In this piece, there are 3 questions that I believe the Holy Spirit will be giving us answers to this evening. The first one is, what is the believer’s call? I'm sure many of us are bold to say that I am a believer. Many of us are bold to say that I believe in the Lord Jesus, I have believed in my heart, and I've confessed with my mouth, the Lord Jesus and I'm saved. I'm saved from sin. I'm saved from Satan. But what is that call? There is a call on every believer. What is the believer’s call?

 

The second question we'll be looking at is; who calls the believer? Who is the one that calls the believer in this New Testament; in this dispensation of the Holy Spirit, who calls the believer?

 

The third one that we will be considering by the help of the Holy Spirit is; what must the believer’s response be to the caller?

 

So, we're starting from the first question: what is the believer’s call? We're going to start our observation from Matthew chapter 10 verse 16. It says; “Behold,” this is Jesus speaking, “I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, therefore, be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves”. He said, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves”. Therefore, because of this assignment, another word for ‘calling’ is an assignment. So, he said, “The assignment I'm giving you as a believer,” this assignment is not for everybody in the world. This assignment we're considering is for believers. So, if you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have not believed in your heart and confessed with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, you don't have a part. You are not a partaker of this assignment.

 

He said, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves”. I want to read that same Scripture in the Message translation, Matthew chapter 10, and verse 16. It says “Stay alert. This is hazardous work I'm assigning you. You are going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack. So don't call attention to yourselves, be as shrewd as a snake. And inoffensive as a dove”.

 

When I saw this translation, I got attracted to it because of the first two lines. He said, “This is hazardous work”. I am sending you on assignment, it's a dangerous assignment. Another word for hazard is danger. This is a dangerous assignment. But I am assigning you that assignment. And that assignment requires that you be like a sheep running through a wolf pack. Do you know how dangerous that is? He said that when you are carrying out this assignment, be shrewd; the way you can survive; the way you can continue to live; the way you can thrive in this assignment is that you are shrewd as a snake and inoffensive as a dove.

 

So, what's the first thing we want to look at here? The assignment of a believer; the calling of a believer, the work of a believer is to be sent out. If you have become a believer, and you have not been sent out, then you have not been called. A believer’s call requires that that believer be sent out. And that's why in Matthew chapter 10 verse 16, Jesus emphatically was saying there, “Behold, I send you out’. So, what is a believer’s call? It is to be sent out. A believer’s called is to be sent out. So, if you are a believer, and you have been in the body of Christ, you have been with Jesus for 10 years, 15 years, 1 year, six months, you must be expecting, you must be expectant of this call; this assignment, this hazardous work of been sent out.

 

What does Jesus do with us before sending us out?

He will disciple us. That's why everyone that becomes born again, must be discipled. The reason for discipleship is there is a believer’s call. There is a believer’s call that requires you to be sent out. And Jesus said that this kind of work requires that you are going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack. You are going to be sheep in the midst of wolves. But when you are discipled, you will be wise as a serpent.  our discipleship is the platform that has been given to us as believers that makes us wise as serpents and gentle and harmless as doves. So, if you are born again, and you are in discipleship, what's your discipleship? The platform of discipleship is to deliver to you; it is for you to become courageous; it is for you to become wise; it is for you to become shrewd as a serpent and harmless, gentle and inoffensive as a dove. So, we're going to consider that very quickly.

 

A believer's call is to be sent out. A believer is not just sent out; A believer must first be discipled. When you come into the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the first point of call is discipleship. See what Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 28 when He was giving His disciples a matching order, He said to them in verse 18, “And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth, go therefore and make disciples. Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. Verse 20, “Teaching them”. So, discipleship requires teaching. When you are a disciple, you are being taught how to be wise like a serpent, and be harmless as a dove.  

 

As a disciple of Jesus, it is necessary, it is of utmost importance that you are discipled. If you are not discipled, you can’ be sent out. The reason why all believers, everyone that has come into the body of Christ and the body of Christ must understand this is because the assignment of our Lord Jesus Christ requires that everyone be sent out. But before they are sent out, the church has been equipped with apostles, prophets, evangelists, with pastors who must teach believers and to make disciples.  The assignment of the church is to disciple believers for their calling. The ultimate calling of Jesus is not for us to come and sit down and warm the chairs; it is not for us to be lights in the midst of lights; it is for us to be light in the midst of darkness; it is for us to be sheep in the midst of wolves. He said, “Behold, I send you out”.

