How to Hear the Call of God
1 Samuel 3:1-11
November 11, 2001
Mark Eberly
I love the story about the cowboy who was riding along and came upon an Indian lying flat on the ground with his ear pressed to the earth. The Indian said, “Wait. Wagon. Two miles off. Drawn by two horses. One black. The other gray. Four people on board: man in a red flannel shirt, his wife, and two kids.”
The cowboy was impressed. He said, “It’s amazing you can tell all that just listening to the earth.”
The Indian said, “No. They ran over me thirty minutes ago. Go after them!”
One of the hardest things in life is hearing the call of God upon our lives. And fortunately we don’t have to put our ears to the earth to do so. Turn with me to 1 Samuel 3 and we will look at a young man who received a special call from God.
As I read through the Bible, I have realized that there are different levels of calling that God places upon our lives.
Levels of Calling (Rom. 8:28-30)
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who,” what? Love him. “Those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also gloried.”
In this one passage, we see that God calls us to experience three of the four levels.
1. Salvation
Those who he called are justified. God calls us to be saved. He already knows who will be able to hear the call and respond. He also calls us to:
2. Sanctification
We are to conform to the likeness of Jesus Christ, who was sinless and holy. We are called to experience a life that is set apart for God’s perfect use as a living vessel of His Holy Spirit. We are to be holy as He is holy. But not just that, we are called to:
3. Service
He calls us to a purpose to accomplish and fulfill that He has specifically set aside for us according to the gifts, talents, and abilities that He has already blessed us with.
Every believer is called to move up these three levels: from salvation to sanctification to being a servant of God. However, not every believer reaches the highest level, which is the level of:
4. Sacrifice
This is full-time service to God. And the highest of the highest is full time pastoral ministry. Samuel experienced this level of calling even before he was saved and actually knew the Lord. He was being set apart for a life that was dedicated completely to serving the Lord sacrificially. This, my friends, is the highest calling one can experience. There is no greater honor than being called to full-time ministry. But there is also no greater burden.
1 Tim 5:17: “ The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.”
Parents and grandparents, there is no greater honor than having a child or grandchild be called by God into full-time Christian ministry. When one has a child that is called into full-time ministry, God blessed one’s house. For what greater way is there to honor thy father and mother than following the instructions in the ways of God that is our duty as parents to be teaching our children? When a child is called by God and responds faithfully, then truly the parents are honored and blessed.
We have strayed from this teaching for a multitude of reasons. I have even heard pastors ask for prayer for their children that they would not.
Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 14:1: “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.”
What he is saying is that bringing forth the Word of God is the greatest gift to be desired because Paul recognizes the significance that preaching a Word from the Lord can have within the body. It builds up the church, he says, and if the congregation is full of people that prophesize and bring forth God’s Word, the sinner will be convinced that “God is really among you!”
Prophecy is not a fortune telling event like Miss Cleo on TV. It is brings forth the power of God’s Word in our midst and declares that without Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior your future will be destruction!
Samuel was a prophet who brought forth the Word of God in a time when visions and revelations from God were not recognized nor were they very common.
What is your attitude toward the fourth level of calling? Do you teach your children that there is no greater honor? Do you tell them that there is nothing greater than living a life of sacrifice in full-time ministry? Anything less is blasphemy against God and His Word.
We have a great group of kids here. Some of whom God is calling into full-time ministry. Blessed are you if it is one of your children or grandkids.
There are two types of calling.
Types of Calling
A. Inward
Inward calling is when we hear the voice of God directing us and guiding us just like Samuel. We hear the inward call through the practice of spiritual disciplines such as prayer, meditation, Bible study, and fasting. These are inward disciplines or trainings to help move us into a position that we are able truly listen to what God has for us.
Sometimes God calls us to full-time ministry before we really know the Lord. Samuel was like this and I can even remember feeling that God wanted to use me at a very early age for ministry even though I did not really know what it meant to be a Christ follower.
Even if you are not called to full-time ministry, the inward call to service or ministry can come when you simply see a need or situation and realize that you can do something to help or change it. Sometimes God will place in the deepest innermost parts of your being a burning desire that practically compels you toward an area of service. Jeremiah had a burning in his bones to preach that compelled him to preach the Word of God.
B. Outward
The second type of call is outward. This can come through conversations with other believers or it can be seen through signs that God presents to point the way. Other people will recognize the hand of God upon you if you feel the inward call to full-time ministry.
Samuel had the outward call even before he heard the inward call because his mother had dedicated him before he was conceived to full-time sacrificial service to the Lord God Almighty. Sometimes the outward call comes before the inward call and sometimes vice versa.
But even if you are not called to full-time ministry, the outward call to service or ministry can come simply when someone asks you to fill a position. Someone recognizes some gifts or potential within you that you may not even have seen. They see it and can even be a vessel for God to use to issue the call to you.
If you struggle with feelings of inadequacy and often don’t feel like God could use you even though people ask you to serve, then you are probably being disobedient to the leading that God is placing upon your life. So the next time someone asks you to serve somewhere, prayerfully consider that the request to serve may actually be God’s call.
As a boy, Larry Crabb stuttered but now he is a popular speaker and psychologist. He recalls one time as a young man when felt pressure by expectation to pray out loud because that was the tradition of his church. In a terribly confused prayer, he recalled “thanking the Father for hanging on the cross and praising Christ for triumphantly bringing the Spirit from the grave.”
