(Partially inspired by a recent sermon preached by Pastor Joe Campbell but this writing is taking a different direction/thought.)
An encounter. For the time that I’ve lived unto Christ, I truly believe—even without looking for it or an intentional moment manufactured—that there are moments where we all have a God moment. It is the inflexion point where Christian and sinner meet and literally a destiny for the sinner and the Christian can change…perhaps even forever. I have said and genuinely believe that there are certain people whom God chooses, anoints, uses, Calls, involves that what is said and/or done at a certain place and at a certain time can literally alter someone’s life and/or destiny. Another way to view this is that I believe that those who are Called to pastoral ministry can inquire from God and if open can go to the right city and/or nation and because of the time and because of the anointing or background or testimony of the Christian, certain or specific person or people can have more than just someone witness to them about Jesus but that the sinner can truly experience the presence of God and genuinely get saved and converted.
I would like to look at a couple of examples. One occurs in the Bible (there are other examples but I will only choose this specific event). Jonah chapter 4 shares the bitter and upset heart of Jonah saying that it is good for him to die. He preached a very short sermon and everyone in the city including the animals get saved. It would be every pastor’s dream to preach a sermon and everyone gets saved. And instead of rejoicing and instead of Jonah continuing on with God’s Call onto another city or at the very least establish himself there to shepherd those people in the things of God, Jonah sits under a plant and is pleased when the plant gives shade and then gets angry when the plant dies. Jonah’s life—based on what the Bible shares—ends with Jonah arguing with God. God reprimands Jonah, pities the people of Ninevah, and reminds Jonah of his Calling. It is fairly safe to assume that after those words from God that Jonah’s Calling ended on that hillside. Another example took place today. I will intentionally leave out names of people involved. On an outreach to invite people to a revival that will take place in this city we were visiting today. We have outreached all over this city countless of times and have passed out personally tens of thousands of flyers over the years inviting people to various church events. We left from our city to this other city with an expectation. We arrived to get our usual instructions and directions of where to go. We knock on doors and invite people to this upcoming revival just like before. This person begins to talk to a young man who was eventually shielded by his mom with door shut in her face. We walk to another building at this apartment complex, she knocks on a door, shares a simple testimony and this young lady gets radically touched, prays to accept Jesus, and things really change. I mean these two women after the outreach continued to text each other. This young lady really was touched by the hand of God and prayerfully and hopefully she lives for Jesus for the remainder of her life. A life touched perhaps forever.
But let us suppose some things by bringing in what I believe that God orchestrates specific people to reach specific people in a specific place at a specific time. What could have happened had this woman who had the door slammed in her face walked on with a sour attitude and continued the outreach never really talked to another person? Just business as usual, I would like to invite you to a revival and walked on. What if I or someone else had knocked on this young lady’s door? Would things have occurred as it did and the day unfolded as it did? I submit that it would not have, especially if it had been an insensitive person or someone anxious to just pass out flyers and go home.
Travelling on this same vein, let’s take it away from the specifics of today to general questions with the understanding that God can Call specific people or person to a specific place at a specific time. What if Pastor Jonah had not repented and never went to Ninevah? Would there be a book of Jonah? Would those people give their lives to God? What if a Christian who is very casual and aimless with their walk with God never settles to pursue whatever it may be that God has for their life? What if someone served Jesus—married or not—and then made a bonehead decision to sin and walks away from church and God? What if God has a specific place for that Called person but they continue to play with secret sin, continues their flawed character behavior, intentionally sabotage their life to not be able to go, or just simply said no. Or even accepted, like Lot did, to go someplace else and incorrectly believe that this other place is just as good as the one God has. There are also Called men who through lack of prayer or faith just accept a Calling to go a particular place and yet God is screaming from Heaven in disagreement that this person (or couple) needs to be at this other place.
With all of these rhetorical questions, let us look at probable (not just possible outcomes). It is possible that one day that someone else goes to that city or nation. But the key people whom God desired to get saved that could have set a number of things in motion don’t happen and along with that that this couple may have to struggle more to cover the same ground. Delayed response—intentionally holding someone back longer than needed OR the Called person not getting things in order in their life—sets up this Called person in the place of God to say, it is ok that these people can go to hell without me going there to stop them. That it is ok that their marriage falls apart rather than saying the right thing at the right time and not only a marriage but a family and generations can be positively affected. Or say we do go but we continue in our habits, behaviors, or sins and thus abort or pervert what God could have done to something and it doesn’t work out.
Whether in the Bible or in life since then, the eternity of (as of 2025) 8.2 billion people with tens of millions of people who died this past year and they never once heard about the name of Jesus Christ let alone a destiny for God. And who stands in the way? Is it God? He was the one who said “The harvest is truly plentiful but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9:37-38 and Luke 10:2). Is it the lost world who rejects God? Was it not God who said in Jonah 4:11, “And should I not pity Ninevah (you can insert the name of your city or nation in place of Ninevah), that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?” Was it not Peter who said in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Was it not Jesus Himself who said in the parable of the feast in Luke 14:23 with the master who speaks the Lord’s heart, “Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.’”
We are all called, commissioned, and commanded to be involved with sharing the love of Jesus, to share the good news, and to seek and save that which is lost. All of us are to be involved. But I submit the following two closing remarks that (1) we need to prepare our hearts and lives to be involved in this planting and reaping, and this includes surrendering or quitting whatever it is that is not making us not fit or not to respond to His will and (2) for those of us who are Called to truly seek God’s direction and will and to obey when God opens a specific door for a specific place and time and that we give of ourselves with all we are. The eternal life of that young lady today changed. The lives of those in Ninevah changed. And the eternal lives of those in whatever city/nation can be changed…as well as their descendants or the growing numbers (multiplying effect) of countless of others because someone higher up in the chain gave their life to Jesus. Eternity is waiting. Souls are waiting. Desperate times command us (Ephesians 5:16). But what will we do?