 

Every believer must come to this point where they know what Jesus has sent them out to do. Everyone who has been on a journey with Jesus will know at a point in maturity, at a point in discipleship, you must be sent out. And that's why He said, “Teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age”. Teaching them! The church will fail at her responsibility if we don't disciple believers to be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. That's our assignment. The church has a responsibility under Christ, to equip believers with what it takes to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

 

If we have a believer that goes out and becomes offensive, it is because something has happened. There's a failure at discipleship. If we have a believer who goes out and is not equipped, it is a failure of the church, because the Bible says that all these ministry gifts were given for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, what is the work of ministry? To be sent out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

 

Every ministry that Jesus gives to everyone is for you and I as believers to be sent as sheep in the midst of wolves. Whether Jesus has sent you, and called you as an apostle in the marketplace, or has called you to the mountain of education, has called you as an entrepreneur, has called you as an artisan like Bezaleel; He is sending you as a sheep in the midst of wolves for you to thrive; for you to succeed at that assignment, you must be equipped with what it takes to be wise as a serpent, and harmless as a dove.

 

Let's see 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26, we'll stop at 31. See what Apostle Paul is saying to us here: “For you see your calling, brethren,” another word for brethren is believers. “For you see your calling, believers, that not many wise according to the flesh”. So, the wisdom we're talking about here is not according to the flesh; but according to the Spirit. If you go to the Book of James, James was speaking to us about the wisdom of this world and the wisdom that is above. He said, “The wisdom that is from above is pure”.

 

Now, let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26. It says; “Can you see brethren, that in your calling, not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many nobles are called”. As a believer, you are called.

 

Verse 27 says; “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; ²⁸ and the ^[m]base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, ²⁹ that no flesh should glory in His presence. ³⁰ But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

 

Christ Jesus became for us, for the sake of this assignment, Jesus became wisdom, so that you will not lack it. And righteousness, He did not just become wisdom, He also became righteousness. Hallelujah! He became your wisdom so that in the assignment He is sending you, you can be wise because He knows you cannot thrive in the assignment if you are not wise, so He became wisdom.

 

Number two, the Bible says He became righteousness for us. What does this mean? Jesus imputed His own righteousness upon us so that as we are going about this assignment, as we are going about the calling, we have a right standing with God. And Jesus became sanctification: in this calling, Jesus has become the reason why you are set apart. His presence in your life has set you apart. So, in this calling, you are sanctified; He has become your sanctification so that when you are challenged, why are you coming to this space where there are wolves? You know, you are not coming in your name. You are not coming with a self-serving agenda. You are coming with the agenda of Christ, the One that has separated you. Praise the Lord!

 

He became sanctification and redemption. Jesus became redemption. He has bought us over; He has bought us back to God. Jesus has become the reason why the devil does not have legal rights over our lives. Jesus has become the reason why the devil can no longer hold onto our pasts; can no longer hold onto those things that have become bases upon which he could have thrived in our lives. Jesus has become redemption. Glory to God! Verse 31: “That, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord”.

 

How does a sheep survive in the midst of wolves? It takes Jesus.

How can you have an assignment, a calling, that puts you in a position of a sheep and you are still expected to thrive and survive? It takes Jesus. That's why in this Scripture, the Bible makes us to understand the means by which every believer will succeed at his or her calling. Christ has become. He has become for you; He has become for me, wisdom. He has become for you; He has become for me righteousness. He has become for you; He has become for me sanctification. He has become for you; He has become for me Redemption — that is our how. Jesus is our how, how we survive and thrive as sheep in the midst of wolves.

 

What is the believer’s call?

It is to be sent out. That's why when you hear Jesus speaking to you and He calls you, He wants to send you. What did He say to Saul on the road to Damascus before He changed his name to Paul?

