This blog post has been percolating through my mind for a few days maybe even weeks now as I’ve contemplated something which the Lord started to talk to me about back in 2012 relating to my own personal life…

It was something which He said about willingness which started this whole train of thought off and it’s been percolating in the background since but really been coming to the boil over the last few weeks and now to the point of sharing…

It’s not those who say they will journey with you and express that in beautiful tones, like music to your ears, but those who actually come and roll up their sleeves and do it, who we are to invest our lives in to ensure that they are successful in the call on their life…

Jesus told a similar parable in Matthew 21:28-32 (NASB),

“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”They said, “The first.” Jesus *said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.

There’s another couple of scriptures (in bold below) related to this which I never understood either which He’s just shone His light on over the last few days,

“Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” Matthew 13:18-23 (NASB)

For many are called, but few are chosen.” Matthew 22:14 (NASB)

“These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.” Revelation 17:14 (NASB)

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Revelation 22:17 (KJV)

There are different calls, there is a general call where the Lord has a plan for each and every persons’ life and if that person is willing to come to Him (‘whosoever will may come’) and then surrender to Him and continue to let Him take possession of them, then that call will become a complete reality in their lives…

In that sense, everyone is called…

Those who actually respond to that call, actually surrender to the Lord and actually continue to let Him take possession of them are the ‘called, chosen and faithful’…

Within the definition of ‘faithful’ I believe are the sub-groups of 30 fold, 60 fold, and 100 fold…

I believe that relates to how much of us the Lord manages to practically possess throughout our journey, the more of us the Lord manages to practically possess, the more fruitful we are…

It is possible to be ‘chosen’, i.e. given the gift of salvation, without being ‘faithful’, as 2 Timothy 2:13 indicates,

If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

Also, as 1 Corinthians 5:5 states,

I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

This is because anyone who joins himself to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him…

But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 1 Corinthians 6:17 (NASB)

So prophetically we see the future and see other people, specific people, with us in that future and believe that they will be with us and begin to invest time in prayer to see them with us, in unity with us, towards that future…

But then part-way through that process as we commit all that to the Lord, we begin to hear the Lord telling us something different, that, “Such and such is not willing to come” and that His plan that He’s already shown us prophetically, which had His stamp of approval, is no longer going to happen through them… 😦

This can be ‘soul-destroying’ for us as prophetic intercessors and can leave us questioning the integrity of God, questioning His reliability and questioning His honesty…

It also makes us double our efforts in praying for that particular person or people and petitioning God for Him to change His Mind but after we do this we get to a place where we see that this is not going to happen and we let go of what He initially told us and trust Him for the result…

This is where He explains to us, ‘whosoever will may come’…

Adam and Eve were meant to be together, the Lord provided all they needed…

Eve decided to leave Adam for the promise of the forbidden fruit…

Adam decided to leave God to stay with Eve…

The dream was ended…

Abraham told his servant the below,

“The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there. “But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this my oath; only do not take my son back there.” Genesis 24:7-8 (NASB)

So on the one hand, “you will take a wife for my son from there” but on the other hand, “if the woman is not willing… then you will be free…”…

Thus we see that the Lord can tell us that something will happen but if the other party isn’t willing then we are free in that instance, our faith and our believing were good but we are released…

This is a great freedom for the prophetic intercessor, otherwise, there is no release from the burden which we are carrying and we go ‘over and over and over’ with God petitioning and fighting with God (as Jacob did that night) to get what He originally told us was His plan to fulfill…

There’s something very powerful about the biblical principle of ‘in the loins of…’ in relation to this topic…

And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. Hebrews 7:9-10 (NASB)

for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Romans 11:29 (NASB)

Because the gifts and the calling of God – the thing He wants doing and the ability to get it done – are irrevocable and because God’s word doesn’t return to Him void but achieves everything for which He sent it, it is possible for the call on one person’s life, when rejected by that person (due to their lack of action in accepting it, no matter what they say with their mouth), to pass on down to the next person on God’s list, and down and down and down until God finds someone who is practically willing to fulfill that call and give themselves fully to Him for Him to work that call through them, Amen? 🙂

This should be really encouraging for us as prophetic intercessors…

Elijah was told that he would do three things by God after he fled from Jezebel but in reality, the first and second of those three things, ie. anointing Hazael as king of Syria and Jehu as king of Israel, Elijah never personally completed…

Elisha, his successor completed the Hazael task and we read that Elisha delegated the Jehu task to one of the sons of the prophets, who completed that task…

Thus Elijah’s task (or call) was delegated to Elisha…

Moses task (or call) was delegated to Joshua…

Peter’s task (or call) as Apostle to the Gentiles was delegated to Paul…

There we have examples of God getting His word (His vision or purpose) fulfilled, through whoever was willing…

The same is true today with the Apostolic Mantle which I believe proceeds down from generation to generation waiting for someone to take it up – Jesus’ final words to us before He went back to heaven about ‘discipling the nations’, ‘baptizing the nations’ and ‘teaching the nations to observe all that He commanded us’…

That Apostolic Anointing is still available today – David replaced Saul – David was willing to ‘serve God’s purpose in his generation’ (Acts 13:36) – where the word ‘served’ means literally like a rower on a ship (most likely a galley slave would have been the meaning in view there)…

The Lord tells us in Daniel 4:17 (NASB) that He gives His authority ‘to the lowliest of men’…

The ‘lowliest of men’ are those people who are willing to submit themselves to the Lord and trust that He will do everything in them – not to strive to prove that they can do it but to trust that God will do it through them – this is true humility and the absence of pride…

So God waits to be gracious to us…

Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him. Isaiah 30:18 (NASB)

Even if we’ve been the son who first refused but afterward went and actually did it, the thing his father wanted him to do, this delights the heart of God, until our heart is set on being forever unwilling to come to the Lord to fulfill His will (His call) on our lives, I believe the door is always open from the Lord to use us in whatever way He still can while we remain on earth…

It might be that we are the pot which was marred in the Potter’s Hand (Jeremiah 18:4), but even so He will still make something beautiful out of the remainder of our lives when we come back to Him in repentance for our unwillingness – it might be that we don’t complete the initial call which He had on our lives – but then it might be that we complete the unfinished portions of a call which was on someone else’s life…

It is true that we need to ‘Seek the Lord while He may be found’ (Isaiah 55:6a NASB) and in my experience in praying for certain ones there have been times where the Lord has shown me that the time given for a certain one to be willing to surrender to Him and to accept the call that He has placed on their lives has come to an end and that what He had planned will no longer occur…

I wondered about this and the Lord explained it to me in this way – none of us are islands – our lives and our willingness to submit to the Lord affect other people, we have ‘flow on’ or ‘ripple’ effects on others…

If someone else in our sphere of influence who needs our input is willing to ‘go on’ with God but we are not then for their sake the Lord needs to bring others into their lives to fulfill those things which we have not been able to due to our unwillingness to submit to the Lord…

The surrendered one cannot suffer (long-term, in the short term there is suffering) for the lack of surrender of the unwilling one – as ‘no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly’ (Psalm 84:11b NASB)…

At the end of the day – everything God does is good – so whatever part we can play with Him is a blessing to us and reveals His Character to us – He gets done what He needs to get done through whoever is willing and available at any point in time on His earth…

It is our privilege to partner with Him in this… 🙂

“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ Daniel 4:35 (NASB)