The Jeremiah files.
Unique Me?
Unique call?
Jeremiah 1New King James Version (NKJV)
1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in
Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,
2 to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon,
king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 It came also in the days
of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year
of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem
captive in the fifth month.
4 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
6 Then said I:
“Ah, Lord GOD!
Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”
7 But the LORD said to me:
“Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’
For you shall go to all to whom I send you,
And whatever I command you, you shall speak.
8 Do not be afraid of their faces,
For I am with you to deliver you,” says the LORD.
9 Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me:
“Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms,
To root out and to pull down,
To destroy and to throw down,
To build and to plant.”
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?”
And I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.”
12 Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.”
13 And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, “What do you see?”
And I said, “I see a boiling pot, and it is facing away from the north.”
14 Then the LORD said to me:
“Out of the north calamity shall break forth
On all the inhabitants of the land.
15 For behold, I am calling
All the families of the kingdoms of the north,” says the LORD;
“They shall come and each one set his throne
At the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem,
Against all its walls all around,
And against all the cities of Judah.
16 I will utter My judgments
Against them concerning all their wickedness,
Because they have forsaken Me,
Burned incense to other gods,
And worshiped the works of their own hands.
17 “Therefore prepare yourself and arise,
And speak to them all that I command you.
Do not be dismayed before their faces,
Lest I dismay you before them.
18 For behold, I have made you this day
A fortified city and an iron pillar,
And bronze walls against the whole land—
Against the kings of Judah,
Against its princes,
Against its priests,
And against the people of the land.
19 They will fight against you,
But they shall not prevail against you.
For I am with you,” says the LORD, “to deliver you.”
Ever consider a snowflake?
Each snowflake is thoroughly unique - Even research has discovered it is unlikely to find two
alike.
We too are thoroughly unique – even among identical twins incredible individual
Characteristics occur. Personality and individual dreams occur.
Calls are important – God has a unique call on each persons life and that call is often revealed to be very long term.
For example John the Baptist was the greatest of Prophets (Matt. 11:9-11) and the privileged messenger who was sent to prepare the way of Jesus according to the Word of God. His call is so important that it is announced generations before his birth -
Isaiah 40:3, "A voice is calling, 'Clear the way for the Lord [YHWH] 1 in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God."
Mal. 3:1, "Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord [adonai], whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the Lord [YHWH] of hosts."
Later John confirms all this when he says "He [John the Baptist] said, 'I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord.' as Isaiah the prophet said.'" (John 1:23).
Call is important – Jesus call also predates his birth by centuries and I would like to encourage you so does yours. In Psalm 139:
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
What a wonderful thought that all the days ordained for you were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Jeremiah finds himself in the same position – In Jeremiah chapter 1 we read - 4 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
There is a Christian song called I have a Destiny and Jeremiah himself says about Israel for I know the plans I have for you says the Lord –
Call is all about uncovering God’s plan and living God’s plan.
If you discover God’s plan early then you won’t need to sing that secular song
Wasted days and wasted nights.
So often you meet somebody who is really good at their particular job they seem to fit that job like a hand in a glove. But as time goes on you kind of wonder if God didn’t have something else for them to do that would build his Kingdom. This isn’t saying employment is bad Paul was a tentmaker and presumably a good one but it supplemented his calling as an Apostle.
I think it is goog to understand that there is a difference between a vocational call and a Kingdom call.
Vocation is important but Kingdom is more important and we often get this the wrong way around.
In New Zealand the life of Laidlaw is a wonderful example of how to mix the two.
The first thing that I learn from Jeremiah that God has a call on each of our lives. That call is paramount.
Once you have understood call you know that there is a mark on your life and how you respond to that mark will define you.
Jeremiah got the call. Here is how he responded
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
6 Then said I:
“Ah, Lord GOD!
Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”
Jeremiahs first response was to find a reason why he couldn’t do it.
Some folk would say – I can’t do that I am too young another might say I am middle aged I have a family and another might say I am too old.
How old were Moses and Noah when they got the call to serve God.
The age is not the issue the call is!!
For example God uses young people.
God uses young people and you do not need to look down upon yourselves.
- David was used by God to slay Goliath when his was a youth.
- King Josiah was eight years old when he became King. At an age of 16 when he was still a youth, he sought the God of his father David and at an age of 22 he began to purge the land of Idolatry, bring revival to the land of Judah once again.
- The year was 1949. A Scottish Isle named Hebrides was in a time of darkness. Coldness had crept into the church, and the land was in a state of Moral decay, at the prompting of two older praying ladies.7 young deacons in their youths, made a covenant to pray in the barns every night till revival will come. Most will associate this revival with Duncan Campbell, but it was seven nameless, faceless youths who prayed heavens glory down.
- Young men and young women do not despise your youth, do not say I am just a youth, because You have a divine purpose given by God!
Understand that your excuse may infact be the very reason that God chose you!
Revival in the Hebrides (1949)
by Duncan Campbell.