 

He said, “Saul, why are you persecuting me? You can’t kick against the goad”. So, He started telling him: “There are many things you will suffer for my sake”. The reason inherent in the call of a believer is suffering, and one of the fruits of the Spirit is long-suffering is because of this assignment. In the Message translation, He calls it hazardous work. In the natural, it takes a wolf and a wolf to compete or something greater than a wolf to compete with a wolf. In the natural realm, a sheep cannot compete with a wolf. For a sheep to survive in the midst of wolves like Daniel, God closed the mouth of the lions; of the wolves, or God makes sure that in the weakness of the sheep, the strength of a lion manifests. And that's why you see Apostle Paul saying in this 1 Corinthians chapter 1 from verse 26. He said, If you see your calling, brethren, not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called”. Because if they were called, they would have had an advantage.

 

The reason you and I don't seem as though we have an advantage in the flesh is because really, we don't have an advantage. So, where is our advantage? Our advantage is in the caller. Who calls the believer? We're looking at the second question now.

 

Who calls the believer?

Since Jesus came and was assigned by the Father, prior to the coming of Jesus on the earth physically, everybody that was called was called by God the Father. So, we see the example of Abraham; God called him. Moses, Noah, and Joshua, you see the active presence of God, God the Father in the call. Elijah, Elisha and others; look at all those great men in the Old Testament. But when Jesus came on the scene, God ceased calling men. God the Father ceased calling men, so who calls the believer? If we go back to Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 to 20 which we read earlier, Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth, including the authority to call has been given to me”.

 

So, it is Jesus Christ who calls. Why? Because the work is the work of Christ. So to do the works of Christ, you must do it in the strength of Christ. That's why if you see in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 from verses 26 to 31, we read, it says, “Jesus has become for us,” the empowerment. What's the empowerment we need for the calling? He called it wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

 

Those are the package in Christ Jesus, for your calling. To succeed at your calling, you must receive Jesus as your wisdom. You must receive the wisdom of the caller. To succeed in your calling as a believer, you must receive the righteousness of the caller. To succeed in your calling, as a believer, you must receive the sanctification of the caller. To succeed in your calling, you must receive the redemption of the caller. So, Jesus Christ is the One that calls in this dispensation, and He's the One that assigns and that's why He made bold to say in Matthew chapter 10 verse 16, “Behold, I have sent you out”.

 

Let's see how he calls.

We want to see an example quickly in Luke chapter 9 verse 1 to 6. It says; “Then he called his 12 disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach,” do you see sent? “He sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick,” verse three:

 

 “And He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece. ⁴ “Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. ⁵ And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” ⁶ So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.”

 

This is a classic example of how Jesus calls. He said, “And He called His 12 disciples”. And He called John and He called Esther, that is how He calls us as believers. Once you are a disciple of His, He will call you and send you out. Why? There is a work of Christ to be done. Jesus will not recruit people outside Him to do His work. The work of Christ will be done by the people of Christ.

 

The work of Christ will be done by the people of Christ in the strength of Christ. He didn't call the disciples of the Pharisees. He didn't call the disciples of the Sadducees. He didn't go to the palace to call them for the assignment. The Bible says, “And He called His,” His! Jesus calls his own. That's why as a believer, you have become His own. He will send you out; your calling is to be sent out, why? You have become His own, you must do His work.

 

Jesus gave us a classic example. He said, “I've done the work of Him that sent Me”. “I do the work of the Father because it is the Father that sent Me.” That's how you as a believer must do the work of Christ, because He's the One that is sending you. That is our calling, to do the work of Christ; to be sent out to do the work of Christ.

 

So, what must be the believer's response? What must be the believer's response to the caller? We know now that our calling as believers is to be sent out; to be sent out as sheep in the midst of wolves. And we know now that our caller is Jesus Christ; He is the One that calls us. That's why for everyone that was called, you will see there was an appearance. God the Father did not appear to Saul. It was Jesus Christ. If you hear the testimony, we were listening to a testimony yesterday. And the man said, he looked into a light and he saw Jesus when you want to see, it is Jesus that will appear; the caller. He said in Matthew 28: “All authority,” that is how He became the caller.  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. The father needs something to be done on the earth, I have the authority to do it. And how do I do it? I do it through My people. Glory to God!

 

What must be the believer's response to the caller?

