Oswald Chambers said, “If a man or woman is called to God, it does not matter how untoward circumstances are, every force that has been at work will tell for God’s purpose in the end” (September 29th). He speaks of it coming as a “sudden thunder clap,” or with a “gradual dawning.” He says, “But in whatever way it comes, it comes with the undercurrent of the supernatural, something that cannot be put into words, it is always accompanied with a glow.”
I look back on the events of the past year and I can see the hand of God at work. Much of my fear and contemplation regarding the Church has been the solidifying of God’s call. I have always known I was called to be a pastor, but I have thought that for me a pastor was one of a number of roles.
As God has been teaching me in the last several months, I have responded by focusing my thoughts on a Church. But He has helped me to see that the work He was doing in my heart was not about a Church, which is outward, but it is about me, which is inward.
It is about me in the sense that He was trying to draw out and solidify this call on my life.
Every time God has spoken to me about pastoring, I have thought about the Church, but He keeps shifting the emphasis back onto the condition of my heart. The formation of my heart has been the emphasis of his work, while my emphasis has been the formation of the Church.