Called To Share A Heavenly Calling

by DORRICOTT, K.O. | Category: The Call Of Christ | Apr 2009

Jim Hayhurst, in his book 'The Right Mountain'(1) describes what it's like to be on an expedition to climb Mount Everest, the highest mountain on earth. Reaching the summit is paramount and all efforts are devoted to achieving that. Along the way there can be many difficulties and setbacks, but what keeps the team going is the prospect of 'getting to the top'. He says that, when the going gets tough, you don't lower your sights, you just increase your support. At one point in their climb, this involved the team tying themselves to the side of a vertical cliff three thousand feet high, in order to have a place to sleep to be able to make it to the summit. It was either that or go back. He said that they certainly made sure those ties were very secure! Eventually the team made it to the top.

In the past few months in these articles we have been exploring what is involved in pursuing our calling from God as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many causes to which we can devote our lives; many inspiring challenges; many worthy endeavours. Younger people in particular are often urged to find out what their passion is and then pursue it to the full, to make the most of life. But the calling that we have been given far exceeds the best of those, whether we realise it or not. The Lord of heaven is calling us to go to the very top, to have the highest experience possible for human beings, and to give ourselves entirely to it. What a tragedy if we miss it!

The Lord Jesus is now engaged in the gathering together of what He knows His Father longs to have - true worshippers who will worship Him in spirit and truth,(2) not here on earth as used to be the case, but now in heaven itself, where He is. Imagine us going into heaven to worship God there! This in fact is what we are called to do - it is a 'heavenly calling'.(3) This purpose is occupying Christ in the building up of a house for God, bringing together a people for that purpose, to be worshippers who together offer up to His God and Father spiritual sacrifices.(4) Because we are still living on earth, we gather for our worship times in locations here, but what we are actually engaging in spiritually is very much in heaven itself, where God is. As God's Son, Christ is building this house, over which He has been given total authority; and as the man Jesus He serves as its high priest.(5) He is the one who acts on behalf of the worshipping people, and represents them before His God and Father in the very throne room of heaven.

In all this he is totally faithful,(6) just as He was in His life on earth, totally reliable in everything that pertains to God, leaving nothing undone. The question is: how faithful are the worshippers that He wants to bring? How is each of us as a believer in Jesus Christ responding to this heavenly call? Because we are not guaranteed this privilege - it requires our faithfulness, too.(7) What if we lose sight of the top? Or what if we've never seen it and don't realize that it is there for us to reach? What if our awareness of our calling is very limited? What in fact must we do in order to be part of this privileged company, to be one of the active partakers of our heavenly calling?

The first thing we must do is come to Christ to be built into this spiritual house.(4) We are already believers in Christ, but we must also put ourselves under the one who has the full authority as Son over God's house.7 We do this when, as genuine disciples, we are baptized into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (giving Christ His rightful place), and then are added to a church of God to become part of those who together serve Him in His house.(8)

Then we must continually hold fast to the confession of our hope.(9) This is the confession of Christ, as the one who makes this worship possible. If we lose that confession of our hope, we can lose the privilege of being part of the house of God.(10) We will have missed being part of the team that goes to the top. The epistle to the Hebrews refers to five ways it is possible to lose it - we can drift away due to neglect, we can fall away due to unbelief, we can throw it away by undervaluing it, we can turn away from it due to other pressures, or we can be carried away from it by the influence of others.(11) These are all obstacles to our heavenly calling.

And then, as we gather together for our times of worship, when in the churches of God we remember the Lord Jesus in the bread and wine, we 'draw near' to God in heaven 'in full assurance of faith'.(12) As we do this, do we truly realise where we are spiritually, and what we are doing? This is far removed from our surroundings here on earth. And it isn't just in our imagination, it is realizing the reality of it - we are at the pinnacle! What reverence and what exhilaration that should inspire in us - every single time! Even though we don't understand it fully, by faith we appreciate it. God has said it and so we believe it to be true. We draw near to God, not out of ritual or duty, but out of sincere and full hearts. Without the assurance that faith provides, our worship meetings will be deadly dull and a waste of time. If we treat it casually, or our minds are somewhere else, or we don't realize what is truly going on, we'll be muddling along farther down the mountain, not at all experiencing the pinnacle.

Mountain climbing is not easy. It takes a lot of preparation, and a lot of persistence. When the team is on the climb and the going gets very hard, some of them may be tempted to give up. But ask Jim Hayhurst, or anyone who has made it to the top, whether it was all worth it, and they are in no doubt. Our calling as disciples of Jesus Christ can similarly involve sacrifices and difficulty. Some of the articles in this series have examined that side of it - the humility required in serving, the need to be prepared to suffer, if necessary, and the self-denial. There are costs to true discipleship. Compromise isn't an option. We may object to the confinement of being in something that the world regards very lightly, when seemingly more attractive options are being offered. These may tempt us to settle for something less than the full privileges of our calling. But, as Jim Hayhurst reminds us, we must not lose sight of the top. We must hold on to our confession of hope, by expressing it to God - by actually confessing it (just as Jesus did faithfully before Pilate, despite all the pressures to save His own skin(13)).

Finally, what do we do when we are there? We offer our sacrifices - 'Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name'.(14) Worship is not just having an emotionally stimulating time, perhaps with musical performances. Worship is expressing to God our appreciation of Him and His Son, to the fullest extent that we are able, so that God receives from His redeemed creatures what he cannot give Himself - true worship. Worship is all about giving. All the focus is on Him and His Son. As we stand at the summit, and survey the majesty around us, it humbles us, and thrills us. We have seen the majesty of our God! We have given to Him what He longs for, but we feel all the benefit.

That is what we are being offered, fellow-partakers - a heavenly calling!

References:

(1) Jim Hayhurst Sr., The Right Mountain: Lessons From Everest On the Real Meaning of Success, John Wiley & Sons, 1992 (2) John 4:24 (3) Heb. 3:1 (4) 1 Pet. 2:5 (5) Heb. 5:1-5 (6) Heb. 2:17 (7) Heb. 3:6 (8) Mat. 28:19; Acts 2:41; 1 Tim. 3:15 (9) Heb. 4:14; 10:23 (10) Heb. 3:6 (11) Heb. 2:1; 3:12; 10:35; 12:25; 13:9 (12) Heb. 10:22 (13) 1 Tim. 6:13 (14) Heb.13:15

Bible quotations from NASB

DORRICOTT, K.O. | Apr 2009
The Call Of Christ