God is a God with a plan. All of God’s work in the universe, from ages past to eternity future, is accomplished according to His plan. This plan must be accomplished through man and also in man. Hence, God wants to gain all His created and redeemed people for the accomplishment of His plan.
Do not think it is an accident that God uses us today. God’s use of us is altogether based upon His predetermined plan. Everyone that God uses is within the realm of His plan. Because God’s plan is carried out only in man, God has to use man to a very great extent. As long as someone is a citizen of a certain country, he is within the sphere of usefulness to that country and can be used by it. Likewise, we who belong to the kingdom of God are within its realm of usefulness.
Everyone who has been saved has the position and the potential to be used by God. God confirms man’s usefulness to Himself not only by creating and redeeming man but also by calling him. The reason God created and redeemed man is that He intends to use man. However, as far as man’s feeling is concerned, creation and redemption are not enough to convince man that God intends to use him. Therefore, God must also call man to confirm to man His intention to use him. In other words, we may feel that although God has created and redeemed us, He may not necessarily use us. Only when we are clear about God’s calling us can we say with assurance that God intends to use us. Therefore, to us God’s calling is a confirmation of His intention to use us. Now the question we must ask ourselves is, “Has God called us, and how do we know that He has called us?”
We may have the concept that understanding God’s calling is a difficult matter. Actually, we only need to ask ourselves if from the day we were saved until now we have ever had the feeling of wanting to be used by the Lord or have ever heard within us a soft, gentle voice saying that the Lord wants to use us. If we have had such a feeling, then we can know that the Lord has called us. For us to have a heart that is willing to be used by the Lord is the result of a tremendous work of the Lord. This work is far greater than the Lord’s work of creating us.
The Lord’s work of creating us was not as great as His work of putting within us a heart that is willing to be used by Him. His working in man in this way is His greatest way of visiting man. In other words, this work is His coming to man and His visiting with man. How did we get a heart that desires to be for the Lord’s use? Previously we did not even care for Him, yet to our surprise we now have the desire to be for His use. This proves that this is the Lord’s visitation and that the Lord’s grace has come to us.
During the past thousands of years God has come to man and visited man numerous times. Unfortunately, not many in the church today have sensed His visitation. God is always coming to man, yet man often puts Him aside. We should not think that in order to have God’s calling we must hear a voice like thunder from heaven or see a great light as Paul did on the way to Damascus (Acts 9:3; 22:6). Actually, in principle, the gentle, small voice within us is no different from the calling that Paul received on the road to Damascus. We may use sunlight as an illustration. Although there is a difference between the intensity of the heat of the dim light seen at dawn and that of the bright rays seen at noon, the sun is one and the same. Likewise, while God sometimes calls man in extraordinary ways, most of the time He comes to man and visits him in an ordinary way. God’s visitation of man is the confirmation of God’s desire to use man and the beginning of His use of man.
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