simply pointing out the practical side of the problem. You see no resistance in her words, but you do see common sense. The regulating valve of the emotion is the mind God gave us. He intends to use it in His call, not shut it down! She took the call, but she faced the realistic issues from the beginning head on.

Principle 5

If the call is from Him, the supply of your needs to fulfill it will be fully met by Him (1:35)! He doesn't commission us to complete a task and then give us only a portion of the necessary supplies to get it done. He is the ultimate Quartermaster, a supply sergeant that is intimately involved in caring for every need to get the task completed. He may offer us the answers of supply by providing work. He may simply nudge someone else to aid us in the work. He may miraculously care for what we cannot do through the power of His Spirit (as with Mary's need). In any case, He will not call us an not supply us. He calls and He equips, for it is His work.

Principle 6

One of the great ways to learn to trust God is to look carefully at the way He has touched others (1:36). To Mary, the news that her once barren cousin was now with child was another confirmation of the way God was at work. For you and I we have a life filled with examples of
God's great power. Search the Scriptures for those men and women of God that have a great track record of seeing God at work! Look into your own fellowships for stories of believers that stir us right where we live. The Spirit of God has not left the scene, and God is on the move in the lives of
those who yield to Him. Getting around those people is energizing! That is why Mary made her way, at her first chance, to be with Elizabeth! (1:39-40)

Principle 7

God never sends you on a Mission that He does not know the outcome of (1:37). He is not limited in His abilities to use you, even though you feel limited in your abilities! He can, and will get His work done. You have the opportunity to experience the awesome power of God, if you will let His strength be made complete in your weakness."

Principle 8

When the mission is clear, and the call has been made - it is time for us to trust and obey. We need not meet every need, God has promised to supply. We need not figure out the end plan, God is already there on the last page of the book. We need to commit to be what He wants us to BE, and
He will determine what we can DO.

Mary offers a great model of the call of God, and the believers response. I do not know what your future holds, but I know the God that holds your future is knocking. Can you hear Him? He is waiting for your response.

Merry Christmas and many blessings this Holiday season,

Dr. Randall Smith
Director