(Note: The following is a transcript of a taped message on the Hebrides Revival. The report was given in 1968 by Duncan Campbell, a preacher in the Revival.)
If you note in this story there are key people who understood their call , lived their call and it really mattered.
There are two things that I would like to say in speaking about the revival in the Hebrides. First, I would like to make it perfectly clear that I did not bring revival to the Hebrides. It has grieved me beyond words to hear people talk and write about the man who brought revival to the Hebrides. My dear people, I didn't do that. Revival was there before I ever set foot on the island. It began in a gracious awareness of God sweeping through the parish of Barvas.
Then I would like to make it perfectly clear what I understand of revival. When I speak of revival, I am not thinking of high-pressure evangelism. I am not thinking of crusades or of special efforts convened and organized by man. That is not in my mind at all.
Revival is something altogether different from evangelism on its highest level. Revival is a moving of God in the community and suddenly the community becomes God conscious before a word is said by any man representing any special effort.
Now I am sure that you will be interested to know how, in November 1949, this gracious movement began on the island of Lewis. Two old women, one of them 84 years of age and the other 82 - one of them stone blind, were greatly burdened because of the appalling state of their own parish. It was true that not a single young person attended public worship. Not a single young man or young woman
went to the church. And those two women were greatly concerned and they made it a special matter of prayer.
A verse gripped them: "I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground." They were so burdened that both of them decided to spend so much time in prayer twice a week. On Tuesday they got on their knees at 10 o'clock in the evening and remained on their knees until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning - two old women in a very humble cottage.
One night, one of the sisters had a vision. Now remember, in revival, God works in wonderful ways. A vision came to one of them, and in the vision she saw the church of her fathers crowded with young people. Packed to the doors. And a strange minister standing in the pulpit. And she was so impressed by the vision that she sent for the parish minister. And of course he knowing the two sisters, knowing that they were two women who knew God in a wonderful way, he responded to their invitation and called at the cottage.
That morning, one of the sisters said to the minister, "You must do something about it. And I would suggest that you call your office bearers together and that you spend with us at least two nights in prayer in the week. Tuesday and Friday if you gather your elders together, you can meet in a barn-a farming community, you can meet in a barn-and as you pray there, we will pray here. Well, that was what happened, the minister called his office bearers together and seven of them met in a barn to pray on Tuesday and on Friday. And the two old women got on their knees and prayed with them.
Well that continued for some weeks--indeed, I believe almost a month and a half. Until one night-- now this is what I am anxious for you to get ahold of - one night they were kneeling there in the barn, pleading this promise, "I will pour water on him that is thirsty, floods upon the dry ground" when one young man, a deacon in the church, got up and read Psalm 24. "Who shall ascend the hill of God? Who shall stand in His holy place? He that has clean hands and a pure heart who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity or sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing (not a blessing, but THE blessing) of the Lord." And then that young man closed his Bible.
And looking down at the minister and the other office bearers, he said this - maybe crude words, but perhaps not so crude in our Gaelic language - he said, "It seems to me to be so much humbug to be praying as we are praying, to be waiting as we are waiting, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God." And then he lifted his two hands - and I'm telling you just as the minister told me it happened - he lifted his two hands and prayed, "God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?" But he got no further. That young man fell to his knees and then fell into a trance.
Now don't ask me to explain this because I can't. He fell into a trance and is now lying on the floor of the barn. And in the words of the minister, at that moment, he and his other office bearers were gripped by the conviction that a God-sent revival must ever be related to holiness, must ever be related to Godliness. Are my hands clean? Is my heart pure? The man that God will trust with revival - that was the conviction.
When that happened in the barn, the power of God swept into the parish. And an awareness of God gripped the community such as hadn't been known for over 100 years. An awareness of God - that's revival, that's revival. And on the following day, the looms were silent, little work was done on the farms as men and women gave themselves to thinking on eternal things, gripped by eternal realities.
Now, I wasn't on the island when that happened. But, again, one of the sisters sent for the minister. And she said to him, "I think you ought to invite someone to the parish. I cannot give a name, but God must have someone in His mind for we saw a strange man in the pulpit, and that man must be somewhere." Well, the minister that week was going to one of our great conventions in Scotland. At that convention he met a young man who was a student in college and knowing that this young man was a God-fearing man, a man with a message, he invited him to the island. "Won't you come for 10 days - a 10-day special effort? We have had so many of them over the past couple of years, but we feel that something is happening in the parish and we would like you to attend."
This minister said, "No, I don't feel that I am the man, but quite recently there has been a very remarkable move in Glasgow under the ministry of a man by the name of Campbell. I would suggest that you send for him." Now at that time I was in a college in Edinburgh. It wasn't very easy for me to leave but it was decided that I should go for 10 days. I was on the island within 10 days.
I shall never forget the night that I arrived... We got to the church about quarter to nine to find about 300 people gathered. I would say about 300 people. And I gave an address. Nothing really happened during the service. It was a good meeting. A sense of God, a consciousness of His Spirit moving but nothing beyond that. So I pronounced the benediction and we were leaving the church I would
say about a quarter to eleven.
