Yes, Lord

(A few more thoughts on the issue of “The Call.”)

There are a few assumptions (whoops… presuppositions) that inform the Nonmodern understanding of The Call of God:

1. The main theme of Scripture (and God’s main effort in history) revolves around God’s plan to save the nations.

2. Once a person is saved, they are only left in this fallen and painful world to advance God’s redeeming plan.

3. Every Christian has a part to play in bringing the nations back to God.

As stated in an earlier post, most people’s idea of a call from God is understood to be like Paul’s Macedonian call, or maybe His Damascus road experience. In fact it tends to be more like the call for Abram to leave his home for a place that God would show him. In that sense it is very much like the call that every single Christian has received—whether they have responded or not.

The Genesis 12 call is quite simply the call to follow and trust God. In that sense it is the call of the Christian walk, the process where we learn to hear God’s voice and follow. It is a call to trust His plan. “Go where I lead you.” For some that may be onto the mission field, but for everyone it impacts the mission in some way.

Another important (and universal) call is seen in Isaiah 6. In this account we see Isaiah “overhearing” God asking Himself whom He should send. Isaiah doesn’t even know what the task is going to be, but he answers appropriately, “Send me!” In Genesis, God asks us to follow His lead without knowing where we will end up; here He asks us to take on a task without knowing what we will be doing. God’s call must always be answered with blind faith.