Obedience to God’s Commission

Sir Ernest Shackleton, the great explorer of North Pole, gave the advertisement, “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness and constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success”. Many young men came forward to go with Shackleton to North Pole. They responded to his call and went risking their life for ‘honour and recognition’.

In Isaiah 6:1-13, we read about the call which came to Isaiah. Isaiah obeyed the call. In the call and commission of Isaiah, we find three important elements of a call. Isaiah received three visions.

• The Vision of God: Isaiah was shocked by the death of Uzziah, the king of Judah. Uzziah reigned for 52 years righteously. But when he became strong, he entered the temple and began to burn incense in the altar of the Lord. So he was stricken with leprosy and later died. Isaiah knew the power and authority of the king. But the sudden end of the king, made him to realise the greatness and the almighty power of God. The vision for God came to him when he was in the same temple.

Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne, and he heard the voice of seraphim saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory”. The posts of the door were shaken and the temple was filled with smoke. All these things brought to him the vision about the Lord. The greatness of God. Anyone who is called for the ministry must first of all have the vision of the Lord – His greatness, authority and power. This enables one to accept Jesus Christ as the Lord over his life and motivates him to obey His commission.

• The Vision about his sinfulness: When Isaiah saw the greatness of God in the temple, he looked at himself and found that he was very sinful. So he cried. “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” Is 6:5. The understanding of the sinfulness and unworthiness, usually follows anyone, who is called by the Lord.

The Great commission of our Lord comes to all those who have understood not only the greatness of God but also their sinfulness. When Isaiah accepted his sinfulness, the Lord cleansed his iniquity and his sin. Are you willing to accept your unworthiness and confess your sin to the Lord? Then you will get the call from the Lord.

• The Vision of the need: When the sins of Isaiah were removed, he could hear a voice. It was the voice of the Lord. It was calling Isaiah to go as God’s representative to meet the need. “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah responded to the call by saying, ‘Here am I, send me’. The Lord honoured the obedience of Isaiah and commissioned him as a prophet to share His word to the people.

Today the Lord is looking for a believer who will receive the vision from the Lord. The Bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. Prov. 29:18.

Joseph was a dreamer who dreamt greatness while he was very young. His family members misunderstood him. But he never forgot the vision. He was sold away as a slave by his brothers. But the Lord made the slipping stones into stepping stones and fulfilled his dreams.

An unknown philosopher and theologian from California wrote about dreams, “Happy is the man who dream dreams, and is ready to pay the price to make them come true”. Today we need men and women who will dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to reach more than one billion Muslims in the world. 

The growth rate of Muslims is significantly higher than the growth rate of the population of the world. Only a few missionaries are working among them. All these people are lost and they need Christ. The Lord is now looking at you to dream dreams to reach them. Are you willing to obey the commission of the Lord and dream dreams to reach them?