Jesus was speaking in Matthew chapter 6, He was telling us how we must respond, how we must live. What our disposition must be as believers. Matthew chapter 6 verses 25 to 34: “Therefore I say to you,” who is He speaking to? He is speaking to believers all over the world, Jesus is speaking to believers everywhere. “Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life,” somebody could say what is Jesus saying? You see that the word is worrying, He didn’t say don't think. It is important we understand that there is a difference. Jesus did not say ‘be thoughtless,’ because some people will take it to the extreme. I'm going to explain it based on the explanation of Jesus.

 

“Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, and what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”

 

What is he saying? As a believer, your preoccupation or predisposition, must not be about what you would wear, what you would eat or where you will live. And that's why when we went to Luke chapter 6, we saw when He was sending out disciples, He said, “Do not carry,” so it doesn’t look as if I'm the one singing it, He was setting a principle. I want us to see together so that we can use it to juxtapose this, Scripture.

 

Luke chapter 9 from verses 1 to 6. See from verse 3 what He said, “And He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey,” take nothing for the assignment. Take nothing for the call. “…neither staff nor bag nor bread nor money”. What was He trying to communicate? Don't worry about these things. When He says, “Take nothing,” don't let your thoughts be preoccupied by these things. The provision for the journey; and the provision for the assignment will not come from you.

 

“And do not have two tunics apiece”. What was He saying? Don't plan for tomorrow. Don't worry about tomorrow. We're going to see this Scripture; Jesus used it in this strong way to mirror Matthew chapter 6. Now, having understood verse 3 of Luke chapter 9, let's go back to Matthew chapter 6, we are reading from verse 25, and we want to read it again based on your understanding we gain from Luke chapter 9: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on”. Don't have two tunics apiece.

 

“Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air.” When Jesus is giving us a basis, it is for comparison, pay attention. There's a principle He wants us to draw from it. He said, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns”. Have you seen a bird with a wardrobe before? Now I want us to pay attention, it is not for us to back and empty our wardrobes, that's not it. There is a principle that Jesus is trying to communicate to us and that's what I want us to get. The Bible says, “The letter killeth but the Spirit gifts life; it is the spirit of this conversation I want us to pay attention to as believers.  

 

 

He said, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father”. This is what I want you to pay attention to: ‘Your heavenly Father feeds them, that is the principle. The birds of the air are catered for by your heavenly Father. So, the birds of the air daily go out not worrying. That's the principle. That is why when Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray, He said, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name thy kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day,” it's a principle. “Give us this day our daily bread.” That's the principle that Jesus is saying here.

 

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? So, what's the principle here? The value; the worth of your life in the agenda of God. Don't have a self-serving agenda; have a Jesus-serving agenda. When you have a Jesus-serving agenda, your Father in heaven will give you your daily bread. It's a principle; is a Kingdom Principle. The reason you will not worry as a believer in your calling is because you know your Father in heaven will take care of you. That's the principle. If He takes care of the birds of the air, how much more you and I? If He takes care of the birds that neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, He will take care of you.

 

See what Jesus is driving at from verse 27: “Which of you by worrying can add one ^[j]cubit to his ^[k]stature?” He is throwing that question to us this day, which of you, how long you have been worrying, have you increased your height? Have your worries ever added a Kobo to your bank account? Has your worry ever provided food? In all these, he is saying, do not worry about your life. So, what is our response as believers?

 

#. Do Not Worry about your life.  If you do not get anything in this message, please get this: do not worry about your life. Are there genuine needs in our lives? Yes. Are there concerns in our lives? Yes. But Jesus said, don't worry about them. Your worry will produce no result. Verse 28, “So why do you worry about clothing since you know your body cannot produce anything? Consider,” He is calling our attention to things around us, and how God is concerned about them. What contribution do birds and lilies make to the kingdom? In this work of Christ, Jesus is not going to use birds. He is not going to use lilies. He's going to use you and I. So, if we are so important, if we have this treasure in earthen vessels, then we know the excellence is not of us, but of Him.

 

 

If He would decorate lilies, He said, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹ and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not ^[l]arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ “Now if God.” See how He is calling our attention to who God is. He said, now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” He is asking the question of faith.  Do you even know who you are to God? When I have a valuable vessel that I can send, I take care of it. How much more God! Hallelujah!