When he finished, he vowed that he would never speak or pray out loud again in front of a group.
At the end of the service, he wanted to escape before any of the elders came to correct his theology. But Jim Dunbar caught him before he could get out.
“Larry, there’s one thing I want you to know. Whatever you do for the Lord, I’m behind you one thousand percent.”
Larry wrote in his book, “Even as I write these words, my eyes fill with tears. I have yet to tell that story to an audience without at least mildly choking. Those words were life words. They had power. They reached deep into my being.”
The outward call can be so powerful when we hear God speaking through others.
So how do we go about discovering the call of God? Through Samuel I think we can gain three insights into what we can do to prepare us and to move us into a proper position to hear God’s call.
Positioned to Hear God’s Call
1. The Proper Practice
The Scripture reports, “Samuel ministered before the Lord, even as child” (1 Sam. 2:18), and goes on, “The child Samuel grew in stature, and in favor both with the Lord and men” (1 Sam. 2:26). Samuel did what was right in God’s eyes. He followed God’s commands and of course he knew what those commands were.
Vanderbilt University has an honor code. Freshmen pledge to do their own academic work with integrity and to report those who do not to the student-run honor council.
The students’ signatures remain on display in the lobby of the Sarratt Student Center throughout their four years at the university. Alongside the signatures is found not only a statement of the honor code itself, but also the often-quoted words of the man for whom the building is named, Madison Sarratt. The longtime dean of men and a teacher in the mathematics department said: “Today I am going to give you two examinations, one in trigonometry and one in honesty. I hope that you will pass them both, but if you must fail one, let it be trigonometry, for there are many good [people] in this world today who cannot pass an examination in trigonometry, but there are no good [people] in the world who cannot pass an examination in honesty.”
2. The Proper Posture
When asked why God only spoke to her, Joan of Arc reportedly said, “Sir, you are wrong. God speaks to everyone. I just listen.”
God speaks to everyone. God calls everyone. He calls everyone to salvation, sanctification, and service but not everyone has the ears to hear and the eyes to see.
This happens in the church as well as the world, my friends. We must learn the proper posture of quieting oneself so that we can recognize God’s voice when He calls.
When did God speak to Samuel? What was Samuel doing? What time of the day was it? Samuel was lying quietly in the middle of night. Even then, because he did not yet know God, he did not at first recognize God’s voice. He needed Eli to help him understand who was speaking to him. If you read about the rest of Samuel’s life, it is very clear that he learned to identify, listen, and obey God’s voice.
It is so important to set aside times to quiet yourself and listen for God’s direction.
God usually calls me to spend some late nights with Him two or three times a month. Usually I am feeling very tired and I go to bed and God begins to speak to me and suddenly, I am no loner tired. So I get up, get my Bible, paper and a pen and I pray, talk and listen to God until the wee hours of the morning.
People need to ask God to give them Samuel’s ear.
3. The Proper Place
In 1 Sam. 3:3, Samuel first heard God’s voice while he was “in the tabernacle of the Lord where the ark of God was.” It was as close as he was able to come to the Holy of Holies where the presence of God was supposed to dwell.
Every person needs to be close to God. We need to be close to Him in a daily walk not just coming to a building called a church. God doesn’t dwell in a building. He dwells in the hearts of His people when they invite Him to live there.
Find a special place that helps to facilitate an intimate encounter with God. At night, I sit in my green chair. Sometimes, I plan some time to get out into a natural setting such as the woods and there spend that time with the Lord.
If you really want to discern what direction God is leading you then get better acquainted with God. Connect with Him on a consistent basis.
Forty years ago a Philadelphia congregation watched as three 9-year-old boys were baptized and joined the church. Not long after, unable to continue with its dwindling membership, the church sold the building and disbanded.
One of the boys was Tony Campolo, now author and Christian sociologist at Eastern College. He remembers:
“Years later when I was doing research in the archives of our denominations, I decided to look up the church report for the year of my baptism. There was my name, and Dick White’s. He’s now a missionary. Bert Newman, now a professor of theology at an African seminary, was also there. Then I read the church report for ‘my’ year: ‘It has not been a good year for our church. We have lost 27 members. Three joined, and they were only children.’”
Never under estimate the power of calling upon people’s lives. God calls us to life-changing encounters. He calls us to salvation and to be holy. He calls us to ministry and service. And if you are truly blessed He calls you or someone you love to full-time ministry.
Samuel was a young boy when he first heard the call of God upon his life. He had already spent years in a position so that he could hear the call. If we truly want to seek the Kingdom and His will for our lives, we need to actively seek His face. O the blessings that come when we sense the call of God upon our lives! But let me warn you as well! If you are not blessed then you are cursed and your destiny is destruction!
I don’t want to go down that path. Do you? Seek to hear God’s voice. Seek His face. And teach your children to love to hearing from the Lord. If you humble yourself, then perhaps one day God will honor you by calling someone you love into full-time ministry.
Perhaps, you just don’t know what God is calling you to do. Then come and put yourself in the proper posture of prayer. Maybe you don’t even know Him but you do know that you messed up. God is calling you to a clean slate! Come and receive forgiveness and cleansing from Christ. Maybe you have not regarded the call of God as highly as God has instructed us to hold it. Then come and repent, yes repent, turn from that mislead attitude and turn to God asking Him to change you and set you free! God is calling. He is speaking to you! Can you hear Him? Do you have ears to hear? Will you respond? Come!
