Dr. Lewis Drummond asked a class of 10 preachers I was in a question. How would you answer it?
What if God told you that He would use you to bring literally millions of people to salvation in one year. BUT… at the end of that year your family would’ve abandoned you… you’d be broke… and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of your life… then die all alone. Would you say… “Here I am, SEND ME!”?
The class was silent…
What if God told you to do something that (In your eyes) would fail… would you do it?
Ezekiel 3:4 “Go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. 5 For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel— 6 not to people of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. 7 But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to Me. Because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. (Would you JOYFULLY do it?)
What if God gave you a mission that would not result in anything good or positive in your eyes… would you do it anyway?
Isaiah 6:8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
6:11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, 12 and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. (Would you JOYFULLY do it knowing that?)
Would you be willing to preach the Gospel… every day… for 120 years and not one person believed? Noah spent 120 years building an ark because of the coming flood… yet not a single person believed him about the coming flood and just seven other people (His wife, three sons and their wives) entered the ark.
Was Isaiah a failure? Was Ezekiel a failure? Was Noah a failure? No… no… and no. And neither are you a failure when you are obedient to God’s call… regardless of how it looks to you. The events men see are not the determiner of success or failure. We leave that to God (CLICK HERE).
God’s call never results in failure. God doesn’t measure success in the terms man does. Success in God’s eyes is one word… OBEDIENCE. Let that be your measure of success…. obedience to God’s call.