“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5
There has only been one Jeremiah the prophet, this one who has left us his book entitled by his own name. From a spiritual standpoint, this is because God was Jeremiah’s beginning and ending. When we read that God had formed Jeremiah in the womb of his mother, and that beforehand, had known him, then we begin to catch a glimpse of the beginnings of a preacher, certainly not by what Jeremiah decided he would be, but by the predetermined calling of God upon his life. We further see that before he was born, God had purposely set him apart, giving him particular gifts, by which he would exercise a ministry so powerful, and prolonged, that it would stretch forth unto this very day, God using his writings to speak to the world. It must be emphasized again and again that Christ was the beginning of Jeremiah, his essence, and his ending, for it was Christ who had “ordained” him, appointing Jeremiah to fulfill a specific ministry, but providing His own words to speak. God had touched the lips of Jeremiah, giving him these words, declaring to him that He had made Jeremiah by the Spirit to be a defensed city, and an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land. Not only was there a calling, but there were the gifts and spiritual capacities provided. Jeremiah was called, ordained, and fully equipped for the ministry, and task before him. His greatest responsibility was to walk with God, remain receptive to all that God communicated to him by His words, commandments and promises, and then believing God for the full realization of His purposes for His glory. Jeremiah had no idea at the time that his book would be read over the course of thousands of years, used by God to meet the spiritual needs of countless millions. This was not Jeremiah’s doing, but that of the Christ, the eternal Father, who had set him apart. This prophet of God, in spite of opposition within and without, used well and effectively the opportunity before him. Faithfulness to opportunity proved to be of great effect and fruitfulness. So, where does the subject of the Lord’s preacher begin?
Paul’s testimony was somewhat similar to that of Jeremiah, in that he wrote: “…it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen (the nations).” (Gal.1:15,16) The Christ, who in the book of Revelation, reveals Himself as the “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,” (1:8) is that one who, before Saul of Tarsus was conceived in his mother’s womb like Jeremiah, called and ordained him. Though Saul, later to become Paul the Apostle after his conversion, was greatly gifted intellectually, and in so many other ways, these capacities were of no use to God. It would only be by the Christ, being revealed in him by the Spirit, that the possibility of his calling would be fully realized. Again, Paul like Jeremiah, had his beginning in God. He would be their sufficiency in every conceivable manner, not only to know their calling, but to exercise and fulfill it. It was as these two men, and so many more, were responsive to the call of God, ever seeking that communion with Him, that the Lord would fulfill in and through them His great purposes. What then, put very simply, was the key to their lives and ministry, for in that answer resides the answer to our calling.
It has been said that God cannot use many men today, “…they are too big.” Only the man who knows his helplessness, but is committed to believing God for His sufficiency, can rise to the occasion of fulfilling his ministry. May God give us grace to know God’s specific calling and believe Him for its realization.
Dear Father, Strengthen us to believe your words: “Faithful is He that calls you who also will do it.” In Jesus’ name, Amen.