 

 

So, our response to the call as believers is our understanding that we must leave with today: that do not worry about your life. The One that is sending you has your provisions taking care of. The One that has called you has provision for you.

 

 

Verse 31: “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” He knows, and because He knows, He has a will to give it to you. He knows that you need all these things: food, cloth, housing… He knows that you need them. Can God know you are in need of something and withhold it from you? No! He said, “If you been wicked know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more…? Your child will not ask for bread from you and you will give him a snake, how much more your heavenly Father? Your heavenly Father knows. So, when you are praying for your daily bread, know that as you are praying it, He is aware that you need it. And because He knows that you need it, He will give it to you. Praise the Lord!

 

 

We have looked at the first response: do not worry about your life. So, what should you worry about? The first response is what you should not do. The second response is what you must do. The first one, once you don't do it, you will do the second one. And that's why Jesus used almost 8 verses to tell us what we must not do. He said, “Do not worry,” and He started that from verses 25 to 32. Then He got to verse 33. He said, “But,” so this is what you must do, having understood that you must not do this, which is to worry about your life, this is what you must do.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” What must be the believer’s response to the caller? The first one is do not worry about your life.

 

 

#. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

He said when you do this, and all these things shall be added. I know we've read this Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 several times, several times, and we love it. But you see, one thing I've come to realize by the help of the Holy Spirit is that if you don't pay attention to Matthew chapter 6 verses 25 to 32, you will not be able to do 33: If you worry, you cannot seek the kingdom. If you choose to worry about that very thing that Jesus said, “Do not,” if you choose to do it, you will not be able to do verse 33. So, the first response as a believer is that do not worry about your life. Does it mean that you should be careless? Does it mean you should be thoughtless without reasoning? No! But know that your heavenly Father knows. If God is arranging something and you're arranging the same thing, who’s own will be better? God’s own will be ‘eternity better’ (if there's any word like that) than yours. In mathematics, X is raised to a power of 100 or raised to a power of 7 and so on, but God’s own is X raised to the power of infinity — Eternity. That is the exponential difference between what you can ever arrange and what God will arrange for you.

 

 

That's why Jesus in knowing this said, “Do not worry”. Believers do not worry about your life. But what should you be concerned about; what should you be preoccupied with? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. See verse 34, Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow”. So, He spoke about 33 and He left it like that and went to remind us of what he has been saying from verses 25 to 32: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow”. Do not worry about your future; do not worry about the future of your children; do not worry about the future of your life, He said, “For tomorrow will worry about its own thing sufficient for the day is its own trouble”.

 

So, what was He saying when he called His 12 disciples in Luke chapter 9? Don't worry about tomorrow. In My assignment; in My calling over your life, don't worry about tomorrow. That's why He said, “I do the work of Him that sent Me while it is day”. Do the work of Christ while it is day. For the night comes when no one can work. No one can work, even though they try to work, they can't. They cannot work. Don’t worry about tomorrow. “Haaaah, what if tomorrow, this thing is no longer lucrative?

 

 

There was a time, many people were so concerned when they were talking about restructuring in Nigeria, what if while restoring, Nigeria now breaks, so some people sold their lands, some people sold their properties. Some people relocated to their villages only to find out that after seven years after Nigeria is still standing. What happened to them? They were worrying about tomorrow. Does it mean, I'm putting this caveat, God said you should not plan? No! That is not it. But when you are planning; let that plan be subject to the will of God.

 

 

Jesus had a plan. He took the plan to the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, “Father, this is My plan, I wish that this cup can pass over Me, what concluded it? “Nevertheless, not My will. Not my plan.” So, He had a plan. But as believers, our calling requires that we come to the point that Jesus came to. I have a plan; I have a will, My will is not cast in stone, it is not the law of Medes and Persia that cannot be altered. “Nevertheless,” but our lives must have that nevertheless.

 

 

As we respond to the call of Jesus as believers, we must have that posture of nevertheless. We must have that response of nevertheless. Not my will. Not my desire. Not my plan. Not my agenda. But your agenda. Your will be done. Your assignments be done. That's our response to the caller.

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Lara Gboyega Adedeji!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!