Just as I am walking down the aisle, along with this young deacon who read the Psalm in the barn. He suddenly stood in the aisle and looking up to the heavens he said, "God, You can't fail us. God, You can't fail us. You promised to pour water on the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground - God, You can't fail us!"
Soon He is on his knees in the aisle and he is still praying and then he falls into a trance again. Just then the door opened--it is now eleven o'clock. The door of the church opens and the local blacksmith comes back into the church and says, "Mr. Campbell, something wonderful has happened. Oh, we were praying that God would pour water on the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground and listen, He's done it! He's done it!"
When I went to the door of the church I saw a congregation of approximately 600 people. Six hundred people--where had they come from? What had happened? I believe that that very night God swept in in Pentecostal power - the power of the Holy Ghost. And what happened in the early days of the apostles was happening now in the parish of Barvas.
Over 100 young people were at the dance in the parish hall and they weren't thinking of God or eternity. God was not in all of their thoughts. They were there to have a good night when suddenly the power of God fell upon the dance. The music ceased and in a matter of minutes, the hall was empty. They fled from the hall as a man fleeing from a plague. And they made for the church. They are now standing outside. Oh, yes - they saw lights in the church. That was a house of God and they were going to it and they went. Men and women who had gone to bed rose, dressed, and made for the church. Nothing in the way of publicity... But God took the situation in hand - oh, He became His own publicity agent. A hunger and a thirst gripped the people. 600 of them now are at the church standing outside... And then the doors were opened and the congregation flocked back into the church.
Now the church is crowded--a church to seat over 800 is now packed to capacity. It is now going on towards midnight. I managed to make my way through the crowd along the aisle toward the pulpit. I found a young woman, a teacher in the grammar school, lying prostrate on the floor of the pulpit praying, "Oh, God, is there mercy for me? Oh, God, is there mercy for me? " She was one of those at the dance. But she is now lying on the floor of the pulpit crying to God for mercy.
That meeting continued until 4 o'clock in the morning. So we left them there, and just as I was leaving the church, a young man came to me and said, "Mr. Campbell, I would like you to go to the police station." I said, "The police station? What's wrong?" "Oh," he said, "There's nothing wrong but there must be at least 400 people gathered around the police station just now."
Now the sergeant there was a God-fearing man. He was in the meeting. But people knew that this was a house that feared God. And next to the police station was the cottage in which the two old women lived. I believe that that had something to do with the magnet, the power that drew men. There was a coach load at that meeting. A coach load had come over 12 miles to be there. Now if anyone would ask them today, why? How did it happen? Who arranged it? They couldn't tell you. But they found themselves grouping together and someone saying, "What about going to Barvas? I don't know, but I have a hunger in my heart to go there." I can't explain it; they couldn't explain it, but God had the situation in hand.
This is revival dear people! This is a sovereign act of God! This is the moving of God's Spirit, I believe in answer to the prevailing prayer of men and women who believed that God was a covenant-keeping God but must be true to His covenant engagement...
That continued for almost 3 years. Until the whole of the island was swept by the mighty power of God.
If you note in this story there are key people who understood their call , lived their call and it really mattered.
The second key of Jeremiah and you see it in a number of key players in this particular revival is obedience to the prompting of God.
Jeremiah didn’t only have a call he overcame his reservations to fulfil that call.
Jeremiah, was the son of Hilkiah, a Levitical priest, born about 650 and 645 B.C But through Jeremiah’s childhood training for holy service in the priesthood that God began grooming him for his future role.
In the 13th year of King Josiah of Judah (ca. 627 B.C.), God called Jeremiah when he was still a youth, (verse 2). In fact, God had already set Jeremiah apart for the office of a prophet before he was even born, in order to take God’s words to all Israel and to the nations (verse 5).
God gave Jeremiah the overview of his prophetic ministry: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant” (verses 9-10). This meant that God had appointed Jeremiah to proclaim the destruction and building of nations that would eventually lead to the Kingdom of God
Thirdly The call is often counter cultural
Jeremiah ministered despite the situation around him or the days that he lived in - 16 I will utter My judgments
Against them concerning all their wickedness,
Because they have forsaken Me,
Burned incense to other gods,
And worshiped the works of their own hands.
17 “Therefore prepare yourself and arise,
And speak to them all that I command you.
Do not be dismayed before their faces,
Lest I dismay you before them.
18 For behold, I have made you this day
The days that we live in are undeniably difficult to be a Christian in.
Our only concern though is to know god’s call and to fulfil that call.
This calls for faith faith despite the circumstances or the world around us.
My observation is that much focus in the world around is is not the call of god but many people spend most of their lives in the shallows considering conversion.
Should I be a Christian at all seems to be the question?
Some seem mesmerised by the world and have a foot in each camp and some seem to be in the world and yet want to be in the Christian camp as well– in that situation – revival can’t happen.
Jesus once said – I have come that you might have life life in all it’s fullness.
God has a full life for you and for me and calls us to live it.
